“It is said, that the people of the United States have an hereditary superiority of race over the Mexicans, which gives them the right to subjugate and keep in bondage an inferior nation…
Is it compatible with the principle of Democracy, which rejects every hereditary claim of individuals, to admit an hereditary superiority of races?...At this time the claim is but a pretext for covering and justifying usurpation and unbounded ambition…
Among ourselves, the most ignorant, the most inferior, either in physical or mental faculties, is recognized as having equal rights, and he has an equal vote with any one, however superior to him in all those respects. This is found on the immutable principle that no one is born with the right of governing another man.”
-- Albert Gallatin, Peace with Mexico, 1847
What is the author most likely arguing against in the above quote?
“It is said, that the people of the United States have an hereditary superiority of race over the Mexicans, which gives them the right to subjugate and keep in bondage an inferior nation…
Is it compatible with the principle of Democracy, which rejects every hereditary claim of individuals, to admit an hereditary superiority of races?...At this time the claim is but a pretext for covering and justifying usurpation and unbounded ambition…
Among ourselves, the most ignorant, the most inferior, either in physical or mental faculties, is recognized as having equal rights, and he has an equal vote with any one, however superior to him in all those respects. This is found on the immutable principle that no one is born with the right of governing another man.”
-- Albert Gallatin, Peace with Mexico, 1847
What is the author most likely arguing against in the above quote?
The Bill of Rights
Establishing a National Bank
Manifest Destiny
The Trail of Tears