[Footnote A:  Pittsburgh pamphlet, p.12.]

What is the “general principle” to which, whatever may become of despotism with its “honest” admirers and “enlightened” supporters, human governments should be universally and carefully adjusted?  Clearly this—­that as capable of, man is entitled to, self-government.  And this is a specific form of a still more general principle, which may well be pronounced self-evident—­that every thing should be treated according to its nature.  The mind that can doubt of this, must be incapable of rational conviction.  Man, then,—­it is the dictate of reason, it is the voice of Jehovah—­must be treated as a man.  What is he?  What are his distinctive attributes?  The Creator impressed his own image on him.  In this were found the grand peculiarities of his character.  Here shone his glory.  Here REASON manifests its laws.  Here the WILL puts forth its volitions.  Here is the crown of IMMORTALITY.  Why such endowments?  Thus furnished—­the image of Jehovah—­is he not capable of self-government?  And is he not to be so treated? Within the sphere where the laws of reason place him, may he not act according to his choice—­carry out his own volitions?—­may he not enjoy life, exult in freedom and pursue as he will the path of blessedness?  If not, why was he so created and endowed?  Why the mysterious, awful attribute of will?  To be a source, profound as the depths of hell, of exquisite misery, of keen anguish, of insufferable torment!  Was man formed “according to the image of Jehovah,” to be crossed, thwarted, counteracted; to be forced in upon himself; to be the sport of endless contradictions; to be driven back and forth forever between mutually repellant forces; and all, all “at the discretion of another!"[A] How can men be treated according to his nature, as endowed with reason or will, if excluded from the powers and privileges of self government?—­if “despotism” be let loose upon him, to “deprive him of personal liberty, oblige him to serve at the discretion of another,” and with the power of “transferring” such “authority” over him and such claim upon him, to “another master?” If “thousands of enlightened and good men” can so easily be found, who are forward to support “despotism” as “of all governments the best and most acceptable to God,” we need not wonder at the testimony of universal history, that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”  Groans and travail-pangs must continue to be the order of the day throughout “the whole creation,” till the rod of despotism be broken, and man be treated as man—­as capable of, and entitled to, self-government.

[Footnote A:  Pittsburgh pamphlet, p.12]