Is the Constitution the problem or part of the solution?

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Question! Do you believe America is so fundamentally flawed at its core that we need to just burn it all down and start over? There is no shortage of people that seem to think so. The 1619 project offers a differing perspective on US history centered around the introduction of slavery to the new world as the “true founding of America.” Numerous politicians and organizations wholeheartedly believe that America was founded not on liberty but on slavery and white supremacy, and as such, is “fundamentally flawed.”

And this concept is not a new one. In the early 1800s, the famous abolitionist and suffragist William Lloyd Garrison was actually known for burning the Constitution at his rallies, describing it as a pro-slavery document. He was convinced that because of that flaw, it was irredeemable. But Frederick Douglass thought differently. Douglass had as much right to despise the United States and our institutions as anyone possibly could have. He was born into slavery in 1818 and spent 20 years enslaved before escaping in 1838. He became the leading voice in the United States, not just for the abolition of slavery but for equal rights and opportunities. But rather than tear down the fundamental principles upon which our nation was formed, he appealed to them. In a speech in 1860, he differed with Garrison by stating, “The Constitution may be right, the Government is wrong. If the Government has been governed by mean, sordid, and wicked passions, it does not follow that the Constitution is mean, sordid, and wicked.” In yet another speech, he stated, “In that instrument, I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT.”

Even as late as 1893, a few years before he died, when some in the crowd attempted to heckle him, he stopped, looked at them, and said, “The problem is whether the American people have honesty enough, loyalty enough, honor enough, and patriotism enough, to live up to their own Constitution.” Rather than tear down the founding principles, Frederick Douglass appealed to them. He held up those principles of individual liberty and self-determination found in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution as a mirror toward the American people, and he dared us to be worthy of it.

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