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Link to old site page:

https://pilgrimhall.org/pdf/1848_Sumner_Opinion.pdf

We will not – we cannot dishonor the revered authors of our Constitution, by supposing
that they set their hands to it believing that slavery was to be perpetual – that the
Republic, which they had reared to its giant stature, & which had snatched from Heaven
the sacred fire of Freedom, was to be bound, like another Prometheus, in the adamantine
chains of fate, while Slavery, like another vulture, preyed upon its vitals.

Charles Sumner
Boston, Sept. 16th, 1848