to the question so frequently put
to us, but a positive policy following established precedents, and, what
is more, purely American, as distinguished from a European or British,
policy and precedents.

I remain, etc.,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

_Hon. Carl Schurz,
16 E. 64th Street, New York City._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Obviously, men are not born equal in physical strength or in mental
capacity, in beauty of form or health of body. Diversity or inequality
in these respects is the law of creation. But this inequality is in no
particular inconsistent with complete civil or political equality.

"The equality declared by our fathers in 1776 and made the fundamental
law of Massachusetts in 1780, was _Equality before the Law_. Its object
was to efface all political or civil distinctions, and to abolish all
institutions founded upon _birth_. 'All men are _created_ equal,' says
the Declaration of Independence. 'All men are _born_ free and equal,'
says the Massachusetts Bill of Rights. These are not vain words. Within
the sphere of their influence, no person can be _created_, no person can
be _born_, with civil or political privileges not enjoyed equally by all
his fellow-citizens; nor can any institutions be established,
recognizing distinctions of birth. Here is the Great Charter of every
human being drawing vital breath upon this soil, whatever may be his
conditions, and whoever may be his parents. He may be poor, weak,
humble, or black,--he may be of Caucasian, Jewish, Indian, or Ethiopian
race,--he may be born of French, German, English, or Irish extraction;
but before the Constitution of Massachusetts all these distinctions
disappear. He is not poor, weak, humble, or black; nor is he Caucasian,
Jew, Indian, or Ethiopian; nor is he French, German, English, or Irish;
he is a MAN, the equal of all his fellow-men. He is one of the children
of the State, which, like an impartial parent, regards all its offspring
with an equal care. To some it may justly allot higher duties, according
to higher capacities; but it welcomes all to its equal hospitable board.
The State, imitating the divine Justice, is no respecter of
persons."--_Works of Charles Sumner, Vol. II., pp. 341-2_.

[2] Historically speaking, the assertion in the Declaration of
Independence has been fruitful of dispute. The very evening the present
paper was read at Lexington the Mayor of Boston, in a public address
elsewhere, alluded to the "imprudent generaliz