Neil,
Whoever else in the political spectrum may be happy or unhappy to have
Jefferson's paternity of Sally's children established as fact is not of any
real concern to most of those who are a part of this discussion on this
list. To insert politics is to launch a sucker punch to the discussion.
I did not quote Jon Kukla with book in hand, but from memory reading it in
recent months. Whether or not in the many small print pages at the end of
the book which I typically do not read, he specified exactly in what
condition the materials were, I cannot say. He did say that it was written
when Tom was a teenager and trying to come to grips with a value system for
meeting his personal needs.
Had Tom written on the same subject later in life, we could perhaps discern
if he changed his opinion over the years, but he did not favor us with such
a discourse. We can, of course, conjecture from his actions, beginning with
an advance to a single girl who rejected his proposal, and then followed by
many years of courting married women, including his wife. Compare what he
did to his plans at age 15. (Easier if you read Kukla).
As to "pimping" I am using it with a sense of humor. I am striving to put in
perspective those rather silly remarks that assert the stating of a fact
which is circumstantially likely, but neither proven, and nor disproven
.... is "lying".
If such authors as Kukla, who clearly distinguish the established facts from
the circumstantially likely facts, are publishing "lies", then, it is
equally true that TJ must have been pimping his maid for whatever price or
favors he could earn.
I do seriously doubt that anyone who feels that TJ fathered children by his
maid is engaging in an attempt to enlarge the size of government any more
than has been done in recent years with the current administration. If you
are going to talk history, talk history. Don't try to assign political
labels to differences in interpreting historical facts. And, do not forget
that, as president, Tom Jefferson unilaterally decided to double the size of
the country without prior consent of congress. If you want to learn more
about that incident, go to:
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org/books/Louisiana.html it will put you
right into the event!
Anne
Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]
http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
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