Welcome you offer todays talk. I wish to welcome all of your viewers watching us at home on cspan today as well as is watching us live from the National Archives history channel. Before we get to the topic, id ofe to highlight a couple our new programs coming of the next few weeks. The 220 anniversary of the u. S. Constitution next month, a number of programs and special events. 26, thesday, september president of czars. Livewill also be streamed over the history channel. On tuesday, october 2, the andonal archives will host. Uthor for his latest work about these and are other programs, please visit our website. If youre unable to attend in person and would like to get an autographed copy of the book, please call the archive and dont forget to request the 50 discount. Todays lecture is the author of for liberty and equality, the life and times of the declaration of independence. As well as being an author, he is an associate professor of law in chicago. His other books are we shall overcome a history of civil rights and the law and how they think paved the way for social movements. Written in slavery and reconstruction, the 13th amendment of american freedom. The subjects of his articles range from the American Revolution, civil war and reconstruction, legal history, civil rights, constitutional interpretation, and the regulation of civil commitments. They have appeared or will appear in a variety of reviews across the country including the columbia law review. The law review, Boston College law review, harvard journal of legislation, connecticut law review, and wake forest law review. He is a frequent presenter nationwide on issues involving constitutional law, civil rights, reconstruction, and hate speech legislation. Please drawn me in welcoming alexander to the National Archives. [applause] thank you so much for that kind introduction, i really appreciate you coming out and making time either visiting d. C. Or in the lunch hour to hear this presentation. Signing,time of its the declaration of independence has set the standard for fair governance as far as individual rights and the common good. Becamehe physical copy faded during president monroes on a wet leaf that took a bunch of the ink off of a document, it continues to define us as a people. Indeed, the copy that is housed here has more signatures than the original had. The original was only signed by president of the Continental Congress and the secretary of the Continental Congress. The version which you can see here under our armed guard contains 56 signatures, including that of future , the greatohn Adams International accolade, intellectual and inventor benjamin franklin, and Richard Hillary week who was first to put forward a motion for independence in the cousin of congress. Version here we know cannot have more signatures than the original because it was published immediately after and because of the timeline. For instance, the new york delegates to the cousin of the congress did not even receive permission to vote for independence until july 9. Thousands of pennsylvania delegates who signed the declaration of independence were elected to congress 16 days after july 4. And what is even more curious for that one of the pennsylvania delegates who signed the declaration of independence and a number of delegates from delaware voted against the declaration of independence on july 4 and yet signed it. Perhaps even more curious, one of the delegates of baltimore was present on july 4, but didnt sign until 1777 or perhaps 1781, we are not sure. That we treasure . I think it is the value that are encompassed in that written text. The declaration of independence set the egos for the United States ethos for the United States and equality for over two centuries and inspire those who have fought against racism and chauvinism. Our understanding of the declarations message is not static, it has been for centuries of Progressive Social movements, interpretations, and the demand that the universal statement of rights extends to irrespective of their social status or physical characteristics. The phrase about inalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and a variety of other things that we remember as a people have gotten into our history and have become the guideposts for federal governments as well as representative of democracy. Contrary to the claims of other historians in the recent book for liberty and equality, the life and times of the declaration of independence, ari argue that from the very leaders and ordinary people alike understood the declaration of independence to , because itst contained a manifesto, demanding that the government established laws and institutions so they are most positively able to affect the peoples safety and happiness. Samuel adams told the state ofembly the representatives the United States agreed that all of them are treated equal and are endowed by the creator with certain unalienable rights, the liberty and equality would be the political creed of the United States. The declaration of independence wisely became part of the collective American Forum because Thomas Jefferson had to deal with political fraud of his day, and at that time, politics was everywhere. In public squares, newspaper pages. Cspan is a vehicle that has become very much what the newspapers were of that day. Formulation goes to the mainstream political thought of his day and has been kept in collective conscience. In drafting the declaration of independence, he accepted universal concepts of national beens as well as the have with other delegates of the continent of congress for philosophers like john locke. Great,hese ideals were reality was very much different. Madison, the cousin of the future president james madison, wrote that the natural equality of man is the only basis on which universal justice and freedom confirm the new built and