On the record
And yet I know no surer way of judging a people than by its laws, especially where those laws have been long continued and openly maintained.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Sumner argues that a society's laws are a true reflection of its character, particularly in relation to slavery.
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Controlled by such a code, employing such representatives, sustained by such agencies, animated by such Furies, and producing such fruits of tears and bitterness, it must be open to question.
The subterfuges of the politician cannot escape it.
It is a cause which, though long kept in check throughout our country, as also in Europe, now confronts the people and their rulers, demanding to be heard.
They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.
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