Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. In fact, the United States Constitution indirectly sanctions slavery, probably an unavoidable, but hardly commendable, compromise at the time.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. This concept of freedom for all human beings was rejected in Philadelphia. (1783) Cushing referred to the ‘natural rights of man, and to the ‘natural, innate desire of liberty’ and declared that the Massachusetts Constitution was repugnant to the idea of anyone being born a slave. “Article 1 of the Declaration of Rights, paraphrasing part of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Declaration of Rights, announces that “all men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights.’ Three years after the people adopted the Massachusetts Constitution, Chief Justice William Cushing of the Supreme Judicial Court declared slavery to be contrary to this State’s Constitution in what is known as the Quock Walker case. Wilkins, “Non-Fliers in Philadelphia,” 72 Massachusetts Law Review 7 (1987): To him, your celebration is a sham your boasted liberty, an unholy license your national greatness, swelling vanity your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted imprudence your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery. I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? “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.”įrederick Douglass, “ The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”, Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852: Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, ratified by the Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776: “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1688): Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national origin.Īpproved NovemPrecedents, Following Law, and Quotations Article of Amendment, Article 106 (1976)Īll people are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.
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