The prevailing ideas entertained by our founding fathers at the time of the formation of the U. S. Constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. The general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow
slavery was evil and would eventually pass away. This is what most people believed at the time. Those ideas were wrong. They rested upon the idea of the
equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the U. S. Constitution and government built upon it fell when the storm came and the
wind blew" (the storm in this case is the south seceeding from the Union).
Our new government [the government of the Confederacy) is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon
the great truth, that the black man is not equal to the white man; that slavery - allowing himself to be controlled by the superior race - is his natural and
normal condition.
. Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, "The Cornerstone Speech"