Viewing it rather in the light of ransom for the slave than compensation to the master for a right surrendered, he upholds it as a duty springing from the complicity of the whole country in the existence heretofore of the system in the domain exclusively under national jurisdiction.
Sumner argues that compensation for slavery should be viewed as a moral duty rather than a financial transaction.
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Their existence is a disgrace to civilization; for it implies the common consent of nations to the Arbitrament of War, as regulated by these laws.
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.
Again I repeat, so long as the War System prevails under the sanction of International Law, these painful incongruities will be apparent.
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