Abraham Lincoln
"It appears extraordinary that Judge Douglas should make such a statement. He knows that, by the law, no one can vote who has not been registered; and he knows that the free State men place their refusal to vote on the ground that but few of them have been registered. It is possible this is not true, but Judge Douglas knows it is asserted to be true in letters, newspapers and public speeches, and borne by every mail, and blown by every breeze to the eyes and ears of the world. He knows it is boldly declared that the people of many whole counties, and many whole neighborhoods in others, are left unregistered; yet, he does not venture to contradict the declaration, nor to point out how they can vote without being registered; but he just slips along, not seeming to know there is any such question of fact, and complacently declares: "There is every reason to hope and believe that the law will be fairly and impartially executed, so as to insure to every bona fide inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the
elective franchise."
Lincoln reasoned that the Dred Scott decision had identified slaves as property. Since federal and state governments could not deprive a citizen of property without due process, the slavery question fell beyond the jurisdiction of all legislatures.The people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations established by the local legislature."
Monday, November 28, 2011
Civil Disobedience and the Fight for Inclusion
Frederick Douglass
"For seventeen years, Mr. Chairman, the Abolitionists of the United States have been encountering obloquy, scorn, and opposition of the most furious character, for uttering,—what? Their conviction that a man is a man,—that every man belongs to himself and to no one else. In propagating this idea, this simple proposition, we have met with all sorts of opposition, and with all sorts of arguments drawn from the Bible, from the Constitution, and from philosophy, till at length many have arrived at the sage conclusion that a man is something else than a man, and that he has not the rights of a man."
This part of Frederick Douglass's speech is addressing the fact that after so many years of fighting for freedom from slavery, his people are still labouring in bondage. The church is full of so called pious men that are corrupt and defends slavery by using the bible. They fellowship with slaveholders and call them christians. Douglass is concerned with showing the discrepancy between the fact that slaves are human beings and the fact that slave owners treat them as property. Douglass shows how slaves frequently are passed between owners, regardless of where the slaves’ families are. Slave owners value slaves only to the extent that they can perform productive labor; they often treat slaves like livestock, mere animals, without reason. Douglass pre-sents this treatment of humans as objects or animals as cruel and absurd.
"For seventeen years, Mr. Chairman, the Abolitionists of the United States have been encountering obloquy, scorn, and opposition of the most furious character, for uttering,—what? Their conviction that a man is a man,—that every man belongs to himself and to no one else. In propagating this idea, this simple proposition, we have met with all sorts of opposition, and with all sorts of arguments drawn from the Bible, from the Constitution, and from philosophy, till at length many have arrived at the sage conclusion that a man is something else than a man, and that he has not the rights of a man."
This part of Frederick Douglass's speech is addressing the fact that after so many years of fighting for freedom from slavery, his people are still labouring in bondage. The church is full of so called pious men that are corrupt and defends slavery by using the bible. They fellowship with slaveholders and call them christians. Douglass is concerned with showing the discrepancy between the fact that slaves are human beings and the fact that slave owners treat them as property. Douglass shows how slaves frequently are passed between owners, regardless of where the slaves’ families are. Slave owners value slaves only to the extent that they can perform productive labor; they often treat slaves like livestock, mere animals, without reason. Douglass pre-sents this treatment of humans as objects or animals as cruel and absurd.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
The Anti-Federalists
Richard Henry Lee's - Letters From The Federal Farmer
The essential parts of a free and good government are a full and equal representation of the people in the legislature, and the jury trial of the vicinage in the administration of justice--a full and equal representation, is that which possesses the same interests, feelings, opinions, and views the people themselves would were they all assembled--a fair representation, therefore, should be so regulated, that every order of men in the community, according to the common course of elections, can have a share in it--in order to allow professional men, merchants, traders, farmers, mechanics, &c. to bring a just proportion of their best informed men respectively into the legislature, the representation must be considerably numerous--We have about 200 state senators in the United States, and a less number than that of federal representatives cannot, clearly, be a full representation of this people, in the affairs of internal taxation and police, were there but one legislature for the whole union. The representation cannot be equal, or the situation of the people proper for one government only--if the extreme parts of the society cannot be represented as fully as the central--It is apparently impracticable that this should be the case in this extensive country--it would be impossible to collect a representation of the parts of the country five, six, and seven hundred miles from the seat of government.
