The Portland daily press., 1862-12-20
3What is Repubiicanisma''

In answer to the above question the learned
and profound editor of the Advertiser under
takes, in his paper of the 10th, to expound the
doctrines of the Republican party, and in that
exposition he makes some propositions OF a
most singular character. He says;
The man who ''repeats with emphasis the
doctrines of the Declaration OF independence,
that all men are created equal, with the
fraudulent INTERPOLATION of the word free, in
order to cheat the common mind into the be-
lief that the Declaration of Independence con-
-templated any system of government under
which all the natural rights, natural equality,
tibertg. and relations Of men rere to be pre-
serred, is an imposter in politics, and he Is not
a Republican,
Reader mark these men who are so strenu-
Gus in opposing the Declaration of Independ-
ence, and you will iiud nineteen in every TWEEN
ty forqinq Uord to that Instrument viz
the word Stree" so as to make it read "all men
are created free and equal" when no such
wo-d, and no sdch sentiment is in it, or attach
es to it, or was consistent with the purposes
OF that instrument.
The editor of the Advertiser is frightened
at the word free. We should think as much
from reading his paper He alleges that the
Declaration of Independence, in its purposes
and sentiments, is inconsistent with natural,
universal freedom; that no such sentiment as
the equal freedom of mankind, by rirtue Of
creation and natural endowment, is in the
Declaration, or attaches to it, This is not
original with F. o. J. Smith, but was gravely
put forth by John c. Calhoun more than fif-
teen years ago. The editor OF the Advertiser
has stolen Calhoun's thunder as he is trying
hard in almost nvarv issua of his napar 70
propagate Calhoun's rebeli5us, notification,
and anti-repub'ican doctrines.
What is the doctrine of the Declaration of
Independence? The language is as follows:
ave hold these truths to be selfevident-
that all men are created equal; that they are
endotred bytheir Creator with certain un-
dtienGbie rights. that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit Of happiness. That
to secure these just rights governments are in
stituted among men, deriving their just power
from the consent of the governed; that when
ever any form of government becomes des-
tractire TO these ends, it is the right of the
people TO alter or abolish it, and to institute
new government, laying its foundation on such
principles, and organizing its power in such
form. as TO them shall seem most likely TO eff
feet their safety and happiness.
AN men are created equal" A selfevi-
dent truth, says the Declaration. Then If, By
rirtue of creation, one is designed for slavery,
all are equally so designed. If the just inner
itance from creations freedom to one, soitisto
ALL II creation fits one for slavery or freedom
the same fitting is the lot of all. So much for
the Sentiment" of this "selfevident trnth"
"They fall menl are endowed by their Gre
ator, with certain inalienabe rights among
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness" Here is another truth, selfevident to
the minds of the authors Of the Declaration of
Independence. The same right THAT man has to
life he has to liberty. The Creator has made
both equally inalienable. Man has no right
to take his own life, and he can forfeit it or
authorize others to take it, only by crime. If
his proposition is not equally true of liberty,
we do not understand the force of language.
T he right to life and liberty, are held by the
same tenure, and a man can no more ALLEVIATE
the latter than the former. The inalienable
right to liberty, as to life and the pursuit of
happiness, the Declaration declares to be
'just right" to secure which government is
instituted" If man has a just right to lib
erty how can his right be subyerted except by
injustice? And when government becomes
destructive Of this just right of men to their
own natural liberty, it is worthy to be altered
or abolished; and yet, with all these enuncia-
tions standing out in the forefront of the De-
claration, man in Portland publishes to the
people that the idea of the natural freedom of
men, as the gift OF the Creator and the inherit
ance from creation, is not sentiment of that
Declaration, does not attach to it, is not con-
sistent with the purposes OF that instrument!
In view of the whole matter we feel perfectly
willing for the intelligent reader to decide who
isNthe imposter in politics." and who is a Re-
publican.
In further considering the question that
he ads this article, the editor of the Advertiser
says:
The man who is constantly assailing the
slave institutions of other States, by insisting
that human slavery is opposed to natural
laws, and rests upon an outrage and usurpa-
tion," Notwithstanding the constitution de-
rived from our revolutionary fathers contem-
plates the existence and protection of those in
situations, is disturber of the national peace
and is not republican, but he is an abolition
ist.
can who insists that "human slavery is oppos-
ed to natural laws, and rests upon an outrage
and usurpation." Such person sis disturb
er of the national peace" Washington, JEFF
ferson, Madison, nearly all the early fathers,
signers of the Declaration of Independence,
and trainers of the Federal Constitution, con-
tended-we have the authority of Alexander
ii. Stephens for this-that slavery was unnat-
ural, opposed to natural laws, temporary in its
character, and would soon pass away, and it
was this very idea, then SO generally preva-
lent, that caused the careful exclusion of the
word "slave' and slavery" from the Constitu-
ton.
A few years since gentleman well known
to this community, delivered an address before
Fremont club in this city, which he entitled
"a vindication of our Revolutionary Fathers,
on the subject OF Human Slavery, against the
imputations Of Hon. Judah p. Benjamin of
Louisiana,and Hon. Howell Cobb of Georgia.;
two gentlemen who had just previously
spoken in this city to the Democrats, and both
of whom are now distinguished members of
the rebel government. In the course of that
"Vindication," delivered Aug. 80, 1856, we
find the following emphatic paragraph:
And no less is it an exaggeration of history,
when 1t is said by the honorable Senator, that
<.xrrA l.