The following appeared in Lehre und Wehre V. 20 (1874) p. 150.

The “Declaration of Independence”. Just now we have read the following judgment about the same, that is to say, about the expressed introductory principles therein, in a local political newspaper, proficiently edited by an unbeliever in his own way: “The statement of the Declaration of Independence, according to which ‘all men are created free and equal’ (as indeed the entire theory of the American Declaration of Independence), stems out of Rousseau’s so-called social contract theory, or actually out of the natural-right doctrine of the old Roman lawyers, and, in the vein of his usual outlook, is mindless nonsense. Men are not born in the state of freedom, but in the greatest helplessness and dependency; and from the beginning of their lives—whether we consider the individual or the race—we do not find equality, but inequality.” So writes Judge Stallo in Cincinnati. We see from this, even the light of bare reason leads to this knowledge, when one simply follows it, which unfortunately the idolaters of reason usually do least of all.

W[alther].