Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 08 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
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Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 08 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
If I enter now into analysis of Slavery, and say familiar things, it is
because such exposition is an essential link in the present inquiry.
Looking carefully at Slavery as it is, we find that it is not merely a
single gross pretension, utterly inadmissible, but an aggregation of
gross pretensions, all and each utterly inadmissible. They are five
in number: first, the pretension of property in man; secondly, the
denial of the marriage relation,--for slaves are “coupled” only, and
not married; thirdly, the denial of the paternal relation; fourthly,
the denial of instruction; and, fifthly, the appropriation of all
the labor of the slave and its fruits by the master. Such are the
five essential elements which we find in Slavery; and this fivefold
barbarism, so utterly indefensible in every point, is maintained for
the single purpose of compelling labor without wages. Of course such
a pretension is founded in force, and nothing else. It begins with
the kidnapper in Guinea or Congo, traverses the sea with the pirate
slave-trader in his crowded hold, and is continued here by virtue of
laws representing and embodying the same brutal force that prevailed
in the kidnapper and the pirate slave-trader. Slavery, wherever it
exists, is the triumph of force, sometimes in the strong arm of an
individual, and sometimes in the strong arm of law, but in principle
always the same. Depending upon force, he is master who happens to be
stronger,--so that, if the slave were stronger, he would be master, and
the master would be slave. Beyond all doubt, according to reason and
justice, every slave possesses the same right to enslave his master
that his master possesses to enslave him. If this simple statement of
unquestionable principles needed confirmation, it would be found in the
solemn judgments of courts. Here, for instance, are the often quoted
words of Mr. Justice McLean, of the Supreme Court of the United States:
“Slavery is admitted by almost all who have examined the subject to
be founded in wrong, in oppression, in _power_ against _right_.”[217]
And here are the words of the Supreme Court of North Carolina: “Such
services [of a slave] can only be expected from one who has no will
of his own, who surrenders his will in implicit obedience to that
of another. Such obedience is the consequence only of _uncontrolled
authority over the body_. There is nothing else which can operate to
produce the effect.”[218] And the Supreme Court of the United States,
by the lips of Chief Justice Marshall, has openly declared, in a famous
case, read the other day by the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. DAVIS], that
“Slavery has its origin in _force_.”[219] Thus does it appear by most
authoritative words, that this monstrous Barbarism is derived not
from reason, or nature, or justice, or goodness, but from _force_, and
nothing else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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