The trick of the apologists has been, by stringent application of technical rules, to shut out all except offences charged, and then, when stress was laid upon these offences, to cry out that at most they were only technical, and too trifling for impeachment.
Sumner accuses apologists of using technical rules to dismiss serious offenses.
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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.
They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.
I agree with the Convention in the importance of the new organization; nor do I think there are many candid persons, recognizing morals as the soul of all true politics, who will hesitate in this conclusion.
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.
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