In refusing to receive it or refer it, according to the usage of the Senate, or in treating it with any indignity, you offer an affront not only to these numerous petitioners, but also to the great Right of Petition, which is never more sacred than when exercised in behalf of Freedom against an odious enactment.
This quote reflects Sumner's defense of the Right of Petition and its significance in the fight for freedom.
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More from Charles Sumner
I agree with the Convention in the importance of the new organization; nor do I think there are many candid persons, recognizing morals as the soul of all true politics, who will hesitate in this conclusion.
Rather would I arouse you to renewed and incessant exertion.
They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.
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.
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