Page:Criticism on the Declaration of independence, as a literary document (IA criticismondecla00seld).pdf/30

 withal, that makes them self-evidently unalienable, a sane man would suppose, were about as secure as any thing could well be made on this side the grave. Who would want a human government, to secure, what in the same breath is alledged, a Divine one had secured, so as make the loss of it self-evidently impossible?

Had the writer of the Declaration believed his two first self-evident truths! he could not avoid knowing that there was no possible use for his third one. Rights, possessing the remarkable characteristics affirmed of these, must be objects as fixed as the sun. That luminary does not abide in its place, by any stronger security, than an "unalienable" endowment of its Creator. Consequently there is no more need of a human government to secure what is unalienable in us, than there to secure what is unalienable in the sun. The pyramid of Cheops is not endowed with an unalienable privilege of existence, so far as we know, and is therefore indefinitely more transitory than the rights spoken of; nevertheless I apprehend, three or even four self-evident flourishes of rhetoric, would not add enough to its stability to pay for the breath that uttered them. The earth likewise on which we stand, is not fixed in its sphere with the irremovability affirmed of these rights. It is therefore more liable to drop from beneath our feet, than our unalienable rights are, to slip from our possession. If that contingency should occur, and leave this amazing nation to get along as well as it could without it, the government would not probably find it out; for it appears that as yet it has never been able to discover what was "self-evident!!" A government instituted to secure the earth from dropping away from us, would not have a more laborious vocation, than one instituted to secure us in rights that could not possibly be taken away. In fine, a government instituted to secure us in a knowledge of what was self-evident; would have the same marvelous employment, as one instituted to secure us in rights that are unalienable.

The most astonishing thing about these passages of the Declaration is, that such an immense quantity of nonsense could be got into so small a compass. If a man could tell a thousand falsehoods at a breath, I confess, it would be some apology for lying, if there can be any. A similar apology must be made for the sentence under remark, if the case admits of one. The litter of