Wikipedia defines “Original Intent” as: “The theory of
interpretation by which judges attempt to ascertain the meaning of a particular
provision of a state or federal constitution by determining how the provision
was understood at the time it was drafted and ratified.” Well, just in case we
had any doubt, the U.S. Supreme Court in its Dred Scott decision (March 6,
1857) stated quite clearly that those Founding Fathers (they should really be
called “mothers”—if you know what I mean) understood that Africans by virtue of
their three-fifths human status were chattel, pieces of property, objects of
trade to be bought and sold.
Where was that much vaunted “moral compass” of those “Founding
Fathers”? Of course, what a naïve question! Machiavelli laid out for us the
real deal in his opening paragraph of chapter 18 of THE PRINCE: “experience
shows that in our times the rulers who have done great things are those who
have set little store by keeping their word, being skillful rather in cunningly
deceiving men; they have got the better of those who have relied on being
trustworthy.”
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