"All men are created equal"

  In 1776, in the wellknown Declaration of Independence of the United   States of America, founding father Thomas Jefferson wrote:

 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created   equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable   Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of   Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted   among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the   governed"

   This did however not stop the man, who was the third president of the United States, from   inventing the Indian relocations which Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States   carried out, and suggesting for tribes to be exterminated as he wrote in 1807: "And if we ever   are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down till that tribe is   exterminated. In war they will kill some of us, we shall destroy all of them." And that for a   man who claimed that "all men are equal". Unless of course if he didn't see Indians as human   beings that is. If all men are created equal somehow some people seem to believe that some   are more "equal" than others then which is of course a dehumanising process and a   contradiction in terms. These relocations were carried out under Jackson's government while   white people were allowed to go anywhere they chose and live anywhere they wanted to live. It   was George Washington and Henry Knox who were of the opinion that Native Americans first   need to be "civilized" before they could have American citizenship. Early presidents didn't even   feel restrained from using slur like "savages" and "redskins" in official writings which would of   course be unthinkable today. Who can stand in judgements as to who is cilivlzed or who is   savage, especially when referring to a whole ethnic group? Do we like to be judged over the bad   things that other white people have done?

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