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Thomas G. West Quotes (1945-)
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About Thomas G. West
Thomas G. West (born 1945) is an American historian. He is a professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, and the author of three books.
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βMost of the Constitution's Framers knew, and many said, that slavery was wrong.β
β[B]lacks definitely were part of "we the people" who made the Constitution of 1787.β
βWhen the decision was finally made to accept blacks as full citizens, the founders' principles provided the theoretical foundation. Lincoln's revival of the declaration in the 1850s had prepared the way. In principle, people of all races can become citizens of a nation based on the idea that "all men are created equal".β
βBlacks got federal passports implying that they were citizens... The Articles of Confederation stated that "the free inhabitants of these states... shall be entitled to all privileges of immunities of free citizens in the several states", Congress voted down South Carolina's proposal to insert the word "white" into this clause.β
βThe growing openness to members of all the world's races was always possible under the terms of the Declaration of Independence, which, as Lincoln noted, made a transracial principle, the equal natural rights of all men, the basis of citizenship. For that reason, America from the beginning was always a multinational and multiracial society. As early as 1776, as we saw in the first chapter, some blacks were citizens, as were many non-British Europeans.β
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Thomas G. West on United States Constitution 2 quotes
βMost of the Constitution's Framers knew, and many said, that slavery was wrong.β
Thomas G. West on United States Declaration of Independence 2 quotes
βWhen the decision was finally made to accept blacks as full citizens, the founders' principles provided the theoretical foundation. Lincoln's revival of the declaration in the 1850s had prepared the way. In principle, people of all races can become citizens of a nation based on the idea that 'all men are created equal'.β
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Thomas G. West on Algernon Sidney
βOne characteristic feature of Sidney's book associates him with Machiavelli. That is his celebration of warlike virtue and foreign conquest. Like Machiavelli, Sidney prefers imperialist Rome to nonexpansionist Sparta. He asserts that βThat is the best government, which best provides for war.β Popular governments do this best, for their citizens are hardy and spirited, and there is a mutual rivalry for the honor that anyone may earn (II.15, II.22β23). But unlike Machiavelli, Sidney qualifies his imperialism with the requirement that a war of acquisition be a just war, carried on for a just cause and by just means.β
About Thomas G. West
Thomas G. West (born 1945) is an American historian. He is a professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, and the author of three books.