Therefore it is a war of pretexts, the real object being the humiliation and dismemberment of Germany, in the vain hope of exalting the French Empire and perpetuating a bawble crown on the head of a boy.
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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In other times there have been wars as criminal in origin, where trifle, straw, or egg-shell played its part; but they contrasted less with the surrounding civilization.
Not to battles and their fearful vicissitudes, where all is incarnadined with blood, must we look, but to the ideas which prevail,--as for the measure of time we look, not to the pendulum in its oscillations, but to the clock in the tower…
A great hour for Humanity sounded when the Republic was proclaimed.
And this I say, even should it fail again; for every attempt contributes to the final triumph.
Had he remained successful to the end, and died peacefully on the throne, his name would have been a perpetual encouragement to dishonesty and crime.
By treachery without parallel, breaking repeated promises and his oath of office, he was able to trample on the Republic.
Of a fallen man I would say nothing; but, for the sake of Humanity, Louis Napoleon should be exposed.
In sacrificing the Republic to his own aggrandizement, in ruling for a dynasty rather than the people, in subordinating the peace of the world to his own wicked ambition for his boy, he set an example of selfishness, and in proportion to…
Teaching men to seek ascendency at the expense of duty, he demoralized not only France, but the world.
Promise, pledge, honor, oath, were all violated in this monstrous treason.
Unquestionably he could have saved the Republic, but he preferred his own exaltation.
As I am a Republican, and believe republican institutions for the good of mankind, I cannot pardon the traitor.
The people of France are ignorant; he did not care to have them educated, for their ignorance was his strength.
With education bestowed, the Republic would have been assured.
And even after the Empire, had he thought more of education and less of his dynasty, there would have been a civilization throughout France making war impossible.
Unquestionably the present war is his work, instituted for his imagined advantage.
France took the sword against Germany, and now lies bleeding at every pore.
Take notice, all who would appeal to war, that the way of the transgressor is hard, and sooner or later he is overtaken.
The ban may fall tardily, but it is sure to fall.
Retribution in another form has already visited France; nor is its terrible vengeance yet spent.
Not only are populous cities, all throbbing with life and filled with innocent households, subjected to siege, but to bombardment also,--being that most ruthless trial of war, where non-combatants, including women and children, sick and…
All are equal before the hideous shell, crashing, bursting, destroying, killing, and changing the fairest scene into blood-spattered wreck.
Against its vengeful, slaughterous descent there is no protection for the people,--nothing but an uncertain shelter in cellars, or, it may be, in the common sewers.
Thus is the ancient chalice which France handed to others now commended to her own lips.
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