Year: 1860


can reader. The Declaration of Inde-
pendence has rarely received a more
glowing tribute than this:


"The Declaration of Independence
was formed by the Representatives of
American liberty from thirteen states of
the Confederacy-twelve of which we're
slaveholding communities. We need
not discuss the reason or the why of
their becoming slave holding communi-
ties. 1t is sufficient for our purpose
that all Of them greatly deplored the
evil, and that they placed a provision in
the Constitution, which they supposed
would gradually y remove the disease by
cutting off the source. This vas the
abolition of the slave trade. SO gsner-
al was the conviction-the public deter-
mination--to abolish the African slave
trade, that the provision which refer
red to as being placed in the Constitu-
ton declared that it should not be abol-
ished before 1903. A constitutional
provision was necessary to prevent the
people, through Congress, from putting
a stop to the traffic Immediately at the
close of the war. Now, if slavery had
been a good thing, would the Fathers
of the Republic have taken a step calcu-
lated to diminish its benefcent influence
among themselves, and snatch the boon
wholly from their posterity? These com
munities, by their Representatives in
old Independence Hall, said to the
whole world of men: 1--WE hold these
truths to be self-evident; that all men
are endowed by their Creator with GER
tain inalienable rights, that among these
are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap
piness." This was their majestic in
depreciation of the economy Of the Uni
verse. This was their lofty, and wise,
and noble understanding of the justice
of the Creator to his creatures. Gap
plause) Yes, gentlemen, to all His
creatures, to the whole great family Of
man. In their enlightened belief, moth
ing stamped with the Divine image and
language, was sent into the world to be
trodden on and degraded, and imbruted
by its fellows. They grasped not only the
whole of man then living, but they
reached forward and seized upon the
farthest posterity. They erected a
beacon to direct their children and their
children's children, and the countless
myriads that should inherit the earth in
other ages. Wise statesmen as they
were, they knew the tendency of pros
perity to breed tyrants, and so they es-
tablishcd these great truths, that when
in the distant future some man, some
faction, some interest, should set up the
doctrine that none but rich men, or none
but white men, or none but AnglO-Sax-
ons, were entitled to life, liberty and
the pursuit Of happiness, their pOsterity
might look up again to the Declaration
of Independence, and take courage to
renew the battle which their fathers be-
gan-so that truth and justice, and mer-
cy, and all the humane and Christian
virtues might not be extinguished from
the land; so that no man hereafter would
dare to limit and circumscribe the great
principles on which the temple of lib
erty was being built. Loud cheers.


Now, my countrymen, if you have
been taught doctrines conflicting with
the great landmarks of the Declaration
of Independence; if you have listened
to suggestions which would take away
from its grandeur, and mutilate the
symmetry Of its proportions; if you have
been inclined to believe that all men are
not created equal in these inalienable
rights enumerated by our chart of lib
erty, let me entreat you to come back.
Return to the fountain whose waters
spring close by the blood of the Rcvo-
luton. Think nothing of me--take no
thought for the political fate of any man
whomsoever--come back to the truths
that are in the Declaration Of Independ
ence. You may do anything with me
you choose, if you will but heed these
sacred principles. You may not only
defeat me for the Senate, but you may
take me and put me to death. While
pretending no Indifference to earthly
honors, do claim to be actuated in this
contest by something higher than an
anxiety for Office l charge you to drop
every paltry and in significant though
for any mans success. | am nothing
Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not des
troy htat immortal emblem Of humaaiy--
the Declaration Of Independence" "


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