Disguise it, excuse it, as they will, the fact must glare before the world, and penetrate the conscience too, that the fetters by which the unhappy fugitive is bound are riveted by their tribunal,--that his second life of wretchedness dates from their agency,--that his second birth as a slave proceeds from them.
This quote illustrates Sumner's belief in the profound injustice of slavery and the complicity of the legal system in perpetuating it.
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They are but leaders of the two contending factions into which the Slave Power is divided.
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.
According to recent calculations, its annual cost is not less than a thousand millions of dollars.
As the Brotherhood of Man is practically recognized, it becomes impossible to restrict the feeling within any exclusive circle of country, and to set up an unchristian distinction of honor between civil war and international war.
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