M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1865-08-03

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knowiedged goverumtnt. J.g .'.H
The obscari!y olthe logical con-
necIioa in the opening paragraph Of
tho Declaration, results irom tho
necessary btevity ofan introduction,
Iaqd from want OF familiarity, IN the
reader, with the admired treatse
lwkQse doctrine. .Jsfersop attempted
to copdense, into Il few scptcnces.
The equality asserted by Locke WAS
lex lam. d by him as pertaining only
to that hypothetical "atate Of nature"
supposed 10 precede the entrance of
meu into civil society-an equality
which terminates wiki the organ ~
Etion OF government. For L cke says
IeXpryssly, that "incn, when they en-
fer into society, give up the quality,
Liberty, and executive power which
! they bad in a state Of nature, into the
hands Of the society, 10 be- 80 tar dis
pnsee Of by tue legislature as the
S0ou o. the society Shai! require. -
as al ElgliShmar, believing in Il
hereditary king and nobility, Locke
could not, without self contradiction,
baye believed that ali men are born
equal in 4 state o1 civil society. The
Declaration OF Independence, which
borrowed from him both its doctrine
and language, must have inte.ded it
IN the same sense, or it would have
heen, full OF seIf-conlradction in
throwing off allegiance to tEelBritish.
crown on the ground that the king
had abused his power. liter recl-r
ting q lcpg catalogue Of some thirty
.t.'i.rert acts Of oppression, the
Declaration sQcs on to say: "a
prince whose character is thus mar
ked by every act which may define a
tyrant, rs unfit to bo tlO ruler Of Il
Tree people" "
This language, md the whole Of
the long enumeration whicn precedco
1T, clearly implies tItat a hereditary
prince may be legitimate ruler. 1t
was not becauS, the English monarch
was bonn Il king, but tccause he had
abusStt-hispUwer. that allegiance
was declared to be dissolved. But
.it, in II state oi civil society, man
can be born king, il is C car that in
that state all men are not politically
equal BY birth. If, therefore, tie
doctrine Of ! man Cqnaliry in the
Declaration, 20 to be consulted
strictly. it is more than irrelevant; it
nak, { the introduction to that docu-.
me!il contradict the whole tenor Of
It's substance, which implies that the
allegiance Of the colonies was right
mlIy due to King George until he
grossly aba5vd his hereditary auth
Ority. -..
Ia whet sense. then, wat il meant.
10 he asserted, in the Declaration,
that sail men are created equal" =
Precisely in The sense Of Locke, and
in no o'hu, Locke, in the latter
part Of his treati5o, dwcllo, nj consid-
cradle length, on the causes by which
Il government may he dissolved in.
cluding abuses Of power by lhe prince
among them; and he asserts, over
again, that the cOnse qaece Of such
dissolution is 10 remand society back
to that state Of nalrrua in which all
men are equal. This was the prom
inent idea in JetfGrSon's mind, when
lie set down to draft the Declaration
BY the acts which it was his main
business to recite, the king had dis
solved eie Of allegiance, and the pee =
pie Of the colonies were thereby re-
nianded to that state uf nature in
which ali men ere equal to Que an
other, and in virtue of which. when |
they orgahizs themselves into a new |
political society, that new political
society becomes the tqua! OF every |
other. Locke's doctrine Ot the equal |
ity OF men in the state OF nature, was
made by Jefferson the connecting !
link between tie dissolution of the |
old government and the construction
Of new independent boIy-politic; |
which became the equal OF every |
other in virtne OF the principle that
men, the materials out OF which |
bodies>poitic are formed, are origin
ally equal, The colonies wer6 about
to pass from 4 condition of inferiori-
ty and dependence to one of equality
among tine nations of the earth, and,
in Jcfferson's logic, the claim to this
national equality which I'VE were on
the point ol assuming, rested upon
the original equality of all men in (
that state o. nature" to which the
colonies had been remanded by the
tyranny Ol the English govern
Ient.
in this view alone, that part Of
the Declaration il neither irrelevant,
nor incOnsiatput ,pith 'fhn wLolp tuDOr