Except for that itsy-bitsy detail that the vast majority of the white people of that time were saying that “all WHITE men are created equal.”
This point is well-established.
I hope you can see the considerable difference between the belief system of the late 1700s and that of today. For you to have a valid point, history would record that the majority of the white population of that time believed that black people were equal to white people, but simply chose to ignore it despite their beliefs. A silly notion to be sure, but that is the foundation of your argument. Bottom line is, if what you are trying argue was true, the founders — from both north and south — would have been hypocrites to the extreme.
The simple fact is, the vast majority of the people who founded this country did NOT believe that blacks were equal to whites. Period.
Well good thing then, that all the racists are liberals. :) We don’t need anymore of them messin stuff up for us.
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.