Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-06-28
No, a Natural Right.

from enjoying, to the fullest extent, all the
rights to which he is by nature entitled.
This hypothesis presupposes a distinction
between rights natural, and those arising
from and regulated by the social compact;
hence it may be well to inquire as to what
rights man, in a state of nature, is entitled.
Naturally lone man has as much right, in,
and domiuion over the earth and its pro-
ducts, as another naturally A has
no more right to the field he
cultivates and calls his own than B
has TO the same field--naturally the
amorous young gentleman has right to
take unto himself one, or many wives
naturally woman may insist upon her
rightito apluraiity:of husbands -naturally
there is no one thing to which one person
may claim to be entitled to which any
other person with equal show of right may
make the same claim hence arise Mormon
ism, Free Love, and all the thousand and
one chimerical ideas founded upon these
supposed natural rights, and of the inabil-
ity OF society to, prevent or prohibit any
one from the fullest enjoyment Of them.
Again, this argument presupposes that
the social compact itself is a natural right !;
that it was Instituted by nature, and not by
necessity; that every person in the world
Is invested naturally with all the privileges
pertaining to each and every society there
may be. no matter where orwhen organized,
or what its custom, laws or usages; that
there is no occasion for Constitutions, Laws,
Magma Charta, or other declaration of civil
rights and social privileges; in short, the
argument presupposes that the whole plan
of civil society is in itself absolutely moth
ing, having no element of permanent ex-
istence, but on the contrary, an anomaly
called into existence by efortuitous circum-
stances, to be overwhelmed and ruined
whenever the individual members choose
to assert their natural right.
For if, naturally, all are equal, and So
ciety in its political capacity has not the
right, by legislation, to interfere, to re-
press, prohibit or prevent, what becomes of
our boasted civil authority? By what
right are governments instituted? Why
do governments differ ia their form and
constitution? Why monarchy in England?
Imperialism in Russia? Why permit the
Pope to occupy ST. PETERS chair, and why
Is BRIGHAM Young allowed to play the
sultan amid the legalized prostitution of
his western harem? Has society, in these
instances, no right in its political capacity
to Interfere
If society be natural right, arising
solely by virtue of decree of nature to
that effect, and not from necessity, there
must be at least as many natures politically
as there are constituted governments;
otherwise, all constituted governments
must be wrong, tyrannicai and subversive
of natural right. rEfF.rY-.-.~
2 Again, if society has no right to prevent
or prohibit any one in the enjoyment of an
assumed light. every person would have a
natural right to enjoy the privileges OF So
ciety, or not just as he pleased; he not only
would have the right to enjoy, but the
right to mold and fashion-not only the
right to mold and fashion, but the right to
dissolve and destroy; that is to say, if he
likes not the social compact as it exists in
the United States, he has the right to use
every means In his power for its overthrow
and subversion, and TO establish it in some
other form, or to live without it, according
to his whim and caprices; hence come Sc
cession, revolution and rebellion. In one
word, then, if we may believe the advocates
of Negro Suffrage, every person has the nat
ural, 2indefeasibls right to do just as he
pleases without let or hindrance. JEFF.
DAVIS, when actively engaged Ill rebellion
against that social compact of which he
had been a member, was, according to the
(" Manhood Sufrageitcs" of Ohio, but act
ing upon and endeavoring to support, by
force of arms, his natural right to withdraw
from one eGovernmenta and institute another,
and according to the same high authority,
the Federal Government was wrong and
had no legal power. naturally derived, to
prohibit him the full enjoyment of his nat
6fal rights. And we may suppose, now
that the, Arch Fiend" of rebellion is
turned loose upon society, backed and en-
couraged by the Grand Sachem of natural
rights, HORACE GREELEY, that the whole
thing is in strict accordance with the nat
ura1 rights of man. - -vr-r.--. n - e.
This argument, that society cannot re-
strain any one in the enjoyment of his nat
ural rights, is but the e'enunciation in new
form of the old "higher law" doctrine
the father of the twin monsters, Secession
and Abolition-that doctrine which has
discovered the Union. suppressed the Con-
stitution,5 and revolutionized the Govern
ment. sal 10 -1a 5a'. .e..1s.ta ~ ei.Ea's7s .H7
The hypothesis, however, is false in
premise, sequence and corollary, because it
! Re Ai,f; ,r,ha -,
difference. Politically, there is no differ
ence between natural rights and social
rights. Upon this idea our Government
was founded. All rights arising from
whatever source are equally respected by
the laws, and in the enjoyment of these
rights every subject of the Government
is protected. The Constitution and
laws declare what our rights
are, We have, therefore, two
| classes of rights, which may be denominated
in the one case fundamental, and in the 9TH
er discretionary. All those rights enumer-
ated in the Constitution may be styled fun
'damental, because only the people, exer-
cising their sovereign capacity, can change
or abridge them; all rights not enumerated
| in that instrument may be called discre-
| tionary, because the people can alter or
abridge at pleasure. Hence, in Ohio, suf-
frage is fundamental right, because it is
| made so by the Constitution, the supreme
flaw of the State. the same instrument
defines an elector to be ''a free white male
citizen of the United States of the age of
twenty-one years, who shall have been a
resident of the State one year next preced.
/ ing the election" (" and such citizen is enti-
/ tied to all the privileges and immunities of
an elector, not because he is a free white