Faith Colbath
Extra Credit Thurgood Marshall’s writing, The Constitution; Past and Present, starts out by explaining that the United States will be celebrating the Constitution’s bicentennial that year, 1987. The celebration will not only celebrate the Constitution but also the Founders of the document. Marshall assumes that most of the population will proudly commemorate the Framers for forming a free nation. He was invited to celebrate the historical document and he readily declined the offer. There are several reasons for this, that all revolve around slavery in the early days of our nation. First of all, he mentions the first three words of the Constitution, “We the People”, and says that these people are only the people that are free excluding all African Americans. Slaves and women were both put under men, who thought they were the people who mattered the most. The lower House of Congress would only be represented by free people and three-fifths of other people, those who were not free. He depicts the Framers as people only interested in themselves when it comes to slavery, knowing that their wealth came from it. The bicentennial speakers, he assumes, will simply state that the Constitution was a compromise that otherwise would not exist if slavery had been abolished then. Marshall goes on to explain that the Constitution did not survive the civil war and instead the 14th Amendment came, which ensured the rights specified in the Constitution to all mankind under all circumstances. The Founders, he explains, could have never …show more content…
In his case, it has changed for the better concerning slavery, but it took decades to get to get to that point. It is evident that it is a changing document because, even after he wrote the paper, the 27th amendment was added it
Extra Credit Thurgood Marshall’s writing, The Constitution; Past and Present, starts out by explaining that the United States will be celebrating the Constitution’s bicentennial that year, 1987. The celebration will not only celebrate the Constitution but also the Founders of the document. Marshall assumes that most of the population will proudly commemorate the Framers for forming a free nation. He was invited to celebrate the historical document and he readily declined the offer. There are several reasons for this, that all revolve around slavery in the early days of our nation. First of all, he mentions the first three words of the Constitution, “We the People”, and says that these people are only the people that are free excluding all African Americans. Slaves and women were both put under men, who thought they were the people who mattered the most. The lower House of Congress would only be represented by free people and three-fifths of other people, those who were not free. He depicts the Framers as people only interested in themselves when it comes to slavery, knowing that their wealth came from it. The bicentennial speakers, he assumes, will simply state that the Constitution was a compromise that otherwise would not exist if slavery had been abolished then. Marshall goes on to explain that the Constitution did not survive the civil war and instead the 14th Amendment came, which ensured the rights specified in the Constitution to all mankind under all circumstances. The Founders, he explains, could have never …show more content…
In his case, it has changed for the better concerning slavery, but it took decades to get to get to that point. It is evident that it is a changing document because, even after he wrote the paper, the 27th amendment was added it