About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Sunday, July 2, 2017

July 4, 1776 - Before & After

Imagine the world on July 3, 1776 & the six thousand years of human history that came before – it was a world where slavery had been the norm since the beginning of civilization.  To become free, Black slaves needed the United States to exist – no other form of government, nation, or society had outlawed slavery or set Blacks free.  "The United States was the first moral society in history." – Ayn Rand
 
The following partial slave trade history, pre 7/4/1776, illustrates this point – source New Internationalist.
 
The ancient Greeks enslaved woman & children & simply slaughtered the more unruly men.  In 5th century BC there were more slaves than free citizens in Athens – the birthplace of democracy.
 
Slave trading was big business in the Roman Empire.  Roman emperors owned thousands of slaves who were worked to death mining gold & silver for the Empire.
 
In the early Middle Ages the Church condoned slavery – Christians, Muslims, & Jews all partook of slave trading.  In the 16th century Pope Paul III threatened those considering leaving the Catholic Church with enslavement.
 
The Portuguese & Spanish were the earliest transatlantic slave traders.  Virtually all the European colonists converged on West Africa trading liquor, tobacco, arms, & trinkets for live slave cargo.  The British were the prime slave dealers – bringing goods from England to exchange for African slaves whom they then sold to Portuguese & Spanish colonies in the New World.  This slave trade built Britain's fortune.
 
In summary, historical evidence is overwhelming that slavery had been a fact of life for millennia prior to July 4, 1776 including Black slave masters trading Black slaves.  All of the great men of history – e.g., Socrates, Plato, Cato, & Cincinnatus – had "lived amidst surroundings that relieved their consciences of the sense of this injustice.  Even Aristotle could not conceive the idea of a society existing without slavery." – Frederic Bastiat
 
But all of this entrenched slavery had a chance to end – a beginning, a start to being able to change with the signing of the Declaration Of Independence & the founding & of the United States Of America on July 4, 1776.
 
Free Negroes in five of the then thirteen states, to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, & North Carolina participated in the American Republic's democratic process from the beginning in that they were voters & in proportion to their numbers had the same part in making the Constitution that the white people had.  Source – Mark Levin, Men In Black, page 15.
 
During the Jefferson administration Congress prohibited the importation of slaves effective 1808 – but there was smuggling thereafter.  The process of obtaining freedom for all men continued with the Missouri Compromise of 1819 in which Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state but slavery was prohibited in all the western territories.  And of course the fighting of the Civil War resulted in the ratification of the thirteenth Amendment which banned slavery in the entire country.
 
Although Lincoln certainly wanted to preserve the Union, the Civil War was fought for more than just the secession of eleven slave-holding states from the Union.  Lincoln believed  that free men should not be free to choose slavery for others.  Lincoln knew that the United States Republic was the only noteworthy democracy in the world in the early 1860s & he believed that a significant portion of the young country could not abandon its founding principles & survive for long. 
 
All of our Founding Fathers & Lincoln were libertarians who focused on the definition of libertarianism & especially the second half of the definition in establishing a society based on  limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise: individuals have the right to control their own bodies, in action and speech, as long as they do not infringe on the same rights for others.  Lincoln used the second half of the libertarianism definition to reason that the only liberty the secessionists considered was their own with no regard for the violations to liberty they were inflicting on others.
 

Although the thirteenth Amendment banned slavery in the United States "racism is an evil, irrational & morally contemptible doctrine - but doctrines cannot be forbidden or prescribed by law.  Private racism is not a legal, but a moral issue - & can be fought only by private means, such as economic boycott or social ostracism." - Ayn Rand.

 

Judge for yourself how America is doing in this moral regard.  But to clearly see the sea change that took place on July 4, 1776 judge from the perspective that if there was no July 4, 1776, no Declaration Of Independence, no United States of America but rather thirteen British colonies whose residents were predominantly British subjects instead of future American citizens – there would still be unchecked slavery existing everywhere in the world as it had been since the beginning of civilization.

 

To me America is one of God's two great gifts to the world.

 

5 comments:

  1. Well written, well researched.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Doug- Thanks for outstanding perspective on US positive response to slavery, essentially the global leader, thanks at first to our Founding Fathers, then President Lincoln, followed by Civil Rights movement in 1960’s. Many times in world history progress takes time. I wish our Founding Fathers had the insight and courage to free all slaves in 1776. But the key point is that the US in 1776 was the greatest champion of individual liberties and remains so through the 1960’s.

    Nevertheless, many Hard core Leftists demean our Founding Fathers, call them Racists and greedy Capitalists. The Hard Left by their actions trash the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. Our Founding Fathers were greatly inspired by individual freedom-loving philosophers such as Locke, Montesquieu, Blackstone, Cicero. The Hard Left have been greatly inspired (since 1960’s) by Marx, Lenin, Mao, Alinksy. The Hard Left were in the past quite patient and persistent. From 1960’s they steadily progressed their agenda of Socialism and Globalism. The latter can simply be defined as a leveling of the global playing field per their perspective that the US never was and is not exceptional and has been a leader in causing world disorder. Hence, their perspective is that the US must be weakened economically and militarily. They detest Capitalism (deny its successes in creating opportunities for all). They bemoan individual freedoms, tout Socialism as the means to provide ‘freedom’ to all. But with that comes a growing Dependency on Government class that via Hard left propaganda, leaves many feeling they are victims of Capitalism and individual choices.

    The Hard Left progress accelerated via Obama. He did greatly transform the US into a near Socialist country and conceded much US power to the UN and rogue nations. However, the Hard Left prior patience is gone with Trump as president. The Hard Left is going bonkers because Trump can reverse majority pf Obama progress. Trump, a most successful Capitalist is blessed with an intense love for our nations traditions – “Pittsburg over Paris” and “make America great again”. Let us therefore increase our support of Trump and encourage him to accelerate his drive to reverse Socialism and Globalism in the US, especially when we honor our Independence Day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful - thank you Doug!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Doug and Carol
    Wishing both of you a very special and happy July 4.
    Both of you champion what our Founding Fathers envisioned for all of us - true individual freedoms that are God given not Gov given.
    Our Gov has lead us away from this goal since Reagan
    However, under Trump and grass roots patriots as yourselves we believe we will "return to excellence". May God continue to bless the US.

    ReplyDelete
  5. To fight racism, we need to craft a better " we " and ditch the " us " and " them ".

    ReplyDelete