Although the Constitution called for ending the importation of slaves by 1808, the Southerners were compensated by Section 2 of Article IV, which stated: “No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.”
The word slavery was not mentioned in the Constitution because such men as Washington, Madison, Franklin and others had hoped to abolish slavery, but were forced into the compromises that made it possible for the Southern states to join the union. They expected that the Southern states would phase out this inhuman institution over a period of time.
But the opposite happened, and the Democratic Party, which was formally organized in 1831, became the pro-slavery party. While the importation of slaves was forbidden, the population of slaves grew dramatically because of deliberate slave breeding. The children of slaves were automatically considered slaves. Many a white slave owner could thereby increase the value of his slave property by impregnating his female slaves.
Opposing the Democrats was the Whig Party, organized in 1839. But because the party contained within its ranks both pro-slavery Southerners and anti-slavery Northerners, the party was too divided to be effective. They were gradually overshadowed by a new political group, the Republican Party, manned by determined abolitionists. The contest between North and South now became far more bitter and well defined.
The National Democratic Convention met at Baltimore in June of 1852. Among its resolutions were the following: “All efforts of Abolitionists or others made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of Slavery” will “endanger the stability and permanency of the Union.”…”Resolved, That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the Slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made.”
At the Democratic National Convention in Cincinnati in June, 1856, the party reiterated its repudiation of all attempts by abolitionists to interfere with the institution of slavery, which, if not stopped, “must end in civil war and disunion.”
Meanwhile, agitation for secession on the part of the South had been growing to the point where most Southerners saw no solution to the problem other than seceding from the United States. Sen. Iveson of Georgia, in an 1860 address to his constituents said: “Slavery must be maintained in the Union if possible, out of it if necessary; peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must.”
In other words, the South had decided that it preferred preserving the institution of slavery over preserving the United States of America. Slavery was more important than union.
The election of Democrat James Buchanan as president in 1857 gave Southerners the opportunity to plan secession with the help of Buchanan’s Southern members of his cabinet. For example, John B. Floyd, secretary of war, managed to transfer huge amounts of military stores and equipment from Northern armories to Southern ones in preparation for war. As a result the North was rendered defenseless.
When the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln for president in 1860, the slave states decided that the time had come for quitting the Union, setting the stage for Civil War. The Southern Democrats, so totally imbued with their own power to destroy the Union, did not know what they were up against in the person of Abraham Lincoln. By 1865, by the time the Civil War was over, the South lay in ruins and slavery had been abolished. The Democratic Party then became the party of racial segregation and Jim Crow.
And what is the Democratic Party today? It is the party of left-wing socialism, dumbed-down public education, impotence toward Iran, amnesty for illegal immigrants, abortion on demand, gay marriage, more taxes for everyone, bans on oil drilling and “change you can believe in?” As the French say, “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose,” the more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.
Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of nine books on education including NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, The Whole Language/OBE Fraud, and The Victims of Dick & Jane and Other Essays. Of NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, former U.S. Senator Steve Symms of Idaho said: “Every so often a book is written that can change the thinking of a nation. This book is one of them.” Mr. Blumenfeld’s columns have appeared in such diverse publications as Reason, The New American, The Chalcedon Report, Insight, Education Digest, Vital Speeches, WorldNetDaily, and others.
