Whoever, in the present juncture of our affairs, can proclaim his entire political creed as frankly in Charleston as in Boston, can do it only because he has stricken from the list our distinctive national principle, without which we are not Americans at all — the natural equal rights of men. If Washington or Jefferson or Madison should utter upon his native soil today the opinions he entertained and expressed upon this question, he would be denounced as a fanatical abolitionist. To declare the right of all men to liberty is sectional, because slavery is afraid of liberty and strikes the mouth that speaks the word.
quote by George William Curtis
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. … We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.
quote by John F. Kennedy
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
I Am An Abolitionist
I am an Abolitionist!
I glory in the name:
Though now by Slavery’s minions hiss’d
And covered o’er with shame,
It is a spell of light and power —
The watchword of the free : ——
Who spurns it in the trial-hour,
A craven soul is he !
I am an Abolitionist!
Then urge me not to pause;
For joyfully do I enlist
In Freedom’s sacred cause:
A nobler strife the world ne’er saw,
Th’ enslaved to disenthral;
I am a soldier for the war,
Whatever may befall!
I am an Abolitionist!
Oppression’s deadly foe;
In God’s great strength will I resist,
And lay the monster low;
In God’s great name do I demand,
To all be freedom given,
That peace and joy may fill the land,
And songs go up to heaven!
I am an Abolitionist!
No threats shall awe my soul,
No perils cause me to desist,
No bribes my acts control;
A freeman will I live and die,
In sunshine and in shade,
And raise my voice for liberty,
Of nought on earth afraid.
poem by Anonymous Americas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
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. That to secure these rights, Governments ar
quote by Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Liberty Ball
Come all ye true friends of the nation,
Attend to humanity’s call;
Come aid the poor slave’s liberation,
And roll on the liberty ball —
And roll on the liberty ball —
Come aid the poor slave’s liberation,
And roll on the liberty ball.
The Liberty hosts are advancing —
For freedom to all they declare;
The down-trodden millions are sighing—
Come, break up our gloom of despair.
Come break up our gloom of despair, &c.
Y Democrats, coma to the rescue,
And aid on the liberty cause,
And millions will rise up and bless you,
With heart-cheering songs of applause,
With heart-cheering songs, &c
Ye Whigs, forsake slavery’s minions,
And boldly step into our ranks;
‘We care not for party opinions,
But invite all he friends of the banks,—
And invite all the friends of the banks, &c.
And when we have formed the blest union
We’ll firmly march on, one and alt—
We’ll sing when we meet in communion,
And roll on the liberty bill,
And roll on the liberty ball, &c.
poem by Anonymous Americas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The American economic, political, and social organization has given to its citizens the benefits of material prosperity, political liberty, and a wholesome natural equality; and this achievement is a gain, not only to Americans, but to the world and to civilization.
quote by Herbert Croly
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
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.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Liberty
liberty
does not come in classes,
genders, colors, or creeds...
cannot be bought,
or sold,
bartered, or pawned.
cannot ever be for the few
at the expense of the many!
is not a political issue,
or a budget cut,
or a 'war against terror'!
liberty begins within
the human heart,
is joined from soul to soul
with both sameness and difference.
one person's liberty is dependant
upon the liberty of those
around him... liberty is responsible!
liberty, once realized,
can never be destroyed
- not even by death!
liberty is the gift born in giving,
the torch lit by compassion,
the actions of unity,
the working prayer of humanity,
the dignity of man!
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Use Of The Word 'and
How did you use the word
'and'?
Like part and parcel
Like twins, same faces
With no meaning at all.
In all likeness
But I see how it is
Used in your country,
Liberty and equality,
How come? Did you not
Shiver with the way
How they are paired?
There may be liberty
But where is equality?
Or is it not an irony
That both in the context
Of “and”
they do not exist
at all
As free and equal?
this
liberty and justice
for all
i am
Just asking.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I’d like to see our politics begin to return to the purposes and practices that distinguish our history from the history of other nations. I would like to see us recover our sense that we are more alike than different. We are citizens of a republic made of shared ideals forged in a new world to replace the tribal enmities that tormented the old one. Even in times of political turmoil such as these, we share that awesome heritage and the responsibility to embrace it. Whether we think each other right or wrong in our views on the issues of the day, we owe each other our respect, as long as our character merits respect, and as long as we share, for all our differences, for all the rancorous debates that enliven and sometimes demean our politics, a mutual devotion to the ideals our nation was conceived to uphold, that all are created equal, and liberty and equal justice are the natural rights of all. Those rights inhabit the human heart, and from there, though they may be assailed, they can never be wrenched. I want to urge Americans, for as long as I can, to remember that this shared devotion to human rights is our truest heritage and our most important loyalty.
quote by John McCain
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Rescue The Slave
This song was composed while George Latimer, the fugitive slave, was
confined in Leverett Street Jail, Boston, expecting to be carried back
to Virginia by James B. Gray, his claimant.
