
Source: Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery (1787), p. 24
Letter http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-7261 to William Tudor, Jr., 20 November 1819. Partially quoted in Founding Brothers : The Revolutionary Generation (2000) by Joseph J. Ellis, p. 240
1810s
Context: I Shall not pause to consider whether my Opinion will be popular or unpopular with the Slave Holders, or Slave Traders, in the Northern the Middle, the Southern, or the Western, States—I respect all those who are necessarily subjected to this Evil.—But Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal Magnitude. … I am therefore utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territory, and heartily wish that every Constitutional measure may be adopted for the preservation of it.
Source: Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery (1787), p. 24
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Prophet
Source: A Discourse on the Love of Our Country (1789), p. 13
1990s, The Party of Lincoln vs. The Party of Bureaucrats (1996)
Context: Suddenly, however, remedies for something called 'racism' became the order of the day. The word itself, like 'sexism', is of recent coinage and will not be found in any older dictionaries. The civil rights movement, premised upon individual rights, suddenly became the black power movement, premised upon group rights. 'Affirmative action' became a euphemism for the baldest kind of racial discrimination. That whites had long enjoyed preference over blacks was now taken to be a justification for blacks having preference over whites. What was lost sight of was that the evil of the past, whether of slavery or of Jim Crow, was evil not because it was done by whites to blacks, but because it was done by some human beings to other human beings. The purpose of the law was to end evil acts, not continue them in the guise of 'affirmative action'.
2000s, The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Debate (2002), Q&A
Quoted by * 2021-07-06
Kayleigh McEnany Falsely Claims All The ‘Main Founding Fathers’ Opposed Slavery
Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kayleigh-mcenany-false-slavery-claim_n_60e4986ae4b06fb1a6f0128d