Nor is there a shadow of reason why feelings of the house should be outraged by the presentation of a petition from slaves, any more than by petitions from soldiers in the army, seamen in the navy, or from the working-women in a manufactory.
Quincy compares petitions from slaves to those from other groups, arguing that there should be no distinction in how they are treated.
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The question raised by Martin Luther involved the whole theory of the rights of individual man, paramount to all human authority.
The seeds of this complicated machine were all sown in the Declaration of Independence; and their fruits can never be eradicated but by the dissolution of the Union.
If its operation should turn out more advantageous to them, it will be more honorable for us; and I never can object to entering formally into an obligation to do that which, upon every virtuous principle, ought to be done without it.
But circumstances will do more than any negotiation.
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