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President Lincoln, Civil Rights & The Supreme Court
From: Webmaster (webmaster@kids-right.org)
This is a message from a mailing list, members@kids-right.org Unsubscribe instructions at bottom of message. ====================================================================== Good People & People of Faith, This message contains information on: 1. President Lincoln - His attitude toward Civil Rights. 2. Working for Change - Some quotable quotes. 1. President Lincoln - His attitude toward Civil Rights (a Quotation). ------------------------------------------------------- This was submitted by Rich Eichinger (another coordinator for the group), contact@AKidsRight.Org. It is a great quote from a President who was famous for his "common sense." For those of you who may have forgotten some high school history, his message is a response to the "Dred Scott" decision of the Supreme Court: In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed suit for their freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court. This suit began an eleven-year legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a landmark decision declaring that Scott remain a slave. It also made abundantly clear that slaves were "chattel" (just property), and could be taken by their owners to any State in the Union. This decision contributed to rising tensions between the free and slave states just before the American Civil War. (It should also be a 'reality check' for many of us who expect a "magic bullet" Court Decision to make everything better.) Recently, I learned that the Domestic Relations Abstention Doctrine" is the precedent that allows some members of Congress to say that the Federal Government is prevented from protecting inalienable rights of parents and children and it's up to each Family Law Court in each separate state to determine our basic human rights. Many of us know there is something drastically wrong with this perspective on the US Constitution. The doctrine pre-dates the Civil War when Chief Justice Taney's Supreme court denied Dred Scott and his family a life of freedom. Abraham Lincoln (future President) gave a speech, June 26, 1857, in which he described what was wrong with Justine Taney's opinion. When you read the following excerpted paragraph from his speech, just imagine that Lincoln was talking about Mothers and Fathers wanting to be with their kids. ------- "Chief Justice Taney, in his opinion in the Dred Scott case, admits that the language of the Declaration [of Independence] is broad enough to include the whole human family, but he and Judge Douglas argue that the authors of that instrument did not intend to include negroes, by the fact that they did not at once, actually place them on an equality with the whites. Now this grave argument comes to just nothing at all, by the other fact, that they did not at once, or ever afterwards, actually place all white people on an equality with one or another. And this is the staple argument of both the Chief Justice and the Senator [Judge Douglas], for doing this obvious violence to the plain unmistakable language of the Declaration. I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral developments, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness, in what respects they did consider all men created equal: 'equal in "certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' This they said, and this meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet, that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere. The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain; and it was placed in the Declaration, not for that, but for future use. Its authors meant it to be, thank God, it is now proving itself, a stumbling block to those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant when such should re-appear in this fair land and commence their vocation they should find left for them at least one hard nut to crack." Future President Abraham Lincoln, June 26, 1857. See the entire speech at: http://www.founding.com/library/lbody.cfm?id=321&parent=63 2. Working for Change - some other quotes. ------------------------------------------ There are many, many great ideas for reform! For many people "Family Law Reform" can become a theoretical or academic question, fascinating to discuss, write articles, and mostly get 'angry' about -- what we ALSO need to make reform happen is Mothers and Fathers willing to demonstrate their love for their kids by personal sacrifice. Just ask yourself a simple question, "Why do some pour over the Gospels of Jesus Christ? Why do people now study his every word?" Is it because of what he "said", or because of what he "did" that gives his words meaning? ---------------- "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do." -- Edward Everett Hale American author and Unitarian clergyman, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1839. He was the nephew of Edward Everett. The pastor of a church in Worcester, Mass. (1842), and of one in Boston (1856), Hale was widely influential as a reformer and a prolific writer of magazine articles. From 1903 until his death he was chaplain of the U.S. Senate. His famous short novel, The Man without a Country, was published anonymously in the Atlantic Monthly in 1863 ---------------- "A single, seemingly powerless person who dares to cry out the word of truth and to stand behind it with all of his person and all of his life, ready to pay a high price, has, surprisingly, greater power, though formally disenfranchised, than do thousands of anonymous voters." --Vaclav Havel (Former President of Czechoslovakia) Czech dramatist and essayist, president of Czechoslovakia (1989) and the Czech Republic (1993). The most original Czech dramatist to emerge in the 1960s, Havel soon antagonized the political power structure by focusing on the senselessness and absurdity of mechanized, totalitarian society. As a leading spokesman for the dissident group Charter 77, he was imprisoned (1979) by the Czechoslovak Communist regime, and his plays were banned. He was the principal spokesman for the Civic Forum, an opposition group, when it succeeded in forcing (1989) the Communist party to share power, and he became interim president of Czechoslovakia. Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia after the collapse of Communism in 1990; he resigned in 1992 in response to the impending dissolution of Czechoslovakia. He was elected president of the new Czech Republic in 1993 and reelected in 1998. ================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list at anytime, send email to Majordomo@kids-right.org with the following 1 line in the BODY of the message (Subject is ignored). unsubscribe members
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