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Originally Posted by dksuddeth
study history some more, especially world history. When one side has all the guns, it's easy to commit massacres.
If you'll notice, the bill of rights mentions nothing about slaves or women. It specifically refers to individual rights. As time went on and slavery came to be regarded as oppression, it was remedied with another amendment (13th). When the southern states grudgingly dealt without slavery, they still treated blacks as second/third class people, so along came the 14th amendment.
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I don't know why you keep referencing the "founders" or "framers" intent.
First of all, our constitution was made through a lengthy process of collaberation and compromise. There was no fundamental agreement among everyone on what was ultimately penned. It simply doesn't make any sense to quote the thoughts or musings of one or three drafters and call it good or representative of what the ratifying body believed in.
Secondly, your statement that the bill of rights didn't include women and blacks misses the point. The language and thought behind the language excludes women and blacks. Any man or person mentioned should be understood literally, as it was when it was written. Person's, for the purposes of the constitution, were property owning males. Women weren't included, couldn't own property, couldn't vote (until 1920 with the 19th amendment). Blacks weren't persons either, instead defined, codified within the constitution itself, as 3/5ths a person. None of your commentary excusing the fact that the "founding fathers" didn't conceive of women and blacks as having any of the "natural rights" you claim they codified holds up to historical scrutiny.