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Show llG LIBERTY AND ST,AYER\". an equal right to liberty. But to concede, as Dr. Channing docs, that it were a curse to some men, and yet contend that all men have au equal right to its enjoyment, is sheer absurdity and nonsense. But Dr. Channing, as we have sc?n, sometimes speaks a better sense. Thus, he has even said, "It would be cruelty, not kindness, to the latter (to the slave) to give him a freedom which he is unprepared to understand or enjoy. It would he cruelty to strike the fetters from a man whose Jh-st steps would infallibly lead him to a precipice." So far, then, according to the author himself, are all men from having an "inalienable right" to liberty, that some men have no right to it at all. In like manner, Dr. Wayland, by his own admission, has overthrown all his most confident deductions from the notion of equal rights. He, too, quotes the Declaration of Independence, and adds, "That the equality here spoken of is not of the means of happiness, but in the right to use them as one wills, is too evident to need illustration." If this he the meaning, then the meaning is not so evidently true. On the contrary, the vaunted maxina in question, as understood hy Dr. Wayland, appears to ho ARGUMENTS OF ABOLITIOSISTS. 117 pure and unmLxed error. Power, for example, is one means of hap pi ness; and so great a means, too, that without it all other means would be of no avail. But has any man a right to usc this means of happiness as he wills? Most assuredly not. IIo has no right to use the power he may possess, nor any other means of happiness, as he will, but only as lawful authority has willed. If it be a power conferred by man, for example, such as that of a chief magistrate, or of a senator, or of a judge, he may use it no othenvisc than as the law of the land permits, or in pursuance of the objects for which it was conferred. In liko manner, if it proceed from tho Almighty, it may be used only in conformity with his law. So far, then, is it from being true that all men possess an equal right to use the means of happiness as they please, that no man ever has, or ever will, possess any snch right at all. And if such be the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, then the Declaration of Independence is too evidently erroneous to need any further refutation. Unless, indeed, man ruay put forth a declaration of independence which shall annul and destroy the immutable obligations of the moral law, and erect |