In another thread, a brilliant Freeper wrote:
In terms of human bondage, it is my understanding the Confederates were fighting to preserve the Confederate constitution which permitted the peculiar institution.
And the federals were fighting to preserve the U. S. Constitution which permitted the peculiar institution.
Did you know both sides were fighting for constitutional governments that permitted human bondage?
What does your question have to do with my simple statement: “It’s wrong to enslave your fellow man”?
Right is right, and wrong is wrong, even if a man-created Constitution “permits” something.
The compromise with the southern slave-holders that permitted what you call that “peculiar institution” was the original sin of the founding generation, the most glaring flaw in a work that was otherwise brilliantly inspired and morally solid.
The evil fruit of that compromise should stand as a warning to all generations of the extreme danger of putting political expedience before principle.
That great Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, foresaw the destruction that would ultimately befall the country because of it too.
Jefferson:
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.”
Of course, the butcher’s bill had to be paid by their grandchildren. Which is very sad, in a free republic whose Constitution states as its ultimate purpose: “To secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves AND OUR POSTERITY.”