Political Quotes

On the record
The word “white” found no place in the original Common Law; nor did it find any place afterward in our two title-deeds of Constitutional Liberty, each interpreting the other, and being the fountain out of which are derived the rights and duties of the American citizen.
Said by
Charles Sumner
Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

Sumner states that the original Common Law and the Constitution do not support racial distinctions in citizenship.

Share

More from Charles Sumner

The subterfuges of the politician cannot escape it.

gutenberg.org

Rather would I arouse you to renewed and incessant exertion.

gutenberg.org

They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.

gutenberg.org

Confessing the Fatherhood of God, and the consequent Brotherhood of Man, we find a divine standard of unquestionable accuracy.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation