On the record
I do not ask what he would think of his humanity, but what would he think of his sanity?
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Mann questions the sanity of a slave owner in light of their actions towards enslaved people.
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Slavery is an unspeakable wrong to the conscience.
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.
Mere knowledge, without the moral sense, can take no cognizance of the everlasting distinctions between right and wrong; and so the blind instinct, unguided by knowledge, will be forever at fault in its conclusions.
This is the reciprocity of slave law.--to be forever liable to be proved guilty, but never able to prove himself innocent; to be subject to all punishments, but, through his own oath, to no protection.
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