| Races and Immigrants in America Contributor(s): Commons, John Rogers (Author) |
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ISBN: 0217269354 ISBN-13: 9780217269353 Publisher: General Books OUR PRICE: $20.99 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2012 * Not available - Not in print at this time * |
| Additional Information |
| Physical Information: 0.13" H x 7.44" W x 9.69" (0.29 lbs) 64 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: RACES AND IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICA CHAPTER I RACE AND DEMOCRACY All men are created equal. So wrote Thomas Jefferson, and so agreed with him the delegates from the American colonies. But we must not press them too closely nor insist on the literal interpretation of their words. They were not publishing a scientific treatise on human nature nor describing the physical, intellectual, and moral qualities of different races and different individuals, but they were bent upon a practical object in politics. They desired to sustain before the world the cause of independence by such appeals as they thought would have effect; and certainly the appeal to the sense of equal rights before God and the law is the most powerful that can be addressed to the masses of any people. This is the very essence of American democracy, that one man should have just as large opportunity as any other to make the most of himself, to come forward and achieve high standing in any calling to whichhe is inclined. To do this the bars of privilege have one by one been thrown down, the suffrage has been extended to every man, and public office has been opened to any one who can persuade his fellow-voters or their representatives to select him. But there is another side to the successful operations of democracy. It is not enough that equal opportunity to participate in making and enforcing the laws should be vouchsafed to all ? it is equally important that all should be capable of such participation. The individuals, or the classes, or the races, who through any mental or moral defect are unable to assert themselves beside other individuals, classes, or races, and to enforce their right to an equal voice in determining the laws and conditions which govern all, are just as much deprived of the privilege as t... |
