'" * * * "Suppose the whole
body of the white population should be as much endangered by this
law, as the colored people now are, would the existence of the law
be tolerated for an hour? Would there not be a simultaneous and
universal uprising of the people against it, and such a yell of
execration as never before burst from mortal lips?"
The Hon. Charles Sumner, always true to the right, as the needle
to the pole, in his learned and able speech in Congress, 1852,
said:--"The true principles of our political system, the history
of the National Convention, the natural interpretation of the
Constitution, all teach that this Act is a usurpation by Congress of
powers that do not belong to it, and an infraction of rights secured
to the States. It is a sword, whose handle is at the National
Capital, and whose point is every where in the States. A weapon so
terrible to personal liberty the nation has no power to grasp."
* * * "In the name of the Constitution, which it violates; of my
country, which it dishonors; of humanity, which it degrades; of
Christianity, which it offends, I arraign this enactment, and now
hold it up to the judgment of the Senate and the world.
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