Balder Ex-Libris

Authors : Weyl Nathaniel - Marina William
Title : American statesmen on slavery and the negro
Year : 1971

Link download : Weyl_Nathaniel_-_Marina_William_-_American_statesmen_on_slavery_and_the_negro.zip

Introduction. In these pages, we have attempted a full and, we hope, unbiased presentation of the views of American statesmen on slavery and the Negro from Colonial times to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. We decided for a variety of reasons to cut off the narrative in 1963. The record of the Johnson Administration is too fresh in the minds of readers to require any recapitulation. At present, we have little more than the bare record of official events. We lack those memoirs of participants and observers which illumine the pages of history and provide an understanding of the motivation and dynamics of social processes. These considerations apply with even greater force to the record of the Nixon Administration, which at the time of this writing (November 1970) is still incomplete. Were we dealing with Chief Executives of the learning and intellectual depth of Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams or, for that matter, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the absence of memoirs and analogous accounts would not be a fatal obstacle. These men were, to use David Riesman's phrase, inner-directed. They had evolved their own personal philosophies of life and of society. They were capable of solitude and concentrated thought. The views they expressed were powerfully stamped with their own individuality of thought and purpose. They were not afraid to stand against the currents of public opinion. They spoke to voice their beliefs, not merely to win the approval of electoral majorities. ...