Kirk:
I think you are dead on right here. We should not hold Jefferson (or Washington, or other Founders) to our standards. Hold them to theirs. That is where TJ fails so miserably.
*************************
Paul Finkelman
John Hope Franklin Visiting Professor of American Legal History
Duke University School of Law
210 Science Drive
Box 90360
Durham, NC 27708-0360
919-613-7038 (o)
518-605-0296 (c)
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www.paulfinkelman.com
********************
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Johnson, Kirk N.
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 9:13 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] (VA-HIST] "The Monster of Monticello"
This seems to be indulging in the "middle ground" fallacy where both sides of argument are framed as equally "extreme" and therefore it is seemingly reasonable to split the difference.
I just don't see it that way--I don't think the answer to "We shouldn't think the Founding Fathers were saints" is "We should deconstruct them by 21st century social and cultural mores", but I also don't see that a serious discussion of Jefferson's actions within the context of the Revolution and the Early Republic is an exercise in what Roth described.
Apologies if I'm misreading your intent.
Kirk Johnson
Serials Manager
Prince William Public Library System
13083 Chinn Park Drive
Prince William, VA 22192-5073
(703) 792-4883
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-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Henriques
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 9:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] (VA-HIST] "The Monster of Monticello"
In his novel, The Human Stain, Philip Roth notes that one of America's oldest communal passions is to indulge in the "ecstasy of sanctimony."
We feel good and morally superior by condemning the moral failings of others, past and present. I think it is particularly important for those of us dedicated to a study of the past to guard against falling into the dangerous condition of the "ecstasy of sanctimony." It affects those on both the right and left wings of the political spectrum.
Peter Henriques
In a message dated 12/11/2012 9:42:10 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes:
Thank you! Very few extraordinary men have totally clean slates of behavior. It seems a bit juvenile to condemn the man and everything he accomplished instead of condemning the (disappointing and unexpected by
"fans") bad behavior as a part of that human being. The emotion about this subject never ceases to amaze me. Expecting our heroes to be saints is very concrete thinking.
Sent from Melinda's
iPad
On Dec 11, 2012, at 9:18 AM, Steve Corneliussen <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Mr. Barger complained that Monticello's "emphasis...on slavery
issues"
comes "at the expense of Mr. Jefferson." To me that seems upside down.
The emphasis in fact honors Mr. Jefferson.
>
> Mr. Jefferson matters because self-evident but challenging truths
matter. It's too bad that Monticello, like the rest of us, failed for many decades to begin elucidating and respecting the lives, dignity and contributions of individual Americans obscenely oppressed by fellow Americans -- including by Mr. Jefferson, the paradoxically slaveholding human-rights idealist.
>
> If Monticello had continued its former Gone-with-the-Windism on
> slavery
late into the last century, if the curators had persisted in obscuring Americans' lives on that mountain, it would have been the foundation's civic, historical and moral negligence that would have come at the expense of Mr.
Jefferson.
>
> But they got it right. Good for them. Good for self-evident truths.
>
> Good for Mr. Jefferson.
>
> Steven T. Corneliussen
> http://www.fortmonroenationalpark.org/
> http://tjscience.org/
> http://www.physicstoday.org/daily_edition/science_and_the_media
>
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