Posted on 07/13/2004 8:03:30 AM PDT by Mike Bates
A recent column, for those of you so thoughtless as to have missed it, was about what it might have been like if some of today’s liberals were involved with drafting the Declaration of Independence.
I wrote that many of the Founding Fathers were geniuses who shared their talents in forming this, the greatest of all countries. I revere them.
This is not a universally held view. A local man reminded me of that with correspondence he sent:
"Just like the bullies that Republicans are. Take advantage of someone weaker than you and make it seem like you did something special. Well I am sooooo glad that my God says that the meek shall inhabit the earth and that the first shall be last . . ..
"The writers of the declaration of independence wanted to be on high but God will lay them low for the crimes against mankind and the Indians. The writers of that document were racist, sexist, elitist and mostly criminals. Sounds like the current day government. Hmmm.
"Not one single person died as a result of Clinton’s follies! How many kids have died as a result of Bush’s lies?"
Nice transition there from bashing the Founders to defending Clinton’s "follies." It’s not always follies, of course.
Sometimes it’s peccadilloes or foibles. Or indiscretions or frailties. Anything that focuses on sex rather than his more serious transgressions in office.
But I digress. The reader charges most of the Founders were criminals. No doubt they were in the eyes of the English king, but I’m unaware of anything beyond that.
The accusation that the Founders were racist is much more widespread. It’s practically an article of faith in many college history courses.
The Most Reverend Jesse Jackson spoke to it in a 2002 speech at Michigan State University: "Democracy as we know it did not begin in Philadelphia, where a bunch of white men wrote the laws. These men’s wives were not allowed (to vote), these laws were made at a time when only white men had the right to vote."
Here it’s obligatory to note that what the Founders intended to establish was a republic, positively not a democracy. They knew the difference, even if Mr. Jackson doesn’t.
Perhaps I should cut him some slack. We all know how deeply immersed he is in spiritual matters. Perhaps he hasn’t had the time to learn the distinction.
Were the Founders racist? Some of them owned slaves. Some of them at times defended slavery. That’s part of our history, one we can’t change.
At the same time, it’s worth noting how some of the Founders viewed slavery. Years before the Declaration, Benjamin Franklin denounced the "constant butchery of the human species by this pestilent detestable traffic in the bodies and souls of men."
John Adams called termed slavery a "foul contagion in the human character." Another signer of the Declaration, Benjamin Rush, helped start the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.
George Washington wrote about slavery: "There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it." Thomas Jefferson declared: "Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free."
Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration included a blistering indictment of England’s king for promoting the slave trade in the colonies. That portion was removed when Southern delegates objected.
We should keep in mind the world in which our Founding Fathers were born. Despotism, tyranny, the abuse of power and slavery were the rule. The concept that individuals held God-given rights had not been widely accepted in much of the world.
The Founders compromised. They deleted Jefferson’s language on slavery to win approval of the Declaration of Independence. Yet in winning agreement, they set the framework for the core philosophy of the Declaration to be more fully realized.
Alan Keyes has written: "Jefferson, and with him the leading lights of the Founding generation, had the decency to acknowledge what few in the course of human history before that era had ever acknowledged — that slavery was wrong. Speaking this truth was the first step toward changing the life of America — just as acknowledging the principles of justice is always the first step toward doing justice."
The Declaration if Independence wasn’t perfect. No creation of mere mortals will ever be. Still, the Declaration and the Constitution launched a system of government that ultimately ended slavery.
In the long run, the aspiration of human equality articulated in the Declaration was to a great extent achieved. Not bad for a bunch of purportedly racist, sexist, elitist and mostly criminal white men.
The late Larry MacDonald compared some liberals to a guy who walks up to you and claims he just saw a purple elephant. No matter how you may try to persuade him otherwise, it won't work because he's just too detached from reality to reason with. It's a waste of time, time that could be spent on persuading other, more cogent folks, of the truth of conservatism.
"Well I am sooooo glad that my God says that the meek shall inhabit the earth"
Yeah. He DID say that. But he didn't say anything about what the stupid would get, unfortunately for the letter writter.
I used to say they had $25 haircuts on top of 25 cent brains. I guess that needs revision to $400 haircuts on top of 25 cent brains.
Yes, many of them are meeting in Boston in a couple of weeks.
How many kids are going to wind up with gonnorhea of the throat because of Clinton's ....oh, well.
They were fallible. But they were brilliant. Who could match them today...?
"They were fallible. But they were brilliant. Who could match them today...?"
I think there are quite a few who could "match them". Then again, I'm an optimist living in the greatest country the world has ever witnessed.
Most of the founders, Jefferson in particular would not be a fit for either political party currently in power. He would be reviled by Republicans and Democrats alike.
You are so right. That yearning for personal freedom and a truly limited government would really get on the nerves of the two major big government nanny-state parties.
The personal and vitriolic attacks by big party lick spittles on this site provide lots of anecdotal evidence of that.
If people believe there is nothing worth dying for, then there's no argument you can have with them. Somehow the 3,000 people at the WTC have been forgotten.
One reason is so many people have developed an addiction to government checks without considering any alternatives. Look what happened to Barry Goldwater when he made a mild proposal about privatizing Social Security.
I'd be interested in seeing your list.
Apparently this genious is unfamiliar with the Clinton body count.
Spare us your Yankee elitism, Heyworth. You are playing right into their hands.
Simple, direct and to the point.
Individual liberty and personal responsibility is a concept sometimes mouthed, but never concidered in reality.
Only kooks believe in it.
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