Heritage Chief: It's Really The Constitution That Freed The Slaves

[DonViejo]

CAITLIN MACNEAL – APRIL 9, 2014, 1:16 PM EDT

Jim DeMint, former senator and current president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, insisted last week that it was the U.S. Constitution that ultimately freed the slaves.

"Well the reason that the slaves were eventually freed was the Constitution, it was like the conscience of the American people," DeMint said on "Vocal Point" with Jerry Newcombe of Truth In Action Ministries, as recorded by Right Wing Watch. "Unfortunately there were some court decisions like Dred Scott and others that defined some people as property, but the Constitution kept calling us back to 'all men are created equal and we have inalienable rights' in the minds of God."

DeMint dismisses the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to argue that the Constitution just ultimately led the country in the right direction.

The Heritage chief also seems to confuse the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The line "all men are created equal" comes from the latter.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jim-demint-constitution-freed-slaves

[upaloopa]

1. An amendment to the Constitution is part of

the Constitution so in a way he is right.

[Bandit]

5. The Declaration of Independence is not an Amendment to the Constitution

I suspect you are thinking of the Bill of Rights.

[sarisataka]

8. Agreed

though his reasoning and knowledge of government documents is pathetic.

The Thirteenth Amendment is what actually freed the slaves.

The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the states in rebellion, leaving slavery legal in some states. Had the Proclamation been challenged it would likely have been struck down on Constitutional grounds.

[unblock]

2. well gee, i guess it really was the slaveowners themselves who ultimately freed the slaves.

i mean, sure, they waited until they had no choice and the north had a gun to their heads, but gosh, then, out of the kindness of their hearts, they freed the slaves.

[stage left]

3. Jim DeMint forgets

That the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have totally switched ideological places since Mr. Lincoln was President. That's why the once solid Democratic South is now the Solid Republican South. DeMint and think shouldn't even occupy the same sentence.

[BainsBane]

4. Well, in a strange way there is a grain of truth to that

The Constitution didn't free the slaves, but the language of the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal" resulted in what historian Bernard Bailyn calls a "contagion of liberty."
http://books.google.com/books?id=p6-tKuFD1KsC&pg=PA319&lpg=PA319&dq=bernard+bailyn+contagion+of+liberty&source=bl&ots=LUoMx3u585&sig=PANlezecPYbFArblhhSOt-qJB_w&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NJJFU-uNNanT2wWOhoCADQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=bernard%20bailyn%20contagion%20of%20liberty&f=false

That contagion was evident in 1780, slaves in Portsmouth, New Hampshire petitioned the state legislature for their freedom.

The petition of Nero Brewster, and others, natives of Africa, now forcibly detained in slavery, in said state, most humbly theweth, That the God of Nature gave them life and freedom, upon terms of the most perfect equality with other men; that freedom is an inherent right of the human species, not to be surrendered, but by consent, for the sake of social life; that private or public tyranny and slavery, are alike detestable to minds conscious of the equal dignity of human nature . .

http://caho-test.cc.columbia.edu/ps/10208.html


The ideas of the Declaration of Independence and the notion that the Constitution should apply to all, including slaves, emerged throughout the nineteenth century. Clearly the Civil War eventually brought an end to slavery, but historians do argue that the ideas of equality unleashed by the American Revolution and expressed in its seminal documents would play a role in undermining slavery.

Long story short, even a bumbling fool like Demint can occasionally stumble upon a fragment of a point.

[Bandit]

6. It sure didn't work that way for the Indian Nations.

Hell they are still regarded as second class citizens.

[BainsBane]

11. True.

The women who met at Seneca Falls in 1848 used the very language of the Declaration of Independence. Native Americans, however, were defined as entirely outside the nation.

[ieoeja]

12. The East/West divide on Indian Nations is much sharper than the North/South divide on Blacks.

There is plenty of bigotry in the North. It is just not as socially acceptable as one finds in large areas of the South.

But when it comes to the bigotry against Indian Nations, the East/West divide is extreme. Living East of the Mississippi River, I can say, with complete and total honesty, that I have never once, ever encountered anti-Indian bigotry over here. Quite the opposite, in fact. Most Easterners with European ancestors who migrated here a couple hundred years or more ago are quite proud of what little Indian blood we have. It is commonplace for Easterners to compare Indian ancestry.

Then one time in Minneapolis (just barely across the Mississippi River!), I was astonished the first time I ran into anti-Indian sentiments. A Cherokee gal I knew in Chicago had the same experience, though with herself as the victim of the bigotry, when she went to visit relatives in Oklahoma. She had never encountered anything like that in her life prior to that visit. Also, heard your statement many times here on DU, always from Westerners.

Of course, most of the Indians did get shipped out West 150 years ago. We've had a long time for any hatred there to die off.

[gratuitous]

7. What the hell is DeMint blabbering about?

The "inalienable rights" and "all men are created equal" stuff comes from the Declaration of Independence, and not the Constitution. And, while there hasn't been a serious argument put forward that the Constitution doesn't outlaw slavery since the passage of the 13th Amendment, it would behoove Mr. DeMint to learn that that amendment wasn't enacted until December 1865, months after the Civil War ended.

And yet, DeMint and his ideological brethren would have us believe that his enormous salary for being a public buffoon is all earned, but someone else working full time doesn't deserve to make double figures an hour.

[Wounded Bear]

9. There's an inherent problem that still exists in many minds today....

The feeling that blacks are not really "men" was extant than, and has still not been fully eradicated. That was actually enshrined in the Constitution with its odious "3/5ths" rule. It's at the heart of all bigotry against any group, the feeling that "they" are not as good as "we" are and thus should be denied certain rights/priveleges.

DeMint is an idealogue in charge of a RW propaganda mill.

[yellowcanine]

10. Yep, that Constitution changed all by its little self. Constitutions are people too!

[JHB]

13. And all it took to get the Confederates to recognize the Constitution on this...

...was cannon, shot, bayonets, and blood.