"Have you any objections to that?" inquired Nat, after it was read.
"No," answered Charlie, "and I have never heard of any one who has. It is pretty good doctrine for such poor fellows as we are certainly."
"You are a Democrat so far, then," said Nat; "you want to have as good a chance as anybody, and so do I. I am for equal rights, and Jefferson would have the poor man have the same rights as a governor or president."
"So would the Federalists," replied Charlie. "John Adams wanted this as much as Jefferson."
"You mean that he said he did," answered Nat. "Jefferson thought that Mr. Adams's principles would lead to a limited monarchy, instead of a republic, where each man would enjoy his rights."
"I should like to know how that could be?" inquired Charlie. "What I have read in the Federalist shows that he was as much in favor of the Declaration of Independence as any one."
"But he wanted the president and his cabinet to have very great power, somewhat like monarchs, and Jefferson wanted the people to have the power. That was the reason that Jefferson's party called themselves Republicans."
"Yes; but do the Democrats now carry out the Declaration of Independence? Don't they uphold slavery at the present day?"
"Jefferson did not uphold it in the least, and a good many of his friends did not. If his life and writings tell the truth, some of the Federalists did uphold it, and some of them had slaves. So you can't make much out of that."
"All I want to make out of it," replied Charlie, "is just this—that the Democrats now do sustain slavery, and how is this believing the Declaration of Independence, that 'all men are created equal?'"