Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 06 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 06 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
There are no two spaces on the surface of the globe, equal in extent,
(and careful examination will verify what I am about to state,) which
present so many distinctive features of resemblance, whether we
consider the common regions of latitude in which they lie, the common
nature of their boundaries, their common productions, their common
climate, or the common Barbarism which sought shelter in both. I do
not stop to inquire why Slavery--banished at last from Europe, banished
also from that part of this hemisphere which corresponds in latitude to
Europe--should have intrenched itself, in both hemispheres, in similar
regions of latitude, so that Virginia, Carolina, Mississippi, and
Missouri are the American complement to Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli, and
Tunis. But there is one important point in the parallel which remains
to be fulfilled. The barbarous Emperor of Morocco, in the words of a
treaty, so long ago as the last century, declared his desire that “the
odious name of Slavery might be effaced from the memory of men”;[53]
while Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, whose tenacity for the Barbarism
was equalled only by that of South Carolina, have renounced it one
after another, and delivered it over to the indignation of mankind.
Following this example, the parallel will be complete, and our Barbary
will become the complement in Freedom to the African Barbary, as it
has already been its complement in Slavery, and is unquestionably its
complement in geographical character.
II.
From the consideration of Slavery in its practical results, illustrated
by contrast between the Free States and Slave States, I pass to another
stage of the argument, where Slavery appears in its influence on the
CHARACTER OF SLAVE-MASTERS. Nothing could I undertake more painful,
and yet there is nothing more essential to the discussion, especially
in response to pretensions of Senators on this floor, nor is there any
point on which the evidence is more ample.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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