Legislative Branch
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CE.6
National Government Flashcards
CE.6 Flashcards
2
CE.7
State Government Flashcards
CE.8
Local Government Flashcards
Fifth Period Congress
How a
Bill Becomes a Law
iCivics Represent Me
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I must say something of a general character,
particularly in response to what has fallen from Senators who have raised
themselves to eminence on this floor in championship of human wrongs. I mean the
Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Butler), and the Senator from Illinois (Mr.
Douglas), who, though unlike as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, yet, like this
couple, sally forth together in the same adventure... The Senator from South
Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous
knight, with [sentiments] of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a
mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always
lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight
I mean the harlot, Slavery. For her, his tongue is always profuse in words
Let
her be impeached in character, or any proposition made to shut her out from the
extension of her wantonness, and no extravagance of manner or hardihood of
assertion is then too great for this Senator. The frenzy of Don Quixote, in
behalf of his wench, Dulcinea del Toboso, is all surpassed. The asserted rights
of Slavery, which shock equality of all kinds, are cloaked by a fantastic claim
of equality. If the slave States cannot enjoy what, in mockery of the great
fathers of the Republic, he misnames equality under the Constitution in other
words, the full power in the National Territories to compel fellowmen to unpaid
toil, to separate husband and wife, and to sell little children at the auction
block then, sir, the chivalric Senator will conduct the State of South Carolina
out of the Union! Heroic knight ! Exalted Senator! A second Moses come for a
second exodus!
-Charles Sumner, "The Crime Against Kansas"
(Delivered in 1856 in the US Senate)
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