Are you to bless the earth beneath your feet because she spurns the footsteps of a slave, and then to choke the utterance of your voice lest the sound of liberty should be reëchoed from the palmetto-groves, mingled with the discordant notes of disunion?
Quincy emphasizes the contradiction of celebrating freedom while suppressing the voices of those advocating for it.
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More from Josiah Quincy
The question raised by Martin Luther involved the whole theory of the rights of individual man, paramount to all human authority.
Rather than live otherwise, I would wish to die before my time.
I adhere to the right of petition; and let me say here that, let the petition be, as the gentleman from Virginia has stated, from free negroes, prostitutes, as he supposes,--for he says there is one put on this paper, and he infers that…
He dismissed from office, without trial, without charge, and without fault, faithful and able men.
Other voices in this conversation
