Charles Sumner

But I must not lose the opportunity afforded by your invitation to express anew my abhorrence of the outrage upon Freedom and public faith attempted by the Nebraska Bill, and to offer my gratitude to those who unite in the good work of…

But the Slave Power will push its tyranny yet further, and there is but one remedy,--Union at the North without distinction of party, to take possession of the National Government, and administer it in the spirit of Freedom, and not of…

Then will be achieved that Union contemplated at the beginning, against which the storms of faction and the assaults of foreign power shall beat in vain, as upon the Rock of Ages,--and LIBERTY, seeking a firm foothold, WILL HAVE AT LAST…

Not that I love the Union less, but Freedom more, do I now, in pleading this great cause, insist that Freedom, at all hazards, shall be preserved.

The movement against American Slavery, protected by the august names of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, can calmly await a similar judgment.

The past furnishes a controlling example by which its true character may be determined.

It is even now rejoicing, like a strong man, to run its race, and will yet send its beams into the most distant plantations, melting the chains of every slave.

The plough, the steam-engine, the railroad, the telegraph, the book, every human improvement, every generous word anywhere, every true pulsation of every heart which is not a mere muscle and nothing else, gives new encouragement to the…

Art, literature, poetry, religion, everything which elevates man, all are on our side.

Amidst all seeming discouragements, the great omens are with us.

It can never rest secure on broken faith and injustice.

In this way you vainly think to withdraw the subject of Slavery from National Politics.

With a kiss upon the brow of that fair Territory, you betray it to wretchedness and shame.

With professions of Equal Rights on the lips, you trample on the rights of Human Nature.

In the name of Liberty you open the door to Slavery.

By no rule of justice, and by no subtilty of political metaphysics, can the right to hold a fellow-man in bondage be regarded as essential to self-government.

But you cannot escape the judgment of the world, nor the doom of history.

It is now in your power to overturn it; you may remove the sacred landmark, and open the whole vast domain to Slavery.

On the contrary, he can carry only that property which is admitted such by the universal Law of Nature, written by God's own finger on the heart of man.

When it is said, therefore, that every citizen may enter the national domain with his property, it does not follow, by any rule of logic or of law, that he may carry his slaves.

Madison thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there can be property in men; and I rejoice to believe that no such idea can be found there.

Slavery is an infraction of the immutable Law of Nature, and as such cannot be considered a natural incident to any sovereignty, especially in a country which has solemnly declared, in its Declaration of Independence, the unalienable right…

I am unwilling to admit, Sir, that the Prohibition of Slavery in the Territories is in any just sense an infringement of local sovereignty.

The former is an unquestionable infringement of sovereignty, as declared by our Supreme Court, far more than can be asserted of the latter.

For myself, I do not doubt the power of Congress to fasten this restriction upon the Territory, and afterwards upon the State, as is always done; but I am at a loss to see on what grounds this restriction can be placed, which will not also…