Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Response

The following is a response I recently sent somebody who e-mailed me after reading my face book profile and questioning my views on the Founding Fathers


On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 5:22 PM, I **** **** Town wrote:
Hi, your Facebook page says you believe the same as the founding fathers. So you don't want women or non-white men to own property or vote?


If you truly believe that about the Founders, I'll give you some slack and fault your educators. Put down the talking points and please READ for yourself what the Founding Fathers wrote and said. It is easy to fall into the trap of "presentism" when critiquing the past. By the way, not all of the founding fathers believed that either. Most did NOT own slaves nor supported slavery. Many felt Native Americans were getting a raw deal too. I will grant you that at the time, most men felt that women shouldn't vote. However, after the Revolutionary War, and with Great Britain out of the way, many property rights were conferred to women and on certain occasions, wives of legislators were allowed to vote as proxy for their husbands who were too ill to attend legislative sessions. Also, many free blacks living in the Northern Colonies and even some in the South owned property and could vote. African-American Crispus Attucks was the first person killed in the Boston Massacre in 1770. It was a Black Militiaman (Prince Estabrook) who was the first to fall wounded on Lexington Green April, 19, 1775 in the first Battle of the American Revolution. I would challenge you to learn about Bishop Richard Allen of Philadelphia who is considered by many historians to be a Black Founding Father.


The Founding Fathers (who believed our liberties and freedoms came from God) GAVE us an amazing Declaration of Independence which declared ALL men (people) are created equal. This was an astounding statement at the time given that so few ANYWHERE on the planet believed this. It is BECAUSE of the groundwork of this statement by the founders that women were ultimately given the right to vote, and that slavery was abolished in this nation and that property rights were extended to all law abiding persons! The Founders also gave us The Constitution, and the form of government that we have; a Democratic Republic, with its three branches of government. It was the legislative branch which passed a Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery. It was the Legislative and the Supreme Court which proclaimed women the right to vote after years of struggle by women in the suffrage movement. Though it took many years, the system established BY OUR FOUNDERS worked.

It was to those words written by our Founding Fathers, that many oppressed in this country and around the world have pointed to in the assertion of their rights and liberties! In fact, it was Benjamin Franklin who exclaimed this separation from Great Britain was necessary since every attempt by many of the colonies to end slavery had been thwarted or reversed by the British Crown! Not to mention, the property rights of all Americans had been in many cases, trampled. Both Ben Franklin and Benjamin Rush founded an anti-slavery society in 1774. John Jay was president of a similar group in New York. Constitution signer William Livingston and later Governor of N. J. encouraged them in their efforts including allowances of full property rights and liberties. Rufus King (signer of the Constitution) authored a bill signed into law by then President George Washington, banning slavery in the "Ohio" frontier territories.


It was the Founding Fathers who started the Freedom Train down its glorious and sometimes bloody tracks. Yet, that freedom train still rolls. Had those few dozen or so brave men not met on that stormy eve of July 2, 1776 to plot sedition against their government (a crime punishable by death at the time) by declaring themselves free, and ultimately all of us free, you and I might not be having this conversation. We may still be saluting a King or some other Tyrant. Jesus Christ never directly spoke out against slavery either. Nor did he campaign for women's right to vote. Should I quit following Him??? I'll let the Founders respond to your question:


"Proclaim Liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof."-Leviticus 25:10 The above verse is inscribed on the Liberty Bell.
"Why keep alive the question of slavery? It is admitted by all to be a great evil."-Charles Caroll (signer of The Declaration of Independence)
"We recognize no sovereign but God, no King but Jesus."-John Adams &; John Hancock, April 18, 1775
"That men should pray and fight for their own freedom and yet keep others in slavery is certainly acting a very inconsistent as well as unjust and perhaps, impious part."-John Jay, President of Continental Congress.
"I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it [slavery]."-George Washington
"My opinion against it has always been known. Never in my life did I own a slave."-John Adams