While the person of a Virginia citizen is only safe from rudeness and outrage behind the serried ranks of armed men, Charles Sumner is permitted to walk among the 'slave-catchers' and 'fire-eaters' of the South in peace and security.
Sumner contrasts his safety with that of a Virginia citizen, highlighting the tensions of the time.
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Endeavor, for a moment, by comparison with other interests, to grapple with this sum.
It is a cause which, though long kept in check throughout our country, as also in Europe, now confronts the people and their rulers, demanding to be heard.
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.
They belong to a system so essentially irrational, that all the admitted virtues of many of its agents cannot save it from judgment.
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