The Founders were unrivaled in their ability to use language, yet you assume they couldn't insert the simple adjective needed to make their actual point clear.
This whole issue of what the DOI meant was NOT settled in men's minds in 1860. It was argued and fought over throughout the 1850s.
Lincoln in one of the Douglas debates expressed well my view on the issue. You and Stephens of course disagree.
"I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal — equal in "certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, or yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all, constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere.
It’s amazing the extent that Lost Cause Losers will go in order to apologize for the madness that was the confederacy.
“For your assertion to be true, we would have to assume that the Founders, while not perhaps hypocrites, were definitely either stupid or liars.”
Nonsense. We simply have to know that that was the truth of the times they lived in. You are obviously very ignorant about the beliefs of 17th and 18th century Europeans...and by extension, English colonials. You can look it up yourself, but here’s one example:
As the slave trade developed, Europeans created a racist ideology which could be used to justify the trade. Africans were thought to be sub-human, uncivilized, and inferior to Europeans in every way. And as they were ‘not one of us’, they could be bought and sold. The development of racism is linked to the slave trade. The slave trade could not have continued without this ideology to justify it. Racism cannot be ignored in any study of the slave trade.
Get it? Our founders lived in a culture that considered blacks to be subhuman. So, in their minds, saying that “all men are created equal” while sanctioning slavery in ALL 13 colonies/states, was not hypocritical. Nor were they stupid or liars. They simply did not believe blacks were “men” in the same way that white people were. If you cannot grasp this simple, well-documented truth there is no need for further discussion.
“The Founders were unrivaled in their ability to use language, yet you assume they couldn’t insert the simple adjective needed to make their actual point clear.”
I assume nothing of the sort. See above. You are simply unable to comprehend the fact that most people of that time did not consider blacks to be “men” in the same sense they considered themselves to be men. To them, adding “white” would have been both unnecessary and redundant.
“This whole issue of what the DOI meant was NOT settled in men’s minds in 1860. It was argued and fought over throughout the 1850s.”
More nonsense. There was no disputing what was in the DOI. The argument was over what was — or was not — in the Constitution.
“Lincoln in one of the Douglas debates expressed well my view on the issue. You and Stephens of course disagree.”
By this point you should understand that nothing you have said has been correct, including this statement.
Keep in mind that many of our Founding Fathers” (including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison) were slave owners. For me to accept your points we both would have to believe that they were either hypocrites, liars, or stupid (according to you), OR they were victims of the beliefs of their time, in this case, the belief that blacks were subhuman.
My explanation — is based on facts — makes perfect sense. Your arguments, based on nonsense, do not.
Come to think about it, it was fought over even more after the 1850s, in a quite literal sense during the 1860s, and then somewhat more figuratively for the next century.
It was only in the 1960s and later that America finally reached a consensus on what the DOI actually meant, which was the interpretation expressed most powerfully by Lincoln.
This was one of the few good things to come out of the 60s, IMO.