Year: 1860

ought, under the Constitution Of the U.
States, to extend to it that protection
which its advocates claim for it. ] main
tain that slavery, as it exists in the slave
holding states, is wrong in every aspect in
which it can beviewed wrong to The slave;
wrong to the stakeholder an injury to the
material industrial, political, social, educa-
llonal, moral, and religious prosperity OF
any people who encourage or tolerate it
and like all other sins which ofllict society,
the sum total of its results is evil, and only
evil. Slavery originated in motives of sell
| llShneSS, Of avarice, and of ambition in
an age when, by the teachings Of those
motives, might was a synonym for right
when the weak, and unfortunate, and the
conquered had no rights which the strong
were bound to respect. 1t is sustained at
the present day. in and out of this Hail.
by the same logic and by the same mo-
tives.


When the colonists Of this country were
experiencing the oppressive effects OF the
| tyrannical measures of the Parliament and
King of England tending to reduce them
to political slavery, they naturally began
to inquire into the inherent rights of man,
as subject of civil government and that
inquiry, with the discussion incident to it,
in the light of the learning which the pro-
gress of society up to that time had devel-
oped, resulted in the adoption of "a plat
form" Of political principles, in harmony
with the Divine law, which wasincorporated
into the Declaration of Independence. The
language is familiar to all, and will not
quote it. 1t is clear and concise state
ment of the natural equality Of all men to
| protection from Government, and to the
enjoyment Of "life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness" is enormously asserted
and unfairly contendcd that the broad APP
plication, which the opponents of slavery
meke OF this language, secures to all class
es and conditions Of people, equality Of So
cal relations and Of political rights. So
cal relations are prompted by natural af-
linitiCs, and it is not the appropriate OBJ
icct of Government to interfere with them
Political rights emanatc from Government
and the extent to which they are to be en-
ioyed by and applied to particular persons,
is addressed to the sound discretion of the
| Iaw-making power. Natural rights ema-
nate from the Creator, and Government
cannot therefore improperly interfere with
them and this is the sense in which the
Declaration Of Independence declares all
men created equal We do not deny to
women their equality with men as to natur-
al rights because we do not allow them the
civil right to vote, aud the same remark
will apply to minors and unnqturalizcd for
eignerS. This statement in the Declara-
tion, of the natural equality of men, was
the platform upon which the Revolution
was fought. Its inspiring sentiments were
its war-cry. This platform determines the
wrongfulneSs of chattel slavery as an insti-
tuition everywhere, for it cannot exist with
out destruction Of those natural rights
it declares to be iualienable. This sent-
ment. t.anteror to July, l77G, pervaded the
discussions of the colonies, growing out of
their relations to the mother country and
they clearly saw that chattel slavery was
inconsistent with it. The colonies found it
here in violation of that just and cardinal
maxim Of civil government, which, in l176,
they so truthfulIy, clearly, and boldly an
nounced to the world. SO sensible was
Mr.. Jefferson of this, that in his original
draft of the Declaration, he inserted as
one Of the causes of complaint against the
King of Great Britain, that he had inter-
posed his veto power to prevent the colo
MES from suppressng by legislation "this
execrabIc commerce" in human beings.
This was his language


"He has waged cruel war against human ma
ture ITSELF violating its most sacred rigths of
life and liberty in the persons of distant peo-
pie who never offended him, captivating and
carrying them into slavery in another hem-
sphere, or to incur miserable death in their
transportation thither. This piratical warfare,
opprobum of infdel Powers, is the warfare of
the Christian King of Great Britain. Determin-
ed to keep market where men should be bought
and sold, be has at length prostituted his mega.
tive for suppressiug any legislative attempt to
prohibit and restrain this eXecrable commerce"


need not further quote from the wri
tingS Of the prominent men who Inaugural
ted and carried forward the Revolution to
show that this sentiment was general. 1t
is conceded by intelligent men from the
South. [ assert, without the fear of sue.
cessful contradiction from any source, that
the preponderance Of public sentiment in a
majority of the States, at the close of the
Revolution, and for a long time afterwards,
was against the policy and against the
rghtfulness of chattel slavery, as it then
existed in those States. l assert further,
as the corollary of that sentiment, that it
was the general expectation that slavery
would gradually disappear from all the
States, through the instrumentality of our
republican form of government, and through
the humanitarian influence of our Christian
civilization.


The trainers of the Constitution exclud-
ed from it the words slavery, as hateful
terms, and it was left out, as Mr.. Madison
said, because they did not wish to recog.
nize the rightfulness of property in man.
l have no doubt they had in view the fu-
ture state of the country, when slavery
should be abolished in all of the States,
and adapted the Constitution to that state
of thugs 1t has been conceded by south
ern men in the House and in the Senate.
this session, that the leading men of the
slave States, before and after the adoption
of the Constitution, uttered anti-slayery
sentiment but it is contended that they
really were not opposed to slavery per Sc
that it was sentimentalism merely, an alb
straction, or speculation, and not intended