![]() ![]() Thus, the American Founders say that not only was slavery wrong but it threatened the survival of their grand project, the firm establishment of republicanism.ĭespite the hostility of most American Founders for slavery, it escaped their ban and grew. They knew that the political effect of the master-slave dyad was to degenerate republicanism and raise up a ruling oligarchy, or the rule of the few who ruled for their own advantage. The American Founders inherited slavery and aristocracy, but sought to re-shape their new nation into a republic in which slavery would be eliminated and all would be equal citizens, according to their natural rights principles. They aimed at politically destroying southern oligarchy and to re-establish republicanism on the restored principles of the Declaration of Independence. In its aftermath, the American government attempted the most difficult task in human affairs, regime change. ![]() The Civil War, 1861-1865, was an inter-regime war, and the final act of a long dramatic political conflict between the principled republicanism of the American Founders and the principled, revolutionary oligarchy of antebellum southern statesmen. ![]() The deep cause of this chaos was that the entire American political regime was undergoing change. And never did America experience a presidential election that was more strange than the presidential election of 1872. Coalitions unexpectedly broke apart and unexpected coalitions formed. The old bromide that politics makes strange bedfellows was never truer than during Reconstruction, from 1865-1877, a period of profound political chaos. Tips from Past “We The Future” Contest Winners!. ![]()
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