The Fouding Fathers (U.S.) Didn't Care about the Constitution

Today when we read the Constitution it is clear to us that the Constitution was meant to secure liberty for all Americans regardless of race, creed, religion or gender. However during the time of the Founders they did not see the Constitution as such a liberating force for all people; the Founders did not truly grasp how much freedom the Constitution was meant to entail. The history of America is a history of minorities fighting for rights denied to them; and it is a fight that goes on to this very day. If the Founders truly cared about the inalienable rights granted to all men by the Constitution why did they exclude so many people from "We the people ..."? You say "These men, [our Founding Fathers], served our nation valiantly in the name of freedom and justice." I ask; Freedom and Justice for whom besides themselves? Voting Rights: In the beginning only a small minority of people were recognized as having democratic rights under the Constitution, land owning white men (the sole demographic of the Constitutional Convention). It wasn't until 1840 that "more than 90 percent of adult white men possessed the right to vote." [1] It took 53 years from ratification (1787) to 1840 for the US to recognize that all white men have the right to vote. 53 years! What does that tell you about the original intent of our Founders? Did they fight valiantly to secure the liberty of their fellow man as you suggest they did? NO! Today the Constitution grants women and non-whites the right to vote, but did the Founders seek to empower these people by recognizing their inalienable right to vote? Second verse same as the first! NO! Slavery, Racism & White Supremacy: Although many of our Founders were against it, the Constitution strengthened the Peculiar Institution of Slavery instead of weakening it. It codified blacks as 3/5 of a person which in turn gave more political power to the slave states. George Washington signed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, declaring a slave is a slave no matter where they run, and even Free states would be obligated to aid in their capture and return. After ratification of the Constitution it would take another 78 years and a brutal civil war for slavery to be abolished by passing of the 13th amendment (only to again be repressed by unconstitutional Jim Crow laws). If our Founders truly believed that all men were created equal then slavery would have been abolished much sooner. Make no mistake; our Founders were racist in every respect of the term [2]. At that time "racism" as we know it wasn't even an issue. There was a simple understanding that blacks were inferior to whites, there was no argument against the notion, just a simple acceptance as fact (much like racism today). Evidence for this racist philosophy came from the literature of great thinkers and pseudo science such as phrenology [3]. (For a laugh, see Benjamin Rush's opinion of blacks http://en.wikipedia.org...) All of our Founders were swayed by the notion of Inherent White Superiority and they believed it was their duty to govern over the lesser races [2]. With this notion of white superiority in mind the Founders saw to it that blacks would not be free in their time. The Southern culture of blatant white supremacy is an echo to the original intent our Founders had in mind when it came to a racial hierarchy. Being an abolitionist did not exclude being a racist. Many Founders and abolitionists, James Madison for example [4], were members of the American Colonization Society [5], a group dedicated to sending blacks back to Africa. I wasn't going to mention the direct acts of the famous influential Founders until round 3 but your thoughts about Thomas Jefferson amused me. Yes TJ was against the slave trade, but this is something not often brought up about him; HE OWNED SLAVES, and unlike Washington he did not free them upon his death [6][2]. How do you rectify this hypocrisy? A necessary evil? You think a man as honorable and valiant as Thomas Jefferson would go against his own principles and partake in such blatant evil? Conclusion of Round 2 Argument: I believe I have made a good first case in pointing out that our founders did not seek the liberty of all people as our Constitution today demands, voting rights and the treatment of blacks during the era is evidence of this. Our Founders were all rich white men and the Constitution they created was not originally intended for any other group but them. Citation: [1] http://www.ushistory.org... [2] http://faithandheritage.com... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org... [4] http://www.montpelier.org... [5] http://www.pbs.org... [6] http://www.nytimes.com...