That is to say, the right given of God to oppressed children
to seek protection in another family, or to set up for themselves somewhat
before _twenty-one_ or natural maturity; right belonging to them _in the
British family;_ right sanctioned of God; right blessed of God, in the
resistance of the colonies _as colonies_--not as individual men--to the
attempt of the mother-country to consummate her tyranny. But God gives no
sanction to the affirmation that he has _created all men equal_; that this
is _self-evident,_ and that he has given them _unalienable rights;_ that
he has made government to _derive its power solely from their consent_,
and that he has given them _the right to change that government in their
mere pleasure_. All this--every word of it, every jot and tittle--is the
liberty and equality claimed by infidelity. God has cursed it seven times
in France since 1793; and he will curse it there seventy times seven, if
Frenchmen prefer to be pestled so often in Solomon's mortar. He has cursed
it in Prussia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain. He will curse it as long as
time, whether it is affirmed by Jefferson, Paine, Robespierre, Ledru
Rollin, Kossuth, Greeley, Garrison, or Barnes.
Sir, that paragraph is an _excrescence_ on the tree of our liberty. I pray
you take it away. Worship it if you will, and in a manner imitate the
Druid.
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