Historical Quote of the day May 12th, 2023
Something a little unusual but necessary for understanding the true founding of this nation.
Debate over slavery in the Second Continental Congress was very contentious those who on Declaration committee, particularly Thomas Jefferson advocated for the end of slavery in the new nation as indicated by the passage quoted here. It was the southern colonies, protecting their ‘peculiar institution’ that insisted the passage be stricken.
The end of slavery was again discussed at the Constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787, it was then decided that the practice would be tapered down over time. It was only the continued delay of that tapered ending through compromise and court orders that led to the eventual end via civil war.
When people say that we are a country founded on slavery, they prove their lack of knowledge of history. A simple reading of this deleted paragraph from the original draft of the Declaration of Independence demonstrates that.
The United States was still among the first nations on earth to outlaw slavery and the only nation to have fought a civil war to end the practice.
The Second Continental Congress had decided that any vote for independence needed to be unanimous, lest a split decision separate brother from brother between the colonies. North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia had walked out of the vote on the Declaration and independence itself over the issue of slavery… the south (those three colonies) voted as one on most issues… based on letters and notes between the delegates and their families the following is an approximation of what transpired…
Edward Rutledge:
Remove the offending passage from your Declaration.
John Adams:
If we did that, we would be guilty of what we ourselves are rebelling against.
Edward Rutledge:
Nevertheless... remove it, or South Carolina will bury, now and forever, your dream of independence.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin:
John? I beg you consider what you're doing.
John Adams:
Mark me, Franklin... if we give in on this issue, posterity will never forgive us.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin:
That's probably true, but we won't hear a thing, we'll be long gone. Besides, what would posterity think we were? Demi-gods? We're men, no more no less, trying to get a nation started against greater odds than a more generous God would have allowed. First things first, John. Independence; America. If we don't secure that, what difference will the rest make?
John Adams:
[long pause] Jefferson, say something.
Thomas Jefferson:
What else is there to do?
John Adams:
Well, man, you're the one that wrote it.
Thomas Jefferson:
I *wrote* ALL of it, Mr. Adams. [stands and goes to the Declaration, crosses out the clause]
John Adams:
[snatches the paper from Jefferson and takes it to Rutledge] There you are, Rutlege, you have your slavery; little good may it do you, now VOTE, damn you!
(taken from a dramatization of letters and private notes that was formed into the stage production of “1776”)
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Excellent. History is knowledge.