-1883 U.S. Supreme Court Dred Scott decision
-U.S. Supreme Court struck down the 1875 civil rights laws that prohibited segregation and racial discrimination
-it would be 70 years that the Supreme Court would relent to undo its pro-segregation decision by reinstating part of the intent of the Republican civil rights law of 1875
-Rep. John Roy Lynch, Mississippi Congressman, had grown up a slave until freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863
-Speaker of the House, MIssissippi, received presidential appointments from Presidents Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley
John R Lynch:
-appointed an army officer during the Spanish-American War
-he earned a law degree
-he was the Chairman of the Republican Party in Mississippi
-he was a leader who served his State and nation
-his love for his country is evident in his patriotism
“I love the land that gave me birth; I love the Stars and Stripes. This country is where I intend to live–where I expect to die. To preserve the honor of the national flag and to maintain perpetually the Union of the States, hundreds–and I may say thousands–of noble, brave, and true-hearted colored men have fought, bled and died.”
-in 1884, he became the first black American to preside over national political convention
-he was the first black American to preside over the Republican National Convention in Chicago
Rep. J.C. Watts
-presided over 2000 Republican National Conventions
***Democrats have never had a black American preside over any of their National Democratic Conventions -Yvonne Brathwaite Burke-served as Vice-Chair of the Democratic Convention of 1972, but not its chair or even its co-chair
1876:
-following the removal of federal troops from the South after the agreement of 1876
-federal troops could not longer protect African American voting
-Republicans sought different means to preserve the rights of black Americans in the South
Ex. they posted handbills reminding southern Democrats first of the federal always protecting black voting rights and then warning of huge fines for violations
1880:
-presidential election was between Republican James A. Garfield (a minister of the Gospel, a Union general, and a war hero) vs Northern Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock (a Union general during the Civil War, but after the war he was reassigned because of his leniency toward unreconstructed Democrats)
-Northern Union Democrats such as Hancock, sought to preserve the Union but not to end slavery or grant equality of African Americans
Pg. 97-99 Handbill: Why I will not vote the Democratic ticket
https://wallbuilders.com/resource/why-i-will-not-vote-the-democratic-ticket-historical-document/
-Democrats were well known for their bloody atrocities against blacks
-Harper’s Weekly showing the major elements and influences of the Democratic Party
-Democratic Banners: Stars and Bars, Pro-Slavery, Klu Klux Klan
Movements led by Democrats:
1880s:
-”Southern Redemption” was a political movement to “redeem” the south from the Reconstruction Act and civil rights laws passed by Republicans
-laws and acts that southern Democrats believed threatened their version of a southern society
-Democrats opposed to the constitutional amendments and civil rights laws imposed on the during REconstruction that one southern newspaper (Louisville Courier-Journal)
-Southern Redemption was the effort of southern Democrats to restore the South to the racial condition of white supremacy that had existed before the Civil War
-Democratic legislatures “redeem” their States was to deprive black Americans of their political rights by the passage of State laws that restricted, removed, or even blatantly violated their civil rights
-Democrats repealed State Reconstruction laws that had suppressed Klan violence
-Rep. John Roy Lynch, who had helped pass the original federal civil rights laws and witnessed subsequent violation at the State level throughout the period of Southern Redemption
“The opposition of civil rights in the South…is confined almost exclusively to States under Democratic control.”
-Democrats understood how important it was to their survival to present blacks from voting
-white women also cut down back votes
-white women called for "suffrage" or black voting
Democratic groups:
-KKK
-Confederates
-pro-slavery forces
-Democratic leaders, like GEneral Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Klan
Democrat Activities:
-burning various books called “The Democratic Barbeque”
-the Holy Bible was included in book burning
-illustrations confirming the limiting of black voting because it was the major goal for southern Democrats
-circumvented the 14th and 15th Amendments and the numerous federal civil rights laws
-used devious and cunning methods to deprive blacks of political representation and to keep the from voting
-1st device: the poll tax, a fee paid by a voter before he could vote
-the fee was high enough that most poor were unable to pay the tax and therefore unable to vote
-southern whites and blacks were poor
-State tax: Tennessee (1870), Delaware (1873), Texas (1874), North Carolina (1876)
-2nd device: Literacy tests
-Democrats used tests to disenfranchise blacks
-the test was 20 pages long for blacks
-white Democrats proctored the test and always ruled that blacks were illiterate
-literacy tests were not a test about whether someone could read or write, but contained facts that most people could not answer
-literacy tests also included trick question
Ex. Where do presidential electors cast ballots for president?
