If all the judges and all the lawyers in Christendom had decided in the affirmative, when the question is thus brought home to me as a legislator, bound to vote for or against a new charter, upon my oath to support the Constitution, I must exercise my own judgment.
Sumner asserts the importance of individual judgment in legislative decisions, even against prevailing legal opinions.
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They are but leaders of the two contending factions into which the Slave Power is divided.
Tendencies of nations, as revealed in history, teach that our aims are in harmony with prevailing laws, which God, in his benevolence, has ordained for mankind.
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
The first is a heavenly sentiment, from God: the other is a device of this world.
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