The Antifederalists opposed the ratifying of the US Constitution. Richard Henry Lee worried that the Constitution lacked a bill of rightsalso, that it was a consolidated, rather than a federal, government and therefore opened the way to despotism, and that the lower house was not sufficiently democratic. He insisted upon amendments before adoption. They feared that it would create an tyranic central government. The Constitution's proponents promised that this would not happen. The Antifederalists warned that the cost Americans would bear in both liberty and resources for the government that would evolve under the Constitution would rise sharply. That is why their objections led to the Bill of Rights. They also objected to the very notion that a republican form of government can work well over such a vast territory. Also never in history had therebeen a court with such power and with so few checks upon it, giving the Supreme Court "immense powers" that were not only unprecedented, but perilous for a nation founded on the principle of consent of the governed.
I chose this writing because i believe that Richard Henry Lee and the rest of the Federalists had every reason to oppose the constution without a Bill of Rights. The immense benefits and protection afforded to all Americans because of the Anti-Federalist's foresight and determination in preserving liberty and human rights is durable and revelant today. Even with the constraints of the Bill of Rights, the government still has expansive federal powers to tax, spend and regulate.
The essential parts of a free and good government are a full and equal representation of the people in the legislature, and the jury trial of the vicinage in the administration of justice--a full and equal representation, is that which possesses the same interests, feelings, opinions, and views the people themselves would were they all assembled--a fair representation, therefore, should be so regulated, that every order of men in the community, according to the common course of elections, can have a share in it--in order to allow professional men, merchants, traders, farmers, mechanics, &c. to bring a just proportion of their best informed men respectively into the legislature, the representation must be considerably numerous--We have about 200 state senators in the United States, and a less number than that of federal representatives cannot, clearly, be a full representation of this people, in the affairs of internal taxation and police, were there but one legislature for the whole union. The representation cannot be equal, or the situation of the people proper for one government only--if the extreme parts of the society cannot be represented as fully as the central--It is apparently impracticable that this should be the case in this extensive country--it would be impossible to collect a representation of the parts of the country five, six, and seven hundred miles from the seat of government.
The Antifederalists opposed the ratifying of the US Constitution. Richard Henry Lee worried that the Constitution lacked a bill of rightsalso, that it was a consolidated, rather than a federal, government and therefore opened the way to despotism, and that the lower house was not sufficiently democratic. He insisted upon amendments before adoption. They feared that it would create an tyranic central government. The Constitution's proponents promised that this would not happen. The Antifederalists warned that the cost Americans would bear in both liberty and resources for the government that would evolve under the Constitution would rise sharply. That is why their objections led to the Bill of Rights. They also objected to the very notion that a republican form of government can work well over such a vast territory. Also never in history had therebeen a court with such power and with so few checks upon it, giving the Supreme Court "immense powers" that were not only unprecedented, but perilous for a nation founded on the principle of consent of the governed.
I chose this writing because i believe that Richard Henry Lee and the rest of the Federalists had every reason to oppose the constution without a Bill of Rights. The immense benefits and protection afforded to all Americans because of the Anti-Federalist's foresight and determination in preserving liberty and human rights is durable and revelant today. Even with the constraints of the Bill of Rights, the government still has expansive federal powers to tax, spend and regulate.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
The Federalists
James Madison - Federalist No. 10
It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency. The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties.
Like Hamilton, Madison was a strong proponent of federalism and played a central role in creating the U.S. constitution. The federalists were people that favored a strong central government, feared too much power in the hands of the masses, and strongly supported the U.S. Constitution. In federalist No. 9, Hamilton had written about the destructive role of factions in breaking apart the republic and now Madison continues by answering the question on how to eliminate the negative effects of faction. He defines factions as groups of people who gather together to protect and promote their special economic interests and political opinions but on the other hand infringe on the rights of other citizens and therefore works against the interests of the community.Madison states “The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man” so the cure is to control factions’ effects. He makes an argument on how this is not possible in a pure democracy but possible in a republic. With pure democracy he means a system in which every citizen votes directly for laws, and with republic he intends a society in which citizens vote for an elite of representatives who then vote for laws. He indicates that the voice of the people pronounced by a body of representatives is more conformable to the interest of the community, since again, common people’s decisions are affected by their self-interest.
James Madison was educated and brilliant. He believed that the Articles of Confederation was in adequate to protect the new republic from foreign attack or domestic turmoil. Although he believed that the people should be able to govern themselves in some way, at the same time if people govern themselves than governments have and will soon be reduced into dictatorships, like Hitler and Kim Jong-il.
