Political Quotes

Charles Sumner: “Nor, if Government were so bereft of common sense as to forego this temptation to enlistment and efficient service, can…”

On the record
Nor, if Government were so bereft of common sense as to forego this temptation to enlistment and efficient service, can it be guilty of the unutterable meanness of using the slave in the national defence and then returning him to bondage.
Said by
Charles Sumner
Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

Sumner condemns the idea of using enslaved individuals for national defense while denying them freedom afterward.

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Women’s National League, petition of, for universal emancipation, X. 300.

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