Sadly the fugitive weeps in his cell,
Listen awhile to the story we tell;
Listen ye gentle ones, listen ye brave,
Lady fair! Lady fair! weep for the slave.
Praying for liberty, dearer than life,
Torn from his little one, torn from his wife,
Flying from slavery, hear him and save,
Christian men! Christian men! help the poor slave.
Think of his agony, feel for his pain,
Should his hard master e'er hold him again;
Spirit of liberty, rise from your grave,
Make him free, make him free, rescue the slave.
Freely the slave master goes where he will;
Freemen, stand ready, his wishes to fulfil,
Helping the tyrant, or honest or knave,
Thinking not, caring not, for the poor slave.
Talk not of liberty, liberty is dead;
See the slave master's whip over our head;
Stooping beneath it, we ask what he craves,
Boston boys! Boston boys! catch me my slaves.
Freemen, arouse ye, before it's too late;
Slavery is knocking, at every gate,
Make good the promise, your early days gave,
Boston boys! Boston boys! rescue the slave.
poem by Anonymous Americas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Children of Our Age
We are children of our age,
it's a political age.
All day long, all through the night,
all affairs--yours, ours, theirs--
are political affairs.
Whether you like it or not,
your genes have a political past,
your skin, a political cast,
your eyes, a political slant.
Whatever you say reverberates,
whatever you don't say speaks for itself.
So either way you're talking politics.
Even when you take to the woods,
you're taking political steps
on political grounds.
Apolitical poems are also political,
and above us shines a moon
no longer purely lunar.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
And though it troubles the digestion
it's a question, as always, of politics.
To acquire a political meaning
you don't even have to be human.
Raw material will do,
or protein feed, or crude oil,
or a conference table whose shape
was quarreled over for months;
Should we arbitrate life and death
at a round table or a square one?
Meanwhile, people perished,
animals died,
houses burned,
and the fields ran wild
just as in times immemorial
and less political.
poem by Wislawa Szymborska
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.
quote by James Madison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Liberty, if I understand it at all, is a general principle, and the clear right of all the subjects within the realm, or of none. Partial freedom seems to me a most invidious mode of slavery. But, unfortunately, it is the kind of slavery the most easily admitted in times of civil discord; for parties are but too apt to forget their own future safety in their desire of sacrificing their enemies. People without much difficulty admit the entrance of that injustice of which they are not to be the immediate victims … great determined measures are not commonly so dangerous to freedom. They are marked with too strong lines to slide into use. … But the true danger is, when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
quote by Edmund Burke
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire, an ailment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be a less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.
quote by James Madison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
All 6 Virginia Presidents Were Slaveholders
The 2008 election wiped out some ancient karma as Virginia
voted for an African American for President of the US.
Every one of Virginia's 6 presidents was a slaveholder
(Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Tyler, Taylor) while the
New Jersey resident Woodrow Wilson (claimed by Virginia
because he was born there) frequently ridiculed African Americans
publicly as president of Princeton and would later as president
ban African Americans from federal jobs, though Harrison,
McKinley, Roosevelt and others had appointed blacks.
Virginia fought with the South in the Civil War.
Virginia likes to claim
Wm Henry Harrison but he was a resident of Ohio
when elected. Virginia, home of the CIA and Pentagon, still hunting
foxes though Britain has outlawed traditional fox hunting,
has often been 2nd only to Texas in executions, with
3 to 4 times as many blacks as whites on death row
executed.
1) George Washington
2) Thomas Jefferson
3) James Madison
4) James Monroe
5) John Tyler
6) Zachary Taylor
7) Woodrow Wilson
Virginia has not had a president since 1850.
poem by O. Anna Niemus
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Equal Rights,2011
equal rights to live,
equal rights to love.
equal rights to believe,
to speak out, to stand up
and be counted.
equal rights to work,
equal rights to study.
equal rights to build.
equal rights to profess faith,
equal rights to pray.
equal rights to give...
equal rights to live,
equal rights to love!
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.
quote by Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!