Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
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Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
Its character is still further apparent in the general structure
of the bill. Amidst overflowing professions of regard for the
sovereignty of the people in the Territory, they are despoiled of every
essential privilege of sovereignty. They are not allowed to choose
Governor, Secretary, Chief Justice, Associate Justices, Attorney, or
Marshal,--all of whom are sent from Washington; nor are they allowed
to regulate the salaries of any of these functionaries, or the daily
allowance of the legislative body, or even the pay of the clerks
and door-keepers: but they are left free to adopt Slavery. And this
is nicknamed Popular Sovereignty! Time does not allow, nor does the
occasion require, that I should stop to dwell on this transparent
device to cover a transcendent wrong. Suffice it to say, that Slavery
is in itself an arrogant denial of human rights, and by no human reason
can the power to establish such a wrong be placed among the attributes
of any just sovereignty. In refusing it such a place, I do not deny
popular rights, but uphold them, I do not restrain popular rights, but
extend them. And, Sir, to this conclusion you must yet come, unless
deaf, not only to the admonitions of political justice, but also to the
genius of our Constitution, under which, when properly interpreted,
no valid claim for Slavery can be set up anywhere in the National
territory. The Senator from Michigan [Mr. CASS] may say, in response
to the Senator from Mississippi [Mr. BROWN], that Slavery cannot
go into the Territory, under the Constitution, without legislative
introduction; and permit me to add, in response to both, that Slavery
cannot go there at all. _Nothing can come out of nothing_; and there
is absolutely nothing in the Constitution out of which Slavery can be
derived, while there are provisions, which, when properly interpreted,
make its existence anywhere within the exclusive National jurisdiction
impossible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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