Ex. Name the rights a person has after he has been indicted by a grand jury?
-these literacy tests were set up for failure
-3rd device: “Grandfather” clauses
-laws passed by Democratic legislatures allowing only those individuals to vote whose father or grandfather had been registered to vote prior to the passage of the 15th Amendment
-this allowed for poor whites to be able to vote but not blacks
-4th device: Suppressive election procedures
-this included the use of “multiple ballots”
-Republican voters would be required to to cast a ballot in up to eight separate locations
Or
-Republican voters may have to vote for each individual Republican on the ballot at separate locations before the whole ballot would be counted
-Democratic officials often failed to inform black voters of this complicated procedure and their ballots were therefore disqualified
-Democrats used what were called “hide-and-seek polling places”
-Democrats would move the voting boxes to unknown locations at the last minute and then posting armed guards in case any black should stumble upon the hidden voting box
-5th device: the use of so-called Black Codes (later called Jim Crow laws)
-it was meant to restrict the freedom and economic opportunities of blacks
Rep. Robert Brown Elliott:
“Among the first acts of legislation adopted by several of the (Southern Democratic) States…were laws which imposed upon the colored race onerous (oppressive) disabilities and burdens and curtailed their rights in the pursuit of life, liberty, and property to such an extent that their freedom was of little value…They (colored citizens) were, in some States, forbidden to appear in the towns…They were required to reside on and cultivate the soil–without the right to purchase or own it. They were excluded from any occupations of gain (i.e. paying jobs) and were not permitted to give testimony in the courts in any case where a white man was a party.”
1865:
-Democrats passed Black Codes to prevent blacks from holding office, owing agricultural property, entering towns without permission, serving on juries, racially intermarrying, or voting
-Democrats passed laws in flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution
-laws that prevented blacks from owning knives or firearms
-leaving black Americans exposed to Klan violence without any way to defend themselves
-Democratic South was simply trying to institute a new form of slavery through the use of these Black Codes
Rep. Richard Cain of South Carolina
“When the government of the United States had made the black man free–when Congress, in the greatness of its magnanimity (generosity) prepared to give to every class of men their rights, and in reconstructing the southern States guaranteed to all the people their liberties–you (Democrats) refused to acquiesce in (agree to) the laws enacted by Congress–you (Democrats) refused to “accept the situation”--to recognize the rights of that class of men in the land. You sought to make the reconstruction acts a nullity, if possible. You sought to re-enslave the black man by every means in your power.”
1881:
-Southern Democrats went well beyond Black Codes by imposing forced segregation
-Tennessee became the first State to do segregate schools, hospitals, public transportation, and restaurants
-other Southern States followed
***Democratic pro-segregation State laws replaced the anti-segregation federal laws passed by Republicans in 1875 where these legal standards lasted for the next 70 years
-6th device: Gerrymandering
-this is the practice of combining enough favorable parts of a district to give a pre-selected candidate or party a majority of voters, thus ensuring that the opponent cannot win in that district
-the 1st district drawn in this manner was in Massachusetts in 1812
-it was drawn to ensure candidate Elbridge Gerry would win that district hence the term “Gerry-mandering)
-this is how Democrats were able to regain State legislatures in the South at the end of Reconstruction
-districts were drawn to ensure the majority of voters were white
-Democrats prevented blacks from being elected
-black neighborhoods were split into several different districts in order to dilute the strength of that community
Ex. many blacks were elected as Republicans in Texas during the Reconstruction, but after the Reconstruction Democrats redrew voting lines so that when the last African American left the State House in 1897, not another on was elected
-it took 70 years until the federal courts struck down the way Texas Democrats drew voting lines
-the lines were redrawn to ensure Democrats won and kept two or fewer Republicans from being elected
-7th device: white-only primaries
-Democrats in Texas enacted a State law prohibiting blacks from voting in Democratic primaries
-U.S Supreme Court struck down the statewide law in 1927
-Democratic states (Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Arkansas) then enacted internal Democratic Party policies to prevent blacks from voting in Democratic primaries
-at the time, Democrats controlled every level of government in the South so ensured that no black would be elected
**1935, Supreme Courts upheld this Democratic Party Policy
**1944, the Court reversed and struck down the white-only Democratic primaries
-Eighth device: Physical intimidation and violence
Rep. Robert Brown Elliott (1871)
“The declared purpose of the Democratic Party is to defeat the ballot with the bullet and other coercive means.”
