Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 10 (of 20)

But there remains behind another question. Is there anything in existing legislation to prevent the enlistment of a colored person under the statute of 1861? To this I answer po...

(1.) The first asserts that the rendition of the slave under the Act of Congress is a “preliminary” proceeding, in the nature of _extradition_, which does not establish any righ...

“I have already said that I knew of no provision of law, constitutional or statutory, which prohibited the acceptance of persons of African descent into the military service of...

Such are the words of Burlamaqui, in his work on Political Law, quoted with approbation by Phillimore, in his work on the Law of Nations.[44] Unless these words are discarded as...

There have been wars of _pretext_; but here was an act of legislation, which, whenever enforced, was a _Petty War_, and its origin was a pretext. It was nothing but a pretext, t...

The verse of Turgot was not alone in its testimony. An incident precisely contemporaneous shows how completely France had fallen under the fascination of the American cause. Vol...

At last, in 1850, after the subject of Slavery had been agitated in Congress without interruption for nearly twenty years, a series of propositions was adopted, and solemnly dec...

The beauty of this verse, even in its least accurate form, will not be questioned, especially as applied to Franklin, who, before the American Revolution, in which he performed...

Too much have I spoken for your patience, if not enough for the cause. But there is yet another topic, which I have reserved to the last, because logically it belongs there, or...

And here we are brought to the practical question destined to occupy so much of public attention. It is proposed to bring the action of Congress to bear directly upon the Rebel...

(9.) These same Cabinet orators, not content with giving us a bad name, allow themselves to pronounce against us on the whole case. They declare that the National Government can...

Now, Sir, the rich man is under no such obligation. If he be drafted under existing laws, he finds his substitute, or he tosses into the Treasury the required amount; he draws h...

Before the Eastern questions were settled, other complications commenced in Western Europe. Belgium, restless from the French Revolution of 1830, rose against the House of Orang...

I have no theory to maintain, but only the truth; and in presenting this argument for Congressional government I simply follow teachings which I cannot control. The wisdom of So...

“Nor put they to their curious search an end, Till reason had scaled heaven, thence viewed this round, And Nature latent in its causes found: Why thunder does the suffering clou...

Our experience shows that the law as the Senator expounds it is not so accepted by this railroad corporation. He knows as well as I that colored persons are daily insulted. Some...

Here it is important to consider, that, besides apprentices, there was a class of “indented servants” embraced by this clause. From Bancroft we learn that this species of servit...

Here we are brought to that question of “time,” on which Mr. Canning so pointedly piqued himself, and to which President Jackson referred, when he suggested that “a premature re...

Not content with the dictionary, I call attention to the use of the word in other authoritative places,--and pardon me, if I begin with the Constitution of Massachusetts, writte...

There was liberty-loving Holland, which, under that illustrious character, William of Orange, predecessor and exemplar of our Washington, rose against the dominion of Spain, uph...

In pursuance of the call, delegates to the proposed Convention were duly appointed by the Legislatures of the several States, and the Convention assembled at Philadelphia in May...

“Earl Russell has fallen into several grave errors in the course of his remarks. He has utterly misconceived the whole temper of Mr. Sumner’s speech, when he says that ‘it weigh...

Both are objections of _fact_. Either is sufficient. Even if the belligerence seems to be established as _fact_, still its concession in this age of Christian light must be impo...

There is a Rule of Prudence superadded to the Rule of Morality. Grotius, in discussing treaties, does not forget the wisdom of Solomon, who, in not a few places, warns against f...

Such are instances of interference in external affairs; and since International Law is traced in history, they furnish a guide we cannot now neglect, especially when we regard t...

Even now while I speak this same conspicuous fidelity to a sacred cause is announced. The ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez, first attempted by the early Pharaohs, and at la...

“The speech of Senator Sumner at the Cooper Institute will produce a startling effect in Europe. It may safely be asserted that the opinions of that gentleman upon international...

3. That, in dealing with the Rebel War, the National Government is invested with two classes of rights,--one the _Rights of Sovereignty_, inherent and indefeasible everywhere wi...

“We believe our readers have by this time had enough of the logic of Mr. Sumner. It is based neither on law nor on fact, but upon his own sympathies and antipathies, which he is...

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 48285-h.htm or 48285-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/482...

[209] Congressional Globe, 37th Cong. 2d Sess., p. 1808, April 24, 1862.--The paper here quoted, entitled “Notes on the Confederacy,” has since appeared in a collection, in four...