secured. Madison, these National Rights did not apply to all humanity because he was a slave owner, as was jeffersons rub the course of his life. Others proved to be much truer to those ideals and even its author. An instance, a speaker at 1800 Independence Day said that those who on empower should not rely what was a compass and the revolution that all men are created equal, and only accepted for half of humanity. That declaration of liberty and must apply to all people, men and women. She also mourn for the fate of africa in the 1800s, which had suffered murders, robberies, and and the punishment of endless slavery. Declaration of independence, she exclaimed, where art thou now . The adoption of the declaration of independence did not bring us with bending to slavery. Although most americans who were, after all, raised with the thought that the subordination of women and blacks was a natural fact, they did not grasp of further recognition reversal rights of human beings that we are all endowed by the creator with inalienable rights. Many, those of the founding generation and of the generations that followed understood the humanitarian acknowledgment that inspired the revolution that is incompatible with slavery. In recent years, several books on the declaration of independence had mistakenly stated that they had no influence on the war of 1812. If you have a chance to read that book, youll see that the historical record does not fare this out. In fact, ordinary people and not only akers justification for empty rhetoric. A writer but that the proclamation that all men have inalienable rights must refer to blacks as much as whites. Who exploited them for forced labor were ridiculously wicked. They published does go sidebyside columns. He showed the declaration of independence and on the other side he showed hypocrisy of continued slavery despite the availability of these principles in the mainstream thought. Society, they adopted a declaration into the 1833 with then American Antislavery Society which laid the declaration of independence at the cornerstone of its ideas for slavery in the United States. Untilattern carried on the 19th century abolitionist in the depictions of the early 19th century. The message of the abolitionists came through in sermons, petitions, speeches, editorials, and artistic renditions. An ingenious artist created a window shade in which on one side, the American Eagle is holding the declaration of independence in his talents and on the other side talons, and on the other side are two slaves praying for the fulfillment of its promises. At the time, when opponents of slavery cannot turn to the constitution, the declaration of independence was their official source of national guarantee for equality. Itlitionists believe that imposed a National Obligation on andemancipation of slaves, the contemplated this with a variety of protections on slavery that existed in the constitution, such as the 3 5 clause, the implication clause, as well as the fugitive slave clause. There simply was no comparable protection of slavery in the declaration of independence, so for abolitionist, the declarations became the core legal statement. Just to give one example of this wasd, a Railroad Conductor denouncing the constitution for granting one representative for every 70,000 slaves. Clause, politicians entered Political Office only as lincoln said to tighten the chains of cruel oppression. This denied slaves any effective representation. The principles of the declaration of independence as a number of the antislavery society, and also because of the slave insurrection in the constitution, the clause which require the federal government to suppress any state rebellion. Its interesting, the contract the contrasts. Consideringy were arguing that slavery was a positive good. Documents about the of statement of natural rights existed since the time of the revolution. Servitude was as natural as any other form of forced labor subordination. Apologists regarding these truths to be no more than exaggerated statements. Just as the declaration of independence did not apply, they said, to wealth, education, or skill, so to the declaration was completely irrelevant to slavery. This,eatest apologist of South Carolina senator calhoun mocked the declaration of independence for claiming equality of human races, in the plural. Errorsidered the inherent inherited from british philosophy. Others took a different position, they acknowledged that their human quality was in fact a truth, but they simply thought it did not apply to blacks. Sm was not thes only area that found the declaration to be so problematic. They dont close allies in the first they found close allies in the first wave of feminisms. Relied on a more inclusive version of natural rights. They understood that the statement of the quality applied to women and men. The American Revolution which was to throw up tierney and create Representative Democracy could only come about if states repealed all unequal laws about the ownership of property and the ability to have it, boating rights, and the ability to have collective office, to hold collective office. Playeclarations principles a prominent role in arguably the most important humans Rights Convention in the United States 1848 in convened in seneca, new york. A group of many women adopted the declaration which use the declaration of independence as a touchstone, as its baseline and develop a more inclusive version that said all men and women were created equal. The declaration of independence might have become a forgotten document, a statement of sovereignty, a statement of dependence, telling the world that we are an independent nation and asking for their Financial Support of countries or perhapsand france in its original, to be kept in some more prominent place. Instead, the document became much more. Abolitionists