Charles Sumner

Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free: They touch our country, and their shackles fall.

I catch its last words, already resounding through the ages, with the voice of deliverance to an enslaved people.

He declared, that, tracing Slavery to natural principles, it can never be supported: that is to say, Slavery is a violation of the great law of Nature, established by God himself, coextensive in space and time with the Universe.

Shakespeare gives expression to similar truth, when he says, "Be just and fear not.

Let justice be done, though it drags down the pillars of the sky.

With little expansion, it says openly: To every man his natural rights; justice to all, without distinction of person, without abridgment, and without compromise.

And when at last the case could not be arrested by any device, or be longer postponed,--when judgment was inevitable,--he came to the work, not warmly or generously, but in trembling obedience to the Truth, which waited to be declared.

He saw clearly that a system like Slavery could not find home under the British Constitution, which nowhere mentions the name Slave; and yet he shrank from the sublime conclusion.

But his luminous mind, prompt to perceive the force of principles, could not resist the array of argument now marshalled for Freedom.

Still more, he was not naturally on the side of Liberty, as becomes a great judge, but always, by blood and instinct, on the side of prerogative and power,--an offence for which he was arraigned by his contemporary, Junius, and for which…

It is the lawyer's clear duty to uphold human rights, whether in the loftiest or the lowliest; and when he undertakes to uphold a wrong outrageous as Slavery, his proper function is so far reversed that he can be aptly described only in…

As well chase him with the baying of the blood-hound as with the tongue of the advocate.

As well pursue the fugitive with the hired whip of the overseer as with the hired argument of the lawyer.

No man can rightfully enforce a principle which violates human nature; nor can any subtilty of dialectics, any extent of erudition, or any grandeur of intellect sustain him.

But I undertake to affirm that no usage, professional or social, can give any apology for joining the pack of the Slave-Hunter.

For all these gallant lawyers, champions of the Right, there is honor ever increasing, which the soul spontaneously offers, while it turns in sorrow from the counsel, only two in number, who allowed themselves to be enlisted on the side of…

Hear this, merchants of Boston, justly jealous of the good name of your calling, and hang your heads with shame!

Drive out Nature with a pitchfork, and still she will return.

The Slavery question could not be suppressed: the Chief Justice of England could not suppress it.

Alas! it is the natural influence of Slavery to make men hard.

The great writ of Habeas Corpus was next invoked; and the ship, which had contumaciously proceeded on its way, was boarded in the Downs, happily within British jurisdiction, by a faithful officer, who, in the name of the King of England…

During these researches he was confirmed in his original prepossessions, and aroused to undying hostility against Slavery, which he plainly saw to be without any sanction in the Constitution.

An unconquerable will, and instincts often profounder in their teaching than any learning, were now his counsellors.

It is in collision with difficulty that the sparks of genuine character appear.

And just in proportion as the moral nature asserts its rightful supremacy here will such a character be hailed of higher worth than the products of all the mills of Lowell, backed by all the dividends and discounts of State Street.