By dishonest, audacious theories of Slavery, both morally and constitutionally, they have aroused a natural opposition, and put all who truly love their country on the defensive.
Charles Sumner
The Public Record
Charles Sumner was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery, and after the war he was a key figure in the Reconstruction era, during which he and other Radical Republicans successfully fought to end slavery and ensure basic rights for Black Americans. He continued advocating for racial equality until his death, lobbying in his final days for a civil rights bill that served as a model for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians credit Sumner with coining the phrase "equality before the law," which he first used as part of an early attempt to integrate Boston's public school system.
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Yes, it is in defence of the Constitution perverted, of reason insulted, and of humanity disowned, that we are obliged to speak out.
True, the country needs repose;--but it is the repose of Liberty, and not the repose of Despotism.
And, believe me, that glad day can never come, until the mad assumptions for Slavery are all rejected, and the Government is once more brought back to the spirit of the founders.
With the practical acceptance of these two correlative principles the Slavery Question will cease to agitate Congress and to divide political parties.
Transferred to the more tranquil domain of morals, religion, economy, and philanthropy, it must continue to occupy the attention of the good and the humane; but it will cease to be the stumbling-block of politicians.
The first stage in securing for our country the repose which all covet will be the election of Abraham Lincoln as President, and the election of that well-tried, faithful, and able Senator,--whom I know well,--Hannibal Hamlin, as…
But it is by this election that you will especially vindicate the Prohibition of Slavery in the Territories, even in the face of the Dred Scott decision, and fling your indignant answer at once at the Proslavery non-committalism of Bell…
Keep the Prohibition of Slavery in the Territories as the fixed and irreversible purpose of your hearts, and insist that it shall be established by Congress; for without Congress it may not be established.
Old Cato procured a decree of the Roman Senate that no king should ever enter Rome, saying that “a king is a carnivorous animal.” A similar decree must be adopted by Congress against an animal more carnivorous than king.
The example of Delaware shows how little Slavery it takes to make a Slave State, giving two votes to the ascendency of the Slave Power in the Senate.
Be wakeful, then, and do not disparage that enemy which for sixty years has ruled the Republic.
That man is dangerous,” exclaimed the Athenian orator, “who does not see danger in Philip.” And I now say, that man is dangerous who does not see danger in the Slave Power.
When God created man in his own image, and saw that his work was good, he did not destine his creature for endless ages to labor without wages, compelled by the lash.
Let not fidelity to those principles which give dignity and glory to Massachusetts, and to our common country, be an argument against him.
From the malignity of enemies, from the vacillation of timeservers, and from the weakness of friends shield him by your votes.
But I do not agree that the National Government has power under the Constitution to touch Slavery in the States, any more than it has power to touch the twin Barbarism of Polygamy in the States, while fully endowed to arrest and suppress…
But I rejoice in every honest endeavor to expose the Barbarism which degrades our Republic; and here my gratitude is so strong that criticism is disarmed, even where I find that my judgment hesitates.
FELLOW-CITIZENS,--Knowing well the character of the good people in the region where we are assembled, I feel that our cause is safe in your hands; nor do you need my voice to quicken the generous zeal which throbs in all your hearts.
Of course you have duties as men, belonging to the great human family; you have duties also as American citizens, belonging to this National Republic; and you have duties especially as citizens of Massachusetts, not inconsistent with those…
Happily, in all good governments duties do not clash, but harmonize; and we may well suspect any pretension, whatever name it assumes, which cannot bear this touchstone.
This is a debt which, though daily paid, can never be cancelled while life endures.
And this debt has the sanction of Religion, so that wrong to man is impiety to God.
Of course, in the constant discharge of this debt, we must be the enemies of injustice, wherever it shows itself.
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
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