The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-04-21

p 70 another action, TO another orat0ry. 1t Is the
glory of Jefferson to have been the philosopher
of the Notwithstanding even Franklin in
this respect; for Franklin with all his match
less powers, had consecrated them to the adj
vancement of physical science, long before the
events which led to the Revolution had trans
pired.
Mr.. Jefferson grew up and his mind matured
In the midst of these stirring events. His pa
iriotic enthusiasm was aroused, and he was
among the first to take sides with his country
against the Crown and Parliament OF England
win not weary you with a recital OF the var1-
ous noltieaI functions which he filled, much
less shall attenp t to show the important part /
which he played on the public stage; it win be
sufficient for my purpose to touch upon the
salient points of his public life, in order to show
the identity of modern Republcanism with the
principles of Mr. jefferson
This viii be my object on the present occa-
sion; and / viii at the same time, show that
no other party in this country has any affinity
with jefferson. make no arrogant boast; the
task is easy. Any man Of common intelligence,
who will read twenty or thirty pages of Jeffer
sons writings, and contrast them with the po-
ltical history of the last two or ten years, can
do the same thing.
| will not con6ne my examination of the
political principles of Jefferson to the subject
of Slavery intend to show that his views of
State Rights, and of the relative power Of the
State and Federal Governments are in har-
mony with those of the Republican party
while the party now in power is thoroughly
committed in word and deed, to the most ultra
Federalism.
begin, however, with the Slavery question,
because that is the great issue before the coun-
try; the great issue which has been the nucleus
and centre of the Republican party, and which
hoe 3bo boar he xuhi oh hac
shattered all other parties to atoms.
Let me first briefly state the principles and
objects Of this new party.
The Republican party has proposed no in.
vasion of the rights of the States-no informed
ling by Congress with Slavery in the States
but it insists upon the right of Congress to ex-
clude Slavery from the Territories, to conse-
crate them to free white labor, and to rear upon
them States constituted, not of handful Of
wealthy shareholders, surrounded by thousands
Of black slaves, but States composed of free
men, white men, who will give invincible
strength to the nation.
The Republican party also insists upon the
right of freedom of speech and of the press. 1t
insists upon, and when it atans the control ofthe
Federal Government it will encourage, that sort
of freedom of speech in all the South which for
two or three years has existed in ST. Louis, and
whose fruits have been more than one triumph
ant election.
The Republican party is not in favor of the
amalgamation of the white and black races,
nor of a population composed of two separate
races. Nine-tenths of its members, while they
condemn the injustice which enslaves the black
man, are anxious for his colonization, in Africa,
in Mexico, in Central America, in South Amer
lea, or in the West Indies. That party will
favor the colonization of the free people of color
and emancipated slaves, with their own con-
sent in any of these countries, and PROPOSE
ton to this effect has been made in each branch
of Congress, by distinguished Republicans.
| intend to show, that in every one of these
principles and proposed measures the Repub-
ican party of the present day is only treading
in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson-only pro-
posing to carry out his principles and meas
ures-only endeavoring to realize the dream of
his life.
1t would be equally as easy to show that in
this leading feature Of the Republican platform
it has the sanction of nearly every great and
good name which achieved renown during the
Revolution, whether in the field or in the coun-
Gil 1t would be easy TO quote Washington
Franklin, Madison, the Adamses, the Ran
dolphs, Mason, Henry, Pinckney, in support of
the Republican principles above laid down but
/ shall have enough to do at present to use the
materials furnished by the writings of Jefferson
himself
Democracy with Mr. Jefferson was SYNONYM
for universal freedom. The first sentence of
the Declaration of Independence is demonstra-
tive of this truth. 1t declares that " all men
are created equal" and "endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights, among
which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap
piness" | am aware that it has been main
tanned by desperate demagogues that this dec
laration of rights was not intended to embrace
black men; but there exists the most abundant
testimony to the contrary. Mr.. Jefferson was
fully committed to the universally of Freedom
before he became member of the Continental
Congress. In his celebrated paper on the
Rights of British America" prepared while
he was a member of the General Assembly of
Virginia. and published in IVA, he says:
"The abolition of domestic Slavery is the
greatest object of desire in these Colonies.
where it was unhappily introduced in their in
FAINT state"
In his original draft of the Declaration of
Independence he used the following language /:
"He" 1.-THE King) "has waged cruel war
against human nature itself, violating its most
sacred rights of life and liberty, in the persons
of distant people who never offended him;
capturing and carrying them into Slavery
IN another hemisphere, or to incur miserable
death in their transportation thither. This
piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infde
Powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of
Great Britain. Determined to keep open a
market where men should be bought and sold,
he has prOstituted his negative for suppressing
every Legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain
this execrable commerce; and, that this assem-
blage of horrors might want no fact of distin-
guished die, he is now exciting those very peo-
pie TO rise in arms among us, and to purchase
that liberty of which he has deprived them by
numbering the people on whom he also obtru-
ded them-thus paying off former crimes com
mitted against the liberties of one people. with
crimes which he urges them to commit against
the lives of another."-M Madison Papers, D. Is.
This extract from Mr.. Jefferson's original
draft of the Declaration of Independence is to
be found in his works, as well as in the Madi-
son Papers. Mr.. Jefferson says of it, that
The clause, too, reprobating the enslaving of
the Africans, was struck out in compliance to
South Carolina and Georgia, who had never
attempted to restrain the importation of slaves.
and who, on the contrary, still wished to con
tinue it." Here, then, it will be seen that two
States, which were not able to contribute any,
thing TO the common cause, in consequence of
the prevalence Of Toryism and Slavery had in
huence enough, at the commencement of the
struggle to erase this noble passage from the
Declaration of Independence. For the sake of
perfect unanimity in the cause of Independ-
ence eleven of the thirteen States. In which
were embraced all the power of resistance to
the common enemy, yielded to the two weak
States, which required protection from internal
foes.
But this rejected passage sufficiently explains
the general terms of universal Freedom con-
tanned in the Declaration, and leaves not a
doubt that they were designed to embrace all