Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-06-22


and pleasure of minority who happen to be
created with pale faces? Surely it is pretty
hard to believe that SO lucid a writer could,
with his eyes open, have fallen into such a
delusion as to mean, in public paper which
he regarded as the crowning merit of his life,
the precise reverse of what he actually said.
Still more difficult is it to imagine that,
though he lived for half century afterward,
in the midst Of discussions and disputes par
ticularly calculated to keep alive his recol-
lection Of what he did mean, he should never
have whispered to any living soul, either
privately or publicly, single doubt of his
having been correctly understood. He we'll
knew the sense which his contemporaries
universally attached to his words. If he had
any other in his mind, why did he not dis
| close it?
Fortunately for the reputaio of the dis
tinguished son OF Virginia. whose noblest
work |, a son of Massachusetts,, am proud
10 defend against the cruel assaults of citi-
zens Of his own State, there is other evidence
in the context Of this immortal paper conclu-
sively to prove that he meant exactly what he
said, and that the new version is an after
thought Of later age. So far from narrow
! ing his application Of the words ''all men
to white men only, as having inalienable
rights to life and liberty, he goes on, in the
original draft, to make a solemn charge
| against the King of Great Britain, for what,
pray? Why, to use his own language, "be-
cause he has waged cruel war against human
nature itself, violating us most sacred rights
Of life and liberty in the persons of distant
people"
1t appears, then, by this, that Mr.. Jeffer
! son thought it was human nature itself, that
possessed these most sacred rights which he
! denominatss inalienable, and not the small
| portion of it included in the white popula-
ton Ave, and that is not all, either Who
! are the persons of a distant people" to
whom he refers as deprived Of these most sa-
cred rights under this cruel tyranny? They
are the very blacks of the African race whom
| the King had torn from their homes and
made slaves to the cOlonists of America. They
are the very people of whom we.are now told
| by the higuest court, who would seem by
| their argument completely to justify that
monarch, that they ''have no rights which
white man is bound to respect" And, sin
| gularly enough, as if to mark, beyond the
/ possibility of the most arrant faulty to mis-
| conceive it, Mr.. Jefferson's intent, in charg-
ing the sovereign with the crime Of his de-
termination to keep open a market where
men should be bought and sold he takes
pans, in the original manuscript, with his
/ own hand TO write that word "MEN' in
capital letters ; the only word so written, it
should be observed, in the whole body of the
document. | would humbly submit, then.
upon this evidence, that if any narrower ap-
plicatiOn is 10 be made of the words ''all
mem than that which they naturally bear,
a much stronger argument could be made
from the context IN favor Of limiting it to
all black men of the African race. than in
defence of the attempt to twist 1t exclusively
for the benefit of the whites. But when Mr..
jefferson appeals tn tho comprehensive term
of Human nature, as possessing these
rights, it is PLAIN enough that he, at least,
was for covering all OF every race equally
under the shelter OF this benefcent national
proclamation.
But the question noU is not what Mr.
Jefferson or his mpeers intended. The fact
is bevond contradiction, that the judiciary
and the executive head of the Federal Gov
ernment have practically adopted the oppo-
site construction, and a very large number
of people are prepared to confirm 1t. The
reason for this remarkable revolution Of
opinion leads US at once to the source of our
present divisions. Passing over all second
ary disputes about WllmOt provisos or
sQuatter sovereignty, about fugitive-slaye
laws or protection Of the rights OF So-called
property, as the mere incidents, let Us look
the real issue calmly in the face. The con-
struction put upon the Declaration Of 1nde-
! penuenCe for the hrst halt century OF our ca
reer is favorable to the liberty Of human ma
ture throughout the world. The construc
ton nor put upon the same language is de-
signed to overthrow it, by setting up one
portion Of mankind so far above another as
to Justify the former in compelling the latter
to perpetual subsection to its will. Hence,
though it may be affirmed that the white
race are created equal, and possessed of GER
tain inalenable rights, this affirmation must
| be understood as made by themselves, exclu-
sirelv for their OWN benefit, and with the de-
liberatc intent to deny TO every other class
on earth any privilege which shall avail them
against a successful effort to enslaye them,
whether by force or fraud, fit be once as
sumed by the white that the black man OF
| Africa has no rights which he is bound to
respect, by parity Of reasoning, it inevitably
! follows that a resort to the same processes OF
violence and crime which brought him to
this mournful condition may be had by HIM
in his turn, wherever he can get the power,
toward the white And the same remark will
apply to any and every other race OF man
kind which chooses to set itself up as the
arbiter of the rights of the creation. There
is then. by this theory, no such thing on
earth as liberty guaranteed to any one. THIS
decision strips us all alike of any rights but
such as we may maintain by our own right
arms 1t is the American sanctihcatIon OF
the sovereignty of force, under the old argu-
ment Ct prescription. 1t is the tyrant's plea
of necessity, vanished over with the thin
gliding of modern politicOjudicial Demoe-
racy.
If am right in my deductions, then the
case stands thus at this moment great and
powerful combination in the United States
has been able so far to control political opin'
ion as to carry the Government clean away
from the acknowledgment of the soundness o.
doctrines of liberty universally recognized II
the first half century OF our career and
furthermore. to make that Government justify
and defend for certain purposes, a law found
ed originally on nothing but fraud and force
Surely. if this be admitted, it can be NJ
further cause of surprise that those among
the people who still remain attached to th'
old and cherished principles Of the better day
of the Republic, who yet believe that tn'
mission of the Government is to promote th'
law of liberty, and to resist oppression, anS
,cho mean to make it such, if honest efforts to'I
effect 1t, should associate in an organlzsat,GbL ia tb
having for its object the restoration OF tn
ancient and true idea, and the overthrow o
{ the false one. If anything is to be done witt
effect. it is high time to set about it. Nearl.
all the avenues to power are guarded by opPo
5 nents. The strongest political organization
known in our history has been made subserv
! lent to its will Nothing will avail agains
: the omnipotence of the power acquired g b b
virtue of the negro" as l have already de
g scribed it, but union, energy, and ceaseles
vigilance in resisting Its further progress
Here stand in antagonism, once more, the OIL
! enemies-liberty and authority. Here
! renewed, in modified shape, the " irrepres;
+ ible conflict that is as ancient, at least, a
the days when Moses struck the Egyptian
Are we. then, to be told that the organlzatiio
Y must be dissolved, because it is standin
, menace to the slaveholding States? What
the doctrines of liberty menace to the slaS