of human liberty itself. His feeling and his judgment, therefore, ever
led him to oppose both extremes of opinion on the subject. Those who
would shiver into fragments the Union of these States, tear to tatters
its now venerated Constitution, and even burn the last copy of the Bible,
rather than slavery should continue a single hour, together with all
their more halting sympathizers, have received, and are receiving, their
just execration; and the name and opinions and influence of Mr. Clay are
fully and, as I trust, effectually and enduringly arrayed against them.
But I would also, if I could, array his name, opinions, and influence
against the opposite extreme--against a few but an increasing number of
men who, for the sake of perpetuating slavery, are beginning to assail
and to ridicule the white man's charter of freedom, the declaration that
"all men are created free and equal." So far as I have learned, the first
American of any note to do or attempt this was the late John C. Calhoun;
and if I mistake not, it soon after found its way into some of the
messages of the Governor of South Carolina. We, however, look for and are
not much shocked by political eccentricities and heresies in South
Carolina. But only last year I saw with astonishment what purported to be
a letter of a very distinguished and influential clergyman of Virginia,
copied, with apparent approbation, into a St. Louis newspaper, containing
the following to me very unsatisfactory language:

"I am fully aware that there is a text in some Bibles that is not in
mine. Professional abolitionists have made more use of it than of any
passage in the Bible. It came, however, as I trace it, from Saint
Voltaire, and was baptized by Thomas Jefferson, and since almost
universally regarded as canonical authority`All men are born free and
equal.'

"This is a genuine coin in the political currency of our generation. I am