If he does, he deprives me of my liberty and makes me a slave.… The very act of taxing, exercised over those who are not represented, appears to me to be depriving them of one of their most essential rights as freemen, and, if continued, seems to be in effect an entire disfranchisement of every civil right.
Sumner emphasizes the fundamental right to representation in government and the dangers of taxation without it.
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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!
It is larger than the entire profit of all the commerce and manufactures of the world.
Still further: every ship-of-war that floats costs more than a well-endowed college.
It is a cause which, though long kept in check throughout our country, as also in Europe, now confronts the people and their rulers, demanding to be heard.
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