The system of slavery has enslaved them all, master as well as slave. It is that you cannot deny one class of society the full measure of their natural rights without imposing restraints upon your own liberty. If you want to be free, there is but one way-it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other. True, there are difficulties connected with an organization of society founded upon the basis of equal rights.
Nobody denies it.
A large number of those who come to you from foreign lands are not as capable of taking part in the administration of government as the man who was fortunate enough to drink the milk of liberty in his cradle. And certain religious denominations do, perhaps, nourish principles which are hardly in accordance with the doctrines of true democracy. But at the same time the advocates of despotism will never offer them an opportunity to acquire experience in selfgovernment lest they suddenly become fit for its independent exercise. To this treacherous sophistry the fathers of this republic opposed the noble doctrine that liberty is the best school for liberty, and that self-government cannot be learned but by practising it.