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You began this exchange with the claim that our Founders “lacked the balls” or some such inanity, and rather than admit you didn’t have the first clue, you launch into some campaign using words that clearly demonstrate that they did not evade the issue at all, in fact knew it would lead to precisely that which occurred, war.

And yet, our nation was established and the best form of government ever created by man was born anyway. Nevermind, says you, they were hypocrites and had no balls, pledging their lives and fortunes and sacred honor, the hypocrites. According to you.

You disdain our Founders and our founding document. Don’t expect a round of applause. You might get a pat on the back or two in leftist quarters but not from me.

I’m done here. You should hang your head in shame, but you won’t.

Stupidity on your part, sheer stupidity, you standing in judgment of not just George Mason but all the Founders. All history and all the world should’ve turned on a dime after some single, particular flashpoint, according to you. It’s all symbolic, everybody “should’ve known” and hindsight makes perfect, according to you.

Sorry for not getting to this earlier, was on vacation and had no internet access.

Look, the very people you and I are discussing knew it was wrong, and that is why I criticize them over the issue of slavery. They created the greatest nation in the world and the greatest form of government, and they knew that this nation they were creating was going to have trouble over the issue. They said it was wrong - there is no hindsight involved, their words are clear and they talked about it being wrong time and time again. These were not unknown men - these were men like Patrick Henry, John Adams, George Washington, George Mason, even Thomas Jefferson. They had an amazing capacity to predict what would happen. George Mason, more than anybody else, said time and again that it was wrong, and that God would punish the United States over it. Just a few short generations later, one out of every 23 Americans lay dead, wounded, or ill on battlefields and in hospitals.

While Thomas Paine was discussing the Revolution when he said "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace", his words eerily applied to the issue, as they have applied to many other things that have come up in our nation's history. Even today, there are things happening that we fail to act upon, that we know are going to cause problems for our children or their children. All too often we push such issues off to the next generation because we find them inconvenient. It happens to the best and brightest.

If you want to respond, great, but I probably won't respond back, at least for a few weeks, as I took on a short contract that has me dealing with a 2-hour commute and I have very little time for FReep, so I'll let you have the last word. Mock me, call me an idiot, whatever you want.