Cease, then, to blazon the humanity of slave-masters.
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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And this conclusion must exist unquestioned, just so long as the law exists unrepealed.
The masses of men are not better than their laws, and, whatever may be the eminence of individual virtue, it is not reasonable to infer that the body of slave-masters is better than the Law of Slavery.
Let there be light” was the Divine behest at the dawn of Creation,--and this commandment, travelling with the ages and the hours, still speaks with the voice of God; yet the Law of Slavery says, “Let there be darkness.
Train up a child in the way he should go” is the lesson of Divine Wisdom; but the Law of Slavery boldly prohibits any such training, and dooms the child to hopeless ignorance and degradation.
Hear this, fellow-citizens, and confess that no barbarity of despotism, no extravagance of tyranny, no excess of impiety can be more blasphemous or deadly.
The law, by cumulative provisions, positively forbids that a slave shall be taught to read.
Thus is he robbed, not merely of privileges, but of himself,--not merely of money and labor, but of wife and children,--not merely of time and opportunity, but of every assurance of happiness,--not merely of earthly hope, but of all those…
He may be filled with desire of knowledge, opening to him the gates of joy on earth and in heaven; but the master may impiously close all these gates.
He may seem to have a child; but he has not, for his child is owned by his master.
The slave may seem to have a wife; but he has not, for his wife belongs to his master.
As out of its small egg crawls forth the slimy, scaly, reptile crocodile, so out of this simple definition crawls forth the whole slimy, scaly, reptile monstrosity by which a man is changed into a chattel, a person is converted into a…
By the Law of Slavery, man, created in the image of God, is divested of the human character, and declared to be a mere chattel.
Not on triumphant story, not even on indisputable fact, do I now accuse Slavery, but on its character, as revealed in its own simple definition of itself.
All these I put aside,--not because I do not regard them of moment in exhibiting the true character of Slavery, but because I desire to present this argument on grounds above all controversy, impeachment, or suspicion, even from…
On this simple statement, as corner-stone, I found the necessity of the Antislavery Enterprise.
For the honor of human nature, and the good of all concerned, it must at once cease.
A wrong so grievous and unquestionable should not be allowed to continue.
In the wrong of Slavery, as defined by existing law, this necessity is plainly apparent; nor can any man within the sound of my voice, who listens to the authentic words of the law, hesitate in my conclusion.
I begin with the NECESSITY of the Antislavery Enterprise.
There is no point, topic, fact, matter, reason, or argument, touching the question between Slavery and Freedom, which is not now open.
On this I take my stand, and, as from the Mount of Vision, behold the whole field of our great controversy spread before me.
The sensitive sympathies of property, in this commercial mart, may yet again recognize property in man; the watchful press itself may falter or fail; but the vantage-ground of free discussion now achieved cannot be lost.
From this time forward, her voice of warning and command cannot be silenced.
Give me where to stand and I will move the world,” said Archimedes; and Truth asks no more than did the master of geometry.
Politicians like Charles Sumner
