Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 18, 1913

Free and Equal

It is possible even for great men to be mistaken. At a meeting held under the auspices of the New York Association for the Blind, former President Taft gave an address in which he said that he often wondered what a blind man thought when he read that statement in the Declaration of Independence in which it is declared that “all men are created free and equal.” He continued:—

This isn’t true in the sense in which it is generally understood. We are not all equal in opportunity, nor in friends, nor in environment. What that clause meant was that under the new form of government, which the signers of the Declaration believed to be the best yet devised, every effort would be put forth to bring about a condition where everybody should be free and equal.

The fact is that it isn’t true at all, and neither is it true that the Declaration of Independence makes that statement. It says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal,” etc. What the Declaration of Independence teaches is that every normal human being that is born into this world has as much right to be in the world as any other human being, and an equal right to the privileges and opportunities which this world affords; that no individual has rights that are above those of any other individual; that before the law all men are equal. Some of the State constitutions do express the idea that “all men are created free and equal;” but the Declaration of Independence contains no such expression.