Political Quotes

Horace Mann: “Such an officer, under either constitution, would be a monster; he would hold the same relation to their legitimate…”

On the record
Such an officer, under either constitution, would be a monster; he would hold the same relation to their legitimate functionaries that Caliban does to the human race; and, if created for executing the Fugitive Slave law, that half devil and half beast would be the fitting prototype.
Said by
Horace Mann
Free Soil · Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

Mann critiques the concept of a judicial officer executing the Fugitive Slave law, comparing such an officer to a mythical creature.

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More from Horace Mann

Better be debarred from the privilege of voting at all, than to be mocked with the form, while cheated of the substance.

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My instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, may all mislead; but from the first time, now years ago, when I heard this subject broached, my instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, have all been in its favor.

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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.

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The liberty of voting includes all other liberties.

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