American Constitution Quotes
He is wrong about his facts. At the time of the adoption of The Constitution, there were in the North some free Negroes who owned land and were able to vote—see Benjamin Banneker for one notable counter example. Another is Alexander Hamilton, one of whose parents were Black.
See Thomas Paine for a contemporary similar view and Auguste Comte for an earlier statement of the consequences of the contrary.
He was too ill to read the speech himself and it was read by James Wilson for him. Franklin, ever the practical man, thought perfection to be an unreachable and impossible standard.
He was too ill to read the speech himself and it was read by James Wilson for him.
He had been asked by other delegates what Franklin thought they had just created.
In a 1949 dissenting opinion in Terminiello v. Chicago Jackson claimed the majority view would “convert the Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.”
Opponents of the strict separation of church and state use this quotation to support their view. However, Story herein describes public sentiment, not what was passed and ratified in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. See {614309} and {614310} for his statements from the same work that show that there was no question in his mind but that church and state are separated by the Constitution and the First Amendment.
Jefferson was of the opinion that a central bank was unconstitutional and that it was a great economic danger to the nation, a view also held later by President Andrew Jackson.
Most religions do not elevate happiness to a very high objective. Buddhism does however. Interestingly, the “pursuit of happiness” is a fundamental objective of American Democracy.
In the early 1900's there were major labor disputes between Colorado miners and the mine owners (the Colorado Mining Wars). Colorado Governor James H. Peabody ordered in a thousand troops under the command of Bell. Replying to the charge that his treatment of the miners was unconstitutional:
