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false assumption of the true province of law; an erroneous view of the source of governmental powers; and of the extent of each individual's obligations to the kingdom or state, in which he may happen to live.
Mistakes on these points are unpardonable in the prominent men of our country, because the truth on these points was seen so clearly, and declared so emphatically by the venerated fathers of our civil institutions. Those world renowned men, who, seventy six years ago, dared to renounce their allegiance to the British crown, and to establish new governments for their several states, and for the confederacy, did so in virtue of "the self-evident truths, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Men were not made that they may be the subjects of an oppressive political compact called a Republic, any more than they were made to be the creatures of a despot. Men were not made for governments, but governments were made for men.
I wish particularly to fix your attention upon the latter part of the above quotation from the Declaration of Independence. It declares the legitimate object, for which governments are instituted, to be to secure to all men their unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and that they derive their just powers to do this, from the consent of the governed.
In the light of this declaration then, all may see, and with its most weighty sanction we may confidently affirm, that all attempts to make a law, which violates these unalienable rights of men, must be virtually abortive; and all attempts to enforce such a law may be denounced as oppression, cruelty. If an individual king should do this, we should brand him a tyrant; and the character of the act is not any better because done by a majority. It matters not how large the majority may be in its favor, if the enactment be designed and adapted to deprive one man of his unalienable rights, the blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it cannot become a legitimate law, a law that should lay any binding obligation upon the consciences of good men. They would be guilty in the sight of God, if they should assist to enforce it, nay, if they do not endeavor to prevent its being enforced An op-
