I recently read the book "Our Sacred Honor" by William J. Bennett.  The book consisted of letters written by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and many other great men associated with the founding of our nation.  The book covered the time period from the first conception of the Constitution to just before the Civil War.  I found it fascinating that almost all of the founding fathers, including George Washington,  not only predicted the Civil War but were not far off in guessing the time frame that it would take place and were equally accurate in defining some of the causes of the war.  In this article, I will present excerpts of some of their original letters in an attempt to demonstrate to the reader the incredible insight and wisdom of the exceptional men who created what we know as our United States of America.  I hope you find their thoughts as interesting as I did.

The author of the book William Bennett wrote...

"In 1775, the population of America was 2.5 million.  About one-fifth of all Americans were black, and nearly all of them were slaves living in the South.  In Virginia, slaves were half the population, while in South Carolina, slaves outnumbered white inhabitants, constituting two-thirds of the population.  At the time that Jefferson declared that all men were free and equal, about half a million were not.

Jefferson attempted to protest the wrongs of slavery in our founding document, the Declaration of Independence.  John Adams believed that the passages condemning slavery were the best parts of the Declaration.  Yet the Southern states strongly opposed Jefferson's position and would not vote for independence so long as it was included.  It was stricken from the final draft."

"Would anyone believe I am the master of slaves of my own purchase!  I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living here without them.  I will not, I cannot justify it.  However culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and lament my want of conformity to them."

"I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.  Everything we do is to improve it, if it happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery.  If we cannot reduce this wished-for reformation to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with lenity.  It is a debt we owe to the purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance with that law which warrants slavery.

I know not when to stop.  I could say many things on the subject, a serious view of which gives a gloomy perspective to future times."

"Is the importation of slaves permitted by the new Constitution for twenty years?  By the old, it is permitted forever.  It were doubtless to be wished that the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves, had not been postponed until the year 1808, or rather that it had been suffered to have immediate operation.  But it is not difficult to account either for this restriction on the general government, or for the manner in which the whole clause is expressed.  It ought to be considered as a great point gained in favor of humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate forever within these States, a traffic which has so long and so loudly upbraided the barbarism of modern policy; that within that period it will receive a considerable discouragement from the federal Government and may be totally abolished by a concurrence of the few States which continue the unnatural traffic, in the prohibitory example which has been given by so great a majority of the Union.  Happy would it be for the unfortunate Africans, if an equal prospect lay before them, of being redeemed from the oppressions of their European brethren!  Attempts have been made to pervert this clause into an objection against the Constitution, by representing it on one side as a criminal toleration of an illicit practice, and on another, as calculated to prevent voluntary and beneficial emigrations from Europe to America.  I mention these misconstructions, not with a view to give them an answer, for they deserve none; but as specimens of the manner and spirit in which some have thought fit to conduct their opposition to the proposed government."

Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance
"There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; Provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid."

"This is to raise two, three or four battalions of Negroes; with the assistance of the government of that state, by contributions from the owners in proportion to the number they possess."

John Jay wrote to R. Lushington on March 15, 1786...

"It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished.  The honor of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people.  To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.

Whatever may be the issue of the endeavors of restrictions with which narrow policy opposes the extension of Divine benevolence.  It is pleasant, my Lord, to dream of these things, and I often enjoy that pleasure; but though, like some of our other dreams, we may wish to see them realized, yet the passions and prejudices of mankind forbid us to expect it."

Please remember that what you have read above was written almost 100 years before the Civil War.  For additional reading on this subject look for these books... "The Coming Storm" that was published in the late 1850's and mentions the same founding fathers and another, appropriately is called "Years of  Madness" and was published in 1951.