Charles Sumner: “I know not how that may be; but I do know that we can get nothing much…”

On the record

I know not how that may be; but I do know that we can get nothing much worse, and that it would be far better to get nothing than to get this.

Said by

Massachusetts

Source

Sumner expresses his belief that accepting a poor amendment is worse than rejecting it altogether.

More from Charles Sumner

Opening of United States courts to colored, XI. 389.

The only Constitutional party and party of freedom, VII. 38.

Slavery and the: speech in New York, XI. 433.

His loyalty to the Declaration of Independence, XIX. 317.

Other voices in this conversation

Charles Sumner: “I know not how that may be; but I do know that we can get nothing much worse, and that it would be far better to get…”