History

George Fitzhugh on the Declaration of Independence Among proslavery theorists, none was more extreme that George Fitzhugh of Virginia. Other major proslavery advocates generally worked as politicians or college professors, but Fitzhugh made a living through writing, and he attracted an audience by taking extreme positions. Only Fitzhugh made the case that slavery was such a good social system that all poor people (whether black or white) should be enslaved. He either understood the logical implications of the proslavery argument when taken to its full implications, or he was a grandstanding crank. Either way, he did tend to clearly explain the issues at stake in the debate over slavery. In the passage here, Fitzhugh takes on the Declaration of Independence. Why did he think the idea of all men being equal was wrong? What were some of the other issues he had with the Declaration of Indpendence?

Fitzhugh, George. Sociology for the South: or, The Failure of Free Society. UNC Electronic Edition: 1998

[1854]. Web. < http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/fitzhughsoc/fitzhugh.html>.

CHAPTER XIX.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND VIRGINIA BILL OF RIGHTS.

An essay on the subject of slavery would be very imperfect, if it passed over without noticing these

instruments. The abstract principles which they enunciate, we candidly admit, are wholly at war with

slavery; we shall attempt to show that they are equally at war with all government, all subordination, all

order. Men's minds were heated and blinded when they were written, as well by patriotic zeal, as by a

false philosophy, which, beginning with Locke, in a refined materialism, had ripened on the Continent

into open infidelity. In England, the doctrine of prescriptive government, the divine right of kings, had

met with signal overthrow, and in France there was faith in nothing, speculation about everything. The

human mind became extremely presumptuous, and undertook to form governments on exact

philosophical principles, just as men make clocks, watches or mills. They confounded the moral with the

physical world, and this was not strange, because they had begun to doubt whether there was any other

than a physical world. Society seemed to

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them a thing whose movement and action could be controlled with as much certainty as the motion of a

spinning wheel, provided it was organized on proper principles. It would have been less presumptuous

in them to have attempted to have made a tree, for a tree is not half so complex as a society of human

beings, each of whom is fearfully and wonderfully compounded of soul and body, and whose aggregate,

society, is still more complex and difficult of comprehension than its individual members. Trees grow

and man may lop, trim, train and cultivate them, and thus hasten their growth, and improve their size,

beauty and fruitfulness. Laws, institutions, societies, and governments grow, and men may aid their

growth, improve their strength and beauty, and lop off their deformities and excrescences, by punishing

crime and rewarding virtue. When society has worked long enough, under the hand of God and nature,

man observing its operations, may discover its laws and constitution. The common law of England and

the constitution of England, were discoveries of this kind. Fortunately for us, we adopted, with little

change, that common law and that constitution. Our institutions and our ancestry were English. Those

institutions were the growth and accretions of many ages, not the work of legislating philosophers.

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The abstractions contained in the various instruments on which we professed, but professed falsely,

to found our governments, did no harm, because, until abolition arose, they remained a dead letter.

Now, and not till now, these abstractions have become matters of serious practical importance, and we

propose to give some of them a candid, but fearless examination. We find these words in the preamble

and Declaration of Independence,

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by

their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among them, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of

happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers

from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these

ends it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its

foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely

to effect their safety and happiness."

It is, we believe, conceded on all hands, that men are not born physically, morally or intellectually

equal, - some are males, some females, some from birth, large, strong and healthy, others weak, small

and sickly - some are naturally amiable,

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others prone to all kinds of wickednesses - some brave, others timid. Their natural inequalities beget

inequalities of rights. The weak in mind or body require guidance, support and protection; they must

obey and work for those who protect and guide them - they have a natural right to guardians,

committees, teachers or masters. Nature has made them slaves; all that law and government can do, is

to regulate, modify and mitigate their slavery. In the absence of legally instituted slavery, their condition

would be worse under that natural slavery of the weak to the strong, the foolish to the wise and

cunning. The wise and virtuous, the brave, the strong in mind and body, are by nature born to command

and protect, and law but follows nature in making them rulers, legislators, judges, captains, husbands,

guardians, committees and masters. The naturally depraved class, those born prone to crime, are our

brethren too; they are entitled to education, to religious instruction, to all the means and appliances

proper to correct their evil propensities, and all their failings; they have a right to be sent to the

penitentiary, - for there, if they do not reform, they cannot at least disturb society. Our feelings, and our

consciences teach us, that nothing but necessity can justify taking human life.

We are but stringing together truisms, which every body knows as well as ourselves, and yet

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if men are created unequal in all these respects; what truth or what meaning is there in the passage

under consideration? Men are not created or born equal, and circumstances, and education, and

association, tend to increase and aggravate inequalities among them, from generation to generation.

Generally, the rich associate and intermarry with each other, the poor do the same; the ignorant rarely

associate with or intermarry with the learned, and all society shuns contact with the criminal, even to

the third and fourth generations.

Men are not "born entitled to equal rights!" It would be far nearer the truth to say, "that some were

born with saddles on their backs, and others booted and spurred to ride them," - and the riding does

them good. They need the reins, the bit and the spur. No two men by nature are exactly equal or exactly

alike. No institutions can prevent the few from acquiring rule and ascendency over the many. Liberty

and free competition invite and encourage the attempt of the strong to master the weak; and insure

their success.

"Life and liberty" are not "inalienable;" they have been sold in all countries, and in all ages, and

must be sold so long as human nature lasts. It is an inexpedient and unwise, and often unmerciful

restraint, on a man's liberty of action, to

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deny him the right to sell himself when starving, and again to buy himself when fortune smiles. Most

countries of antiquity, and some, like China at the present day, allowed such sale and purchase. The

great object of government is to restrict, control and punish man "in the pursuit of happiness." All

crimes are committed in its pursuit. Under the free or competitive system, most men's happiness

consists in destroying the happiness of other people. This, then, is no inalienable right.

The author of the Declaration may have, and probably did mean, that all men were created with an

equal title to property. Carry out such a doctrine, and it would subvert every government on earth.

In practice, in all ages, and in all countries, men had sold their liberty either for short periods, for

life, or hereditarily; that is, both their own liberty and that of their children after them. The laws of all

countries have, in various forms and degrees, in all times recognized and regulated this right to alien or

sell liberty. The soldiers and sailors of the revolution had aliened both liberty and life, the wives in all

America had aliened their liberty, so had the apprentices and wards at the very moment this verbose,

newborn, false and unmeaning preamble was written.