The Irish standard., 1901-08-24
The Equality of Men is Demonstrated by
Rev. DR.. L. A. Lambert to be
a Sound Doctrine.
The Celebrated Controversialist Effectively
Disposes of the Erroneous
Views of Critic.

In a recent issue of the New York
Freeman's Journal Rev. Father J. r..
Sheehan, of Pocanties Hills, N. Y,
criticised Thomas Jefferson and the
Declaration Of Independence, saying in
part:
"The equality of men is a creation
of our minds; outside of our minds it
does not exist either on earth, in
Heaven or in hell. Jefferson's pream-
BILE contains the principles of anarchy,
the principles of the Reign Of Terror;
it has never been taken seriously by
Americans, not even by those who
signed the Declaration Of Indepen-
dence, for whilst they spoke of mans
equality they held their fellow men as
slaves, but nevertheless these princi-
pies are at work, at the bottom of all
social discomfort and disorder
In the next issue of our esteemed
contemporary appeared Il lengthy re-
ply from its editor, Rev. DR.. L. A.
Lambert, who utterly pulverized the
arguments of his clerical correspond
ent and demonstrated the equality of
men, as enunciated in the American
charter of liberty, as follows:
We come now to the meaning Of the
word ''equal' as used in the Declara-
ton. That word seems to be the cause
of a great deal of confusion in the
minds of some people. We see not
why it should be, since the Declaration
itself indicates clearly it's meaning
that the equality asserted is equality in
those natural rights of every man as
against the encroachments of his fell
low man, Of society and of govern
ment; rights which spring from his na.
ture, his personality, his responsibility
to God, and his destiny. These rights
belong to him because he is man.
and they are equal in all men because
they are men. All are equal in the
right of immunity from unjust aggres-
sion.
DR.. Brownson, in one of his profound
essays, goes down to the theological
reason of this equality asserted in the
Declaration-a reason which we may
we'll suppose did not enter into Jeffer.
sons mind when he asserted it; which
shows that he wrote wiser than he
knew. In volume xviii, pages 45 and
natural rights which Jefferson sums
up in the words "life, liberty and the
pursit of happiness:
"Man lives by communion with God
and he communes with God in the
creative act and the incarnation
through his kind, and through nature
This threefold communion gives rise
to three institutions religion or the
church. society or the state, and prop
erty. The life that man derives from
God through religion and property is
not derived from Him through society
and consequently so much Of his life
he holds independently of society; ant
this constitutes his rights as mar
as distinguished from his rights as 6
citizen. In relation to society, as no
held from God to her, these are termed
his natural rights, which society mus
hold inviolable, and government pro
tect, for every one, whatever his com
plexion or social position. These
rights-the rights of conscience an(
the rights of property, with all thei1
necessary implications-are limitations
on the rights of society, and the indi
vidual has the right to plead then
against the state. Society does mo-
confer them and cannot take then
away, for they are at least as sacred
and fundamental as her own"
Thus this great man of genius, ia
miliar with Catholic theoolgy. delves
to the bottom of the problem. Tht
rights here spoken of as deriving from
communion with God through the ere
ative act and through nature are o.
course common to all men and equa
in all men who live in that communion
through the creative act and through
nature. But all men so live. There
fore those rights are equal in all.
Jefferson, therefore, in asserting thil