“That men should pray and fight for their own freedom, and yet keep others in slavery, is certainly acting a very inconsistent, as well as unjust and, perhaps, impious part, but the history of mankind is filled with instances of human improprieties.”

—  John Jay

1780s, Letter to Reverend Doctor Price (1785)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "That men should pray and fight for their own freedom, and yet keep others in slavery, is certainly acting a very incons…" by John Jay?
John Jay photo
John Jay20
American politician and a founding father of the United Sta… 1745–1829

Related quotes

John Jay photo

“It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honour of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.”

John Jay (1745–1829) American politician and a founding father of the United States

1780s, Letter to R. Lushington (1786)

Ella Baker photo

“Remember, we are not fighting for the freedom of the Negro alone, but for the freedom of the human spirit, a larger freedom that encompasses all mankind.”

Ella Baker (1903–1986) African-American civil rights and human rights activist

"The Women Behind the Men" https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/opinion/22collins.html? by Gail Collins in the The New York Times, September 22, 2007

Harry V. Jaffa photo

“And the war was a terrible war, but it was a war for human freedom, and if the South had succeeded and if slavery had been extended, the United States, or part of it, might very well have been on the side of Hitler in the Second World War.”

Harry V. Jaffa (1918–2015) American historian and collegiate professor

We would not have been the bastion of freedom we have been in the twentieth century.
2000s, The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Debate (2002), Q&A

Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

“What is Freedom? — ye can tell
That which slavery is, too well —
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

St. 39
(1819)

Jonathan Swift photo

“For, in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery: but in fact, eleven men well armed will certainly subdue one single man in his shirt.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

The Drapier's Letters, letter iv (13 October, 1724)

Adolph Freiherr Knigge photo

“Act well and properly, less to please others, more to keep your own self-respect.”

Adolph Freiherr Knigge book Über den Umgang mit Menschen

Handle gut und anständig, weniger anderen zu gefallen, eher um deine eigene Achtung nicht zu verscherzen.
Über den Umgang mit Menschen (1788)

James M. McPherson photo

“Confederate soldiers from slaveholding families expressed no feelings of embarrassment or inconsistency in fighting for their own liberty while holding other people in slavery. Indeed, white supremacy and the right of property in slaves were at the core of the ideology for which Confederate soldiers fought”

James M. McPherson (1936) American historian

Source: 1990s, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (1997), p. 106
Context: These soldiers were using the word slavery in the same way that Americans in 1776 had used it to describe their subordination to Britain. Unlike many slaveholders in the age of Thomas Jefferson, Confederate soldiers from slaveholding families expressed no feelings of embarrassment or inconsistency in fighting for their own liberty while holding other people in slavery. Indeed, white supremacy and the right of property in slaves were at the core of the ideology for which Confederate soldiers fought.

Harry V. Jaffa photo

“And the war was a terrible war, but it was a war for human freedom, and if the South had succeeded and if slavery had been extended, the United States, or part of it, might very well have been on the side of Hitler in the Second World War. We would not have been the bastion of freedom we have been in the twentieth century.”

Harry V. Jaffa (1918–2015) American historian and collegiate professor

2000s, The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Debate (2002), Q&A

Johann Gottlieb Fichte photo

“Should it seem to me that truth has been put to silence, and virtue trampled under foot, and that folly and vice will certainly triumph; should it happen, when all hearts were filled with hope for the human race, that the horizon should suddenly darken around them as it had never done before; should the work, well and happily begun, on which all eyes were fixed with joyous expectation, suddenly and unexpectedly be turned into a deed of shame, — yet will I not be dismayed; nor if the good cause should appear to grow and flourish, the lights of freedom and civilization be diffused, and peace and good-will amongst men be extended, shall yet my efforts be relaxed.”

Johann Gottlieb Fichte book The Vocation of Man

Jane Sinnett, trans 1846 p.123
The Vocation of Man (1800), Faith

Simon Blackburn photo

“Perhaps to restore human freedom we should deny determinism?”

Simon Blackburn (1944) British academic philosopher

Source: Think (1999), Chapter Three, Free Will, p. 84

Related topics