The Lack of a Uniform Federal Constitution of America - Essay Example

Douglass (1895) asserts ‘The arm of the Federal government is long, but it is far too short to protect the rights of individuals in the interior of distant States… true way and the easiest way is to make our government entirely consistent with itself, and give to every loyal citizen the elective franchise, - a right and power which will be ever-present, and will form a wall of fire for his protection’.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, racial discrimination was rampant and the whites maintained a racial divide within the society through the deliberate use of powerful lobby of the whites and financial advantages that they enjoyed over their less privileged counterparts. Racial differences were very apparent in southern American states whereas the northern American colonies had considerably moved forward in terms of the black population enjoying more rights and privileges. Slavery was motivated by human selfishness and vested interests. So despite the bill of civil rights and the constitutional promulgation of the abolition of slavery, the ground reality remained bleak for the blacks till the rebellion which forced the government to introduce more efficient and effective tools so that equal rights could be enjoyed by every American citizen.

The rebellion brought out the blacks to the forefront of the American polity. It made Congress notice the continued oppression of blacks and take appropriate action through legislative rights. The article is very succinct in claiming that ‘If with the negro was a success in war, and without him a failure, so in peace, it will be found that the nation must fall or flourish with the negro’. The reconstruction of a society that provides equality and basic human dignity of life has become vital for peaceful co-existence. The elected government must ensure the same.

Indeed, the values have tremendously changed. The blacks are no more looked down upon by the hitherto privileged class. Equal opportunity has provided the masses with education and employment, considerably raising the living status of blacks and the minority. Indeed, as the article asserts that ‘They want a reconstruction such as will protect loyal men, black and white, in their persons and property; such a one as will cause Northern industry, Northern capital, and Northern civilization to flow into the South, and make a man from New England as much at home in Carolina as elsewhere in the Republic’. America, cutting across the regional divides and local autonomy of states has uniform federal laws. It has become a land of dreams for one and all.

One must understand that the society of any region or place comprises people with diverse socio-economic factors due to their different financial status or their individual needs that may or may not conform to a predefined dictum of the society. Hence the minority that may be different from the mainstream population but requires equal attention may be left out of the normal benefits of the states.

America has become a scintillating example of an enlightened society. Read More