To: SecularBull who wrote (120010 ) 12/29/2000 3:20:45 PM From: Johannes Pilch Read Replies (1) | Respond to Here is the one-two punch to your doubts about Jefferson. You’ve recently seen them, but here they are again, just for good measure.Message 15097099 Message 15097678 The prevailing ideas entertained by [Thomas Jefferson] and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically.This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time.... were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the [U.S.] government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew."exactly the opposite idea ; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural and normal condition . [Applause.] (Confederate Vice President, Alexander Stephens, Savannah; Georgia, March 21, 1861)The condition of slavery with us is, in a word, Mr. President, nothing but the form of civil government instituted for a class of people not fit to govern themselves. It is exactly what in every State exists in some form or other. It is just that kind of control which is extended in every northern State over its convicts, its lunatics, its minors, its apprentices. It is but a form of civil government for those who by their nature are not fit to govern themselves. We recognize the fact of the inferiority stamped upon that race of men by the Creator, and from the cradle to the grave, our Government, as a civil institution, marks that inferiority. (Jefferson Davis, in a speech before the U.S. Senate, February 29, 1860)exactly opposite those upon which America is founded, will almost naturally be revolting to real Americans.
