Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 07 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 07 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
THE REBELLION: ITS ORIGIN AND MAINSPRING. Oration, under the
Auspices of the Young Men’s Republican Union of New York, at
Cooper Institute, November 27, 1861. With Appendix 305
WELCOME TO FUGITIVE SLAVES. Remarks in the Senate, on a
Military Order in Missouri, December 4, 1861 359
SLAVERY AND THE BLACK CODE IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Remarks
in the Senate, on a Resolution for the Discharge of Fugitive
Slaves from the Washington Jail, December 4, 1861 361
THE LATE SENATOR BINGHAM, WITH PROTEST AGAINST SLAVERY. Speech
in the Senate, on the Death of Hon. Kinsley S. Bingham, late
Senator of Michigan, December 10, 1861 364
THE LATE SENATOR BAKER, WITH CALL FOR EMANCIPATION. Speech in
the Senate, on the Death of Hon. Edward D. Baker, late Senator
of Oregon, December 11, 1861. With Appendix 370
THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF SLAVERY SHOWN FROM ITS BARBARISM.
LETTER TO A POLITICAL ANTISLAVERY CONVENTION AT WORCESTER,
MASSACHUSETTS, SEPTEMBER 9, 1860.
BOSTON, September 9, 1860.
DEAR SIR,--With you I hate, deplore, and denounce the Barbarism
of Slavery,--believing that the _nonentity and impossibility_
of Slavery under the Constitution of the United States can be
fully seen only when we fully see its Barbarism; so that in the
Constitutional argument against Slavery the first link is its
essential Barbarism, with the recognition of which no man will
be so absurd as to infer or imagine that Slavery can have any
basis in words which do not plainly and unequivocally declare it,
even if, when thus declared, it were not at once forbidden by the
Divine Law, which is above all Human Law. Therefore in much I
agree with you, and wish you God-speed.
But I do not agree that the National Government has power under
the Constitution to touch Slavery in the States, any more than it
has power to touch the twin Barbarism of Polygamy in the States,
while fully endowed to arrest and suppress both in all the
Territories. Therefore I do not join in your special efforts.
But I rejoice in every honest endeavor to expose the Barbarism
which degrades our Republic; and here my gratitude is so strong
that criticism is disarmed, even where I find that my judgment
hesitates.
Accept my thanks for the invitation with which you have honored
me, and my best wishes for all Constitutional efforts against
Slavery; and believe me, my dear Sir,
Very faithfully yours,
CHARLES SUMNER.
A. P. BROOKS, Esq.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT MUST BE A DEAD LETTER.
LETTER TO A PUBLIC MEETING AT SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 9, 1860.
This meeting was one of a series, known as “Jerry Rescue
Celebration,” being on the anniversary of the rescue of the
fugitive slave Jerry from the hands of slave-hunters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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