Science Forums 2

[nutronjon]

The Declaration of Independence could also be called a Declaration of Responsibility. It says we take the responsibility of governing ourselves.

Now the legitimate question is, who is capable of being responsible for a government of the people? It was assumed property owners had this capability, but the vote wasn't automatically given to every hooligan, and it was a long time before women of any color got the vote, because they thought incapable of managing this responsibility well. This makes the question of Black intelligence a legitimate question.

The whole Republican party began as the antislavery party, and Lincoln represented a party position, not just his own. As people in new territory were applying for statehood, armed conflict over the slavery issue had already begun. Lincoln's passion was not so much the slavery issue, but holding our nation together. His actions established federal power over sovereign states, whereas before, sovereign states were more powerful than the federal government. The in the beginning all states just assumed they had right to choose to be in the federation or not. Just as Native American tribes held the right to be members of their own federation or not. Our federal government is an imitation of the Native American federation. Lincoln's action ended the true of federation of sovereign states.

The south was not by nature democratic, but aristocratic. Those interested in democracy, had settled in the northern states, outside the king's domain. Those who were fine with the king's rule, settled in the south, inside the king's domain. Both sides read the bible differently. The bible can be used to support slavery, and the South did. The North focused on phrases that gave them permission to throw off the rule of kings, and therefore, used the bible to give everyone the permission to be free. But the northern idea of freedom also went with a concept of responsibility that we have lost today. So actually, what you have here is a religious argument as well as a political one. Added to this is a scientific need to determine if there is a racial difference in intelligence, because democracy relies on science, not just the bible which is really a book that supports autocracy, aristocracy and slavery.