A share in the sovereignty of the State, which is exercised by the citizens at large in voting at elections, is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a Republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.
Sumner asserts the importance of voting rights as a fundamental aspect of citizenship in a Republic.
Share
More from Charles Sumner
Nay, more,--if it would be criminal in these several clusters of States to reëstablish the Institution of War as Arbiter of Justice, then is it criminal in the Commonwealth of Nations to continue it.
Nor should we be too impatient to witness the fulfilment of our aspirations.
They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.
At Baltimore the delegation of the most important State in the Union, known to be in favor of the Wilmot Proviso, was refused admission to the Convention.
Other voices in this conversation
