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The existence of racism at the time of the Founding isn't unique to America – it had traditionally been the universal norm for human society.
What is singularly remarkable about the US is that we were the first country in the history of the world where that was *hypocritical.*
What is singularly remarkable about the US is that we were the first country in the history of the world where that was *hypocritical.*
This is illustrated perfectly in Abraham Lincoln's 1855 letter to his slave-owning friend – "when it comes to that, I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty...without the base alloy of hypocrisy."
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln2/1:339?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln2/1:339?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
It made us hypocrites because the Founders insisted, against all odds and historic circumstances, that we were capable of doing better – they refused to accept that life inevitably had to be the way that it always had been for 99.9 percent of the human population.
And they were willing, ultimately, to die for that idea – "to decide the important question," as Hamilton wrote in Federalist 1, of "whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice."
We still don't talk about this enough! Defending this truth has to be a preeminent goal for the modern conservative movement – if we forget the meaning of the Founding, or allow the critical race theory narrative to win the day, we're lost.
