The other was Mr. RHETT, who on this floor openly declared as his reason for declining the duel, that he feared God more than man. Generous words, for which many errors can be pardoned. The first relates to a citizen, of purest life and perfect integrity, whose name is destined to fill a conspicuous place in the history of freedom, WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. A Committee of Vigilance in Louisiana, in 1835, offered, in the Louisiana Journal, $50,000 to any person who would deliver into their hands ARTHUR TAPPAN, a merchant of New-York; and, during the same year, a public meeting Alabama, with a person entitled Honorable in the chair, offered a similar reward of $50,000 for the apprehension of the same ARTHUR TAPHAN, and of LA ROY SUNDERLAND, a clergyman of the Methodist Church at New-York. Such an act, closing this long struggle by the assurance of peace to the Territory, if not of tranquillity to the whole country, will be more grateful still as the herald of that better day near at hand, when freedom shall be installed everywhere under the national government; when the national flag, wherever it floats, on sea or land, within the national jurisdiction, will not cover a single slave, and when the Declaration of Independence, now reviled in the name of Slavery, will once again be reverenced as the American Magna Charta of Human Rights. Both Adams and Calhoun were deceased by the time the speech was given. In Slave South Carolina, 7,145,930; in Free Massachusetts, 64,820,564 a larger number than in the ten Slave States, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Texas, combined. A pretension so peculiar and offensive so hostile to reason so repugnant to the laws of nature and the inborn rights of man, which in all its fivefold wrong has no other object than to compel fellow-men to work without wages; such a pretension, so tyrannical, so unjust, so mean, so barbarous, can find no place in any system of government, unless by virtue of positive sanction. Under this head the census does not supply proper statistics, and we are left, therefore, to approximations from other quarters; but these are enough for our purpose. If I touch slavery to the quick, and enable slave masters to see themselves as others see them, I shall do nothing beyond the strictest line of duty in this debate. And the Supreme Court of the United States, at a later day, in the case of the United States, at a later day, in the case of the Unite States vs. Fisher, 2 Cranach, 390, by the voice of Chief Justice MARSHALL, promulgated this same rule, in words stronger even than those of Lord MANSFIELD, saying: Where rights are infringed, where fundamental principles are overthrown, where the general system of the laws is departed from, the legislative intention must be expressed with irresistible clearness, to induce a court of justice to suppose a design to effect such object.It is well known, however, that these two declarations are little more than new forms for the ancient rules of the common law, as expressed by FORTESCUE: Imprius et crudelis judicandus est Liberate non foevet. In the Free States the college libraries are 132, and contain 660,573 volumes; in the Slave States they are 79, and contain 249,248 volumes. And here South Carolina naturally took the lead. In the debate of the bill for the improvement of rivers and harbors, 29th July, 1854, [Congressional Globe, vol. This glaring outrage upon freedom of debate was redressed at once by the constituency of Mr. GIDDINGS, who returned him again to his seat. Much as has been said to exhibit the character of slave masters, the work would be incomplete if I failed to point cut that unconsciousness of the fatal influence of Slavery which completes the evidence of the barbarism under which they live. Such an act will be the first stage in those triumph by which the Republic lifted in character so as to become an example to mankind will enter at last upon its noble prerogative of teaching the nations how to live. Thus, Sir, speaking for Freedom in Kansas, I have spoken for Freedom everywhere, and for civilization; and, as the less is contained in the greater, so are all arts, all sciences, all economies, all refinements, all charities, all delights of life embodied in this cause. GOD is the father of the human family, and we are all his children. Nothing here is said of the human being at the other end of the chain. I must freely confess my sense of the harshness of this proposition. These are the words of a Southern lady, the daughter of the accomplished Judge GRIMKE, of South Carolina. The True Grandeur of Nations - Charles Sumner Fifthly Slavery paints itself again in the appropriation of all the toil of its victims, excluding them from that property in their own earnings which the law of nature allows and civilization secures. And even in the Free States the partisans of Slavery have from the beginning acted under the inspiration of violence. Thus, whichever way we approach it, the absurdity of this pretension becomes manifest. African Americans--Civil rights, - And yet this transaction, which may well give to South Carolina the character of a shore where shipwrecked mariners dread to land, has been openly vindicated in all its default, from beginning to end by both the Senators from that State, while one of them, (Mr. HAMMOND,) in the same breath, has borne his testimony from personal knowledge to the character of the public agent thus maltreated, saying, He was a pleasant, kind old gentleman, and I had a sort of friendship for him during the short time I sat near him in Congress.. