[Huck]

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness;...

They weren't self-evident to George Washington when he was busy buying and lording over his slaves. He didn't give it a second thought until some of his wiser buddies started educating him a little bit. He came around by the time he died, and freed his slaves in his will, after he didn't need them anymore.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Your display of absolute ignorance about the man and the times is sick making.

Go read a book.

[Jacquerie]

Yours is the typrical Leftist non-argument. The US had slavery, therefore the US is bad, get rid of the US.

[Oceander]

They weren't self-evident to George Washington when he was busy buying and lording over his slaves. He didn't give it a second thought until some of his wiser buddies started educating him a little bit. He came around by the time he died, and freed his slaves in his will, after he didn't need them anymore.

They were self-evident; Geo. Washington was merely (a) a man of his times and a sinner in need of redemption, just like the rest of us (yourself most especially included), and (b) in error because slaves weren't "men" in the sense the term was used in that phrase (again, because he was a sinner in need of redemption).

Nothing you've said in the least denigrates that phrase nor the fact that we should live up to it.

But, to address your implicit Alinskyism - the equality spoken of here is equality of spirit, of freedom to do, and most definitely not equality of material conditions or equality of result, so the fact that there are still rich people and poor people in this country does not demean either that phrase or this country one iota.

[Jacquerie]

Your alter ego, Patrick Henry opposed the Constitution in large part because he felt it presented a threat to southern “property.”

[Flag_This]

"They weren't self-evident to George Washington when he was busy buying and lording over his slaves."

Why are you complaining about Washington, not Jefferson - since Jefferson wrote the Declaration and owned slaves until he died?

[traditional1]

"Self-evident"

In my estimation, I always thought it meant it was obvious to anyone with a calibrated moral compass and some common sense, that the "truths" were a simple judgement of knowing right vs. wrong. It's not rocket science, political correctness, or word-parsing propoganda that is self-evident; it's common sense.

[newfreep]

Why do liberals and their mindless ilk never mention the black Africans who made a fortune selling their brothers?

[denydenydeny]

So what exactly is your point? To remind us that Washington owned slaves? NS, Sherlock. WE KNOW. Because of the culture’s obsession with this detail, the average young person today is far more likely to know that GW owned slaves than to know what Saratoga or Valley Forge or the Farewell Address were.

[Gator113]

You have given me a migraine with your rubbish. Might you now move the conversation into one of reparations? It seems like the logical progression of your apparent thought process on all of this.

As for me, I will go back to exercising my Liberty and Freedom in celebrating OUR independence and remembering those that bothered to form it, fight and die for it and even today—protect it.

YOU, of course, are FREE to insult the memory of our brave Founders. While I find it disgusting, that is certainly your right.

Had these brave men, including President Washington, not bothered to get together to begin what would become our Free Country, there might have been a slave or two out mowing my lawns right now, instead of my wife. hmmm

[Repeal The 17th]

“...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...”
-
“WE” meant the signatories of the document.
“ALL MEN” did not include American Indians, indentured servants, women, or slaves.

[narses]

I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species...and to disperse the families I have an aversion.

George Washington, letter to Robert Lewis, August 18, 1799

[narses]

[Y]our late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view to emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit would diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country; but I despair of seeing it.

George Washington, letter to Marquis de Lafayette, May 10, 1786

[dsc]

I like fishing and W.C. Fields, too.

However, you have an insufficient understanding of slavery and the mentality of slaveholders.

As Samuel Clemens wrote, “To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man’s character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours.”

[mo]

i think there is a pretty good argument to be made in that the self-evidence of these truths led to the death of an institution(slavery) thousands of years old, in less than one hundred years after these men put pen to paper and backed it up with the force of arms.

You need an ano-optic neurectomy.