Argumentation and Debating (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX VIII SPECIMEN DEBATE "Resolved, that the United States government should inaugurate a movement to bring about reforms in the Congo Free State." FIRST SPEECH FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE Speaking of the Congo Free State, Professor Hart says, "The whole thing is a scandal and a blot upon the civilization of the twentieth century. Considering the progress of sentiment upon the question of slavery, it is the blackest and most inexcusable case of the bondage of the negro for the benefit of a few white people, that ever occurred." I purpose to devote my time to the consideration of three points: First, that slavery and atrocity must inevitably result from the system by which the government of the Congo State is at present carried on; second, that the actual condition of the natives is slavery of the most wretched and abominable sort, a condition which cannot and must not be prolonged; and, third, that Leopold II of Belgium, sovereign of the state, will not of his own free will rectify the system. Now for my first point, that slavery and atrocity must inevitably result from the system in operation. At the system's head, with the guiding reins in his hand, Leopold rules the Congo State, with its twenty million of inhabitants and its eight hundred thousand square miles of territory, in much the same manner as, before the Civil War, a Southerner ran his cotton or rice plantation. No constitution, no parliament to restrain his action, which is governed only by his insatiable greed. Now, in spite of his unctuous protestations of philanthropy, which sound rather peculiar in the mouth of the dissolute and tyrannical rake which the world knows Leopold to be, his greed is self-evident. He has appropriated every square foot of land not immediately...