AMERICA'S COLORBLIND FOUNDING DOCUMENTS

"I have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In his fight for racial equality in America, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. found an ally in America's founding documents, and they became foundational for his cause. This is because America's founding documents are colorblind. Neither the Declaration of Independence nor the U.S. Constitution make any reference to individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity, or skin olor. 

Instead of race classifications, the Constitution speaks of “citizens,” “persons,” and “other persons.” No mention is made of slaves or slavery. There is nothing in these documents to suggest that the freedoms they guarantee do not apply to every person. Yes, America’s founding principles are colorblind, even though her history has not been.

Dr. King's Dream and America’s Founding Documents.

Dr. King understood this, and in his stirring “I Have a Dream” speech, he challenged America, not to dispense with her founding documents, but to live up to them. Speaking with passion from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he declared,

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Then quoting from the Declaration of Independence, he proclaimed,

I have a dream 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.

Showing that he understood these freedoms to be rooted in the country’s Christian origins, Dr. King, who was himself a devout Christian, went on to say that he had a dream that one day all Americans, whether white or black, would be able to sing together the words of that Christian, patriotic hymn,

My country 'tis of Thee,
Sweet land of liberty, of Thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside,
Let freedom ring!

A Legacy of the Great Awakening

The colorblind character of America’s founding documents is a legacy of 1726 and the Great Awakening that began that year. It was in this Awakening that racial and cultural barriers were breached in Colonial America. As documented in my book, 1726, it was out of this Awakening that an anti-slavery movement burst forth and its proponents produced the moral arguments that turned America’s founders against slavery.

Because of 1726, America’s founding documents are colorblind. The famous abolitionist, Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), understood this and argued that the language of the founding documents must be understood as applying to everyone. “Any one of these provisions in the hands of abolition statesmen, and backed by a right moral sentiment,” he declared, “would put an end to slavery in America (Hyatt, 1727: The Year that Defined America, 122).

The Challenge of Being Inclusive Without Affirming Sin

This absence of any mention of slavery in the Constitution was purposeful. James Madison, the document’s chief architect, said, “The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men” (Hyatt, 1727: The Year that Defined America, 123).

This shows that the Founders grappled with how to bring the southern states into the Union without affirming slavery. They knew that if the southern states were not included in the Union, they would align with the British or other European powers and be a constant thorn in the side of the new nation. How to include them without affirming slavery was the challenge.

In the end, concessions were made at the Convention in order to bring in all thirteen colonies. Dr. Thomas Sowell has said,

But don’t pretend that it was an easy answer—or that those who grappled with the dilemma in the 18^th century were some special villains when most leaders and most people around the world saw nothing wrong with slavery (Hyatt, 1727: The Year that Defined America, 123).

The Three-Fifths Clause

One of the most misunderstood sections of the Constitution is the so-called 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, as many have alleged. Instead, it 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 in the census in order to gain the most possible representatives and as much power as possible, even though they did not allow slaves to vote. The three-fifths compromise was a way of diminishing the influence of the South in the new Congress in that it counted only three-fifths of the slave population for purposes of representation.

Even here, the Founders did not use the word "slaves" or “slavery," but instead, used the term "other persons." Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) described this refusal of the Founders to acknowledge slavery in the Constitution as being like a man who hides an ugly, cancerous growth until the time comes that it can be eradicated from his body.

That the three-fifths clause was not about assigning value based on race is confirmed by the fact that, at the time of the Constitutional Convention, there were at least 60,000 free blacks in northern and southern states who were counted the same as whites when it came to determining the number of representatives to Congress. Additionally, it is important to note that there were as many as ten states where blacks had full voting privileges (Hyatt, 1727: The Year that Defined America, 124).

Moral Outrage at the Constitutional Convention

At the Constitutional Convention concessions were made toward the southern states to bring them into the Union. Many, however, were not happy with these concessions. For example, Virginian, George Mason (1725-1792), argued for the immediate outlawing of slavery even if some states opted out. Warning of God’s judgement, if they allowed slavery to continue, he said,

Every master is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven upon a country. As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities (Hyatt, 1727: The Year that Defined America, 125).

Many see the Civil War, with the loss of 700,000 lives, as the judgment predicted by Mason. Thomas Jefferson shared Mason’s concern, for it was in the context of the continued existence of slavery, that he wrote:

God who gave us life, gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that His justice cannot sleep forever (Hyatt, 1727: The Year that Defined America, 125).

The Founders Dealt Slavery a Mortal Blow

With this sort of Biblical and moral opposition to slavery at the time of the nation's founding, it is easy to see how slavery’s days were already numbered. This moral outrage would flower into the Abolition Movement of the next century and finally would lead to the abolishment of slavery after a Great Prayer Awakening (1856-1857) and Civil War (Hyatt, 1727: The Year that Defined America, 126).

Demonstrating that they were serious about abolishing slavery, the Founders outlawed slavery in the newly formed Northwest Territory. They also worded the Constitution in such a way that the rights guaranteed therein could not be denied to anyone based on race or skin color. In formulating the founding documents, the Founders dealt slavery a mortal blow, from which it would not recover.

They Saw the Hand of God

The task of formulating a Constitution that would gain the support of all 13 colonies was truly a herculean task. At one point, the Convention was on the verge of disbanding due to unresolved regional disputes. It was at this point that Benjamin Franklin called the delegates to prayer, quoting Psalm 127:1, Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.

Indeed, there was a consensus among the Founders that America had come forth providentially by the Hand of God. Reflecting on the completed work of the Constitutional Convention, James Madison (1751–1836) declared,

It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in critical stages of the Revolution (Hyatt, 1727: The Year that Defined America, 127).

Benjamin Rush, the physician from Philadelphia who signed the Declaration of Independence and led the state of Pennsylvania in ratifying the Constitution, was even more blunt in his belief that God had influenced the formulation of the Constitution. Rush, who called slavery a “hydra sin” and helped found the first abolition society in America, declared that he;

As much believed the hand of God was employed in this work as that God had divided the Red Sea to give a passage to the children of Israel or had fulminated the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai (Hyatt, 1727: The Year that Defined America, 123).

America Is Not Racist

There are racists in America, but America is not racist. Her founding documents are colorblind. David Azerrad is thus correct in saying, “The argument that the Constitution is racist suffers from one fatal flaw: the concept of race does not exist in the Constitution (Hyatt, 1727: The Year that Defined America, 127).

Dr. King understood this and relied on America’s founding documents in his fight for Civil Rights. It is why he could say, "I have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream."

This article is derived from Dr. Eddie Hyatt's latest book, 1726, available from Amazon and his website at www.eddiehyatt.com. He is also the founder of the "1726 Project" whose goal is to spread the message of America's birth out of the First Great Awakening and call on believers everywhere to pray for another Great Awakening across the land.