Kevin Hardwick writes:
"I think it is a bit misleading to suggest that the founders, as a group,
were overtly critical of slavery." 

I never said there was unanimity. In this country there is never unanimity
on anything.  My point is that if we are going to establish benchmarks of
the moral standards of the founding generation, it is not a bad thing to
look to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin
Franklin – all of whom denounced slavery (can we throw in Lafayette and
Kosciuszko too?). Nor is it off point to examine the records of the
Constitutional Convention, where we find the smoking gun, the deal being
struck--John Rutledge of South Carolina: "Religion and humanity [have]
nothing to do with this question. Interest alone is the governing
principle."  (Read that aloud to the people who say we are founded on
Christian principles.)
	 When we look at the standards of some of the leading figures of the
age--the topmost founders--we find revulsion against slavery.  So it is
impossible to argue that the founding generation had no notion of slavery's
evil--they knew it well and they made a deal with it. I agree with Prof
Kaminski that a window of opportunity for emancipation began to close; but
that means it was open. George Washington said the same thing (see his
striking letter to John Laurens about the failure of the Revolutionary War
emancipation plan: "That Spirit of Freedom which at the commencement of this
contest would have gladly sacrificed every thing to the attainment of its
object has long since subsided, and every selfish Passion has taken its
place--it is not the public but the private Interest which influences the
generality of Mankind nor can the Americans any longer boast [to be] an
exception.").  When we look back and judge them for keeping slavery, we are
not judging them by our standards but by the words of Washington, Jefferson,
Hamilton, Franklin. I develop these points in much more detail in the second
half of my book "An Imperfect God." You could start with the chapter on the
Revolution: "So Sacred a War as This" (a quote from John Laurens, speaking
of the moral necessity of emancipation amidst a "sacred" revolution for
liberty).  

Henry Wiencek