Whatever the force of Rebel Slavery on land, it is no more on the ocean than the “deposed prince,” “without power of protecting the innocent or punishing the guilty, or in any way of administering justice”; and, like the prince, it has “dwindled into a pirate,” except so far as sustained by British concession.
Sumner compares the status of Rebel Slavery at sea to a deposed prince, emphasizing its lack of legitimacy and power.
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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.
Still further: every ship-of-war that floats costs more than a well-endowed college.
Above all, welcome to the united regenerated Democracy of the North, which spurns the mockery of a Republic, with professions of Freedom on the lips, while the chains of Slavery clank in the Capitol!
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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