[CornFed]

I love the Constitution as much as the next guy or gal, but there is also the small detail that within 100 years the country plunged into a brutal, prolonged fratricidal civil war. So, I guess success is somewhat relative.

This observation is true, but I truly believe that part of the beauty of the document is that it was crafted at a point when resolution of the issue of slavery was clearly not achievable.  As I understand it, Jefferson drafted the Virginia constitution with the words, "life, liberty, property and happiness" or some such and the term "property" was a sop to slave owners.  That was, obviously, deleted from the Constitution.

I think that it is unfair to apply today's mores to situations and people in the distant past.  I certainly understand the contradiction inherent in writing the Bill of Rights and yet owning slaves.  I recognize, however, that people like John Adams, who unilaterally made his slaves free men and women, were very much the exception.  It simply wasn't perceived with the horror we have now when we hear about it.

So essentially, they drafted around the issue.  De Toqueville, whom I referred to earlier, saw it right off during his journey through the United States and predicted the conflict would manifest eventually.  I think he saw the gross contradiction in the founding document and the institution of slavery.  So, in effect, the document caused the Civil War.  It also provided a means to be amended to begin the resolution of the contradiction in terms consistent with human liberty. 

It has taken more than a century to unfold, but a series of state and Federal laws have been enacted to protect and promote the liberty of every human being.  We're not done yet, but denial of human dignity and freedom has been deligitimized.  We no longer have laws depriving people their individual right to pursue life, liberty and happiness.  Now we are dealing with de facto racism, though I would argue that even on that basis we are headed in the right direction.

[CornFed]

I love the Constitution as much as the next guy or gal, but there is also the small detail that within 100 years the country plunged into a brutal, prolonged fratricidal civil war. So, I guess success is somewhat relative.

This observation is true, but I truly believe that part of the beauty of the document is that it was crafted at a point when resolution of the issue of slavery was clearly not achievable.  As I understand it, Jefferson drafted the Virginia constitution with the words, "life, liberty, property and happiness" or some such and the term "property" was a sop to slave owners.  That was, obviously, deleted from the Constitution.

I think that it is unfair to apply today's mores to situations and people in the distant past.  I certainly understand the contradiction inherent in writing the Bill of Rights and yet owning slaves.  I recognize, however, that people like John Adams, who unilaterally made his slaves free men and women, were very much the exception.  It simply wasn't perceived with the horror we have now when we hear about it.

So essentially, they drafted around the issue.  De Toqueville, whom I referred to earlier, saw it right off during his journey through the United States and predicted the conflict would manifest eventually.  I think he saw the gross contradiction in the founding document and the institution of slavery.  So, in effect, the document caused the Civil War.  It also provided a means to be amended to begin the resolution of the contradiction in terms consistent with human liberty. 

It has taken more than a century to unfold, but a series of state and Federal laws have been enacted to protect and promote the liberty of every human being.  We're not done yet, but denial of human dignity and freedom has been deligitimized.  We no longer have laws depriving people their individual right to pursue life, liberty and happiness.  Now we are dealing with de facto racism, though I would argue that even on that basis we are headed in the right direction.