Harry V. Jaffa Quotes

1918–2015 United States

Harry Victor Jaffa (7 October 1918 – 10 January 2015) was an American historian, writer, and collegiate professor from New York City, known for his writings on the American Civil War.

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Also known as: Harry Jaffa

Random Harry V. Jaffa quote

25 quotes

We have to return to the political thought of the American founders and Abraham Lincoln. Nothing is at stake but the salvation of Western civilization.

Interview with Peter Robinson (2009)

He didn't care whether slavery was voted up or down, he cared only for the sacred right of the people to make that decision. Why the right of the people should have been sacred, if the results of the exercise of that right were indifferent, Douglas never undertook to say.

The Speech That Changed the World (2009)

No result of the Civil War was more fundamental than the authoritative assertion of the inclusion of human beings of any color and any ethnicity in the proposition of human equality. A consensus in favor of the colorblind Constitution is provided by the logic of reality and the logic of history.

The Logic of the Colorblind Constitution (2004)

South Carolina cites, loosely, but with substantial accuracy, some of the language of the original Declaration. That Declaration does say that it is the right of the people to abolish any form of government that becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established. But South Carolina does not repeat the preceding language in the earlier document: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal'.

A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (2000)

Lincoln thought slavery was wrong and he did not think a vote of the people could make it right.

Interview with Peter Robinson (2009)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Harry V. Jaffa (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.