Happy Independence Day America

Every year since 2004 the Powerline blog has made the same post for Independence Day, focusing on Abraham Lincoln's speech on the 10th of July 1858 in response to criticism of his own criticism of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision.   Wikipedia says it was "a decision by the United States Supreme Court that ruled that people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves, or their descendants[2]—whether or not they were slaves—were not protected by the Constitution and could never be citizens of the United States. It also held that the United States Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories. The Court also ruled that because slaves were not citizens, they could not sue in court. Lastly, the Court ruled that slaves—as chattel or private property—could not be taken away from their owners without due process."   Lincoln was responding specifically to the arguments of Senator Stephen Douglas that appealed to the principle of "diversity" as a justification for some parts of the United States maintaining slavery while other didn't.   As Powerline observes, "Then as now, "diversity" was a shibboleth hiding an evil institution that could not be defended on its own terms."   Lincoln cleverly points out that if the Declaration of Independence's proposition that all men are created equal applies only to those who are descended from the people who originally adopted it, then what of other significant immigrant groups who came later? We have besides these men---descended by blood from our ancestors---among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men, they are men who have come from Europe---German, Irish, French and Scandinavian---men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us, but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration [loud and long continued applause], and so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world. [Applause.]   He finishes his speech and takes the crowd with him: I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle and making exceptions to it where will it stop. If one man says it does not mean a negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man? If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the Statute book, in which we find it and tear it out! Who is so bold as to do it! [Voices---"me" "no one," &c.] If it is not true let us tear it out! [cries of "no, no,"] let us stick to it then [cheers], let us stand firmly by it then. [Applause.]

Posted via email from Garth's posterous