Oration on the Power and Value of National Liberty (p. 2).
There have been others who have imagined liberty to consist in an equality of property, and have looked upon those who were richer, or had greater possessions than themselves, as exceptions to, and violators of this their favourite system of liberty. Such an opinion as this can only arise from ignorance or want of reflection on the nature of man. A moment's consideration might, methinks, make its absurdity and even impossibility evident to every one. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that such an equal and universal distribution of property was made, how long would it continue so? Not a day! no, perhaps, not an hour! Some would be more indolent, some more extravagant, others more industrious, careful, or enterprising, than the rest, and the property of these would increase or diminish accordingly. If indeed, all men were equally strong, equally industrious, frugal, and ingenious, such a state of things might perhaps be possible; but as mankind now are, of such various inclinations, powers, and dispositions, disproportion of property is only a necessary consequence of this disproportion of abilities, and has been and will continue to be so till the end of time. No! gentlemen, true liberty consists, not in depriving any person of the advantages of superior talents and acquirements, or in robbing the industrious to support the idle and extravagant; but in securing to every man the fruits of his own honest diligence, or those which have descended to him from his forefathers. True genuine national liberty may, in a few words, be defined thus:—the full and unrestrained freedom of speaking and acting to promote our own happiness, in so far as we do not encroach on the like rights of another—the secure protection of person and property under good and equitable laws—the strict and impartial distribution of justice to all ranks and descriptions of persons—and the free exercise of opinion and religious worship. These constitute true liberty—these are the fountains from whence every blessing flows that renders human life desirable. Nor are they the gifts of man but the birthright of every human being, bestowed on him by his great Creator. Possessed of these, arts, science, agriculture, commerce, virtue, religion, and the whole resources of a nation flourish. Deprived of them the most gloomy ignorance, vice, barbarity, oppression, and bigotry, descend, in dismal darkness, and spread ruin and desolation over a wretched country.
To confirm and illustrate these truths, and to show liberty in all its native loveliness, we need only contrast it with the hideous picture of slavery, which the history of almost every region of this restless globe has exhibited to our melancholy contemplation.
The first and most ancient account we have of national slavery is recorded in the book of Exodus, where we are told that the children of Israel were made to serve, with rigour, as slaves to the Egyptians—that they were loaded beyond their strength—that their lives were made bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and that in order to prevent them from multiplying, and thereby becoming formidable to their oppressors, their male infants were most inhumanly ordered to be murdered as soon as born. It is added, that they cried because of their affliction, and their cries came up before God, (as the cries of the oppressed always will), who rescued them from slavery and overthrew their oppressors. In this account, there are two things particularly worthy of notice: how weak and contemptible were these Israelites while under the lash of tyranny! but no sooner were they encircled with freedom than they assumed a most formidable appearance, and not only became invulnerable to their enemies, but conquered almost wherever they went. Again, by attentively considering the history of this wonderful people, it would appear that the Supreme Being Himself considered national slavery as the deepest state of human wretchedness, by making it His usual and most awful punishment for their great national offences. Accordingly, we read that their whole country was ravaged by the Babylonians—their king carried in chains to Babylon, and themselves sold for bondmen and bondwomen, and whoever will take the trouble of reading the 5th chapter of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, or the 18th of Deuteronomy, from the 20th verse to the end, will there find such a detail of the miseries of slavery, as cannot fail of affecting every generous heart with horror and indignation.
Since that period what innumerable scenes of more aggravated cruelty have succeeded! What long and bloody tragedies of real woe have been acted upon the vast theatre of this world! What immense portions of this habitable globe have been laid waste, depopulated, and covered with ruins! What multitudes of the human race have been murdered, with every circumstance of cruelty, to satiate the ambition, revenge, or madness of tyranny! Even at this moment how many of our fellow-creatures in different quarters of the world, as virtuous, as brave, as deserving as we are, lie groaning in hopeless wretchedness, under the trampling feet of this monster, denied even the poor comfort of complaining. Yes, citizens, millions of your fellow beings are at this moment in actual want of bread—surrounded by all the horrors of famine, not the effect of unproductive seasons or bad crops, but the consequence of a long, bloody, and unjust war, begun and persisted in contrary to the will, and in spite of the wishes, tears, and prayers of the people.