We are often reminded by gentlemen of the south, that, at the time of the adoption of that constitution, slavery existed in almost every state in the Union; and that some northern merchants, by a devilish alchemy, transmuted gold from its tears and blood.
Mann addresses the historical context of slavery in the U.S. Constitution and the complicity of Northern merchants in the slave trade.
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These are but specimens of what the Fugitive Slave law has already done, before the public mind has become familiarized with its brutalities, and while there is yet some sensibility to the claims of justice and mercy left among us.
Let me read to you the disparaging and contemptuous remark of the address on that great palladium of human liberty, the trial by jury.
A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
But such largesses to slavery as kings could not afford to give, and the robbery of an entire race of all its rights,--yes, and with authority, too, to make us help commit the robbery,--these are “factitious and imaginary” causes of…
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