Edmund Burke replies to Samuel Johnson about slavery and slave holders

The propaganda that progressives employ is in full bloom, now that they've spent the last 120 years dumbing us down through government controlled grade schools.

One of the favored propaganda devices that they use is that of Samuel Johnson, a well known British author at the time. Johnson examined some of what he heard coming from the Continental Congress and among other observations, asked this question:

We are told, that the subjection of Americans may tend to the diminution of our own liberties; an event, which none but very perspicacious politicians are able to foresee. If slavery be thus fatally contagious, how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?

Just a month ago I wrote this about one of Burke's speeches, where he notes the hypocrisy of the British (of all people) offering freedom to slaves, after they were the ones who did all of the colonial shipping across the Atlantic! But anyways, in the same speech Burke gives what is actually a very concise answer to Johnson's query. Burke said:

There is, however, a circumstance attending these Colonies, which, in my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference, and makes the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty than in those to the northward. It is that in Virginia and the Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is the case in any part of the world, those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege. Not seeing there that freedom, as in countries where it is a common blessing, and as broad and general as the air, may be united with much abject toil, with great misery, with all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks, among them, like something that is more noble and liberal. I do not mean, sir, to command the superior morality of this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in it; but I can not alter the nature of man. The fact is so; and these people of the southern Colonies are much more strongly, and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty than those to the northward. Such were all the ancient commonwealths; such were our Gothic ancestors; such, in our days, were the Poles, and such will be all masters of slaves, who are not slaves themselves. In such a people the haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invincible.

Note that both Samuel Johnson and Burke are observing how the spirit of Liberty appears to be more vivid in southern colonies. Now of course Burke wasn't addressing Johnson at this time. However, it does render the question Johnson asked relatively useless.

What Johnson is responding to(without wording it that way) is their heightened sense of jealousy over their individual Liberty. Patrick Henry is very well known for using that specific word. "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel." Jefferson also uses that word in the Kentucky Resolutions. "Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go."

What did the Confederates agree on with Abraham Lincoln? That the Founders opposed slavery of course.

In his 1861 "Cornerstone Speech", Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander H. Stephens said the following:

But not to be tedious in enumerating the numerous changes for the better, allow me to allude to one other — though last, not least. The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution — African slavery as it exists amongst us — the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew."

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition.

Now you know that if the VICE PRESIDENT of the Confederacy was saying this about the Founding Fathers rejection of slavery, he had plenty of agreement on it. In other more detailed(line by line) words, Abraham Lincoln agreed that the Founders rejected slavery. In his Peoria Speech, Lincoln said the following:

AT the framing and adoption of the constitution, they forbore to so much as mention the word "slave" or "slavery" in the whole instrument. In the provision for the recovery of fugitives, the slave is spoken of as a "PERSON HELD TO SERVICE OR LABOR." In that prohibiting the abolition of the African slave trade for twenty years, that trade is spoken of as "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States NOW EXISTING, shall think proper to admit," &c. These are the only provisions alluding to slavery. Thus, the thing is hid away, in the constitution, just as an afflicted man hides away a wen or a cancer, which he dares not cut out at once, lest he bleed to death; with the promise, nevertheless, that the cutting may begin at the end of a given time. Less than this our fathers COULD not do; and NOW [MORE?] they WOULD not do. Necessity drove them so far, and farther, they would not go. But this is not all. The earliest Congress, under the constitution, took the same view of slavery. They hedged and hemmed it in to the narrowest limits of necessity.

In 1794, they prohibited an out-going slave-trade---that is, the taking of slaves FROM the United States to sell.

In 1798, they prohibited the bringing of slaves from Africa, INTO the Mississippi Territory---this territory then comprising what are now the States of Mississippi and Alabama. This was TEN YEARS before they had the authority to do the same thing as to the States existing at the adoption of the constitution.

In 1800 they prohibited AMERICAN CITIZENS from trading in slaves between foreign countries---as, for instance, from Africa to Brazil.

In 1803 they passed a law in aid of one or two State laws, in restraint of the internal slave trade.

In 1807, in apparent hot haste, they passed the law, nearly a year in advance to take effect the first day of 1808---the very first day the constitution would permit---prohibiting the African slave trade by heavy pecuniary and corporal penalties.

In 1820, finding these provisions ineffectual, they declared the trade piracy, and annexed to it, the extreme penalty of death. While all this was passing in the general government, five or six of the original slave States had adopted systems of gradual emancipation; and by which the institution was rapidly becoming extinct within these limits.

Thus we see, the plain unmistakable spirit of that age, towards slavery, was hostility to the PRINCIPLE, and toleration, ONLY BY NECESSITY.

Now isn't it interesting that the New York Times in its 1619 project disagrees with both the Confederates and Lincoln? What must it be like to have such a low quantity of shame?

This "Cornerstone Speech" does many things, but most importantly, it shows quite distinctly that there is a lineage break from the Constitution to the Confederacy. Not that the New York Times cares for facts, anyways. But I know that you do.

The New York Times uses the British Empire's propaganda in order to smear the United States with the 1619 Project

There is an interesting line in the 1619 Project that many would have perhaps glossed over because they have heard it so many times. It is this:

The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie. Our Declaration of Independence, approved on July 4, 1776, proclaims that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." But the white men who drafted those words did not believe them to be true for the hundreds of thousands of black people in their midst.

