The Original Intent & Spirit of American Justice & American Liberty: We have their writings! (Chapter 2)

 "We hold these Truths to be self-evident,

 that all Men are created equal,

 that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,

 that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—-"

                                        Starting salvos from our Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776

The age of abolition, 1800-1861. A sixty year span of time wherein the institution of slavery was wrangled to the ground, and the doctrine of ‘Popular Sovereignty’ was brought to ashes in a final physical battle for the soul of the country.  The legal right to make someone else one’s property, and that the government cannot interfere was brought to a halt and extinguished from all the United States of America, while also preserving the union.

It was Abigail Adams and young John Quincy on that hill overlooking the battle of Bunker Hill that understood liberty. They heard the roar of the cannonade. They saw the explosions, the gore, and the death. And they felt the losses of the members of the community like no one in any other generation of Americans can ever fully appreciate. John Quincy Adams said it himself in his diaries when he was a Congressional member in the House of Representatives: the people celebrate the day of independence for the sake of celebrating with no solemn respect for understanding the sacrifice and reason of those they celebrate. That it is not entirely their fault if our educational institutions fail to prioritize the inculcating and strengthening of the people as a critical thinking constituency,  replete with an understanding of what that original spirit of liberty was, and should always be.

The original spirit of liberty and the intent of living life, and allowing all others to live at peace and in security was in the heart and mind of Abigail Adams.

more than one thousand letters of support,

a marriage bond that could not be broken,

human connection, fellow guidance, 

and encouragement to her husband, John;

to be the best he ought to be as a Continental Congressional delegate.

Her support of the most enduring, passionate voice within the Continental Congress,

and later, as an overseas diplomat

all those harrowing voyages in perils of storm and capture,

evidence itself  of a heart and mind radiating a strong hope to thrive and make it against all odds

Such is the beginning of American Justice and of American Liberty.

The national heritage of collected writings of George Washington, John & Abigail Adams, all concluded that slavery is the greatest evil challenge upon the longevity and preservation of the national union. Their writings are a heritage, and an education to all Americans who want to understand how fresh, magnificent, passionate, free, and confidently empowered have been their fellow Americans who across time and place, helped preserve the national spirit, exemplifying in thought, word, and action clarity of understanding of the original spirit and intent of this liberty. The writings of Abraham Lincoln as he intellectually destroyed the idea of Popular Sovereignty, wherein a person can legally make another person their property, and demand the right of non-interference of government in the matter are a heritage to us. From his diaries, John Quincy Adams seems to have been looking to bring the fight of preserving the nation with that original intent and spirit of liberty and justice of equality for all the people since 1804. In that age of transition for the government, the age of abolitionism, and the desire to preserve the union had begun in earnest, right on the heels of the Revolutionary Era.

Of key note, Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams, Frederick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln were bright points of light upon that peaceful, loving, secure, original intent and spirit of liberty, because they brought a critical thinking intellect that was savvy and dynamic, humorous and sharp, in its purpose in speaking to the hearts and minds of the people to get them to reason. This step forth in the practice of liberty in the American society, that of public speaking to communicate with  the people helped establish the next metric of civility that John Adams forecasted long ago as the fruit of a nation based on the idea that we are all created equal and have the right to life and property. Being civil was a tremendous balm to the pain of the evil that was slavery to the man, woman, and child of black skin color, and also to the soul, if not national understanding of what kind of liberty was originally intended to keep the country together.

The doctrine of Popular Sovereignty was entrenching itself as the calls for resisting, constraining, and abolishing slavery arose. That spirit of liberty was being pushed to the side and is always in such a case.  As for John Quincy Adams, there was no on else with his determination and steadfastness on bringing forward what ought to be the right narrative or understanding of the original intent and spirit of liberty in America at the time. During the John Adams presidency, at the beginning of political division on the issue of slavery, the country could be best explained as still smoldering from the Revolutionary War, while the global power of balance was acutely seeking to further establish colonies, settlements, and presence in the continental North American land. For the government to work with the situational dynamics and interests of other countries (Spain, England, France) still contending for lands near the United States, continued political unity in order to preserve the young union was important. The preservation of the union had to be strategically connected to the metric of the discussion that it be as civil as possible. The intellectual rigor of the writers and speakers hereforto mentioned became a team spanning time and distance, yet safely arriving to the true battle, the narrative of what the original spirit and intent of the framers of the government were. 