and women suffer suffragistsens referred to it as a statement of principle. Lawsde the social advocacy of those areas, the document was also prominent in mainstream politics. In the First Quarter of the 19th century, various politically disempowered groups relied on the manifesto for change. The causes ranged from civil rights to speech, the better Prison Movement as well as the Suffrage Movement. Without any constitutional recourse and without most of the time even something for politicians to turn to, they used public discourse, electioneering, editorial writing, religious sermonizing in order to argue for cultural and legal change. The declaration of independence was a recognizable statement of government responsibilities. While the original constitution and the bill of rights used technical jargon about legal searches and seizures, juries, due process of law and a variety of other things, most people found that the liberation statements of 1776 were appealing toward many people. The Suffrage Movement and one of the most compelling cases for securing the rights proclaimed in the declaration. Laborersginning, earned too low a wage to be able to vote in state which require property in order to participate in the vote. Movementnhood suffrage was meant to vindicate the principles of equality of representation contained in the declaration of independence, because it was the plural and twisted mostess deprived from its rules. In 1830, five out of six people in new england who were in jail were there because of debt they owned, many of that less than 20. Senator fromon, a kentucky, was the leader of this movement who said that this is an unfair thing that is also completely inequitable to the poor. Change was brought by activists who relied on the document for widespread populism which brought Andrew Jackson into politics in the presidency. Advocates also argued that the meaning of the declaration of independence when engaging in conflict about whether or not to spare the legal expand the legal recognition of slavery to new territories. Out began to put themselves with territory that had been with the most economic aspect of it even with the entrance of missouri and whether or not, as it wanted to coming as a slave state. Congressmen of the state of new york or massachusetts preferred which the understood applied to all people with the subordination and deprivation which was intrinsic to slavery. Not holds argument did as missouri entered the union as a slave state, the grave message of the declaration of policy development was unmistakable. 0rguments came up in 185 following the mexicanamerican war when the u. S. Acquired enormous territory out west and the question arose whether new states could end of the union like california, arizona, new enter, and colorado could owning slaves or whether the territory had to remain free. The free party for one condemned the hypocrisy of college politicians who asserted their devotion to the principles of human rights and proclaimed them through the declaration of independence, even as they backed legislation to introduce slavery into the newly acquired states. At the core of this heated debate was whether or not these new states membership had to be conditioned on the human rights principles which were encompassed in the declaration of independence. About thest outcry compromise of 1850. With the fugitive slave clause which wayted an extremely minimal of processing and courts, did not provide jury trials, and required ordinary citizens to ses who had of pos to gather and forcefully collect these alleged felons and put them into jail. Before that went into effect, an oute congressman pointed that the declaration of independence attributed one of the causes of the revolution to the fact that it denied jury trials to the common men, and here is the fugitive slave act for that permission denied jury trials despite its tremendous effect on individuals. And then that it was creating a system of domineering that was even worse than that which colonists had to deal with in 1776. Passage of the fugitive slave act triggered a positive response that relied heavily on the statements of the declaration of independence. York, a man w a racially mixed man who was intured asked abolitionist the name of the declaration of independence and god, why am i bound thus in a free country . The irony of the situation was not lost on the members of the new york Abolitionist Society who asked rhetorically what was his crime . A love of liberty . Which we all declared to be every mans inalienable right, and the slave was quoting the declaration of independence in chains. Shis humanitarian understanding of the declaration of independence had taken root in the free states. In the south, on the other hand, Jefferson Davis had a very different conception of the declaration. He thought it was primarily about executive tierney and state rights. His followers and supporters believed that bars to the introduction of slavery in new states were the very type of tyranny against which the colonies had fought and had rejected when they were under british rule. Indeed, when president lincoln took power, data is compared him to george the third with the view that lincoln was as much of an autocrat and that the succession was comparable as it had been when the colonists freed themselves of england. What was missing from this picture was any sense that White Supremacy was against the principles of equality and rights contained in the declaration of independence. Sectional compromises only postponed the inevitable conflict in the Supreme Court, in an effort to resolve the dispute, could not help. Indeed, the infamous dred scott tawnyon written by robert advocated sectional conflict by issuing a politically charged opinion that claimed blacks were not citizens and not part of the american compact of the declaration of indepen