Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1857-08-25

| WOUNDED BY THIS INFAMOUsIfhACTIOE.'
The Declaration of 1776.B but an EN-
bodiment of these principles, in their an
ticipated practical application, together
with the reasons which led to their open
avowal. The Natural equal right of all
men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness; the great fact that governments
are instituted among men solely to secure
these rights; and the consequent irrefragi-
BILE right of the people to alteIf or abolish
governments, when they have Jailed in the
accomplishment of that purpose all of
which principles are contained int tie De-
clsration of 1776, only eonsiitr Ia the
formal endorsement, by the pee y, aof The
doctrines asserted years before, by those
great statesmen and patriots, whose viz
tues and love of liberty rendered illus
trious that great epoch i'll our history, the
American Revolution.
The Declaration of Independence was
drafted by Jefferson, as chairman of the
committee appointed for that purpose, and
approved by John Adams, Benz. Franklin,
Roger Sherman, and r. h. Livingston,
who were his associates. Taken in con-
nection with the quotations from Hamilton
and Jefferson, to which we have alluded,
and it shows conclusively, the entire una
nimity of opinion existing, between our
early Republican leaders, as to the true ba-
sis OF free govewDa4-.
Thssssip pciples Of liibiGtys DIich had
beeuc =. by the oldaIEneIish Whirso
IaxiSg been raserated Byol kasly states.
men, embodied in their Nat Declare
1stion of rights, and maintained them
through a bloody and impoverisIs war,
! :. q IL
should long be regarded. with sentiments
of the highest venerstion, by freedom
loving posterity. For series of years,
therefore, no one was found with sufficient
hardihood to publicly deny these funda-
mental doctrines of our political philoso-
ply, and advocate the replacing of them
with the cardinal principles OF British and
American Toryism.
Finally, however, when John G. Cal
houn began to mingle in our national poll
tics, the avowed advocate and defender of
! Slavery, we were saluted with The astound-
ing discovery, that the Declaration of In
dependence, which embodes the united
political wisdom of our early statesmen,
is false in principle and also in fact.
The penetrating mind of Mr.. Calhoun
had early seen that the principles Of des
potism, or slavery, and tue doctrine Of the
equal rights of man, were absolutely in
compatible; and, therefore, like the Tory,
Filmer, he found it necessary br the ac
complishment Of his object, that this cen
gine of popular sedition" be stricken down.
He seen, at a glance, that so long rs the
minds of the American people were i'm
bued with the principles of III and '76,
that it would be utterly impossible to se-
cure their aid either in the perpetuation or
extension of his favorite, though despotIc
institution of Slavery. Consequently, his
political efforts were chiefly directed to
their destruction; fact which will explain
his apparently contradictory positions on
most other political questions of his day.
His arguments and management, for the
promotion of his favorite idea, of the per-
petuation Of slavery and the destruction
of the doctrine of equal rights. were able
and ingenious; but, happily for our liber-
! ties, they were generally Intellectual.
After Mr.. Calhoun's death, his des
potic theories seemed, for awhile, destined
to oblivion; as no one appeared to fill his
place, with sufficient ability 10 bring them
prominently before the public.
But in the meantime a change was eff
fected in the minds of the leaders of the
National Democratic party; and during
the protracted debate on the Nebraska bill,
in 1854, John Petit, a u S. Senator from
Indiana, revived the old Tory Calhoun doc
trine, by asserting that the Declaration of
Independence is "self-evident" lie
This audacious avowal was promptly
met and refuted by the Republican Sena
tors; while leading Democrats, in Con-
gress or out, found for it no word OF re-
buke or refutation. Of course this tacit
endorsement Of Petitt's revival of Tory
ism, was charged home on the Democra-
cy and as, under similar circumstances,
like effects are produced by like causes,
it was also charged that they contemplated
the perpetuation and extension Of Slavery.
The history of the abominable usurpations,
the cold -blooded murders, the destruction
of printing presses, aud other private
property, for the purpose of giving the
peculiar institution" the ascendancy in
Kansas, under the silent, if not the ex
pressed approval of the late Administra-
ton, fully confirms this latter charge
With this brief notice of it, therefore. we
pass on to notice more particularly the re-
sponses of the Democracy to Petitt's anti
Republican dogmas.
When Mr.. Choate, of Massachusetts,.
gave i'll his letter of adhesion 10 Buchanan.
he there affirmed that the ''immertal De-
claration" is string of ''ghttering gen
eralities;" and his letter was the subject
of the most fulsome praise of every De-
mocratic press in the land.
A short time before the Presidential
election, John 9. Breckenridge made
speech in Cincinnati, in which he affirmed,
substantially, that the practical enforce
ment of the principles proclaimed by JEFF
ferson and others, in r776, would be the
grossest despotism. This was also swal-
lowed by the Democracy.
Last winter, Gov. Adams, of South
| Carolina. in a messapo to the Lepislature