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subject; consequently we can have no knowledge, and of course, no belief. The author of this statement could have had no belief in its truth, because he possessed no knowledge in the premises, that is not common to us. There is no possible apology for his making it, but lunacy.
I cannot but think the friends of a greater extension of priviliges and franchises, do miss their aim, and squander their energy of argument, by quotations or settings-forth of the assertion, "all men are created equal." No man believes, or can believe it. It therefore possesses no force but to weaken the positions and arguments connected with it.
Because men, so far as we can draw any conclusion from facts, are created unequal; it by no means follows, that the abominations of slavery are of course to be justified, or the system itself to be tolerated. Whether those abominations arise from the system or from the cruel disposition of fallen man, is a question perhaps, yet to be settled. If the evils come from the system, there is hope of their cure, either by an amendation of the plan, or by its abrogation. But if they arise from the depraved nature of man, they will continue, irrespective of the "peculiar institution."
There is no remedy in that case, but a divine one. Men with cruel hearts, will find ways to wrong and abuse each other, system or no system.
It may not be amiss here to inquire, under what contingencies, equality can be predicated of man; and if possible, to find some shadow of apology for that startling paradox, which is under review. Can it be alledged on this behalf that all men are equally created to die? So are brutes. And if any thing is gained by our assent to that, it res to the advantage of the brute, and not to the author of the Declaration; for if that constituted equality, the brute might have been comprehended in the dispensation, and the self-evident truth would have stood then—"all men and brutes are created equal." But is it even so, that all men are created to die? All that have passed away from the land of the living, so far as our knowledge extends, except two, have died. But what reason, aside from that derived from analogy or revelation, is there to lead us to the belief, that all those now living were created to die? Some of the modern prophets, at least, have been looking
