“[S]laves are never referred to in the Constitution as anything but 'persons', a characterization that is perfectly neutral as to race or sex. That some of these persons were slaves was something arising from state law, not from the Constitution itself.”

—  Harry V. Jaffa

Source: 2000s, A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (2000), p. 211

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Harry V. Jaffa photo
Harry V. Jaffa171
American historian and collegiate professor 1918–2015

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