Speaking to schoolchildren, South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg tried to ensure that they knew two things: that the Founders of the United States who wrote the Constitution were ignorant about slavery being a bad thing, and that they also did not respect civil rights, the implication being that only the enlightened Americans of today have a real grasp of what is right and true.

Buttigieg stated: “Similarly the amendment process; they were wise enough to realize that they didn’t have all the answers, and that some things would change. A good example of this is something like slavery, or civil rights. It’s an embarrassing thing to admit, but the people who wrote the Constitution did not understand that slavery was a bad thing. They did not respect civil rights, and yet they created a framework so that as the generations came to understand that that was important, they could write that into the Constitution too and ensure true equal protection for all.”

"The people who wrote the Constitution did not understand that slavery was a bad thing." – @PeteButtigieg pic.twitter.com/rM7Njnm8pU — Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) December 30, 2019

Historian and columnist Jay Cost, who is the author of author of “The Price of Greatness: James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the Creation of American Oligarchy,” ripped Buttigieg, starting by tweeting, “The ignorance is astounding.”

The ignorance is astounding. https://t.co/FX5Kt9aNvg — 𝐉𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭 (@JayCostTWS) December 30, 2019

Cost continued, “The guy who literally wrote the text of the Constitution, Gouverneur Morris, gave an amazing series of speeches in Philadelphia denouncing slavery.”

The guy who literally wrote the text of the Constitution, Gouverneur Morris, gave an amazing series of speeches in Philadelphia denouncing slavery. — 𝐉𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭 (@JayCostTWS) December 30, 2019

Sean Trende at Real Clear Politics tweeted, “A MAJOR PLOTLINE OF THAT MUSICAL THAT EVERYONE FELL OVER THEMSELVES ABOUT THE LAST FOUR YEARS WAS THAT THE PROTAGONIST, THE PRIMARY ANTAGONIST, AND THEIR FRIENDS WERE ALL EARLY ABOLITIONISTS.”

A MAJOR PLOTLINE OF THAT MUSICAL THAT EVERYONE FELL OVER THEMSELVES ABOUT THE LAST FOUR YEARS WAS THAT THE PROTAGONIST, THE PRIMARY ANTAGONIST, AND THEIR FRIENDS WERE ALL EARLY ABOLITIONISTS — Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) December 30, 2019

To buttress his argument, Cost quoted the Madison debates from August 8, 1787, in which the notes stated: