Okay, I'm back from mowing grass.
TM made some excellent points in sharing these quotes with us. I enjoyed them
and they show us a frame of mind from leaders of that era.
On these five quotes, I've looked for them off and on. I'm not convinced that they
are indeed exact quotes. But they may be, and I just haven't found them.
John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) was pro-slavery southern plantation owner, also
credited with the first voice of minority rights. His definition of minority rights was
not the same as today. He wanted equal rights for the southern states--the minority.
Not a "all people are equal kind of thing." His his world, people of color were property.
Not citizens.
The quote TM has shared with us is attributed via the internet to a speech Calhoun
gave July 31, 1831 in South Carolina noted as the Fort Hill Address. However, the
complete text of this speech is also online, and that quote is not in the speech.
Thomas Jefferson (1723-1826). Surely we all know who this man was. The quote TM
shares comes from a letter Jefferson wrote to the govermment of Virgina in 1825, with
the Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Following is the paragraph
with the actual quoted lines.
While the General Assembly thus declares the rights retained by the States, rights which they have never yielded and which this State will never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the banner of disaffection or of separation from their sister States, co-parties with themselves to this compact. They know and value too highly the blessings of their Union, as to foreign nations and questions arising among themselves, to consider every infraction as to be met by actual resistance. They respect too affectionately the opinions OF those possessing the same rights under the same instrument to make every difference of construction a ground of immediate rupture. They would, indeed, consider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which could befall them, but not the greatest. There is yet one greater, submission to a government of unlimited powers. It is only when the hope of avoiding this shall become absolutely desperate that further forbearance could not be indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties, therefore, contrary to the expectation and hope of this assembly, prefer, at this time, acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the federal member of the government, we will be patient and suffer much, under the confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them also the bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us all. In the meanwhile we will breast with them, rather than separate from them, every misfortune save that only of living under a government of unlimited powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our federal brethren, and to the world at large to pursue with temper and perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable of living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and peace, and further to show that even when the government of its choice shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair but that the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform its aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and restrain it within the rightful limits of self-government. And these are the objects of this Declaration and Protest. . . .
*One of the interesting things to note about Thomas Jefferson was that he himself
owned slaves, up and until his death. At the same time, he was also supported abolition.
Just not to the extent that he wanted to free his own slaves. He NEEDED them.
Joesph Story (1779-1845) was a United States Supreme Court Justice. He wrote the decision
on Fairfax's Devisee v. Hunter's Lessee, giving U.S Courts rights and powers over state
courts. Anti-slavery, he remains one of the best known Justices, defining federal law v. state
rights. Several of his cases still stand today in defining Federal Law v. State Law
Jefferson Davis....was indeed, President of the Confederate States of America.
Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America...
Again, unable to confirm or deny this quote. Attributed to the Cornerstone Speech,
Savannah Georgia, 1861. But does not appear in the only version I could find. However,
that was a 1861 newspaper article and credited with being an incomplete text. Does anyone
have a better answer?
In these five quotes, note that three of the people died well before the America Civil War
began. Their quotes being no less important.
TM made some excellent points in sharing these quotes with us. I enjoyed them
and they show us a frame of mind from leaders of that era.
On these five quotes, I've looked for them off and on. I'm not convinced that they
are indeed exact quotes. But they may be, and I just haven't found them.
John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) was pro-slavery southern plantation owner, also
credited with the first voice of minority rights. His definition of minority rights was
not the same as today. He wanted equal rights for the southern states--the minority.
Not a "all people are equal kind of thing." His his world, people of color were property.
Not citizens.
The quote TM has shared with us is attributed via the internet to a speech Calhoun
gave July 31, 1831 in South Carolina noted as the Fort Hill Address. However, the
complete text of this speech is also online, and that quote is not in the speech.
Thomas Jefferson (1723-1826). Surely we all know who this man was. The quote TM
shares comes from a letter Jefferson wrote to the govermment of Virgina in 1825, with
the Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Following is the paragraph
with the actual quoted lines.
While the General Assembly thus declares the rights retained by the States, rights which they have never yielded and which this State will never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the banner of disaffection or of separation from their sister States, co-parties with themselves to this compact. They know and value too highly the blessings of their Union, as to foreign nations and questions arising among themselves, to consider every infraction as to be met by actual resistance. They respect too affectionately the opinions OF those possessing the same rights under the same instrument to make every difference of construction a ground of immediate rupture. They would, indeed, consider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which could befall them, but not the greatest. There is yet one greater, submission to a government of unlimited powers. It is only when the hope of avoiding this shall become absolutely desperate that further forbearance could not be indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties, therefore, contrary to the expectation and hope of this assembly, prefer, at this time, acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the federal member of the government, we will be patient and suffer much, under the confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them also the bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us all. In the meanwhile we will breast with them, rather than separate from them, every misfortune save that only of living under a government of unlimited powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our federal brethren, and to the world at large to pursue with temper and perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable of living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and peace, and further to show that even when the government of its choice shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair but that the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform its aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and restrain it within the rightful limits of self-government. And these are the objects of this Declaration and Protest. . . .
*One of the interesting things to note about Thomas Jefferson was that he himself
owned slaves, up and until his death. At the same time, he was also supported abolition.
Just not to the extent that he wanted to free his own slaves. He NEEDED them.
Joesph Story (1779-1845) was a United States Supreme Court Justice. He wrote the decision
on Fairfax's Devisee v. Hunter's Lessee, giving U.S Courts rights and powers over state
courts. Anti-slavery, he remains one of the best known Justices, defining federal law v. state
rights. Several of his cases still stand today in defining Federal Law v. State Law
Jefferson Davis....was indeed, President of the Confederate States of America.
Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America...
Again, unable to confirm or deny this quote. Attributed to the Cornerstone Speech,
Savannah Georgia, 1861. But does not appear in the only version I could find. However,
that was a 1861 newspaper article and credited with being an incomplete text. Does anyone
have a better answer?
In these five quotes, note that three of the people died well before the America Civil War
began. Their quotes being no less important.
