And yet this pretension is now the shibboleth of a great political party; this is its single inspiration; this is its only principle; this is all its stock in trade; this is its very “breath of life.” To this base use has Democracy come. In voting for Mr. Breckinridge, you declare, first, that man can have property in his fellow-man, and, secondly, that such property is recognized by the Constitution of the United States. The soul recoils from both. But even if the first be true,--which I utterly deny,--it does not follow that such property is sanctioned in the Constitution. * * * * * Last in order of alphabet is the Douglas party, whose single cry is “Popular Sovereignty”; last also in character,--for who can respect what we know to be a deceit? The statesman founds himself on principles; sometimes it is his office to frame expedients; but Popular Sovereignty, as now put forward, is not a principle,--oh, no! not even an expedient; it is nothing but a device, a pretext, an evasion, a dodge, a trick, in order to avoid the commanding question, whether Slavery shall be prohibited in the Territories. That is all. All hail to Popular Sovereignty in its true glory! This is the grand principle, first announced in the Declaration of Independence, which is destined to regenerate the world. It is embodied in those famous words, adopted by the Republican Convention at Chicago, that among the unalienable rights of all men are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and that “to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, _deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed_.” These are sacred words, full of life-giving energy. Not simply national independence was here proclaimed, but also the primal rights of all mankind. Then and there appeared the Angel of Human Liberation, speaking and acting at once with heaven-born strength,--breaking bolts, unloosing bonds, and opening prison-doors,--always ranging on its mighty errand, wherever there are any, no matter of what country or race, who struggle for rights denied,--now cheering Garibaldi at Naples, as it had cheered Washington in the snows of Valley Forge,--and especially visiting all who are down-trodden, whispering that there is none so poor as to be without rights which every man is bound to respect. “The affrighted gods confessed their awful lord; _They dropped the fetters_, trembled, and adored.”[170] None so degraded as to be beneath its beneficent reach, none so lofty as to be above its restraining power; while before it Despotism and Oligarchy fall on their faces, like the image of Dagon, and the people everywhere begin to govern themselves. Such is the Popular Sovereignty proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence.