Such an elaborate evasion may be effectual against a Parliamentary statute, but it must be impotent against a demand upon the British Government, according to the principles of International Law; for this law looks always at substance, and not form, and will not be diverted by the trick of a pettifogger.
Sumner argues that legal principles should focus on the substance of actions rather than the technicalities of law.
Share
More from Charles Sumner
The only Constitutional party and party of freedom, VII. 38.
Early testimony of the Church against, I. 59.
Slavery and the: speech in New York, XI. 433.
Women’s National League, petition of, for universal emancipation, X. 300.
Other voices in this conversation
