ts up to the state government, and only free white males were allowed to participate. Madison didn’t believe in the equality of all citizens, as he says “by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions”. This idea, “rage for…an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project”, seems impossible and dangerous to him. Considering majority rule as a part of the definition of democracy, in Thurgood Marshall’s opinion the Founding Fathers did not have in mind the majority of the American people when they used the phrase “we the people”. Most of the people, women and slaves, were not allowed to participate, only the “free persons”. In Marshall’s view the representation was also defective since it was based on “the population of free persons in each state, plus three fifths of all other persons”. And all men were not “created equal”, the moral principles against slavery were compromised in the economic interests of the states. The constitution needed the Bill of Rights and the 14th amendment in order to “protect individual freedoms and human rights”. The credit for guaranteeing these rights, in Marshall’s words, “does not belong to the framers”. ...