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. But all law, whatever may be its judicial origin, whether English or Mahomedan. Honest. It is founded on brutal and vulgar pretensions as we have already too clearly seen; of course it can only be sustained by kindred brutality and vulgarity. Not in triumph or in taunt do I approach this branch of the subject. If institutions generous and just ripen souls also generous and just, then other institutions must exhibit their influence also. The number of graduates in the free States was 47,752, in the slave States 19,648; the number of ministers educated in slave colleges was 747, in the free colleges 10,702; and the number of the volumes in the libraries of slave colleges 308,011; in the libraries of the free colleges 667,227. 25 Jun 2023 22:28:31 This content is being presented as historical documentation to aid in the understanding of both American history and the history of the University of Mississippi. Mr. FOOTE remained standing in the position he had taken, with his pistol in his hand, cocked. But Slavery plays the part of a harpy, and defiles the choicest banquet. Under the law of Slavery no such sacrament is respected, and no such contract can exist. But, alas! But this argument comes back to the first pretension, that slaves are recognized as property in the Constitution. In South Carolina a stone-cutter, Irishman by birth, was stripped naked, and then, amidst cries of Brand him! Burn him! Spike him to death! scourged so that the blood came at every stroke, while tar was poured upon his lacerated flesh. full of suggestion to the bludgeon-bearers of Slavery. Who can calculate the effect of such an example? In the recent work of Mr. OLMSTED, a close observer and traveler in the Slave States, which abounds in pictures of Slavery, expressed with caution and evident regard to truth, will be found still another, where a slave master thus frankly confesses his experience: I can tell you how you can break a ni**er [edited] of running away, certain, said the slave master. This is not the time to enter upon the great question of race, in the various lights of religion, history and science. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, on the House Bills for the Confiscation of Property and the Liberation of Slaves Belonging to Rebels, Delivered in Senate of the United States, June 27, 1862 (Washington: Scammell and Co., 1862) Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site, and on microfilm. * * * * With the morals of the people, their industry is also destroyed.Next comes the philosophic authority; and here the language which I quote may be less familiar, but it is hardly less commanding. The national elections bill : speech of Hon. Some of the images and language that appear in the digital collections depict prejudices that are not condoned by the University of Mississippi. Butler had a cousin in the House of Representatives, Preston Brooks. The number in free Massachusetts, with a population of nearly a million, was 1,005, or 1 in 517; the number in slave South Carolina, with a population under three hundred thousand, was 15,580, or 1 in 7. I watched the motion of that right arm, [of the witness,] the elbow of which could be seen by me, and had it moved one inch, he had died on the spot. And here is testimony of a different character: No one who has not been an integral part of a slave-holding community can have any idea of its abominations. If the African race be inferior, as is alleged, then it is the unquestionable duty of a Christian civilization to lift it from its degradation, not by the bludgeon and the chain not by the barbarous pretension of ownership but by a generous charity, which shall be measured precisely by the extent of its inferiority. It is a whited sepulchre, full of dead mens bones and all uncleanness.. For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources. This natural sequel, with the permission of the Senate, I propose now to supply. The barbarism still endures, solemnly, legislatively, judicially attested in the very Slave Code, and proclaims constantly the character of its authors. Equality before the law protected by national statute : speeches of Hon. Archives and Special Collections, University of Mississippi Libraries, Finding Aid for the Featherston Collection. Charles Sumner (Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874) - The Online Books Page It is only because people have been insensible to its true character, that that they have tolerated for a moment its exorbitant pretensions. Sumner was quoting others in their use. Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. Nor is there anything within the limit of life inflicted on a beast which may not be inflicted on a slave. As in considering the character of Slavery, so in considering the character of Slave masters, we must begin with the law of Slavery, which, as their work, testifies against them. learning of Sumner's "The Crime Against Kansas" speech, which, he felt, had insulted South Carolina and his "relative," Senator Andrew Pickens . The property in the slave in the planter became thus the property of the original captor. (Neal vs. Farmer, 9 Georgia Reports, page 555.).