Ex. lynchings, cross burnings, church burnins, incarceration on trumped-up charges, beatings, rapes, murders, and intimidations by the Klu Klux Klan
-NInth device: revision of State constitutions
-Democratic States revised their constitutions to remove the civil rights clauses
Ex. in 1868, North Carolina rewrote the state constitution to include civil rights, but in 1876 it amended its constitution to exclude most blacks from voting
-other states followed by passing laws that negated many of the rights that had been gained (South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Virginia)
-Othere devices:
-in Alabama, 1901, to vote blacks had to own property worth at least $300 before they could vote
-Florida withheld voting rights for the "commission" of a crime-not a felony but petty crimes
Ex. unemployed blacks looking for work were often charged with vagrancy so they would lose their right to vote
-Democrats used restrictive eligibility requirements
Ex. such as residing in a State two years before voting
Ex. paying of excessive annual voter registration fees
***these were not struck down until 1971
-Democrats utilized a dozen devices to keep black Americans from voting
Rep Joseph Hayne Rainey:
“You cannot expect the Negro to rise while the Democrats are trampling upon him and his rights.”
-Fredrick Douglass agreed with Rainey and affirmed the basic Democratic hostility for those civil rights.
“In all the southern States. The 14th and 15th Amendments of the Constitution are practically of no force or effect…By means of the shotgun and midnight raid, the old master class has triumphed over the newly infranchised citizen and put the constitution under their feet….The colored people, who largely outnumber the whites and who are Republican in politics, have been banished from the ballot box and robbed of representation in the councils of the nation and…the social condition of the colored people in that section is but little above what it was in the time of slavery.”
-the unrelenting Democratic efforts to suppress black voting were successful
Ex.
1892, Birmingham Mississippi, has 18,000 blacks who lived in the city but only 30 were eligible to vote
Texas-the number of blade voters fell from 10,000 to 5,000
Alabama and Florida has a decrease of nearly 90%
1940s, only 5% of blacks in the South were registered to vote
-1965, Selma Alabama, had 99% white registered to vote compared to 1% of blacks registered to vote
***Democrats did nothing to assist civil rights
-1876-1893 Democrats has partial control of Congress for 16 years
-1983 Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected as President and Democrats gained control of both the House and Senate, for the first time since Abraham Lincoln
-1896 Supreme Court issued its Plessey vs. Ferguson decision reaffirming its pro-segregation policy
-1900 Democrats actively sought to repeal the 14th and 15th Amendments
-Democrat leader, A.W. Terrell of Texas stated the 15th Amendment guaranteeing black voting rights was “the political blunder of the century.”
Booker T. Washington
-1901 1st black man to dine in the White House with Republican President Teddy Roosevelt
-his wise counsel was snubbed by Democrat President Woodrow Wilson
-he was advisor to Republican Presidents William Taft, William Mckinley, and Teddy Rousevelt
1915:
-the pro-Klan movie “Birth of a Nation” by D.W. Griffith (son of a Confederate solder)was released
-became a recruiting tool to help the Klan to recruit members
-it was based on a book called “The Clansman” written by open racist Thomas Dixon, Jr.
-Griffith and Dixon collaborated on Woodrow Wilson’s “History of the American People” which included Wilson’s support for the Klan and its abominable practice of Southern Redemption
***Wilson even showed this racist Klan-recruiting film at the White House which was the first film ever to be shown at the White House
-Wilson enacted pro-segregation policies within his administration and under his tenure as President, the Democrat-controlled U.S. House passed a bill making it a felony for any black to marry a white in Washington D.C.
1932:
Republican Herbert Hoover running for re-election vs. Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt
-Roosevelt invited black Americans to vote Democrat
-black Americans responded with a handbill titled “Who’s a Democrat!”
