Political Quotes

Horace Mann: “All other parts of the temple may be entered, but slavery is the ark of the covenant, and whoso lays his profane hands…”

On the record
All other parts of the temple may be entered, but slavery is the ark of the covenant, and whoso lays his profane hands thereon must perish.
Said by
Horace Mann
Free Soil · Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

Mann uses a metaphor to illustrate the sacredness and danger surrounding discussions of slavery.

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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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