Page:The Barbarism of Slavery - Sumner - 1863.pdf/22

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16

he must work for his master, and not for himself. Alas! by fallacy, is a whole race pauperized And yet this transaction is not without illustrative example. solemn poet, whose verse has found wide favor, pictures a creature who, such a

!

A

With one hand put

A penny in And

And

the urn of poverty, with the other took a shilling out. PolloFs "Course of Time," Book VIII. 632.

more than a genewho, while on his knees before an altar of the Greek Church, devoutly told his beads with one hand, and with the other deliberately picked the pocket of a fellow-sinner by his side. Not admiring these instances, I can not cease to deplore a system which has much of both, while, under an affectation of charity, it sordidly takes from the slave all the fruits of his bitter sweat, and thus takes from him the mainspring to exertion. Tell me, sir, is not Slava celebrated traveller through Russia,

ration ago, describes a kindred spirit,

ery barbarous ?

Such

Slavery in

is

recognized in

man

by law

its

five special elements of Barbarism, as

first,

assuming that

man

can hold, property

secondly, abrogating the relation of husband and wife

thirdly, abrogating the parental tie

of knowledge another.

and

fifthly,

Take away

fourthly, closing the gates

appropriating the unpaid labor of

these elements, sometimes called " abuses,"

very " abuses " Take away any one of them, and the abolition of Slavery begins. And when I present Slavery for judgment, I mean no slight evil, with regard to which there may be a reasonable difference of opinion, but I mean this fivefold embodiment of "abuse " this ghastly quincunx of Barbarism each particular of which, if considered separately, must be denounced at once with all the ardor of an honest soul, while the whole five-fold combination must awake a five-fold

and Slavery will cease to which constitute Slavery.

exist, for it is these

denunciation.

But

when

this five-fold its single

motive

combination becomes still more hateful The Senator from Missisconsidered.

is

" but a

form of civil governgovern themselves." The Senator is mistaken. It is an outrage where five different pretensions all concur in one single object, looking only to the

sippi [Mr.

ment

Davis] says that

for those

who

it

are not

is

fit

to