The Declaration of Independence declares that it is self evident that man has a right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. One cannot achieve happiness without some kind of financial assurance and for Americans today that means a job.
"The privileges and immunities designated are those which of right belong to citizens of all free governments. Clearly among these must be the right to pursue a lawful employment in a lawful manner, without other restraint than such as equally affects all persons."
?Justice Stephen J. Field, dissenting in the Slaughterhouse Cases
The Slaughterhouse case was decided 5 to 4 and wrong.
"Free labor" was a core doctrine of the Republican Party in the 1850s and 1860s, and it was the Republicans who controlled the drafting of the Fourteenth Amendment, including the privileges or immunities clause. The opportunity for social advancement through labor was to Republican minds the factor that distinguished the United States (at least the North) from Europe: "What is it that makes the great mass of American citizens so much more enterprising and intelligent than the laboring classes in Europe? It is the stimulant held out to them by the character of our institutions. The door is thrown open to all, and even the poorest and humblest in the land, may, by industry and application, attain a position which will entitle him to the respect and confidence of his fellow-men."
Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), 16. Foner attributes the quote to "an Iowa Republican" and cites The Debates of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Iowa, vol. 1 (Davenport, Iowa: Luse, Lau, 1857), 193.
Today, cheep labor Republicans are destroying the fabric of our nation, the notion that we are all members of the same club with rights and obligations. We have become a nation of greed and self interest, of cheating to stay alive, from the personal vice black market employment to corporate greed. We need to provide work for all. It's time for a New Deal, for the people to take back the nation.
"The privileges and immunities designated are those which of right belong to citizens of all free governments. Clearly among these must be the right to pursue a lawful employment in a lawful manner, without other restraint than such as equally affects all persons."
?Justice Stephen J. Field, dissenting in the Slaughterhouse Cases
The Slaughterhouse case was decided 5 to 4 and wrong.
"Free labor" was a core doctrine of the Republican Party in the 1850s and 1860s, and it was the Republicans who controlled the drafting of the Fourteenth Amendment, including the privileges or immunities clause. The opportunity for social advancement through labor was to Republican minds the factor that distinguished the United States (at least the North) from Europe: "What is it that makes the great mass of American citizens so much more enterprising and intelligent than the laboring classes in Europe? It is the stimulant held out to them by the character of our institutions. The door is thrown open to all, and even the poorest and humblest in the land, may, by industry and application, attain a position which will entitle him to the respect and confidence of his fellow-men."
Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), 16. Foner attributes the quote to "an Iowa Republican" and cites The Debates of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Iowa, vol. 1 (Davenport, Iowa: Luse, Lau, 1857), 193.
Today, cheep labor Republicans are destroying the fabric of our nation, the notion that we are all members of the same club with rights and obligations. We have become a nation of greed and self interest, of cheating to stay alive, from the personal vice black market employment to corporate greed. We need to provide work for all. It's time for a New Deal, for the people to take back the nation.