'Thur'oughly 'Good' Thoughts Concerning the U.S. Constitution
             In Thurgood Marshall's "A Bicentennial View From the Supreme Court", Thurgood Marshall argues that the United States Constitution bicentennial celebration should not be commemorated with narrow views concerning the birth of the document, but rather should be seen as a living document, one which has been dramatically altered to reflect the changing views or society. Born from this ideal, Marshall contends that the Constitution should be placed into perspective with events in U.S. history, which followed its inception. Marshall adds that society should neither view the Constitution as a flawless governmental charter, nor its "framers" as sheer geniuses. He instead points to the paper's subsequent alterations, which helped it evolve to its current state. Marshall maintains that the framers were individuals who either compromised their own moral beliefs or were obvious hypocrites.
             Marshall's draws his logical conclusions from specific events in U.S. history. Marshall does not believe the United States is an impressive nation because of its Constitution and its founders, but rather it is only recently noble because of those individuals who "suffer[ed], stuggle[d], and sacrifice[d]" (Marshall 304) for freedom and turned the tide of popular opinion. Marshall views the bicentennial celebration as "oversimplified" and believes it it "overlook[s] the many other events that have been instrumental to our achievement as a nation" (Marshall 303). He discusses the obvious fundamental flaw with the Constitution: its deliberate exclusion of the abolition of slavery. Marshall argues that the slavery issue illustrated the corrupt understanding and forethought of the founding fathers and how they refused to address such a critical issue.
             In his essay, he makes two points concerning the founding fathers omission of the end of slavery. In order to preserve the union, the Constitu...