That
Declaration of Independence is to be construed by the circumstances and
purposes for which it was made. The communities were declaring their
independence; the people of those communities were asserting that no man
was born--to use the language of Mr. Jefferson--booted and spurred to
ride over the rest of mankind; that men were created equal--meaning the
men of the political community; that there was no divine right to rule;
that no man inherited the right to govern; that there were no classes by
which power and place descended to families, but that all stations were
equally within the grasp of each member of the body-politic. These were
the great principles they announced; these were the purposes for
which they made their declaration; these were the end to which their
enunciation was directed. They have no reference to the slave; else, how
happened it that among the items of arraignment made against George III.
was that he endeavored to do just what the North had been endeavoring
of late to do--to stir up insurrection among our slaves? Had the
Declaration announced that the negroes were free and equal, how was the
Prince to be arraigned for stirring up insurrection among them? And
how was this to be enumerated among the high crimes which caused the
colonies to sever their connection with the mother country? When our
Constitution was formed, the same idea was rendered more palpable, for
there we find provision made for that very class of persons as property;
they were not put upon the footing of equality with white men--not even
upon that of paupers and convicts; but, so far as representation was
concerned, were discriminated against as a lower caste, only to be
represented in the numerical proportion of three-fifths.
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