Political Quotes

On the record
I wish to keep within bounds; but unanswerable facts, accumulating in fearful quantities, attest that the social system so much vaunted by honorable Senators, which we are now asked to sanction and extend, takes its character from this spirit, and, with professions of Christianity on the lips, becomes Cain-like.
Said by
Charles Sumner
Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

Sumner argues that the social system upheld by some Senators is hypocritical, masking its violent nature behind Christian rhetoric.

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But so long as War exists as an Institution this terrible inconsistency must appear.

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The first is a heavenly sentiment, from God: the other is a device of this world.

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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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As the Brotherhood of Man is practically recognized, it becomes impossible to restrict the feeling within any exclusive circle of country, and to set up an unchristian distinction of honor between civil war and international war.

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