of Mr. "This may be. But they are not born as slaves: they Brief are under the power of their parents, to be nursed and Lincoln. nurtured and educated for their good. "And the black child is born as much a free child in this sense as if it were white. "In making out that negroes are the property of their masters, the counsel for the plaintiff speak of lineage, and contend that the children of slaves must be slaves in the same way that, because our first parents fell, we all fell with them. "But are not all mankind born in the same way? Are not their bodies clothed with the same kind of flesh? Was not the same breath of life breathed into all? We are under the same gospel dispensation, have one common Saviour, inhabit the same globe, die in the same manner; and though the white man may have his body wrapped in fine linen, and his attire may be a little more decorated, there all distinction of man's making ends. We all sleep on the same level in the dust. We shall all be raised by the sound of one common trump, calling unto all that are in their graves, without distinction, to arise; shall be arraigned at one common bar; shall have one common Judge, and be tried by one common jury, and condemned or acquitted by one common law, - by the gospel, the perfect law of liberty. "This cause will then be tried again, and your verdict will there be tried. Therefore, gentlemen of the jury, let me conjure you to give such a verdict now as will stand this test, and be approved by your own minds in the last moments of your existence, and by your Judge at the last day. "It will then be tried by the laws of reason and revelation. "Is it not a law of nature, that all men are equal and free? Brief Constitution of "Is not the law of nature the law of God? "If there is no law of man establishing it, there is no difficulty. If there is, then the great difficulty is to determine which law you ought to obey; and, if you shall have the same ideas as I have of present and future things, you will obey the former. "The worst that can happen to you for disobeying the former is the destruction of the body; for the last, that of your souls."— Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc., 1855-58, pp. 198-201. Other contemporary documents might be cited to show how such language as that used in the Declaration of Independence was interpreted by the legislative and legal action of the day. I will only give the first article in the Constitution of Vermont: "All men are born equally free and independent, and Vermont. have certain natural, inherent, and inalienable rights; among which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety: therefore no male person, born in this country or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law to serve any person as a servant, slave, or apprentice, after he arrives to the age of twentyone years; nor female, in like manner, after she arrives to the age of eighteen years; unless they are bound by their own consent after they arrive to such age, or bound by the law for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs, or the like." The Articles of Confederation- which constituted the Law of the Land from the time of their passage in 1778 to the adoption of the Federal Constitutionrecognized and granted to free negroes the same privileges of citizenship which belonged to white inhabitants. The fourth article is as follows: negroes "ART. 4. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual Free friendship and intercourse among the people of the differ- regarded as ent States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of citizens. these States paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted-shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States; and the people of each State shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof, respectively; provided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any State from any other State, of which the owner is an inhabitant; provided, also, that no imposition, duty, or restriction, shall be laid by any State on the property of the United States, or either of them."- Elliot's Debates, vol. i. p. 79. It was not by accident or oversight that negroes were included in the phrase "free inhabitants"; for, when this article was under consideration, the delegates from South Carolina moved to amend, by inserting between the words "free" and "inhabitants" the word "white." The proposed amendment was lost; only two States voting in the affirmative. In the ninth article, the word "white" was retained. The State of New Jersey, although a slaveholding State, objected to this, and made a representation to Congress on the subject; an extract from which is pertinent here: New Jersey objects to the omis sion of negroes. "The ninth article also provides that the requisition for the land forces, to be furnished by the several States, shall be proportioned to the number of white inhabitants in each. In the act of Independence, we find the following declaration: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endued by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Of this doctrine it is not a very remote consequence, that all the inhabitants of every society, be the color of their complexion what it may, are bound to promote the interest thereof, according to their respective abilities. They ought, therefore, to be brought into the account, on this occasion. But admitting necessity or expediency to justify the refusal of liberty, in certain circumstances, to persons of a particular color, we think it unequal to reckon upon such in this case. Should it be improper, for special local reasons, to admit them in arms for the defence of the nation, yet we conceive the proportion of forces to be embodied ought to be fixed according to the whole number of inhabitants in the State, from whatever class they may be raised. If the whole number of inhabitants in a State, whose inhabitants are all whites, both those who are called into the field and those who remain to till the ground and labor in mechanical arts and otherwise, are reckoned in the estimate for striking the proportion of forces to be furnished by that State, ought even a part of the latter description to be left out in another? As it is of indispensable necessity, in every war, that a part of the inhabitants be employed for the uses of husbandry and otherwise at home, while others are called into the field, there must be the same propriety that owners of a different color, who are employed for this purpose in one State, while whites are employed for the same purpose in another, be reckoned in the account of the inhabitants in the present instance."- Elliot's Debates, vol. i. of the Founders public. The opinions of the founders of the Republic re- Opinions specting the slavery and the citizenship of negroes, of the Reas expressed in some of the most important of their public acts, from the commencement to the close of their struggle for National Independence, and during the period of the Confederation, may be gathered from the documents already cited. They had proclaimed to the world the Universal Magna Charta which the Creator and Governor of men had granted to his subjects. This charter of natural and unalienable rights had been timidly read and faintly spoken, by now and then a friend of liberty, in earlier times. Our patriot Fathers were the first boldly to publish it to "mankind"; to adopt these "self-evident truths" as their National Creed; and, "appealing to the Supreme Judge of the universe for the rectitude of their intentions," to announce their solemn purpose of establishing a Government, with these principles for its chief corner-stone. With such principles and motives to stimulate their patriotism and nerve their courage, they could not fail. The mighty power of the mother-country was impotent when wielded against the cause of Liberty. The Independence of the United States was acknowledged by Great Britain, and we took our place among the nations of the earth. The Articles of Confederation served their purpose during the war, but were found inadequate to the growing wants of the Government. A Convention was accordingly called, to meet in Philadelphia on |