It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency. The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties.
Like Hamilton, Madison was a strong proponent of federalism and played a central role in creating the U.S. constitution. The federalists were people that favored a strong central government, feared too much power in the hands of the masses, and strongly supported the U.S. Constitution. In federalist No. 9, Hamilton had written about the destructive role of factions in breaking apart the republic and now Madison continues by answering the question on how to eliminate the negative effects of faction. He defines factions as groups of people who gather together to protect and promote their special economic interests and political opinions but on the other hand infringe on the rights of other citizens and therefore works against the interests of the community.Madison states “The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man” so the cure is to control factions’ effects. He makes an argument on how this is not possible in a pure democracy but possible in a republic. With pure democracy he means a system in which every citizen votes directly for laws, and with republic he intends a society in which citizens vote for an elite of representatives who then vote for laws. He indicates that the voice of the people pronounced by a body of representatives is more conformable to the interest of the community, since again, common people’s decisions are affected by their self-interest.
James Madison was educated and brilliant. He believed that the Articles of Confederation was in adequate to protect the new republic from foreign attack or domestic turmoil. Although he believed that the people should be able to govern themselves in some way, at the same time if people govern themselves than governments have and will soon be reduced into dictatorships, like Hitler and Kim Jong-il.
Thomas paine
Common Sense - 1776
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an in tolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer! Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others."
Thomas Paine made great contributions towards American Independence. He revitalized the colonists natural desire for freedom and liberation. He hated England and what it stood for so he made a case to support Revolution. Paine believed that in society people needed other people to satisfy their wants and desires, that it is constructive and good when people come together to accomplish this, however, because of this very state of nature people basically do whatever they want and inequality starts to develop, therefore requiring a cohesive force; government. He said that gavernment is a necessary evil because it has its origns in the evil of man. Its purpose is to protect us from our own vices by being a kind of referee. Paine said that the government's purpose, as an instution, is to protect life, liberty and property and that it should be judged on the basis to which it accomplishes this. He also set out to prove that men and women deserve equal rights, that citizens should be granted the ability to choose their governors, that there is more to liberty than what was percieved. He promoted the logic that men were not made to be slaves, that children are undeserving of cruelty, that a government should exist for the people and not against the people.Paine showed throughout his life his lifelong dedication to the liberation of all who are oppressed. Even after the Revolution, when Paine returned to England, he proposed public education, opportunity for the poor, pensions for the aged, public works for the jobless, and other social reforms. He worked for reform, tolerance,acceptance, liberty of conscience and of body.
I chose this quote because I believe Thomas Paine was a true humanist. All his writings reflected this. At a time when inhumanity and mercilessness were on the rise, Thomas Paine stood up for what was naturally good and moral in man. I believe we need to practice his type of doctrine today because the world as it stands now faces tantamount humanitarian issues.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an in tolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer! Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others."
Thomas Paine made great contributions towards American Independence. He revitalized the colonists natural desire for freedom and liberation. He hated England and what it stood for so he made a case to support Revolution. Paine believed that in society people needed other people to satisfy their wants and desires, that it is constructive and good when people come together to accomplish this, however, because of this very state of nature people basically do whatever they want and inequality starts to develop, therefore requiring a cohesive force; government. He said that gavernment is a necessary evil because it has its origns in the evil of man. Its purpose is to protect us from our own vices by being a kind of referee. Paine said that the government's purpose, as an instution, is to protect life, liberty and property and that it should be judged on the basis to which it accomplishes this. He also set out to prove that men and women deserve equal rights, that citizens should be granted the ability to choose their governors, that there is more to liberty than what was percieved. He promoted the logic that men were not made to be slaves, that children are undeserving of cruelty, that a government should exist for the people and not against the people.Paine showed throughout his life his lifelong dedication to the liberation of all who are oppressed. Even after the Revolution, when Paine returned to England, he proposed public education, opportunity for the poor, pensions for the aged, public works for the jobless, and other social reforms. He worked for reform, tolerance,acceptance, liberty of conscience and of body.
I chose this quote because I believe Thomas Paine was a true humanist. All his writings reflected this. At a time when inhumanity and mercilessness were on the rise, Thomas Paine stood up for what was naturally good and moral in man. I believe we need to practice his type of doctrine today because the world as it stands now faces tantamount humanitarian issues.
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