**note the exclamation mark-it was not a question but a declaration
-1932 headlines intended to communicate something specific to the black Americans of that day
-a warning and reminder that there had been 2 lynchings on August 28, 1931
-1882-1964 = 4,743 individuals were lynched (3,446 blacks & 1,297 whites)
-Republicans led the efforts to pass federal anti-lynchng laws
-Democrats never did condemn lynchings
Dryer Ant-Lynching Bill
-1921, Republican Rep. Leonidas Dyer of Missouri introduced yet another federal anti-lynching bill
-it was stalled by Democrats
-NAACP reported that thre has been 28 persons murdered by lynchings in the United States since the introduction of Dyer’s bill
-Dyer’s bill was eventually killed by Democrats as was every anti-lynching bill including those occasionally introduced by Democrats
-Due to Democrats obstruction on this issue, Congress never passed an anti-lynching bill
Rev. Charles Jackson of Houston
-he was the 1st pastor in America of any color-to be televised nationally from the pulpit on a weekly basis
-he built a mega-church in Houston called the Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church with more than 5,000 families
-Pastor Jackson preached across the world
-he started hundreds of churches in America and abroad
-he wrote more than a dozen books
-traveled to foreign nations in the company of the U.S. President
-1st back man in the modern era to be invited to attend a service in a major white church in South Africa
-1st black man to be invited before the South African Parliament
Memory told to him by his mother who witnessed a mob chasing a black boy who they hanged from a bridge. She had prayed “Lord, if this baby be a boy, don’t let him hang from a bridge.”
-Pastor Jackson’s own staff member was lynched from that same bridge in 1973
-Pastor Jackson responded to the lynchings with prayer and faith in God
-the core of African American community relied on their faith in God
-Pastore Jackson and the African American communities forgave their tormentors and oppressors
Rev. Richard Allen:
-provided an excellent example of this Christian spirit
-he was a slave in Delaware
-he was sold separately from his mother
-while a slave, he became a Christian
-he began to preach on his and neighboring plantations
-he eventually obtained his freedom & served in the American Revolution
-he became a minister
-he founded the AME denomination: African Methodist Episcopal Church
“despite his grief and tragedy that he had personally experienced in his own life, he understood that bitterness only harms the innocent party rather than the guilty one.”
-Rev. Jackson followed the teachings of Christianity and forgave his persecutors–holding not bitterness or ill-will–even to this day
Rep. Richard Cain agreed:
“The bad blood of the South comes because the Negroes are Republicans. If they would only cease to be Republicans and vote the straight-out Democratic ticket there would be no trouble. Then the bad blood would sink entirely out of sight.”
Rep. Joseph Hayne Rainey:
“You gentlemen on the Democratic side of the House have voted against all the…amendments of the Constitution and the civil rights laws enforcing the same. Give the poor Negro his just rights….and give him freedom of speech, freedom of action, and the opportunity of education, that he may elevate himself to the dignity of manhood.”
“The Democratic Party may woo us, they may court us and try to get us to worship at their shrine, but I will tell the gentleman that we are Republicans by instinct, and we will be Republicans as long as God will allow our proper senses to hold sway over us.”
Frederick Douglass:
“Each colored voter of the State should say in Scripture, “may my hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth” (Psalm 127: 5-6) if ever I raise my voice or give my vote for the nominees of the Democratic Party.”
Reminders:
-Do not ever vote for Democrats
-Roosevelt tried to reach out for black votes
-the handbill reminds black voters of what Democrats had done including lynchings
1932:
-Republican President Hervbert Hoover received more than ¾ of the black votes over Democratic challenger Franklin D. Roosevelt
**Black Americans-being victims of Democrat sponsored racism and segregation—continued loyalty to Republicans well into the 20th century
Franklin Roosevelt:
-narrowly won the election
-he tried to make some changes in the direction of his Democratic Party
-he didn’t have much success for civil rights
-he did not introduce any bills to protect or promote civil rights
-he did create a “Black cabinet” to advise him on issues of importance to black Americans
-it was his platform that changed the language calling for an end to racial discrimination
***ironically, end racial discrimination of his own party
-language changed but no bill to protect or promote civil rights
-every piece of civil rights legislation was killed by Democrats in Congress
Harry S. Truman:
-1st Democratic President to make bold civil rights proposals
-he issued an order desegregating the military
-candidates running for governor in states started to criticize the Klan’s role in the southern Democratic Party
-Candidates also stated questioning Klan endorsements
-White-supremacy positions were still winning seats
-Klansmen ran on various Democratic tickets in this era and were elected
-in 1946, Truman was the first Democratic President to institute a comprehensive review of race relations
Democratic Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi:
-called on every “red blooded Anglo Saxon man in Mississippi to resort to any means” to keep blacks from voting
Truman:
-in response he introduces an aggressive 10-point civil rights legislative package that included anti-lynching law; a ban on the poll tax, and desegregation of the military
-Democrats again killed all of his proposals including his proposed Civil Rights Commission
Democratic Governor Strom Thurmond:
-part of the formed Dixiecrat Party and ran for President but did not win
-he later had a change of heart on civil rights issues
-he left the Democratic Party in 1971
-he became a Republican U.S. Senator
-he became the 1st southern Senator to hire a black in his senatorial office
-Tim Moss, the 1st African American to serve in the office of a southern Senator
Democratic National Committee:
-acknowledged the contributions of Truman in “A Brief History of the Democratic Party”
“With the election of Harry Truman, Democrats began the fight to bring down barriers of race and gender.”