No, no, don't gloss past this. Stop right here. Examine this. Who first made this claim? Refuting this is all too easy, for those adept in when/where the Founders said what. But that's been done. I'm not interested in a defense, let others defend. Who first made this claim? Here's a hint: it wasn't progressives. It wasn't communists nor socialists either.

On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Just a month later, parliament funded the creation of a rebuttal to the "Declaration of the American Congress". Initially, this rebuttal was published anonymously, but it later was revealed to have been authored by John Lind. However, the An Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress, written late in 1776, became popular in part because of it's other contributing author. Most of you have heard of him.

His name was Jeremy Bentham.

Yup, that very same Jeremy Bentham who would become widely known as the father of utilitarianism. Funny that, no?

Anyways, here is what the British government's funds produced. You should read all 100+ pages, but in particular, my focus is on the response to the very last grievance.

ARTICLE XXVII.

He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

The article now before us consists of two charges, each of which demands a separate and distinct consideration. The one is, that his Majesty— "has excited domestic insurrections among them;" the other— "that he has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of their frontiers the merciless Indian Savages."

By his Majesty, in the first charge, is meant— not his Majesty, but— one of his Majesty's Governors. He, it seems, excited domestic insurrections among them— Be it so— But who are meant by them? Men in rebellion; men who had excited, and were continuing to excite, civil insurrections against his Majesty's government; men who had excited, and were continuing to excite, one set of citizens to pillage the effects, burn the houses, torture the persons, cut the throats of another set of citizens.

But how did his Majesty's Governors excite domestic insurrections? Did they set father against son, or son against father, or brother against brother? No— they offered freedom to the slaves of these assertors of liberty. Were it not true, that the charge was fully justified by the necessity, to which the rebellious proceedings of the Complainants had reduced the Governor, yet with what face can they urge this as a proof of tyranny? Is it for them to say, that it is tyranny to bid a Have be free? to bid him take courage, to rife and assist in reducing his tyrants to a due obedience to law? to hold out as a motive to him, that the load which crushed his limbs shall be lightened ; that the whip which harrowed up his back shall be broken;that he shall be raised to the rank of a freeman and a citizen? It is their boast that they have taken up arms in support of these their own self-evident truths — " that all men are equal" — " that all men are "endowed with the 'unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" Is it for them to complain of the offer of freedom held out to these wretched beings? of the offer of reinstating them in that equality, which, in this very paper, is declared to be the gift of God to all; in those unalienable rights with which, in this very paper, God is declared to have endowed all mankind?

It's a small world after all.

The very same British who just spent years opposing every colonial attempt to abolish slavery and the slave trade up until Independence, now arrogantly takes the high road for what they created. It's utterly laughable.

What's important though, is to notice what the NY Times and this screed from 1776 have in common. They both dance around the bush about the undeniable fact that it was Britain(And Dutch, Spain, etc) who brought these slaves here in the first place. Now many will say "You're just shifting the blame", as if someone wants to level the charge that Ukraine did it. Nobody's "blaming" anybody. Guilt is not a synonym for "blame", and that guilt doesn't go away no matter how much the progressives want to pray for it to stay away.

Major data loss catastrophe averted with the Madison's notes audiobook recreate

It's been a rough last few weeks around here. Normally I try to post only things which are on point toward a specific topic and usually with a focus on history in relation to progressivism(one way or the other), but I just wanted to share some thoughts in general. I won't go too in-depth with the more technical information.

As we have reached the 75% completion rate for this project, I noticed that the drive I have been using over the last few years started reporting errors. After confirming some strange things in my Disks partition management utility, I was able to repair some issues by running file system checks. Ultimately my worst fears were confirmed when I started making partition clones with GParted. Other than a completely failed and unusable drive, seeing bad blocks was one of the worst bits of news I could have faced.

On a more positive note, I have been doing good with making backups on a regular basis over the years, so the fallout should be minimal. As of now, I do not appear to have lost anything. I just uploaded a new mp3 for August 18th, 1787, and I have another that I am wrapping up and hoping to upload in a few days.

Full steam ahead! Let's complete this project for the good of all.

https://archive.org/details/AudiobookConstitutionalConvention1787

Clause 2 of the Articles of Association (1774) completely blockades the slave trade

Most people only think of our "Founding Documents" as comprising two things: The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Some, or perhaps many, might correctly also say that the Articles of Confederation is a (third) founding document. There was actually a fourth. The Continental Congress passed on October 20, 1774 the Articles of Association, sometimes also called the Continental Association. (full text) In it, it contains this following text:

2. That we will neither import nor purchase any Slave imported after the first day of December next; after which time we will wholly discontinue the Slave Trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our Commodities or Manufactures to those who are concerned in it.

Just think, why would the progressive historians keep on erasing and erasing and erasing our history? If you erase enough of this, you can make anybody into a racist. The progressive historians benefit from book burning or the closest alternative. Then they can remake history in their own image.

The best way to do some damage to the progressive agenda is simply to read history from the original sources. Not quotes, the whole thing. That's also where they get us, is in the quotes. Again, here is the link to the full text.