[SamAdams76]

Don't see how you could offend anybody with that. A great speech by a great man. Taken in the context of the times (1852) in which it was given, the speech rings true. Black Americans had little to celebrate on July 4, 1852. And the United States was already splitting apart over the issue. At that time, we were only two years away from the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise), which set events in motion that ultimately led to the Civil War of 1861-1865 - the bloodiest war in American history.

Today, slavery is a distant memory and racism is on its way to being one (if only the liberals would quit trying to keep it alive). Black Americans are at last on more or less equal footing with their white counterparts. While we can't go back in time and set things right with what was done with their ancestors, I would think that black Americans are for the most part thankful that their ancestors were brought over here to the United States instead of being left in Africa, which even today is a third-world cesspool for the most part.

[William McKinley]

which even today is a third-world cesspool for the most part

An abundance of dictators, tribal lords, and despots will do that to a region.

[TheDon]

"A great speech by a great man."

Agreed. His eloquence never ceases to amaze me. His was a man ahead of his time. I think he would find plenty to celebrate on July 4th, 2003.