Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1867-08-28
aaisfellaMn.
THE DISTINCTIONS GOD HAS MADE,
SEX ES--COLGRS.

The New York State Rights Societ7
transmitted, last week, to the Constitu
tional Convention of that State a memo
rial against negro suffrage. We make
the following extract from the memorial
To the Honorable the Constitutional Conven
tiOu Of the State of New York.
The undersigned, acommittee appoint.
ed by the State Rights Society Of the
city Of New York, to present to your
honorable body a memorial in opposition
to striking the word "white" from the
State Constitution, beg leave to present
to you the grounds upon which this ac-
ton is based.
The society which we have to honor to
represent adopt the principles Of ThOs.
Jefferson in their true purport and mean
ing. The rights of man are held to bo
natural and inalieuable." derived from
the Almighty Creator as part Of his
organism. Government, therefore, can
grant no rights to men, nor can it Justly
take any away. It finds men as the Gre
ator has made them, and it should leave
them as it finds them. It cannot Justly
create distinctions where the Creator has
made none, nor can it justly ignore those
which the Creator has made. The offices
of the government is to discern, if posi-
bic, the laws of nature, and seek to make
those prevade the laws of the land. Is
confers nothing. It takes nothing away.
As has been truly remarked by an en-
inent jurist of this State, now no more,
sThe most perfect human laws can claim
no higher merit than they have followed
nature"
Ifthis fundamental principle, then, be
the basis Of true government, how impor-
tant it is that those Of our citizens who
have been deputed to fix the organic law
of a Commonwealth, embracing, the in
terests of four millions of human beings,
should fully understand the demands and
requirements of Natures laws.
And what are they? We see, first, that
the human being who makes what's term
ed a State, or a body polite, are divided
into different sexes. The very fact that
there is a difference is absolute natural
proof that there must be different legal
relation to correspond to the natural diff
ference. Whatever nature intends for
the same duties and purposes is made
alike. The hardy and robust frame of
the man make him the natural defender
of the woman, whose frazier physical or
ganization, combined with the duties of
maternity which Nature has imposed up
on her, render her equality with man an
utter impossibility. She cannot be his
equal for she is not like him. Equality,
throughout nature, is synonymous with
of species or organization. The
utter absurdity of rights of citizenship
for women is shown from the fact that
she cannot fulfill its duties.
The negro has never shown any capa-
city for government. In his own country
he has never invented even an alphabet
or adopted oae, and yet for six thousand
years he has been surrounded with civil
lizaton. When brought to this contin-
ent and instructed, be has, whenever left
to himself, relapsed toward barbarism.-.
Nature did not make him the equal Of
the white man, therefore he cannot be iu-
cluded in the same government with
white men without violating her laws.
finds the negro a negro, and
it should adapt its laws to Natures fiat
of ineQualay. If we follow Natures dis
tiuction Of seres. we are bound to follow
distinction of races. "AlI lg6jte
men are created equal, is the maxim Of
Mr.. Jefferson in his true intent and mean
ing. for to assert that white men and ne
groes we're created equal, would be to
assert the paradox that they are alike.
The grounds of opposition to striking
the word white from the State COnstitu-
ton, therefore, rest upon the broad prin-
ciplo that the negro is in nature unequal
to the white man, and therefore can not
have right to the white mans equality.
As Government, therefore, can confer no
rights upon any one, only guarantee those
granted by nature, it follows that any at
tempt to engraft negro suffrage on the