Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 44

2. Charles Sumner, The True Grandeur of Nations: An Oration Delivered before the Authorities of the City of Boston July 4, 1845 (Philadelphia: Henry Longstreth, 1846). (96 p.)

Oration protesting wars in general. “I repeat, therefore, that war is a public armed contest, between nations, in order to establish justice between them. When we have considered the character of war; the miseries it produces; and its utter and shameful insufficiency, as a means of establishing justice, we may then be able to determine, strictly and logically, whether it must not be ranked with crimes from which no true honor can spring, to individuals or nations, but rather condemnation and shame” (emphasis in original).