Year: 1867

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The Republican party should command
the sympathies ofthe plain people, because
it is the champion Of the political rights Of
men. It's platform. Of principles asserts
the vital doctrine of the Declaration Of In
dependence, which was derived from the
Book of God. II you deny the principle
of equality Of rights Of all men you reject
the word of God. This, some of you Will
consider radical. 1t is, for it goes to the
root, to the foundation, the charter of hu-
man liberty, which is the Bible. That
God has created all men equal, no man
who believes the Bible can successfully dis
pute. That He permitted to some superior
rights because of their color, or denied
equal rights to others for the same reason,
no Bible believer can successfully main
tain. That in the cary history of human
society, and with the PERMISSION OF God,
there were civil distinctions based upon
caste, is true, but that these were the out
growth Of wrong is equally certain. That
they have been permitted to exist since the
division of families into civil society, is
also true but this no more destroys the
natural rights Of all men to equal partici
patton in governments TO which they are
subject, than the fact that Eve's stealing
and falsehOOd, in the Garden of Eden, de-
strOys the existence of honesty and truth.
God has permitted civil distinctions among
men, based upon birth, caste, and color,
but it did not destroy their equal natural
rights to selfgoverument. Stealing and
lying have distinguished the human race
since the beginning, but this has not de-
strOyed virtue


If you could imagine the people of this
nation in a state of nature, could you fan
cy that any one of them would voluntarily
relinquish one of his natural rights, with
out adequate compensation Would any
one man Of all the thousands of this COLL
munity willingly surrender his native
equality to any other individual? BY 10
means. In the beginning, men were in a
state of nature, without society. All were
equal excepting in natural faculties. They
voluntarily proposed each to surrender an
equal proportion of his natural rights to
the mass in order to form society for the
general good. No man was required to
surrender any right in consequences Of his
color. No man would have done So
There was no warrant for it, except the
warrant of fOrce-which would. have been
wrong. 1t is admitted that all men enjoy
ed equal rights in the original formation Of
civil society. That civil distinctions, bas-
ed upon physical force, caste and color,
consequently existed, proves nothing but
the development and power of evil. They
were all the products Of cOmpulsiOn-
which all admit to be wrong. Human
slavery, and our American distinctions on
account Of color were the products of wrong.


The trainers of the Declaration expressly
recognized these truths, aud their object in
declaring our independence was to found
government based upon the immutable
principle of the civil equality of all men,
the right of every man the subject Of gov
ernment to particip pate in all its rights and
! benefits. Civil distinctions based upon
color existed then, but the Fathers boldly
declared them wrong. Ninety-One years
subsequent existence of that wrong has


only aggravated it, and the Republican
party has determined to destroy it, and es-


tablish right in its place.


| Social equality has nothing to do with the
subject. That is purely a matter of taste
of vOlitiOn. No white man need associate


with negro if it is disagreeable to him.
Every man may do so if it is mutually
agreeable to the respective parties. There
is no law against it, nor is there any law
that will compel MethOdists and Baptists
to associate. They can if they like, but
they need not ifit is disagreeable. Black
smiths need not associate with butchers
{
curriers', or shOemakers with labOrers.-
Only plain principle of right and justice
is involved. Have not men who are sub
ject to the most OnerOus duties of govern
ment-tO pay taxes and fight for tia right
to participate in its benefits? That is the
whole question. They who deny this right
are grossly arbitrary and tyrannical, and
if they had the power they would deny the
right Ofsufrage to the poor of all classes,
and restrict it to the rich and powerful ex-
clusively. That is the logic Of Copper
head doctrine, and there is no halfway
house in political logic.


The Union party sees nothing but the
right in this question, and it is pledged to
maintain it. 1t has to contend agafRst
mean and cowardly prejudice, but its
manhood, appealing to the virtue and in
tegrity Ofthe American people, is sure to
prevail Dayton Journal.