Posted on 07/06/2011 7:04:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
“There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it.”
- George Washington, letter to Robert Morris, April 12, 1786
“Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States. … I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in … abhorrence.”
- John Adams, letter to Robert Evans, June 8, 1819
“It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honour of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.”
- John Jay, letter to R. Lushington, March 15, 1786
“I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.”
- Patrick Henry, letter to Robert Pleasants, Jan. 18, 1773
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Here’s a quote from the acknowledged Father of the Constitution :
“American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives which produced interdiction in force against this criminal conduct will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of suppressing the evil.”
- James Madison, State of the Union, 1810
Thanks!
To be clear, Madison is here talking about the importation of slaves from Africa, not their continued enslavement here or the selling of slaves inside the USA.
GREAT reference to fight the leftist anti-Founding Fathers template that they approved slavery.
The practical headache was how to end slavery in a way that did not cause massive social upheaval and impoverish the plantation culture that was built on it. Thus the early leaders took steps to limit the damage - restricting the importation of further slaves, for example, so that more people would not be caught up in it. But they were hopeful slavery would die out on its own, as it had more peaceably in other settings back in Europe in previous centuries.
The tragedy here was that the abolitionist cause became frustrated with the lack of progress as the years passed and became radicalized, condemning slaveholders in strong moral terms. This led to understandable defensiveness among slaveholders who began to print rationalizations and arguments trying to justify slavery. Thus America went from a surprisingly broad concensus in the early years of the Republic to the bitter antagonism leading up to the Civil War.
It’s been common knowledge that slavery was a major discussion point when the founders were both arguing the words in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In both cases they had a hard enough time getting enough votes to approve either document, and if the banning of slavery was included in either, they would have never received enough votes for passage.
Over the Holiday weekend my family overloaded ourselves with History on TV – the 1970s musical 1776, the cartoon series Liberty Kids, and several programs produced by the History Channel and A&E, and ALL included the facts that many of the Founding Fathers fought to get slavery banned then and there, but were faced with the facts that that fight would come another day. Oh, and the Liberty Kids episode on Paul Revere’s ride included guess what? Ringing of bells and his internment by the British in which he warned them of what they were up against. Imagine that – a history cartoon series made long before we heard of Sarah Palin said the same thing as her.
If you get all your news from the MSM then you will be as ignorant of facts as they are.
If one colony held out for slavery, a dispute would have been the first thing that would have had to be sorted out after the vote. As it was, it was "kicked down the road" for resolution in the Civil War.
Are there any items today that are being "kicked down the road" for future resolution? The debt, abortion, homosexual marriage?
While that's true, it's often the case that one can't reach a desired goal in one leap. I think that preventing the importation of new slaves was a small, but necessary, step toward eliminating slavery in the US as a whole.
The British freed all the slaves who fought for or supported them during the American Revolution
There were many black Loyalists
The former slaves settled in Canada as free men and women...
Since the founding fathers had control over the new Constitution of the new country
Why did they not do the same at least ???
And as one of his first acts as President, Thomas Jefferson passed the Abolition of Slavery Act outlawing the importation of any future slaves. Yes it was not a complete ban of slavery but was an important step in that direction in the fight against slavery.
For the same reason that pro-gun legislators don't simply repeal 18 USC 922.
There were very wealthy and powerful interests backing slavery, and it cost hundreds of thousands of lives to go toe-to-toe with them less than a hundred years later. If they had gone toe-to-toe in 1787 instead, the United States would never have existed. Nearly half of the Constitutional Convention delegates owned slaves.
The story line in the musical “1776” had the SC delegation as being adamant about slavery. He tells of the hypocracy of the North in a song about the triangle trade - rum, molasses, to slaves. The trade was historically correct; I don’t know about the lead in the fight.
I believe it was both Georgia and South Carolina but the context of your story is correct.
It is important for the left to practice the politics of personal destruction with regard to the Founding Father’s. How many times are they referred to in any Constitutional discussion?
Everyone who has actually studied early American history knows that the slavery issue was a huge stumbling block with respect to evolving the 13 colonies to 13 United States of America. The anti-slavery Founding Father’s—some of whom actually had slaves of their own—agreed to postpone resolving the issue for another day to facilitate the creation of this country.
The fact is that the slavery issue was ultimately resolved Constitutionally. Do I think it took longer than I would have liked? You bet it did. But it was done and was only done, finally, by LBJ with Republican help. Of course those Republicans had not yet morphed into GOP RINO candidates now run by the Demrat Party. Oh, and let’s not forget Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. A Republican president, he was the first American president to bring the slavery issue front and center. He hoped the Civil War would result in the abolishment of slavery. For all practial purposes slavery was abolished. Unfortunately it took over one hundred years to finally snuff out Jim Crow.
The irony, of course, is that the people standing in the way of abolishing slavery and the separate, but equal nonsense were southern democrats. Now the Marxist demrat party wants to pretend it owns the highroad on this issue. The only reason they get away with it is reluctance of conservative candidates to challenge it.
To be sure, the abolishment of slavery did not abolish individual or group prejudice. Following the 1965(?) Civil Rights Act equal opportunity laws were adopted to protect minorities and women from job and housing discrimination. In general I had no problem with that—until quotas were established which, by definition, are blatantly racist. From there the Marxist democrats adopted the wonderful world of political correctness. Equal opportunity laws regulate things you do. PC is specifically aimed at regulating what you think. Under the guise of cleansing Americans of impure thoughts, it was and is meant to condition us for the American evolution into Marxism—or total control by the state.
Another irony—The South has matured. I recently moved to SC and can honestly say I feel at home here politically. In NJ, from whence I came, I felt was in an alien world. These folks are all about the Constitution and loving their country. What I really like is that they understand the Founding Father’s intended to limit the power of the Fed. Gov’t to those tasks that resulted in interstate relationships (commerce laws and money) and the security of the country from outside attack.
Anyone without an ideological bias can see the mischief done by the Fed. govt. Whether it be education, taxation, abortion or political correctness.
Actually, one of his last acts as President. 1807, and he took office in 1800.
To beleive that you must believe that he feels enslaving Africans is wrong, yet, keeping them and their offspring enslaved once here is acceptable. Don’t think so. He may not have been perfectly specific but he was talking about salvery as a whole.
To beleive that you must believe that he feels enslaving Africans is wrong, yet, keeping them and their offspring enslaved once here is acceptable. Don’t think so. He may not have been perfectly specific but he was talking about slavery as a whole.
He said the trade he referenced was in violation of our laws. Slavery in this country wasn’t, for another 50 years.
In fact, Madison himself owned over 100 slaves. Unlike Washington, he never freed any of them, not even in his will.
http://www.montpelier.org/explore/community/enslaved_faqs.php
So it appears that Madison, like Jefferson, talked a good game about the evils of slavery, but didn’t feel strongly enough about it to inconvenience himself financially.
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