There are only two things, Squire, worth lookin'
at in a horse, action and soundness; for I never saw a critter that
had good action that was a bad beast. Old Clay puts me in mind of one
of our free and enlightened--"
"Excuse me," said I, "Mr. Slick, but really you appropriate that word
'free' to your countrymen, as if you thought no other people in the
world were entitled to it but yourselves."
"Neither be they," said he. "We first sot the example. Look at our
declaration of independence. It was writ by Jefferson, and he was the
first man of the age; perhaps the world never seed his ditto. It's a
beautiful piece of penmanship that, he gave the British the butt eend
of his mind there. I calculate you couldn't falt it in no particular,
it's generally allowed to be his cap shief. In the first page of it,
second section, and first varse, are these words: 'We hold this truth
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' I guess King
George turned his quid when he read that. It was somethin' to chaw
on, he hadn't been used to the flavour of, I reckon."
"Jefferson forgot to insert one little word," said I; "he should
have said, 'all white men;' for as it now stands, it is a practical
untruth, in a country which tolerates domestic slavery in its worst
and most forbidding form. It is a declaration of SHAME, and not of
INDEPENDENCE.
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