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Show 132 LIBERTY AND SJ.AVEllY. duties due to him. The plain truth is, that no human being possesses a right until the power or capacity on which the enjoyment of that right depends is suitably developed or acquired. The child, for instance, bas no right to think for himself, or to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, until his intellectual and moral powers m·e suitably developed. IIe is certainly not born with such rights. Nor has he any right to go where he pleases, or attempt to do so, until he has learned tc walk. Nor has he the right then, for, according to the laws of all civilized nations, he is subject to the control of the parent until he reaches the lawful age of freedom. The truth is; that all men are born not equally free and independent, but equally without freedom and without independence. "All men are born equal," says Montcsquieu; but he docs not say they "are born equally free and independent." The first proposition is. true: the last is diametrically opposed to the truth. Another Senator* seems to entertain the same passion for the principle of equality. In his speech on the Compromise Bill of 1850, he says * ~Ur. Seward, of Xcw York. ARGUMENTS OF ABOLITIONISTS. 133 that "a statesman or a founder of States" should adopt as an a.xiom the declaration, " 'fbat all men are created equal, and have inalienable rights of life, liberty, and choice of pill-suits of happiness." Let us suppose, then, that this distinguished statesman is himself about to establish a constitution for the people of Mississippi or Louisiana, iu which there are more blacks than whites. As they all have a natural and "inalienable right" to liberty, of course he would make them all free. But would he confer upon all, upon black ns well as upon white, the power of the elective franchise? Most certainly. For he has said, "We of New York arc guilty of slavery still by withholding the rigltt of suffrage from the race we have emancipated." Surely, if he bad to found a State himself, he would not thus be guilty of slavery-of the one odious thing which his soul abhors. All would then be invested with the right of suffrage. A black legislatme would be the consequence. The laws passed by such a body would, we fear, be no better than the constitution provided by the Senator-by the statcsman-ft·om New York. "All men are born equal," says Montesquiet:, but in the bands of such a thinker no danger 12 |