In a message dated 4/13/01 2:55:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< "Admirers" was the newswriter's
 opinion, included to poison the well of public opinion relative to the
 Commission's findings.  >>

John,

I personally have no way to judge whether this is the newsriter's opinions or
not.  What I do know is that in most academic fields, particularly political
science and history (which I think are closely related in this instance) the
well-known academics are usually divided into various "camps", ie revisionist
historians, etc.  I don't know the academics involved in this Commission's
studies, or the writings, or whether they represent a cross-section of
historians various bents of interpretation of American history around the
time of the revolution, but I am sure there is a group  that would be less
inclined to believe Thomas Jefferson had children by Sally Hemmings.  I don't
know if the Commissioners represent what has to be a spectrum of views on
this period or not and would be glad to hear from any of you out there on the
subject, before I believe that the writer conjured the adjective up from some
bias of his/her own.

Also, I did not adequately state my college professor's maxim on history
before.  It was:  "It's not what is that counts, but what man thinks is"

Janet Hunter

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