And how do we know their thoughts on the matter? We have their writings.

 The need for safe passage of the American government to continue as one federal government with all its states in the union still impressed considerable pressure to maintain as much solidarity amongst the people of all the states as possible. A winning, confluence in the resounding strategy of the implementation of the shared ideas of abolitionist and what would become the new Republican party of Abraham Lincoln ended the discussion and argument with the defeat of the unconstitutional theory of ‘Popular Sovereignty.’ Every possible space for civility was afforded to stave off an actual physical battle. Abraham Lincoln did his best as a critical thinker. We only have to read of the triumphant delivery of ideas, responses, and focus of Lincoln in his Stephen Douglas-Abraham Lincoln debates to understand the fast, practical and well-informed thinking that Lincoln brought forth as he decimated, if not completely leaped over the faultiness of the argument of 'Popular Sovereignty' put forth by Judge Stephen Douglas. 

How can liberty be defended if the people are not taught to be critical thinking independent people?  

There were attempts to distort the meaning of our constitutional ideas through a Slavery Democrat congressional practice of dismissing and ignoring the issue of slavery as a necessary discussion.  The reasoning to table discussion was that the erroneous Slavery Democrat doctrine of ‘Popular Sovereignty,’ muted the need to have such discussion, and if such discussion were forced to be, the doctrine further states not only may a person make another person their property based on their skin color, but that no local, state, or federal government can interfere in this assumed right.  Hence, it could not be talked about.

As a Senator in our U.S. Congress, Abraham Lincoln fought not with gun or fist, he brought no knife to the battle of ending slavery, but with a smart, sharp intellect, along with a heart that was in the right place. He had read the writings of the American hero’s. He understood that that original intent and spirit of liberty was based on the fact that we have the universal, unalienable right to our life, and that that life cannot be taken by someone else as their property, and that it was central to the governments task to protect American life. Abraham Lincoln understood and agreed with that. We are created equal, and a government of the people is instituted in order to protect and support these universal, unalienable, God bestowed rights. We must be successful in teaching to new generations of Americans to be these astute, dynamic, well-informed, altruist citizens. The call of President John Quincy Adams to invest in creating universities and educational institutions for the enrichment of the people was not acted on in the industrious manner that was required. A lack of educational institutions was felt across the country and President John Quincy Adams placed his presidential prestige and political survival on pushing for what America needed at the time. He wanted to help and protect the Native Americans too. He wanted to end the slavery of people of black skin color. He wanted to have schools and universities across the country. He wanted to connect the country with a great road works project.

The writings of the Americans who were instrumental in the generation of 1776 render to us an incredible treasure trove of acknowledgments of the unrighteousness of slavery. In those declarations, without regard to race, the very original intent and spirit of liberty arose again triumphant. It is surely understood that stalwart sentinels of liberty; educated, independent, altruistic, liberty-loving Americans are needed at all times, like self-designated survivors required to safeguard the understanding of the true intent of the framers of the constitution in regards to the spirit of liberty exemplified in their writings & life's work.

The right to own another person as property and that the government cannot interfere…

Any government-safeguard unconstitutionally legislated into law in self-interest by a government-elected people, directly opposes the original spirit and intent of liberty that our framers ultimately had in mind, as can be inferred from the words in our constitutional documents, and secondly, the ultimate intent of the framers of the constitutions, as can be learned from reading their collected letters and writings. The agreed upon ideas that came of those Continental Congresses were made into constitutional doctrine, such as, “created equal,” and with a government to secure these rights was the direct opposite of the ‘Popular Sovereignty’ notion that we are not all created equal and that the government can be legislated and controlled into seeing a human owned as property as constitutional.  

