Barbara Charline Jordan Statement on the Articles of Impeachment Part 1

Barbara Charline Jordan
Statement on the Articles of Impeachment
delivered 25 July 1974, House Judiciary Committee

Check out the website I got this historic speech from! http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

Excerpt: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I join my colleague Mr. Rangel in thanking you for giving the junior members of this committee the glorious opportunity of sharing the pain of this inquiry. Mr. Chairman, you are a strong man, and it has not been easy but we have tried as best we can to give you as much assistance as possible.

Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States: "We, the people." It's a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that "We, the people." I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in "We, the people."

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[TheSovereignEntity]

@Adammmm124 You maybe right 3/5 compromise counted 3/5's of the population it did not divide the person. But don't be silly. Those free African Americans no mater if they owned land or not could not vote. 

[MICHAELCOOK918]

@geester33 not true the 3/5 was done for respresentation and allotment of congresional seats ..... this prevented the south from getting more representatives for the counting of their slaves.

[u199063]

@Adammmm124 actually it did exclude African Americans and slaves. Had it included African Americans and slaves the 13th-15th would have been completely unnecessary. Obviously history tells us that was not the case. She brings her exclusion from "we the people" to illustrate the irony that now she engage in the task of holding the President accountable for his misdeeds in regard to the Watergate proceedings

[geester33]

Negroes were cnsidered 3/5 (three-fifths) of an entire person.

[Adammmm124]

Her race bating has no relevance to the issue at hand. 

[Adammmm124]

I kinda got jaded from the get go from this speech. WHY, did she feel the need to bring up her race in the beginning of this speech? What relevance is that to what she is saying?

also, the constitution in its most original form, that she was talking about, did not exclude HER, from the bill of rights. The constitution in its original form did not exclude African Americans! It excluded "slaves". Not all African Americans were slaves and not all Caucasian's were free. This is a small poi

[vickie12456]

I have admired Ms. Jordan all my life. I was young when she was in office. When ever she spoke I always stopped to hear her. I wish I had meet her. I wish she was hear today I know she would make a diffrence. A highly educated woman who spoke up and spoke out. The voice alone showed power and confidence. When I was younger I wished I was like her. I miss this wonderful lady.

[AWDISP]

IMO, the greatest speech ever!