In all the States--even in the Slave States--a free colored man may hold property of all kinds, personal or real,--even land, in which citizenship strikes its strongest root; but you will not allow him the poor right of petition.
Editor's note · Context
Sumner points out the contradiction of allowing property ownership while denying the right to petition for free colored men.
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Confessing the Fatherhood of God, and the consequent Brotherhood of Man, we find a divine standard of unquestionable accuracy.
Out of this pernicious prejudice have proceeded that persecution and neglect which are the too frequent lot of the world's pioneers.
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