Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
The catalogue is not yet complete. On the 15th of December, when the
people assembled to vote on the Constitution submitted for adoption,
only a few days after the Treaty of Peace between the Governor on the
one side and the town of Lawrence on the other, another and fifth
irruption was made. But I leave all this untold. Enough of these
details has been given.
Five several times and more have these invaders entered Kansas in
armed array, and thus five several times and more have they trampled
upon the organic law of the Territory. These extraordinary expeditions
are simply the extraordinary witnesses to successive, uninterrupted
violence. They stand out conspicuous, but not alone. The spirit of
evil, in which they had their origin, is wakeful and incessant.
From the beginning it hung upon the skirts of this interesting
Territory, harrowing its peace, disturbing its prosperity, and keeping
its inhabitants under the painful alarms of war. All security of
person, property, and labor was overthrown; and when I urge this
incontrovertible fact, I set forth a wrong which is small only by the
side of the giant wrong for the consummation of which all this is done.
Sir, what is man, what is government, without security, in the absence
of which nor man nor government can proceed in development or enjoy
the fruits of existence? Without security civilization is cramped and
dwarfed. Without security there is no true Freedom. Nor shall I say too
much, when I declare that security, guarded of course by its parent
Freedom, is the true end and aim of government. Of this indispensable
boon the people of Kansas are despoiled,--absolutely, totally. All
this is aggravated by the nature of their pursuits, rendering them
peculiarly sensitive to interruption, and at the same time attesting
their innocence. They are for the most part engaged in the cultivation
of the soil, which from time immemorial has been the sweet employment
of undisturbed industry. Contented in the returns of bounteous Nature
and the shade of his own trees, the husbandman is not aggressive;
accustomed to produce, and not to destroy, he is essentially peaceful,
unless his home is invaded, when his arm derives vigor from the soil he
treads, and his soul inspiration from the heavens beneath whose canopy
he daily toils. Such are the people of Kansas, whose security has been
overthrown. Scenes from which Civilization averts her countenance
are part of their daily life. Border incursions, which in barbarous
ages or barbarous lands fretted and harried an exposed people, are
here renewed, with this peculiarity, that our border robbers do not
simply levy blackmail and drive off a few cattle, like those who acted
under the inspiration of the Douglas of other days,--they do not seize
a few persons, and sweep them away into captivity, like the African
slave-traders, whom we brand as pirates,--but they commit a succession
of deeds in which border sorrows and African wrongs are revived
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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