William Pickens Quotes
An insignificant right becomes important when it is assailed.
William Pickens, 1881-1954, Educator & Writer, NAACP Field Secretary, The Ultimate Effects of Segregation and Discrimination, 1915
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Jefferson and some of the other Founding Fathers saw the American experiment as having implications for the whole world. To Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence was not just for Americans but ideally for all mankind.
See {587703} for a similar statement by a Supreme Court Justice.
It is ironic that Pakistan, the creation of Jinnah’s efforts, has to a great extent adopted Sharia (Islamic Law) resulting in severe curtailment of freedom of speech and thought. Professors languish in jail for not teaching the history of Muhammed in the orthodox way, people are sentenced to death for what the local mullahs regard as blasphemy—results which from Jinnah’s point of view were terrible.
This principle is used politically to try to control the agenda of a legislative body or in modern times the “agenda” of what is covered by the media. In Calhoun’s case, he argued for not even allowing the issue of slavery to be debated in Congress.
Note the use of the phrase “against the government.” One of the unique aspects of the American Constitution and The Bill of Rights is that the government is considered a potential and even probable infringer on the liberties of the people. It is almost as though the government was the potential enemy. Modern libertarians state this very explicitly and it is ever present in the views of both the right and left wings of American politics. Most centrists recoil at the thought that some citizens see the government as the enemy, but even in America there have been times where the government has infringed on the rights of citizens only to have the courts or future administrations and Congresses correct the error.
He had been a Congressman before assuming the Presidency. Civil rights was a major subject of debate after the Civil War. One major issue was that of citizenship itself. Many contended that Americans were citizens of a state and dependant on the state for the protection of civil rights. However, the extent to which the Federal government could and should be the guarantor of citizenship issues was in dispute. Today with the issue settled in favor of Federal preeminence, it is hard to realize that this was very unsettled at one point in history. Garfield was one of those leading the effort for more Federal involvement and control.
This statement summarized what had been a basic principle of American Law as derived from English law. See {587704}.
This is probably the first known use of the Bill of Rights phrase in the English language. For the earliest American use, see Edward Rutledge.
There is no declaration of rights … the declaration of rights in the separate states are no security
See Rufus King for the opposite position. {610244}
Hayward claimed that Wilson was the first American President who ever criticized the American Constitution. Many do not agree as Madison and Jefferson in part, along with most other Americans, found the Constitution so wanting that it was ratified only on condition of the passage of the Bill of Rights. Jackson, was distressed by the limitations on the President and many others had their objections, but Wilson, before he became a politician was a prominent academic political scientist and wrote voluminously and had an intellectual following so his criticism was not considered so “political” as others.
William Pickens was an American orator, educator, journalist, and essayist. He wrote two autobiographies, first The Heir of Slaves, in 1911 and second Bursting Bonds in 1923, in which he mentioned race-motivated attacks on African Americans, both in the urban riots of 1919 and by lynching in 1921.
