The Constitution: A Moral Challenge
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Unlike any governing document in history, the U.S. Constitution inscribed liberty and individual rights into law. But how could America espouse freedom at its founding and also permit slavery? Robert George, Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, examines this moral conundrum.
Script:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
These, of course, are stirring words from America’s Declaration of Independence. They are the foundation of America’s commitment to civil liberty. We accept them as a given now, but only because we know America’s history.
At the time, they presented a serious challenge to the founders of the nation:
Could they create a governing structure that would match the high moral standards they had set for themselves?
Their first attempt did not go well.
The Articles of Confederation, the document that governed the country through the Revolutionary War and for a few years after, was such a miserable failure that many in England (and America) thought the new nation would soon collapse and return, hat in hand, to the mother country.
The Americans’ wariness of central power was understandable. Americans had fought and died to win freedom from an oppressive government. They weren’t about to give away that hard-won freedom to a new government of their own making.
The Articles allowed for no central authority to speak of. There was no chief executive; no effective way to impose or collect taxes; no provision for the national defense. All the power belonged to the individual states. And since the states disagreed on so many issues, almost nothing got done.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 brilliantly solved this problem. It installed a system of checks and balances within the federal government and divided power between the federal government and the states. It did so while still preserving basic civil liberties.
Only a few years later, the founders would buttress these liberties with a Bill of Rights specifically protecting the free exercise of religion and the freedoms of speech, press, and assembly among other rights in the Constitution. This step, too, was taken to bring the country closer to the vision of the Declaration.
But, here, of course, the founders faced a moral challenge: how could America espouse freedom and also permit slavery?
Many of the founders, including Thomas Jefferson, the principal drafter of the Declaration, and George Washington, who presided at the Constitutional Convention, were slaveholders.
This fact leads some people to condemn America’s origins. The truth is that great men—and they were great—like Washington and Jefferson violated their own ideals in holding slaves while proclaiming equality and liberty.
They knew that slavery was an evil. Jefferson, speaking of slavery, declared that “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever…” Washington, upon his death, freed his slaves and made financial provisions for them in his will.
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This is a great video. I'm actually surprised that professor George even has a place at Princeton U.
Thank You Preg U !
I once heard a comparison of this early nation to a marriage. Between State and nation (People and Government). They wanted to fix the marriage to be better financially and work better on issues while respecting each other. The problem was that the people/states loved to rape some of the children of this country. The enslavement and robbery of the enslaved was rape and worst yet it's exactly what the nation and states fought to be free of. To save the marriage the Government and the governed had to compromise and allow for the continue raping of people in the hopes to keep the country (which ended up nearly ending anyways during the civil war after generations of raping).
I understand your defense of our past leaders, but they were hypocrites to their own great ideas. Should we enshrine the men or the work? I value their work, but the men stood in opposition of that work with their actions. The fact that you try to compare this nation to others, that slavery was in abundance is not the point of this video. Only this nation openly DECLARED that it was wrong, that ALL MEN (Human) were equal and did it anyways out of greed. How can we ask for God's grace and to protect this nation when we don't even stand in his light with our actions?
This nation owes its people a great debt like a mother that birth a child but allowed that child to be raped and beaten for generations. That debt may never be repaid unless you forget the history of it. (Some would love for just that part of history to be forgotten).
We are still doing it today with laws that attack marginalized people. We praise these laws, and they stand in direct opposition with the moral values we have set centuries ago. This nation doesn't deserve God's favor, yet he gives it anyways. We HAVE TO DO BETTER before he decides to revoke it, or our continued imperfections lead us further down the path away from the MORE PERFECT UNION that the founder dreamed of. They were asking us to fix their mistakes not continue with them.
The paper is great, people just suck? Got it.
[ "Dennis Prager is a neoconservative radio host, professional tone troll, and conspiracy theorist
who believes that the United States is a Christian nation,
and that it's under attack from "secular leftists" who control the media, universities, public education system, and other institutions.
Don't forget the right to keep and bare arms. To protect yourself, if you government becomes tyrannical. Another they found vastly important. If not, they would not have been able to fight back against their oppressive government (Crown). Ask yourself with all the lockdowns, tracking, and etc… why politicians are so bent on removing your right to bare arms.
A delicate balance.
The Constitution of the US was about a promise of equality, on the other hand the Confederate Constitution was about inequality and oppression of African Americans and that they should be held in slavery.
Remember the Constitution serves us, we do not serve the Constitution. It has good and it has bad parts, it is open to criticism, change and even replacement, as Thomas Jefferson stated should be with every new generation.
