On the record
I find that they who talk most against coercion of Rebels and coercion of States are indifferent to the coercion of four million people, men, women, and children, to work without wages under discipline of the lash.
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gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Sumner highlights the hypocrisy of those who oppose coercion of Rebels while ignoring the oppression of enslaved people.
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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!
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.
Again I repeat, so long as the War System prevails under the sanction of International Law, these painful incongruities will be apparent.
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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