Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-02-17
Jst 4aiIp SPg.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY le, 'Ss.
The Equality Of Men.

The immortal patriots of lT76, who convened
on the fourth of july of that year, in Philadel-
mia. and laid the foundation OF the vast struc
ture Of civil liberty which the present generation,
and their unworthy descendants are enjoying, es-
tablished as the fundamental basis OF the great
constitutional edifce which they erected soon af-
ter. the self-eyident TRUTH that GALL MEN ARE
CREATED EQUAL" Mhat is, that every indiyidu-
al of the great family Of MAN, whatever might be
the diversity of complexion, race, or intellectual
cultivation, was lunless having forfeited that
right by some criminal act,) entitled to perfect
equality of right before the law. But it seems it
was reserved for some Of the political tg''es tat"'
of the latter half of the nineteenth century, wiser
than the Jeffersons and Franklins, the Adamses
and Henrys, of the. Revolutionary time, to dis
cover the gross error and falsehood of the great
doctrine of liberty and equality which forms the
basis of the principles laid down in the Declare
ton of American Independence, and ineOrpora-
ted in the Constitution of the United States.
Thomas Jefferson, as the mouth-piece and re.
cOgEized exponent of the views of the patriots of
l776, says:
1--WE hold these truths to be self-evdent, that
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain lRattena5te
rights rhat among these are life, LIBERTY, and
the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these
rights governments are instituted among men,
deriving their Just po,oers from the consent Of the
governed"
Caleb Cushing, who rejoices in the fame Of hav-
ing exhibited IN his persons history the most
perfect specimen Of the chameleon in politics, on
the leading question of the day, said in late
speech in the Massachusetts, Legislature;
.'Mr Speaker-I--you-we- Of the
House of Representatives, belong to that excel
lent white race the impersonation of intellect IN
man, and of loveliness in woman, whose power
and whose privilege it is, wherever they may re-
main, to Chistiapize and to ciSilize, to command
and to be nbcyed, to conquer and to reign ad-
nit 10 an equality with me- sir, thel 'ohlte men
my blood and race, whether he be the Saxon OF
England, or the Celt of Ireland. But do not ad-
init as my equals either the red man of America,
or the yellow man of Asia, or the black man OF
Africa
And this sentiment, so ant-democratic, and
contrary to the teachings of our revolutionary
fathers, and antaganistic to every principle
avowed by Jefferson, the great father of democ-
racy, is Landed TO the skies by the sycophantc
Rdherents of the corrupt administration now in
power in the nation Could there be ncorpO-
rated in two paragraphs any more striking antag-
onism of sentiment, than is contained in the two
extracts above quoted
Jefferson reiterated, in his inaugural address,
when assuming the post of chief magistrate of
the republic, as the Essential principles of our
government, upon which its administration should
be shaped, the doctrine previously announced in
the declaration" of ''equaE and exact justice to
ALL MEN, of whatever state or persuasion"
Gushing says this fundamental principle Of Glib
erty" and equality of the "inalenable rights
Of man. was me ant to be extended only to those
of a particular race or color Could absurdity
possiy ID go further? How 1amentable that a
person possessing the intellect of Caleb Gushing
should be SO eemented on one question, and that
the great question of the age.
Is not the Asiatic the Malay, the Chinese, the
Indian, and African, a man, and equally entitled
with the Saxon, or the pure Caucasian, to the
inalieDable rights of liberty and equality before
the law, according to the doctrines of the fathers
of the republic, as left upon record and quoted
above? Then let no miscreant of the present
age seek to deface the fair fame Of our nations
escutcheon, by avowing that the principles upon
which our government should be carried on, are
those Of the personal slavery Of those belonging
to any Particular race or to any particular color,
or Of the exclusion Of any belonging to the COM
mon race Of man, from the inalenable, God given
rights of humanity