Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/95

 CLAY purpose, as a model of fine composition of a State paper, challenging a comparison with any, the most celebrated, that ever issued from the pens of Jefferson or Madison. It is the doctrine of thrones that man is too ignorant to govern himself. Their partizans assert his incapacity, in reference to all nations ; if they can not command universal assent to the proposition, it is then demanded to particular nations ; and our pride and our presumption too often make converts of us. I contend, that it is to arraign the dispositions of Providence Him- self, to suppose that He has created beings in- capable of governing themselves, and to be trampled on by kings. Self-government is ihe natural government of man, and for proof I refer to the aborigines of our own land. Were I to speculate in hypotheses unfavorable to human liberty, my speculations should be found- ed rather upon the vices, refinements, or density of population. Crowded together in compact masses, even if they were philosophers, the con- tagion of the passions is communicated and caught, and the effect too often, I admit, is the overthrow of liberty. Dispersed over such an immense space as that on which the people of Spanish America are spread, their physical, and I believe, also, their moral condition, both favor their liberty. With regard to their superstition, they wor- ship the same God with us. Their prayers are offered up in their temples to the same Redeem- 85