On the record
I call upon any gentleman to name any one power of this government which cannot be exercised, which must necessarily cease, if slavery should cease to be, in this District of Columbia?
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Mann challenges others to identify any governmental power that relies on the existence of slavery.
Share
More from Horace Mann
Or, to enlarge the scope of the question: What must you think has caused Virginians in general to neglect their superlative advantages for manufacturing industry?--to disregard the evident suggestions of nature, pointing out to them this…
No man of common sense, who has observed this result, can doubt for a moment that the system of free labor promotes the growth and prosperity of states in a much higher degree than the system of slave labor.
Old Virginia was the first to sow this land of ours with slavery; she is also the first to reap the full harvest of destruction.
Yet, by denying education to the slave, you destroy not merely the right, but the power, of personal examination in regard to all that most nearly concerns the soul’s interests.
Other voices in this conversation