All countries, all races, all people had slavery as the norm. A 2300 year old school of thought called Republicans, stoics, & many religions opposed slavery, but our founders set a plan to make it happen. I do not fault the way they tried and failed. Their actions & dreams pushed us to end slavery then towards self governance. As stoics teach the only good control is self control. America was & is always great. 🇺🇸
Every woman I know has had AT LEAST 5 ABORTIONS. Yet they get mad every time I come up with names for each one… like, I named one “Gatman John” because I thought it sounded cool… anyways I wish I could make babies cuz when it comes to names I am the GOAT.
Word.
A moral challenge
And the Federalist Papers mention Constitution and Bill of Rights not done out of altruism but self-interest for economic and business motives and to protect vested self-interest as the Federalist Papers mention 330 references to business, finances, money, commerce, etc.
The main issue is that the morality of principles or constitutions means absolutely nothing in the face of how the system actually puts them in practice. Infamously, the Soviet Union had a wonderful constitution that enshrined rights such as free speech and freedom of movement.
Here’s your reminder that Dennis Prager argued in defense of the moral acceptability of getting off to animated chiId pornography
And then came marxism and fascism, and democrats wanting more and more governmental power flocked to them.
The sad thing is what the governments have done to the constitution and bill of rights since the founding. The Bill of Rights has been eviserarted in the name of making us safer.
Shame on MLK for not openly declaring he was a Republican
The original drafting of the Declaration of Independence and constitution stated there shall be no slavery and any should be freed. The only reason it was removed was because not all the colonies would agree to it and they couldn’t have a divided weakness shown to the king of Britain. He most certainly would of used it against them so they removed that part so every would sign and appear United and strong.
I love the Bill of Rights, but I think the rest of the Constitution granted way too much power to the government. It has resulted in what we have: the largest corporate government ever on the planet. I agree that the Articles of Confederation were flawed, but I think they were LESS flawed than the Constitution we now have.
Not to mention that the Constitution was Divinely inspired!!!
How come the Second Amendment didn't get mentioned???!!!
As flawed as the Articles of Confederation were, I'd take that system of government over the tyranny of DC we have today.
God bless America 🇺🇸🦅⚔️🇺🇸
Morality was just earning one's way to God's Kingdom by doing good works and treasury of merits to lessen time in Purgatory was the main reason.
Racism and slavery became intertwined only after 1492 while slavery before 1942 was only economic, not racism. Also the methods of slavery such as using racist language against blacks, burning crosses, and lynching were only unique to the South(in the USA).
The worst thing America ever did was slavery, because it inflicted a wound upon itself that will never heal.
Yep, the Founding Fathers created a nation based on the magnificent idea that "all men are created equal" while they owned slaves, and that is why hypocrisy was, is, and will always be the trademark of this country. Their hypocrisy about slavery damned and bled this nation for a century. Then the hypocrisy of "separate but equal" damned and bled this nation for another century. We still have not created a nation that treats all of its citizens equally, so we have again damned and bled this nation. Today the descendant of the white Republican who died to free black slaves from their democrat owners stand behind the descendants of the freed slaves while trying to gain admission to a college because this nation is still judging people by the color of their skin.
I love this video cause there's so much truth in it. The problem with America isn't the constitution or the principles that built this great country its us. Us not being appreciative and grateful for the sacrifices that our founding fathers took on to build this nation from scratch. We need to remember who we are what this nation is all about and be proud Americans and work vigorously to preserve these values for future generations.
The Founding Fathers told American's of their time and American's of future times, "Do as we say, not as we've done!"
The Founding Fathers got the ball rolling for A Nation of The People, By The People and For The People, something that had never happened before.
The Founding Fathers built this New Nation on the Framework of Society as it was At That Moment. They didn't delay until slavery was ended, so as to start with a clean slate, they moved forward, with the slate sullied by slavery, but built in such a way that that evil could not long endure!
Thank God for The Founding Fathers and what they gave humanity!
What a fantastic video.
God Bless!!
35th, 8 May 2023
The Federalist Papers, which are the commentary on the Constitution show the real reasons for the Bill of Rights in that it is mainly economic. There are 330 references to business, commerce, trade, money, finances, etc. in it. It's business the American Way. Greed is good.
We Americans has regress from the greatness of our founding fathers. I really doubt we will come close to the greatness of our founding fathers in my lifetime. We will continue the regression & the destruction of what our four fathers fought & died to create.
Maybe on those times slaves in anglospeaking countries (spain had the “leyes de indias”, witch protected natives from slavery) weren’t considered people, just like babies in the womb are aborted because its “a fetus, not a human”. Luckily time proved slavery was wrong and should do the same for babies
Democrats have no difficulty disguising where they are willing to stand on the decency scale.
Democrats are on a misguided path to destroy anything they wish. "To hell with any morality but ours."
Their ultimate wish is to end Republicans and stop them from messing with their running of the Business. Government to Democrats is in essence just crowd control. "Without Republicans and their Constitution BS, we're sure we'd be a whole lot better at crowd control."