ure subject to the few who are born to rule, the
contradictory dogma that all men are by nature free and equal was
clearly enunciated. According to this later view, it is of the very
nature of spirit, or personality, to be free. All men are endowed with
personal qualities of will and choice and a conscious sense of right and
wrong. To subject these native faculties to an alien force is to make
war upon human nature. Slavery and despotism are, therefore, in their
nature but a species of warfare. They involve the forcing of men to act
in violation of their true selves. The older doctrine makes government
a matter of force. The strong command the weak, or the rich exercise
lordship over the poor. The new doctrine makes of government an
achievement of adult citizens who agree among themselves as to what
is fit and proper for the good of the State and who freely observe the
rules adopted and apply force only to the abnormal, the delinquent, and
the defective.

Between the upholders of these contradictory views of human nature
there always has been and there always must be perpetual warfare. Their
difference is such as to admit of no compromise; no middle ground is
possible. The conflict is indeed irresistible. The chief interest in
the American crusade against slavery arises from its relation to this
general world conflict between liberty and despotism.

The Athenians could be democrats and at the same time could uphold and
defend the institution of slavery. They were committed to the doctrine
that the masses of the people were slaves by nature. By definition,
they made slaves creatures void of will and personality, and they
conveniently ignored them in matters of state. But Americans living in
States founded in the era of the Declaration of Independence could not
be good democrats and at the same time uphold and defend the institution
of slavery, for the Declaration gives the lie to all such assumptions
of human inequality by accepting the cardinal axiom that all men are
created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights, among
which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The doctrine
of equality had been developed in Europe without special reference to
questions of distinct race or color. But the terms, which are universal
and as broad as humanity in their denotation, came to be applied to
black men as well as to white men. Massachusetts embodied in her state
constitution in 1780 the words, "All men a