Statesman John Quincy Adams and Senator Charles Sumner, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Samuel Chase, and Abraham Lincoln, all correctly identified and withstood the partisan political doctrine of Slavery Democrats known as ‘Popular Sovereignty,

but it was mainly the champions from the outside; people like Frederick Douglass, that could not be gagged in congress, because even with his skin color, he had the liberty of free speech. With free speech, the best and most upright of the people arose and led the effort to abolish slavery from the land. The abolitionist movement calling for the end of slavery hinged on the wording, intent, and spirit of liberty found in our American Constitution.  John Quincy Adams, as was it known to be a trait of his parents as well, was clear on his position that slavery was an evil and that it would force the country unto a precipice if it was not eradicated. Mr. Adams began to publicly bring the issue of slavery forward as early as 1804 when a Senator in our Congress. From that time until his death in 1848, John Quincy Adams masterfully defended the rights of humans of black skin color as a Senator, Secretary of State, President, and Congressman. 

A treasure of advocating Americans, including the leader of the abolitionist movement, William Lloyd Garrison, his apprentice, Frederick Douglass, and others, like Wendell Phillips, became a relentless, cohesive intellectual, moral Christian force focused on forcing the issue into greater and greater discussion amongst the people. So successful was the abolitionist movement that it swept and established itself firmly in the heart and mind of Abraham Lincoln. The passion for the greater good of the people brought Frederick Douglass to communicate directly with the American people across all of the nation’s northern towns and cities, even beyond to Ireland and England.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were the last remaining of that generation of 1776.  A new time of partisan politics, economic industry, expansion of slavery, and legislation to expand and constrain the institution of slavery was in effect as of that point. It is at that time that the all-pervading discussion on making peace between the intent & spirit of our  ideas in our constitutional documents of wether we are all created equal or not gained considerable steam, forcing the discussion like relentless waves of liberty across the country and within our government. John Quincy Adams succeeded in formalizing, and giving credence to issue of slavery as an evil and diametrically opposed to the welfare of the nation.  He found the underpinnings of what would be the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty as a direct affront on the primary idea that we are all created equal with unalienable rights, and that the government was tasked and instituted to protect the people in there right to life, liberty. He began to address the evil of slavery and its threat to maintaining a peaceful American union as a Senator in Congress in 1804. He was 37 years old then.

"That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, 

deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, 

that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. "

The notion of holding or classifying someone as property was abhorrent to the intent and spirit of liberty in the heart and mind of American thought pioneer Abigail Adams, who beseeched her husband to make laws, not only to strengthen the education of women, that they be productive, smart, and learned in a vocation, but also, she repeatedly reminded him that it was not right that some human beings be enslaved, hence, being oppressed economically, educationally, and as integral members of the local, sate, and national community. She shared her written thought on slavery in her storied letters of correspondence exchanged between her and her husband.

Any government-safeguard unconstitutionally legislated into law in self-interest by a government-elected people, directly opposes the original spirit and intent of liberty that our framers ultimately had in mind, as can be inferred from the words in our constitutional documents, and secondly, the ultimate intent of the framers of the constitutions, as can be learned from reading their collected letters and writings.

The understated work of Abigail Adams as the advisor and principal confidante to her husband was nothing short of miraculous. Alongside others, she completed a most incredible tour de force with the intent and spirit of liberty. She sowed and farmed that liberty. She melted it into silver bullets. She laid hay and space for it when the injured soldier needed aid. She endured for and in that spirit of liberty with her husband always being away. Before them and beyond them, a powerful string of love, joy, hope, and faith across time from specifically incredible individuals can be identified as a national heritage that exemplified the original intent and spirit of liberty. 

Some of these mighty people are the parents of Benjamin Banneker, and himself, George Washington, the parents of Abigail Adams and John Adams, those two individuals themselves, their son, John Quincy Adams, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Charles Sumner, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, George Washington Carver, Attorney Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and all the communities that supported these individuals to be selfless and altruist unto a good and active defense of that original spirit and intent of liberty proclaimed, recorded, and encased in 1776. That we may all enjoy the benefits of freedom we must answer when that liberty bell tolls, because it rings for you, and for you, and for me.

"Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, 

than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed…

..with the stipulation that we have a nation of laws, including a government of us to protect our life, property, and establish  educational institutions for the betterment of the American people, as well as all necessary supports to improve the happiness, ease and security of the people. "