****ironically-against their own party-notice the word “began”
Notice the dates on the DNC website:
-they leave out history from 1848-1900
-they skip over those years because they do not want to talk about their obstruction to civil rights true history
***according to Democrats, civil rights “began” with Truman in 1946
1952: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower
-determined to eliminate racial discrimination in all areas under his authority
-he issued executive orders halting segregation in the District of Columbia and federal agencies
-1st President to appoint a back American, Frederick Marrow, to an executive position on the White House staff
-he proposed vigorous civil rights legislative protection plan for blacks in the southern Democratic States
-Democrats in Congress were able to prevent any legislation
1956: Re-elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower
-he continued with his civil rights efforts
-the House and Senate were in Democratic control
-in 1957, he proposed a bold civil rights bill to increase black voting rights and protections
-it was blocked by Democratic Senator James Eastland of Mississippi (Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee)
-Easland is credited with killing every civil rights bill that came before his committee in the 1950s
-his committee was literally known as the burial ground for civil rights legislation in the U.S. Senate
-10 Senate Democrats and all Senate Republicans joined in effort to prevent Eisenhower’s bill from going to Eastland’s committee
-Eastland unable to kill the bill in his committee responded with other Democrats a filibuster against the civil rights bill
-Strom Thurmond gave the longest individual filibuster speech ever given in Senate history lasting over 24 hours striving to block Eisenhower’s 1957 Civil Rights Bill
***stiff Democrat opposition resulted in a watered down version of Eisenhower’s original bill
-a result was the creation of the Civil Rights Commission
1959:
-Eisenhower presented a 2nd civil rights bill to Congress
-the bill was met with opposition in the HOuse by Democratic Representatives like Howard Smith of Virginia who was on the House Rules Committee
-some Democrats sided with Republicans and were able to get the bill passed in the House
-when it reached the Senate; it was gutted by Democrats before being passed into law
-it prevented the federal government from intervening on behalf of black Americans whose civil rights were being violated in the South
1960: Democrat President John F. Kennedy
-he was less willing than Eisenhower to utilize executive orders to promote civil rights
-he delayed for more than 2 years the signing of an executive order to integrate public housing
-following the 1963 violent racial discord in Birmingham when Democratic Governor George Wallace prevented blacks from entering public schools, Kennedy sent a major civil rights bill to Congress
-Kennedy worked aggressively to pass civil rights bill, but was assassinated before he could see its success
President Lyndon Johnson:
-Kennedy’s Democratic successor picked up the civil rights measure
-he too faced Democratic opposition
-Democratic Senators Robert Byrd (West Virginia) and Richard Russell (Georgia) led the opposition against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, including lengthy and extended filibuster speeches
-Republican Senator Everett Dirksen resurrected language proposed by Eisenhower’s Attorney General in 1960
-Dirksen broke the filibuster of the civil rights bill allowing Johnson to sign into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964
-followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King:
-most recognizable civil rights leader of this era
-Frederick Douglas was the most recognizable civil rights leader of the previous era
-Dr. Kin was also a minster
-he was with President Johnson when the famous civil rights bill was signed into law
-both important civil rights bills were signed into law under a Democratic President, it was the Republicans in Congress made it possible for both bills to pass because Johnson could not get enough Democrats to support the civil rights bills
-Democrats could have passed the bills but chose not to
***if it had not been for the strong support of Republicans, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would never have become law
-reminder that both bills were the work of Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower
1964:
-the Civil Rights Act, the 24th Amendment to the Constitution was added
-abolishing the poll tax on blacks to vote
-it took 13 years from 1949 when a bill was introduced to end poll taxes as part of Truman’s proposed civil rights package which had failed
-nearly 85 years from when the initial poll tax was instituted by the Democrats
24th Amendment:
-banned poll taxes
-it took 2 more years for the Supreme Court (1966) to finally strike down poll taxes for all elections including State and local
-1964 Civil Rights Act had banned discrimination in voting public accommodations, education, federal programs, and employment
-1965 Voting Rights Act had banned literacy tests and authorized the federal government to oversee both voter registration and elections in counties that had used literacy tests
***took 85 years to remove the poll tax
-the Voting Rights Act literally reshaped the political landscape
Rep. Joseph Hayne Rainey, who nearly a century earlier declared:
“We intend to continue to vote so long as the government gives us the right and necessary protection; and I know that right accorded to us now will never be withheld in the future if left to the Republican Party.”
