Affirmation of the United States Record on Slavery in the United States
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
Suggestion to: THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 19, 2007
No sponsor – a suggestion to Congress
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RESOLUTION
A resolution to condemn the Democrat Party of the United
States for their support, in the years preceding the
War of Secession, of continued slavery within the United States;
their support of the slave trade from the African nations;
their lack of resolve to relieve the African peoples from the suffering
caused by the slave trades, including the inhumane conditions aboard
the ships that transported the slaves to this Nation;
and to condemn the Democrat party for their many member’s opposition
to the Civil Rights Laws of 1964.
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the `Unveiling of Double Standards Resolution.’
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The House of Representatives finds the following:
1. Whereas Slavery was a legal institution within the United States
until the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862,
which specified that the slaves would be free people on the
first day of January, 1863;
2. Whereas the opposition to the Proclamation
consisted of the Democrat party and the Whig party;
3. Whereas the human suffering, including beatings, mutilation,
rape and torture legalized by the slave trade was well known
to citizens of the United States and their elected and appointed representatives;
4. Whereas the Republican party was founded upon the desire
to end slavery in the United States;
5. Whereas the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln,
the first Republican president, and not any of the previous
presidents who were members of the Democrat party;
6. Whereas many members of the Democrat party did not support the desire to end slavery;
7. Whereas the Democrat Party’s opposition to ending slavery
resulted in the continued suffering of many peoples, and
possible deaths of those who were enslaved.
8. Whereas 73% of the Congressmen who voted against the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 were members of the Democrat party;
SEC. 3. DECLARATION OF POLICY.
The House of Representatives--
(1) calls upon the schools of this nation to properly educate the students as to the true record of the Democrat Party in their opposition to end of slavery in the United States, and for all media sources (printed, broadcast, and electronic) to do the same.
xlnt! Dems, the original Turkey!
Correct me if I am wrong, but the importation of slaves into the United States after 1808 was prohibited by the Constitution and by subsequent legislation (source).
The modern Democrat Party claims descent from the Democratic-Republican Party, founded in the 1790s by Jefferson and Monroe. While they did support slavery, I am left unsure as to whether they explicitly opposed the continued importation of slaves after 1808.
However, the Democrats' support for the institution of slavery and racism is quite well documented, in addition to the Party's significant failures during the twentieth century with regards to their support for state-sponsored discrimination on the basis of race (see Jim Crow laws, opposition to civil rights legislation in the 1960s).
Not to mention the fact that Vietnam and Korea were wars furthered largely by Democrats (under former Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S. Truman, respectively)...or the part where FDR sold out all of Eastern Europe to the Soviets during World War II.