Finding principles is America's history

"With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." – Declaration of Independence

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Hope. Can be kept indefinitely.


"Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the
eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States.... I have, throughout my
whole life, held the practice of slavery in... abhorrence."
                                                           ~ John Adams, letter to Evans, June 8, 1819

 


Founding Father John Adams was avidly against slavery, believed every man was created equal, and that applied to EVERYONE, not just white, but all ethnicity's, including black slaves. When the Second Continental Congress worked up the Declaration of Independence in the summer of 1776, Mr. Adams, along with some of his friends, wanted to put into the Declaration, and later in the Constitution, an article that abolished slavery. But because abolishing slavery would jeopardize the southern states inclusion in the creation of a union independent from Britain, the antislavery supporters conceded to the idea of slavery in order to keep the colonies united in their fight against England.


Mr. Adams maintained the hope that one day, all men would be free.  He instilled into his children his moral convictions concerning slavery.  Saving his hope until one day it would be the reality, probably knowing he would not see the end of slavery in his lifetime.

His son, John Quincy Adams, followed in his fathers foot steps, becoming involved in the early United States congress, and later became the 6th president.

"The conflict between the principle of liberty and the fact of slavery is coming gradually to an issue. Slavery has now the power, and falls into convulsions at the approach of freedom. That the fall of slavery is predetermined in the counsels of Omnipotence I cannot doubt; it is a part of the great moral improvement in the condition of man, attested by all the records of history. But the conflict will be terrible, and the progress of improvement perhaps retrograde before its final progress to consummation." 
                                                          ~ Journal of John Quincy Adams, 11 December 1838.

While still not abolishing slavery himself, he kept that hope alive in another person.  During his service to our country as president, a young congressman came under Mr. Quincy Adam's influential wing, and gleaned much knowledge and hope from the Founder's son.

That young congressman?

Abraham Lincoln. Who's known for abolishing slavery.

"I am naturally anti-slavery.  If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.
I cannot remember when I did not so think, and feel"

2 comments:

  1. I love this story ... it tells the world that our founders were not the bad-ass white guys who oppressed anyone who looked different. The economics of slavery were a southern issue ... a southern democrat issue and it's really time we moderns learned the real history of our nation. We do have reason to be proud and defend what used to be.

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  2. This history of slavery in this country is quite fascinating. The first person in America that owned a slave was black... the slave wasn't black, the owner was. This is a subject people really need to look up!

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