Alexandria advertiser and commercial intelligencer. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1800-1803, 1803-09-12
From tie CHARLTON Courier.
NATURAL RIGHTS.

N a " "A N - =
Far be q ROPE If saxd eesl1 tavist
As toueb as harmed SoRBoNisT;
And qseaue fue eobqv<bs, fit for 'a :,
Tbaf's empty, pyb<n tbe Noon 6 f1l1;
Sueb as take lgdgmgs IN head
Tbat'sto be let, unfinished.
IF the doctrines respecting The Rtg6t
of MIN laid down III democratic puollca-
tons were as innocent as they are fooiish,
we should turn from them with silent con-
tempt; but as they are founded III wick
edness as we'll as absuralty, and as the',
tendency is generally mischieyous. ana
threatens to be particularly SO to thus -
Mon, we cannot without criminal &C.
sertion of our duty, let any thing pass
unnoticed which belongs to or has a Ten
dency to support them. :,
Unnatural connections in the animal
world are productive Of monsters. ihe
same IS observable in the moral and intel
leSaual world. The union ct cunning q
folly though often found in men, is stu
unnatural, and whenever it tal;es place,
whenever they are coupled together IN the
same mind, if.they are not barren, which
rarely happens, their progeny is crime and
error, monstrous wickedness with mon
strous absurdity.
That all men are created equals po.
slrion TO which, though it were to come
from all the Industrious bodies that ever
were assembled, every days experience
gives direct negative. Partridge, the al.
manack maker. was not equal to Sir Isaac
Newton. Pope, the poet, to brou5l1ton,
the bruiser. Nor tie author OF the essay
to which we are now addressing ourselves,
to Benjamin Franklin. Nature handed
them into the world with very unequal
powers of obtaining Rights. This they
have proved, by obtaining unequal Rights,
and preserving that inequality in spite
Of fortune, which nature imposed upon
them.
But Rights, though the meaning OF the
word is obseused by mist OF false dchni-
lions and interpre 7ations, signifies ga just
claim or an honest possession Those are
claims of moral obligation and are called
Rights because they are Agreeable to the
will of God, TO the instinttive dictates OF
the moral sense, * to the heness OF things.
But these Rights being reciprocal, are OF
necessity productive OF compulsion. What
Right has child A Right, it will be
said, to nurture and protection. But say
those near it yes, it may .laye, and ! dare
say it has, the Right 10 nurture and pro-
tretion. Then let it have it. But we
have no Right to give it; it is inconvenl-
ent; it is disagfeeable to US; we will not
do il; nay, We will not do il, If 1t was
for no other reason but to demonstrate
that we have our Rights over our own
Actions, and will not be compelled to do
what is disagreeable US. But you must,
says political society, we will compel you;
the Guild shall not be let to perish. Here
then is at once an end to Natural Rights.
Human laws come i'll to the aid OF those
moral, instructive, and divine, and tell
every lDan, you have no Right but what
society can recognize and allow as harm
less TO them.
But tholc philosophers Of the feet have
art enough 70 confound the ipscihc feah-
BE Rights oaaaociaicd man, thar is his
political Rights, With ms,aphy ilcai no.
tion which has no exiitcnce 10 nature.
Goodwin, in his Political Ju}ice,"
Jays, 9 BY the word Rights undeIilooi
Full and comp'ete power OF either do
ing thing or omitfiag il, without the
perions becoming liable TO anlmadyeflion
or cesilure from another that is, in other
words, without his incufring any degree
Of tutpiludc or guilt" and he afflTms,
and very truly too, that a man has no
Rights, no Discretionary power zvbaftve,,
rvcenf n things Of fiIrh total indifference