What is sometimes called “the legal mind” of Massachusetts, my own honored State, bent before the technical reasoning which justified the unutterable atrocities of the Fugitive Slave Bill, while the Supreme Court of the State adopted the crime from the bench.
Sumner criticizes the legal reasoning that justified the Fugitive Slave Bill, highlighting moral failures in the legal system.
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Tendencies of nations, as revealed in history, teach that our aims are in harmony with prevailing laws, which God, in his benevolence, has ordained for mankind.
Still further: every ship-of-war that floats costs more than a well-endowed college.
But so long as War exists as an Institution this terrible inconsistency must appear.
I am opposed to a tariff for protection merely, and not for revenue."--Letter to John K.
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