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It is like an attempt to hew down a mountain of granite with a glass pick-axe.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Sumner uses a vivid metaphor to illustrate the futility of certain efforts against a powerful adversary.
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More from Charles Sumner
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
Above all, welcome to the united regenerated Democracy of the North, which spurns the mockery of a Republic, with professions of Freedom on the lips, while the chains of Slavery clank in the Capitol!
In this contest, we may borrow from the ancient Greek, who, when his hands were cut off, fought with his stumps, and even with his teeth.
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.
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