MacTheKnife
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- Jul 20, 2018
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with the phrase--'All men are created equal' ? Now Jefferson was a very intelligent man and knew full well that no two men(not even brothers) are equal in all respects aka intelligence, inborn talents, character etc. as many if not most democrats, liberals/progressives often claim.
Unfortunately it is not only liberals who have a gross mis-understanding regarding what Jefferson meat....even many Republicans --mostly politically correct republicans who have no real grasp of what Jefferson really meant...........not to mention untold generations of public school graduates who were misled by incompetent public school teachers and of course are still being misled.
Thus let us pause and consider what Jefferson really meant.
The meaning of Thomas Jefferson's phrase “all men are created equal”
'The Declaration of Independence, which contains the oft-repeated phrase "…that all men are created equal…" was written by Thomas Jefferson, who owned about 200 slaves at the time and never set any of them free, even upon his death. Jefferson's words certainly had no reference to black people, of whom the majority at that time had no place in American society except as property and most did not even consider them fully human.
For Americans, equality is a word that has been expanded in its definition since the founding of the country. For Jefferson and many of our Founding Fathers, the phrase "…that all men are created equal…" really meant that "all free, property-owning males are created equal". Questioned Frederick Douglass in his Rochester speech: "Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?" (Lowance 41) Fortunately for Douglass (and all races and both sexes), the United States has moved to achieve full legal equality. (Patterson 132)
Equality is hard to define because its meaning keeps changing. Jefferson's restrictive definition, that "people are of equal moral worth, and as such deserve equal treatment under the law", made distinctions for free men vs. slaves, men vs. women, property owners vs. debtors, et cetera (Patterson 132). On the one hand, most Americans' notion of legal equality makes no such distinctions. De facto equality, on the other hand, is, as Martin Luther King, Jr. has said, still a "dream".
The written law does not look at one's race but at the crime committed; the sentencing should not be dependent on the race of the convict. Even though Thomas Jefferson owned slaves to his death, I believe this is what Jefferson meant when he said "all men are created equal" — that Americans are entitled to equal justice under the law (Patterson 10).
Equality is not something that a government can grant or deny a body of citizens; for this right is unalienable. Our Bill of Rights can be more accurately thought of as a list of restrictions (placed on government) that secures a citizen's civil liberties. Exclaimed King in 1961: "[Our Declaration of Independence] says that each individual has certain basic rights, which are neither conferred by nor derived from the state. To discover where they came from it is necessary to move back behind the dim mist of eternity, for they are God-given." (Noyes "Historical Speeches")
The United States government's intervention has helped to establish legal equality, but not necessarily de facto equality. (Patterson 132) In the past sixty years it has moved to eradicate racial and sexual discrimination. In fact, "Americans have attained substantial equality under the law"; legal discrimination is now almost nonexistent (Patterson 132). In this way, our elected and appointed officials have promoted legal equality by passing anti-discrimination laws and by declaring segregation unconstitutional. Furthermore, the US government is already promoting de facto equality with the graduated tax code, economic welfare and entitlement programs, affirmative action, et cetera. The government should by all means promote legal equality — as it has — but its responsibility should extend "no further than the removal of legal barriers to equality." (Patterson 153) De facto equality will be a reality when people cease to be prejudicial. This is not something Congress can fix by passing a law.'
The meaning of Thomas Jefferson's "all men are created equal" – Matt Brundage
In the book Jefferson wrote titled...."Notes on the Sate of Virginia" Jefferson says: In a well known phrase: 'I tremble for my country when reflect that God is just'...in reference to his view on slavery as an institution.....but he goes on and says something that is not so well known..........Continuing....Jefferson offered his personal opinion on blacks as being a 'suspicion only--'that blacks were inferior to whites in both mind and body. 'Their inferiority' he wrote is not the effect merely of their condition of life....it is not their condition...but nature, which has produced the distinction. Besides their differences in color and hair, he noted, black people secreted less by the kidneys and more by the glands of the skin, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odor. They were more tolerant of heat and less so of cold, than whites...more ardent after their female, but love seemed with them to be more an eager desire, than a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation. Their griefs are transient...their existence appears to participate more sensation then reflexion.
