Luther Martin (left), Frederick Douglass (center), and Thurgood Marshall (right)

Constitution Critics

It is inconsistent with the principles of the Revolution and dishonorable to the American character to have such a feature in the Constitution.

Luther Martin, Maryland slaveowner, 1787

 

It was "conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity ."

Frederick Douglass, minister and abolitionist, 1849

 

The government they devised was defective from the start.

Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1987


All of these Americans valued freedom and liberty. Why would they have criticized the Constitution?