Liberals Want to Erase History

American universities have begun their removal of our foremost founding fathers. However, what would one of America’s first, and finest, Republican statesman say about that?

On Thursday, March 28, students at George Washington University voted to remove Washington as their mascot. The reputation of the founding fathers has long been under fire by leftist academia. It may seem to some as though it was only a matter of time before mascot removal was placed on the table.

It is time for us to restore the integrity of our founding fathers.

Alongside this, statues, for quite some time, have been under fire. Not only Confederate statues but our founders’ statues as well. At Hofstra University in New York, Thomas Jefferson’s statue has been the subject of controversy.

The place of Washington and Jefferson, on the scale of liberty, may seem problematic to some. After all, both were slave-owners. When one looks into the history of these figures, however, they will find the issue to not be as simple as one might think. Though Washington was a slave-owner, his slaves were freed, upon his death, as part of his will. He is the only slave-holding founder to have done so.

Thomas Jefferson, though a slave-owner, wished for an end to the institution. An avid writer, Jefferson called slavery a “hideous blot.” He also supported the notion, as did most of the founders, to outlaw slavery in the Northwest Territories with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

Frederick Douglass- The Original #WalkAway

For years, leftist academia has attempted to mark the founders as evil hypocrites, who meant life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for only a few. One of the nation’s first Black Republicans, however, would have had to disagree. Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in 1838. Following this, he became active in the abolitionist movement. Following the minds of figures such as William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass believed the founders to be hypocritical and the Constitution to be an evil document. Douglass eventually, however, began researching for himself and developed a new mindset.

In his famous speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, Douglass stated, “Take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand, it will be found to contain principles and purposes entirely hostile to the existence of slavery”. Douglass held a certain anger towards the founders for their participation in American slavery, but he also admired them for their stance on liberty. In the same speech, Douglass states, “The Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them, is it at the gateway, is it in the temple? It is neither.”

Douglass knew that the founders were imperfect, as are all people. Douglass, however, understood that they put liberty above all else. Even the slave-owning founders, such as Washington and Jefferson, were somewhat admired by him because of their ingenuity and vision for freedom. Perhaps we should make it a goal to include all of Douglass’s words and conclusions in academia. It is time for us to restore the integrity of our founding fathers.