ations of our
forefathers," referring, doubtless, to what Rufus Choate, forty-two
years before, described as "the glittering and sounding generalities of
natural right" to be found in the Declaration, "that passionate and
eloquent manifesto." Mr. Calhoun declared (1848) that the claim of human
equality set forth in the Declaration was "the most false and dangerous
of all political errors," which, after resting a long time "dormant,"
had, in the process of time, begun "to germinate and produce its
poisonous fruits." Mr. Pettit, a Senator from Indiana, pronounced it in
1854, "a self-evident lie." In the famous Lincoln-Douglas debate in
Illinois (1860) the question reappeared, Mr. Douglas contending that the
Declaration applied only to "the white people of the United States;"
while Mr. Lincoln, in reply, asserted that "the entire records of the
world, from the date of the Declaration of Independence up to within
three years ago, may be searched in vain for one single affirmation,
from one single man, that the negro was not included in the
Declaration." The contention of Mr. Douglas had recently again made its
appearance in the press as something too indisputable to admit of
discussion. It is asserted that, in penning the Declaration, Mr.
Jefferson could not possibly have intended to include those then
actually held as slaves. On this point Mr. Jefferson himself should, it
would seem, be accepted as a competent witness. Referring to the denial
of his "inalienable rights" to the African, he declared at a later day,
"I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just." What he
meant will, however, probably continue matter for confident newspaper
assertions just so long as anybody in this country wants to make out, as
did Stephen A. Douglas in 1860, a plausible pretext for subjugating
somebody else,--Indian, African, or Asiatic. As Mr. Lincoln expressed
it, "The assertion that all men are created equal was of no practical
use in effecting our separation from Great Britain, and it was placed in
the Declaration, not for that but for future use. Its author meant it to
be, as, thank God, it is now proving itself, a stumbling block to all
those who, in after times, might seek to turn a free people back into
the paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed
tyrants, and they meant, when such should reappear in this fair land,
and commence their vocation, they should find left for them at least one
hard nut