The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-02-24


John Quincy Adams the father of the antisla-
very agitation in Congress, rejects as absurd,
and subversive of the whole theory of our gov
ernment the doctrine of coercing seeding
State into the Union by force of arms, or inau-
gurating war between the States under any
pretext whatever.
MIR. Lincoln on the Declaration or Inde-
pendence.
On Washingtons birthday, IN the city OF
Philadelphia, in Independence Hall, the vene-
rable and sacred edi6ce in which the Declare
ton of Independence was signed on the Fourth
of July, l776, the day which the people Of this
country delight to honor, Mr.. Lincoln, the Pre-
sident elect, thus declared his sentiments
IAax had fsling politically Aa did not spring
from the senns embodied In the Declaration of indpeS
d5ce. have often pondered over the dangers which
framed and adopted that Declaration Independence.
have p0ndered the tolls that endured by the
pendenoe hsve Often inquired Of mysef a as @rs
principle or idea ,oas that kept the confdrucy long TO-
a4Aer. not the matter Of the separation Of
the colonies from the mother land, but that
sentiment in the Declaration Of Independence
which gave liberty, not alone to the PEG
the soaM mod be lifted fros ne shoulders ofau men 7his
Eo~ nv friends con- us country Dc saved upon G 5asiss
lie sSrlda can Ssp 70 .ass CANNOT < saved Hpo"
cannot saved WITHOUT gcsng up thar principle about
say sold rather Be assanated this spot than surren
drM
IF Mr.. Lincoln, when he spoke in Indepen-
dence HAN, understood the Declaration Of In
dependence as the men who drew it up and
signed it understood it, as history understands
it, and as the Supreme Court of the United
States in the light Of history interprets it, then
his words ought to be written in letters Of gold,
and, as far as he is concerned, the whole diff
Guilty between the republican party and the
Southern States is settled. But if Mr.. Lincoln
understands the Declaration Of Independence
as the Chicago resolutions have expounded it,
that African negroes are created equal to white
men Of the Caucasian race; that they are emit
tied to 'rliberty," and that those who govern
the negroes only "derive their just powers from
the consent of the governed" surely there
never was so inconsistent document sent
forth to the world by any political body Of
men; and so far from commanding the respect
of civilized nations, as we know it did, it ought
to have doomed them to everlasting infamy.
If Mr.. Lincoln understands the Declaration of
Independence as his party platform explains
it, never was so bitter a satire in so few words
pronounced upon the founders of the govern
ment; for that they themselves held negro
slaves at the time and to their death,
and that all the colonies then held
slaves and continued to hold them
throughout the war of independence, and,
with the exception of Massachusetts,, till after
the constitution was adopted, is notorious mat.
ter of undisputed history. According to Mr..
Lincoln and the Chicago platform the struggle
was for the emancipation of the negro slaves;
the war, nor after the war, nor even till the
Northern States discovered that slaves in their
cold climate, and for their particular kind of
labor, were not SO profitable as the labor of
white emigrants or poor natives Nor did the
pious Puritans even then set them free, but
sold them to the Southern States, and con-
tinued for many years to furnish them with a
further supply by Importation from Africa
The highest legal tribunal known in our politi
cal system, the Supreme Court, the authorized
expounder of the constitution and the laws
thus pronounces upon the question in the case
of bred Scott, in 1856
1t too clear for dispute that the enslaved African
race were not intended to be included and formed no
part Of the people who framed and adopted this declara
ton; for II the language as understood In that day,
would embrace them, the conduct Of the distinguished
who framed the Declaration Of Independence would
have been utterly and agrantly inconsistent with the
principles they asserted; and instead Of the sympathy
OF mankind to which they confidently appealed, they
would have deserved and received universal rebuke and
great men-high In literary acquirements-hgp In
their sense OF honor and incapable Of asserting prnc
pies inconsistent with those on which they acting
They perfectly understood the meaning of the language
they used and how II would be understood by Others
and they kne,c that icould not in any part Of the civied
,vrld e supposed 10 embrace the negro race, ich By
mon CONSENT had been excluded from civilized governments
and the family Of nations and doomed 10 Slavery They
spoke and acted according to the then established doc
rincs and principles and In the ordinary language OF the
day, and misunderstood them. The unhappy
black separated from the white by indeoie
marks and laws long before established and
thought of spoken of except property and when
the claims Of the owner or the profits OF the trader were
20 neeo ns saso pa1E
adopted as is equally evident from its provisions and Ian
guage-Opinion Of ne Court in the case Of bred Scot,
Hoaodrds Reports, p. 4l0
Mr.. Jefferson, who made the rough draft of
the paper, expressly says
The two races equally Free cannot live in the same GO
yernment Nature, habit opinion, have drawn indoble
| lines of distinction between them.
In the debates in the Convention which
formed the first confederation, five years after
the signing of the Declaration of Independence
Mr.. Chase says "the negroes are property, and
as such cannot be distinguished from the lands
or personalities held in those States where
there are few slaves and not only does Mr..
John Adams of Massachusetts, together with
the whole assembly, acquiescc in this assertion,
but Mr. Adams further says
1t is Of consequence by what name you call your
people, whether by that OF frecmcp or of slaves. la
some countries the aborng poor called freemen, In
others they called slaves but the difference to the
state is imaginary only The condition Of the aborng
poor in countries that of the fishermen particularly
Of the Northern States abject that Of slaves.