Cany you imagine some public school teacher trying to explain the above from the man who they teach believed: that all men are created equal?
Unfortunately it is not only liberals who have a gross mis-understanding regarding what Jefferson meat....even many Republicans --mostly politically correct republicans who have no real grasp of what Jefferson really meant...........not to mention untold generations of public school graduates who were misled by incompetent public school teachers and of course are still being misled.
Thus let us pause and consider what Jefferson really meant.
The meaning of Thomas Jefferson's phrase “all men are created equal”
'The Declaration of Independence, which contains the oft-repeated phrase "…that all men are created equal…" was written by Thomas Jefferson, who owned about 200 slaves at the time and never set any of them free, even upon his death. Jefferson's words certainly had no reference to black people, of whom the majority at that time had no place in American society except as property and most did not even consider them fully human.
For Americans, equality is a word that has been expanded in its definition since the founding of the country. For Jefferson and many of our Founding Fathers, the phrase "…that all men are created equal…" really meant that "all free, property-owning males are created equal". Questioned Frederick Douglass in his Rochester speech: "Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?" (Lowance 41) Fortunately for Douglass (and all races and both sexes), the United States has moved to achieve full legal equality. (Patterson 132)
Equality is hard to define because its meaning keeps changing. Jefferson's restrictive definition, that "people are of equal moral worth, and as such deserve equal treatment under the law", made distinctions for free men vs. slaves, men vs. women, property owners vs. debtors, et cetera (Patterson 132). On the one hand, most Americans' notion of legal equality makes no such distinctions. De facto equality, on the other hand, is, as Martin Luther King, Jr. has said, still a "dream".
The written law does not look at one's race but at the crime committed; the sentencing should not be dependent on the race of the convict. Even though Thomas Jefferson owned slaves to his death, I believe this is what Jefferson meant when he said "all men are created equal" — that Americans are entitled to equal justice under the law (Patterson 10).
Equality is not something that a government can grant or deny a body of citizens; for this right is unalienable. Our Bill of Rights can be more accurately thought of as a list of restrictions (placed on government) that secures a citizen's civil liberties. Exclaimed King in 1961: "[Our Declaration of Independence] says that each individual has certain basic rights, which are neither conferred by nor derived from the state. To discover where they came from it is necessary to move back behind the dim mist of eternity, for they are God-given." (Noyes "Historical Speeches")
The United States government's intervention has helped to establish legal equality, but not necessarily de facto equality. (Patterson 132) In the past sixty years it has moved to eradicate racial and sexual discrimination. In fact, "Americans have attained substantial equality under the law"; legal discrimination is now almost nonexistent (Patterson 132). In this way, our elected and appointed officials have promoted legal equality by passing anti-discrimination laws and by declaring segregation unconstitutional. Furthermore, the US government is already promoting de facto equality with the graduated tax code, economic welfare and entitlement programs, affirmative action, et cetera. The government should by all means promote legal equality — as it has — but its responsibility should extend "no further than the removal of legal barriers to equality." (Patterson 153) De facto equality will be a reality when people cease to be prejudicial. This is not something Congress can fix by passing a law.'
The meaning of Thomas Jefferson's "all men are created equal" – Matt Brundage
In the book Jefferson wrote titled...."Notes on the Sate of Virginia" Jefferson says: In a well known phrase: 'I tremble for my country when reflect that God is just'...in reference to his view on slavery as an institution.....but he goes on and says something that is not so well known..........Continuing....Jefferson offered his personal opinion on blacks as being a 'suspicion only--'that blacks were inferior to whites in both mind and body. 'Their inferiority' he wrote is not the effect merely of their condition of life....it is not their condition...but nature, which has produced the distinction. Besides their differences in color and hair, he noted, black people secreted less by the kidneys and more by the glands of the skin, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odor. They were more tolerant of heat and less so of cold, than whites...more ardent after their female, but love seemed with them to be more an eager desire, than a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation. Their griefs are transient...their existence appears to participate more sensation then reflexion.
Cany you imagine some public school teacher trying to explain the above from the man who they teach believed: that all men are created equal?
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