![]() The proposition to which I allude, has become an axiom in the minds of a vast majority on both sides of the Atlantic, and is repeated daily from tongue to tongue, as an established and incontrovertible truth it is, that "all men are born free and equal." I am not afraid to attack error, however deeply it may be intrenched, or however widely extended, whenever it becomes my duty to do so, as I believe it to be on this subject and occasion. If should possess a philosophical turn of mind, and be disposed to look to more remote and recondite causes, he will trace to a proposition which originated in a hypothetical truism, but which, as now expressed and now understood, is the most false and dangerous of all political errors. As you read his speech, consider the logic and proof he marshaled to disprove the common claim that "all men are born free and equal." How did his racial republicanism reflect larger changes in the national debate over slave and free labor? Calhoun went on to say that liberty is something to be earned. Unlike early republicans, Calhoun found these qualities not in rare selfless individuals or even independent propertied classes, but in the white race itself. Calhoun, South Carolina's leading proponent of slavery, asserted that that the Declaration of Independence was in error when it stated that "all men are created equal." Echoing classical republican themes, he argued that liberty was a prize that should be granted only to those sufficiently moral and worthy. Calhoun on the Error of "All men are created equal" (1848) ![]() But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.1 The Collision Of Cultures 2 Britain And Its Colonies 3 Colonial Ways Of Life 4 The Imperial Perspective 5 From Empire To IndependenceĦ The American Revolution 7 Shaping A Federal Union 8 The Federalist Era 9 The Early Republic 10 Nationalism And Sectionalism 11 The Jacksonian Impulse 12 The Dynamics Of Growth 13 An American Renaissance: Religion, Romanticism, And Reform 14 Manifest Destiny 15 The Old South 16 The Crisis Of Union 17 The War Of The Union 18 Reconstruction: North And South 19 New Frontiers: South And West 20 Big Business And Organized Labor 21 The Emergence Of Urban America 22 Gilded-age Politics And Agrarian Revolt 23 An American Empire 24 The Progressive Era 25 America And The Great War 26 The Modern Temper 27 Republican Resurgence And Decline 28 New Deal America 29 From Isolation To Global War 30 The Second World War 31 The Fair Deal And Containment 32 Through The Picture Window: Society And Culture, 1945–1960 33 Conflict And Deadlock: The Eisenhower Years 34 New Frontiers: Politics And Social Change In The 1960s 35 Rebellion And Reaction In The 1960s And 1970s 36 A Conservative Insurgency 37 Triumph And Tragedy: America At The Turn Of The Century Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
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