Page:The Barbarism of Slavery - Sumner - 1863.pdf/20

 14 and over the fowl of the that moveth upon the earth :

and over every living thing

air,

sea,

that rteht

we hold

By His donation but man over men He made not lord, such title to Himself

Reserring,

human

left

from human

free.

Slavery tyrannically assumes a power which Heaven denied its barbarous necromancy, borrowed from the

while under

Source»of Evil, a

man

is

changed into a chattel, a person is is shrunk into merchandise. Say,

withered into a thing, a soul

sir, in your madness, that you own the sun, the stars, the moon ; but do not say that you own a man, endowed with a soul that shall live immortal, when sun and moon and stars have passed

away. Secondly. Slavery paints itself again in its complete abroga-

of marriage, recognized as a sacrament by the church, and recognized as a contract wherever civilization prevails. Under the law of Slavery, no such sacrament is respected, and no such tion

contract can exist.

The

ties that

may be formed between slaves

more selfish lust of the whose license knows no cheek. Natural affections^ which have come together, are rudely torn asunder nor is this Stripped of every defence, the chastity of a whole race is all. are

all.

subject to the selfish interests or

master,



exposed to violence, while the result is recorded in the telltale faces of children, glowing with their master's blood, but doomed for their mother's skin to Slavery, through all descending The Senator from Mississippi [Mr. Brown] is generations. galled by the comparison between Slavery and Polygamy, and winces. I hail this sensibility as the sign of virtue. Let him

and he will confess that there are many disgusting elements in Slavery, which are not present in Polygamy, while

reflect,

the single disgusting element of sent in Slavery.

By

Polygamy

is

more than pre-

the license of Polygamy, one

man may

bound to him by the marriage-tie, and in other respects protected by law. By the license of Slavery, a "whole race is delivered over to prostitution and concubinage, without the protection of any law. Sir, is not Slavery barhave many wives,

all

barous ? Thirdly. Slavery paints itself again in its complete abrogation

of the parental relation, which

God

in his benevolence has pro-