On the record
At the foundation of our government an institution existed amongst us utterly irreconcilable with the fundamental principles of the government itself.
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gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Mann points out the contradiction between slavery and the foundational principles of American government.
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But the impious hand of man divorces these twin capacities, wherever it denies knowledge.
The aged and the infant she left for the vultures; but the strong men and the strong women she drove, scourged and bleeding, to the shore.
Whoever intercepts knowledge, therefore, on its passage to a human soul; whoever strikes down the hand that is outstretched to grasp it, is guilty of one of the most heinous of offences.
And yet, infinitely flagrant as the anomaly is, the slave is amenable to the laws of the land for all offences which he may commit against others, though he is powerless to protect himself by the same law from offences which others may…
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