Political Quotes

On the record
That this pretension should be put forward in the name of the Constitution is only another illustration of the effrontery with which the Constitution is made responsible for the ignorance, the conceit, and the passions of men.
Said by
Charles Sumner
Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

Sumner highlights the irony of using the Constitution to justify ignorance and arrogance in governance.

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More precious far at that moment the consolation that he had labored for his fellow-men, and the joyous confidence that all his cares had helped the Progress of his race!

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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.

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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.

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The most distant are not without a present influence on our daily lives.

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