Democrats use rumor that is a lie:
-1965 Voting Rights Act, need to be renewed and Democrats will do it for African Americans
-Not true, the Republican 15th Amendment covers voting rights of African Americans
-even the NAACP has condemned this lie because the the 15th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees African Americans the right to vote
***this lie is the hinge pin of why Democrats have strong hold on black voters
-108th Congress when Republicans proposed a permanent extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, if was opposed by the Congressional Black Caucus
-Black Democrats opposed 1965 voting rights not the other way around
-Congressional Black Caucus was made up of only Democrats
-these Democrats have used political tools against Republicans
Today:
-the lie builds black hatred of Republicans
-when an African American loses an election, voices across the nation assert that there is still too much racism to elect a minority on a statewide ballot
-the problem is that one election may have lost but no information given on the other 3 African Americans who won their seats
-make note that Democratic States have less blacks elected
-African American Republicans are usually elected statewide in Republican States
1995:
-Frederick Douglas, a century ago, reminded black Americans
“For colored voters, the Republican Party is the ship, all else is the sea.”
***reminder of to remember how political parties treated black Americans
***love principles not parties
Rep. Robert Brown Elliot:
-align with political candidates that conform to what he called “the injunctions of Christianity”
Republican Frederick Douglass:
-he served as a minister of the Gospel
“I have found it in the Bible. It is in substance, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
-Douglass was right that citizens must vote righteously
-there is a responsibility to vote from generation to generation
Rev. Charles Finney:
-he stated the importance of both black and white students as equals
“The time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them…Christians have been exceedingly guilty in this matter. But the time has come to act differently… Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you He does see it—and He will bless or curse this nation according to the course they (Christians) take in politics.”
***”No vote should be cast solely on the basis of any party; the values of each individual candidate must be examined using the standard of Biblical righteousness cited by Frederick Douglass, the principles of Christianity as cited by Robert Brown Elliot, and an awareness that voters will answer to God for their vote, as pointed out by Charles Finney.”
Dr. Benjamin Rush:
“I have been alternately called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am now either. I am a Christ-ocrat. I believe all power…will always fail of producing order and happiness in the hands of man. He alone who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him.”
-he didn’t care what the party called itself, but wanted someone who stood for God’s principles
-he wanted someone who would love the correct principles
Noah Webster:
-one of the founding fathers
-author of the famous Webster’s dictionary
-anti-slavery leader
“In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide.”
“Look to his character.”
“But the Scriptures teach a different doctrine. They direct in Exodus 18:21 that rules should be men who rule in the fear of God, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness.”
**We are responsible for choosing leaders of character and righteousness just as Frederick Douglass reminded voters of this truth based on Proverbs 14:34 so, too, did the Rev. Francis Brimke
-Original intent of the founder matters
Rev. Henry Highland Garnet:
-admonished his hearers on their civic responsibilities based on God’s righteousness
“Righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people,” Proverbs 14:34.
-reminds people of the Declaration of Independence, the Golden rule, the Ten Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount
***What legacy of faith and politics will this generation leave for the next?
