AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
All men are born equal12/7/2023 ![]() In the near future, the Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionally of the California prohibition against marriage equality. States can’t favor men over women, whites over blacks, or heterosexuals over gays. The equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment means that states must treat all their citizens equally. The next wave of freedom will extend the American Dream to gay and lesbian Americans. The wave of freedom started with blacks in 1868 then moved on to women through the 19th Amendment ratified in 1920. The 14th Amendment says, "Nor shall any state … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Jefferson’s ideals and Lincoln’s hopes were embodied in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which became effective in 1868. In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln echoed Jefferson’s words when he said "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." The agony of the Civil War advanced the cause of political equality. "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal." Those words did not free the slaves, but they started a movement toward equal rights for all Americans. The Fourth celebrates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence, which contains these words. Yet, its allure drove American colonists to take up arms against Britain in 1775, Russians to overthrow their Czar in 1917 and Venezuelans today to risk their lives fighting the regime of Nicolas Maduro.When you celebrated the Fourth of July yesterday, you recognized the right of gays and lesbians to get married like any other American. Therefore, while the Chinese emperor could demand absolute loyalty from his subjects as the “Son of Heaven,” an American president can only govern with the approval of those who elected him.Įquality as a concept rose from a world where the strong subjugate the weak. When two entities are as equals, all agreements between them must be made with mutual consent because neither have the right to demand something by claiming oneself inherently superior. ![]() Just because God made some men princes while others paupers does not change the fact that they all have the same dignity. Everyone being equal implies that no person - not even the a king atop his golden throne - had the right to tell a lowly peasant to obey him. Setting an example that slavery was becoming a thing of the past was all one could do.įurthermore, the Founding Fathers were not selfish, for “all men are created equal” was their gift to the world. restrictions on importing Africans and enslaving them in newly settled territories in North America. Worst still, slavery would have lasted for much longer had the South been an independent country unhindered by U.S. The United States would have fractured had the founders been too vocal about their views. Supporting emancipation would have prompted Southern states like Georgia and the Carolinas, which relied heavily on slave labor, to leave the union. So were Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin who both condemned slavery through civil society groups. Yet, he knew its truths all along when he freed his own slaves. George Washington never lived to read Jefferson’s letter in 1826. ![]() If man made slavery possible, man can also abandon it. Weightman, Thomas Jefferson wrote “the palpable truth (is) that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.” The idea that no one is born a slave suggests slavery must have been an artificial institution. The truth is far detached.įirst, the Founding Fathers were not hypocrites. It is almost as if the Founding Fathers crafting the phrase were selfish hypocrites who reserved equality only for men in their own likeness. British poet Samuel Johnson lamented its irony, writing in 1775 “we hear the loudest yelps for liberty coming from the drivers of” black individuals. People have been questioning the sincerity of the phrase “all men are created equal” ever since its debut in the U.S.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |