The slave-trade received solemn sanction, and England pocketed the dishonest profits,--just as now a kindred offence on a grander scale is to receive solemn sanction, and we who sanction it are to pocket the profits in political power.
Sumner condemns the acceptance of profits from the slave trade as morally corrupt, comparing it to contemporary political actions.
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They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.
It is clear that the only question of present practical interest arises from the usurpations of the Slave Power and the efforts to extend Slavery.
Still further: every ship-of-war that floats costs more than a well-endowed college.
Their existence is a disgrace to civilization; for it implies the common consent of nations to the Arbitrament of War, as regulated by these laws.
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