he negro race, from their temperament and capacity,
are peculiarly suited to the situation which they occupy, and not less
happy in it than any corresponding class to be found in the world; prove
incontestably that no scheme of emancipation could be carried into
effect without the most intolerable mischiefs and calamities to both
master and slave, or without probably throwing a large and fertile
portion of the earth's surface out of the pale of civilization--and you
have done nothing. They reply, that whatever may be the consequence, you
are bound to do _right_; that man has a right to himself, and man cannot
have property in man; that if the negro race be naturally inferior in
mind and character, they are not less entitled to the rights of
humanity; that if they are happy in their condition, it affords but the
stronger evidence of their degradation, and renders them still more
objects of commiseration. They repeat, as the fundamental maxim of our
civil policy, that all men are born free and equal, and quote from our
Declaration of Independence, "that men are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable _rights_, among which are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness."

It is not the first time that I have had occasion to observe that men
may repeat with the utmost confidence, some maxim or sentimental phrase,
as self-evident or admitted truth, which is either palpably false, or to
which, upon examination, it will be found that they attach no definite
idea. Notwithstanding our respect for the important document which
declared our independence, yet if any thing be found in it, and
especially in what may be regarded rather as its ornament than its
substance--false, sophistical or unmeaning, that respect should not
screen it from the freest examination.

_All men are born free and equal._ Is it not palpably nearer the truth
to say that no man was ever born free, and that no two men were ever
born equal? Man is born in a state of the most helpless dependence on
others. He continues subject to the absolute control of others, and
remains without many of the civil and all of the political privileges of
his society, until the period which the laws have fixed as that at which
he is supposed to have attained the maturity of his faculties. Then
inequality is further developed, and becomes infinite in every society,
and under whatever form of government. Wealth and poverty, fame or
obscurity, strength or weakness, knowle