On the record
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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gutenberg.orgHorace Mann: “This is the reciprocity of slave law.--to be forever liable to be proved guilty, but never able to prove himself…”
Editor's note · Context
This quote encapsulates the cruel reality of slave law, where the accused is always guilty without the means to prove innocence.
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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.
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.
Let me read to you the disparaging and contemptuous remark of the address on that great palladium of human liberty, the trial by jury.
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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