President, I did not swear to support it as you understand it,--oh, no, Sir!--or as the Senator from Virginia understands it,--by no means!--or as the Senator from South Carolina understands it, with a kennel of bloodhounds, or at least a ‘dog’ in it, ‘pawing to get free his hinder parts,’ in pursuit of a slave.
Sumner critiques the differing interpretations of the Constitution by various senators, emphasizing his own understanding of it.
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Controlled by such a code, employing such representatives, sustained by such agencies, animated by such Furies, and producing such fruits of tears and bitterness, it must be open to question.
It is larger than the entire profit of all the commerce and manufactures of the world.
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.
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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