Jim DeMint: Federal Gov’t Didn’t End Slavery, Some Guy Named Lincoln Did

Former Senator and current head of the Heritage Foundation Jim DeMint told a radio show last week that the federal government didn’t have all that much to do with ending slavery.

“The reason that the slaves were eventually freed was the Constitution,” DeMint told Vocal Point’s Jerry Newcombe. “It was like the conscience of the American people. Unfortunately there were some court decisions like Dred Scott and others that defined some people as property, but the Constitution kept calling us back to ‘all men are created equal and we have inalienable rights’ in the minds of God.”

“But a lot of the move to free the slaves came from the people, it did not come from the federal government,” DeMint continued. “It came from a growing movement among the people, particularly people of faith, that this was wrong. People like Wilberforce, who persisted for years because of his faith, because of his love for people. So no liberal is going to win a debate that big government freed the slaves. In fact, it was Abraham Lincoln, the very first Republican, who took this on as a cause and a lot of it was based on a love in his heart that comes from God.”

Listen to the clip below, via RightWingWatch:

[h/t RightWingWatch]
[Image via Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com]

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