Even if this Act could claim any validity or apology under the Constitution, which it cannot, it lacks that essential support in the Public Conscience of the States, where it is to be enforced, which is the life of all law, and without which any law must become a dead letter.
Sumner argues that a law must have the support of public conscience to be effective and valid.
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They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.
Again I repeat, so long as the War System prevails under the sanction of International Law, these painful incongruities will be apparent.
In this contest, we may borrow from the ancient Greek, who, when his hands were cut off, fought with his stumps, and even with his teeth.
Without yielding to any of these extreme views with regard to the mischiefs or the benefits of party, all should agree that the only true and legitimate object of such an association is to uphold, advance, and develop certain principles…
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