Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]
[graphic]

Sidney G. not wan

"LIBERTY."

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the just consent of the governed, &c. [See the whole declaration, signed by the delegates of all the original states, and adopted as the basis of all the State Constitutions.]

THE UNITED STATES' CONSTITUTION.

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. [In what possible manner does the most absolute slavery of, and the systematic and perpetuated traffic in, the blood, brains, and nerves of two and a quarter millions of human beings, assist; and in what possible manner does it not destroy each and all of these great objects? Among the following provisions of the Constitution, are all which the framers of it dared to insert for the security of slave property. If they had not felt guilty in holding such property, they would not have left so many hundreds of millions of it with no better security in the Constitution, and so perfectly exposed, as will appear from the instrument itself, and from all the State Constitutions, to the tremendous energy of FREE SPEECH and a FREE PRESS.]

ART. I. Sec. 2. Third clause. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons.

« PreviousContinue »