[Last month, Democratic presidential candidate Robert “Beto” O’Rourke said our nation was founded on white supremacy.  What an uninformed and inflammatory statement.  Here is some information that Mr. O’Rourke may want to brush up on–the truth about the founding of our nation.]

Modern Socialist Democrats love to claim that America was founded on racism and white supremacy. The problem with their argument is that the concept of race is nowhere to be found in America’s founding documents. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are racially inclusive documents.

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If a foreign visitor had read the Constitution at the time of its enactment, they would not have known slavery existed in America. There is no mention of slaves or slavery. There is no reference to individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity or skin color. Instead of using race classifications, the Constitution speaks of “citizens,” “persons” and “other persons.”. . .

Dr. King and Frederick Douglas Understood This

There is nothing in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution to indicate that the freedoms guaranteed therein do not apply to every individual. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood this, and in his stirring “I Have a Dream” speech, he challenged America, not to dispense with its founding documents, but instead, to live up to them. Speaking from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he declared his hope,

That one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

Understanding the Three-Fifths Clause

One of the most misunderstood sections of the Constitution is the “three-fifths clause” in which only three-fifths of the slave population of southern states would be counted for representation. This had nothing to do with assigning value based on race. This was related to keeping the southern states from gaining too much power in the new Congress where the number of representatives from each state would be tied to the population of that state.

The southern states wanted to include their slave populations to gain more representatives and more power, even though slaves could not vote. The three-fifths compromise was a way of diminishing their influence in the new Congress in that it counted only three-fifths of the slave population for purposes of representation. . . .

The “Moral Outrage” Against Slavery

By the time of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, virtually all the founders agreed with John Adams, who said, “Every measure of prudence … ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States. I have throughout my whole life held the practice of slavery in abhorrence.”

The brilliant historian Dr. Thomas Sowell, who happens to be black, has confirmed this, saying, “Among those who turned against slavery in the18th century were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and other American leaders.”

Nonetheless, at the Constitutional Convention, concessions were made toward the southern states out of concern that a union could not succeed if all Thirteen Colonies were not included. Sowell has said, “But don’t pretend that it was an easy answer—or that those who grappled with the dilemma in the 18th century were some special villains when most leaders and most people around the world saw nothing wrong with slavery.”

In formulating the Constitution, the founders were both careful and precise in the use of language. Unlike modern progressive socialists who see everything through the prism of race, they purposely avoided classifications based on race and skin color. Though not banning slavery in the South at the time, they put in place the legal mines that would eventually blow it up.

The Constitution is a Racially Inclusive Document

Yes, modern Socialist Democrats love to insist that America was founded on racist principles. They are wrong. David Azerrad was correct when he said, “The argument that the Constitution is racist suffers from one fatal flaw: the concept of race does not exist in the Constitution” (Hyatt, Pilgrims and Patriots, 161-62).

The founders did not invent slavery. They were born into a world where slavery already existed. They were not perfect, and it can be argued that they conceded too much at the time. Nonetheless, they did an admirable job of formulating founding documents that would eventually eradicate that horrendous institution and make America “the land of the free and home of the brave,” with people of every race and ethnicity wanting to live here.

(Excerpted from Charisma News, article by Dr. Eddie Hyatt.)