The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1860-10-03

smother time denounced the slave trade a,
ga war against human nature, violating It'll
sacred rights Of life and liberty" and ssa
piratical warfare, the opprobium of infde
powers" while the Christian King Of Great
Britain prevented the Colonies from sup.
pressing the ''execrable commerce.
With the same pen Thomas Jefferson wrote
that immortal DECLARATION OF INDEpxs.
pENcE, to which, in the light of the facts al.
ludsd to above and many more, the ID elegates
of the Colonifs affixed their signatures
They said
"We hold these truths to be sclf.evident
that oil men are created equal that they are
endowed by their Creetor with certain in
alienable rights; that among these 10 life
liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
But Chief Justice fancy says If those
phrases were used at this day in such docu-
ment, they would embrace the whole human
family, but not so at that day, because it was
the fixed and universal opinion that the Afri-
can was not entitled to the rights of human
nature, but wac a mere article of merohan-
disc. And Stephen A. Douglas hastens to
endorse this opinion, and insists that the
signers of the Declaration simply meant to
assert that "British subjects on this continent
were free and equal to British subjects born
and residing in Great Britain" la bis haste,
Douglas ignored the fact that free negroes
Ua RrSt oh IN.
gisnce to the British crown as any white ma n
in England or he Colonies; and thus Doug.
las inadvertently admits American free ne
groes to the privileges of the Declaration OF
Independence, while excluding Germans and
all other Europeans. Such are the unfortu.
nate inconsisten oies of humbug.
In the light OF the few brief facts aud ex-
tracts we have already given, we regard it
impossible for ny man TO concur with Chief
Justice fancy and Judge Douglas.
THE IsFLuESca OF THKsE TRUTHS ABROAD.
Ii was this e and declaration by our faith.
ers, Of the natu al equality of man and the
Godgiven rights of mankind; this repudia-
ton Of the "iivne right of Kings to reign, ,,
and OF ''mastsIs to oppress," that fred the
souls of such ltriosic champions Of liberty
as Lafayette and Kosciusco and attracted
them to our shores to shed their blood for
its maintenance. 1t was the same grand and
universal truths that penetrated Europe and
reused the nations, as With trumpet tones,
to the assertion of their rights. Lafayette
and his compeers bore back with them it's
glorious spirit to France, and under is infu-
ence her throne and her peerage, with found
atoms embedded in thousand centuries of
ancient use and custom, crumbled into dus {
and ashes before the breath of the people
And the Nationsl Assembly of France re-as-
serted the same great truths, declaring that
"The end Of all political associations is the
preservation Of the natural and imprescrips-
ible rights of nun, and these rights are lib
srty, property, security and resistance Of
And, then, the National Assem-.
bly, of France, having the power, which our
Congress lacked, passed law abolshing
slavery throughout the French Republic and
It's depenisneias,
EFT 2crs AT HOME.
Here at home, under the impetus of the
same universal principles of liberty and nat
ural equality, our great statesmen, our egis-
lators, and our religious denominations, Wed
with each other in denunciations Of slavery
and in Efforts in behalf of emancipation.
In 1888 clause was inserted in the Con
stitution for the abolition OF slavery, in the
words Of the Declaration of lndependen
And near the same period, systems of grad
ual emancipation were adopted in Pennsyl.
vania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New
Hampshire, and serious restrictions were i'm
posed on it in the other Northern States. In
1854, Jefferson, az chairman of a committee
In the Congress Of the Confederation, re.
ported resolution for the prohibition OF
slavery in tho Northwest Territory, which
was subsequently incorporated into the col.
ebrated ordinance of 1887.
10 1883 the General Assembly, or rath
err Associated Synods of the Presbyte
rian Church, bore most uncquivocal ties
tlmony against slavery as a violation of the
laws of God and the rights Of man, anc
'Rccommendej, in the warmest terms, II
every m smber of their body, and to all th,
churches and families under their care, ia
do everything in their power consistent with
the rights of civil society, to promote til.
abolition of slavery, and the instruction Of
negroee, whether bond or free.''
The committee recognized it as "the spe
ciai duty OF those who maintained the right.
OF humanity, to use such means az were ir
their power 10 extend the blessings OF equa
freedom TO every part Of the human race
Prior to that time the Methodist Il. Church
bad absolutely excluded Shareholders from
it's communion in their zeal against the "sun
q.