Life and Public Services of Charles Sumner

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874. Excerpt: ... AN OUTRAGE ON MAN AND GOD. 177 the Divine utterance at the very dawn of creation, --and this commandment, travelling with the ages and the hours, still speaks with the voice of God; but the law of Slavery says, "Let there be darkness." But it is earnestly averred that slave-masters are humane, and that slaves are treated with kindness. These averments, however, I properly put aside, precisely as I have already put aside the multitudinous illustrations from the cruelty of Slavery. On the simple letter of the law I take my stand, and do not go beyond what is there nominated. The masses of men are not better than their laws, and, whatever may be the eminence of individual virtue, it-is not reasonable to infer that the masses of slave-masters are better than the law of Slavery. And, since this law submits the slave to their irresponsible control, with power to bind and to scourge--to shut the soul from knowledge--to separate families--to unclasp the infant from a mother's breast, and the wife from a husband's arms, --it is natural to conclude that such enormities are sanctioned by them, while the brutal prohibition of instruction--by supplementary law--gives crowning evidence of their complete complicity. And this conclusion must exist unquestioned just so long as the law exists unrepealed. Cease, then, to blazon the humanity of slavemasters. Tell me not of the lenity with which this cruel law is tempered to its unhappy subjects. Tell me not of the sympathy which overflows from the mansion of the master to the cabin of the slave. In vain you assert these instances. In vain you show that there are individuals who do not exert the wickedness of the law. The law still endures. Slavery, which it defines and upholds, continues to outrage Public Opinion, and, within ...