Political Quotes

“on September 17, 1787, George Washington, James Madison, and their fellow framers made the momentous decision to sign the Constitution and send it along to the American people for ratification--marking a new beginning in our Nation's profound experiment in democracy. While the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 established the firm foundation for our democracy, it was not complete because it did not address the vexing issue of slavery. It would take more than seven decades and a bloody civil war before our founding charter would right that wrong. This year marks the sesquicentennial, or the 150th anniversary, of the Thirteenth Amendment, which, along with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, has been described by scholars as our Nation's ``Second Founding.'' Ratified by President Lincoln and his generation after the Civil War, these second founding amendments transformed our original charter by ending slavery, banning racial discrimination in voting, and elevating liberty and equality to a central place in our constitutional order. While we rightly celebrate our original founding charter, we have often overlooked the importance of these subsequent amendments, which has served as the bedrock and inspiration to procuring equality for racial minorities and women. On January 31, 1865, Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment to end slavery and sent it to the States for ratification. Passage of that amendment was by no means an easy feat.…”