Doesn't Garry Wills book NEGRO PRESIDENT go into this stuff a great deal? I have only read a bit fo that one so far........
John R. Maass
Dept. of History
The Ohio State University
230 West 17th Ave
106 Dulles Hall
Columbus, OH 43210-1367
Ph. 614/760-9625
http://history.osu.edu/people/person.cfm?ID=1490
"I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it."
Thomas Jefferson
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Finkelman
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2005 11:38 PM
Subject: Re: "common-sense Jeffersonian conservative principles"
I have always assumed it was more than 400, but no one has really
counted. So, I greatlly appreciate Henry coming up with better numbers.
I shoudl have stipulated, as Henry notes, the GW sold no slaves after
the Revolution. Thanks for the correction.
And whlie TJ may have trembled for his country, with the exception of
his feeble attempt to ban slavery 20 years down the road in the west, he
never lifted a finger to do much about it. When he was chairing the
committee to revise the laws of VA. he prevented a bill for gradual
emancipation from even reaching the floor.
Henry Wiencek wrote:
>I too wonder what Allen means when he refers to 'common-sense Jeffersonian
>conservative principles' -- and I think the answer is: whatever Allen
>wants that to mean; probably lower taxes and less government--Alaskan
>bridges excepted, of course. Merrill Peterson, Joseph Ellis, and others
>have pointed out that Jefferson can be summoned to support either side of
>almost any issue.
>
>There were two small errors in Paul Finkelman's posting: George Washington
>did sell a few slaves before the Revolution, not nearly as many as
>Jefferson did after it; and as Paul says, Washington grew to detest
>slavery and freed all his slaves in his will. Also, TJ owned more than
>600 slaves in his lifetime, not 400. I'm at work on a book about
>Jefferson and slavery and I'm wrestling with all these issues.
>
>Joan Brooks writes that we need to give TJ a break because he was "a man
>of his time and place in the world and with values of the Age of
>Enlightenment" and that "it is not fair to judge someone in America of
>200+ years ago as if he had the values of today's American society." Well,
>yes, but what WERE the values of 200+ years ago? When we go back and
>actually read the statements of the founding generation it is amazing to
>see how widely and passionately slavery was denounced as an abomination
>that would bring a catastrophe to the United States. Jefferson himself
>said it, in a famous remark: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that
>God is just: that His justice cannot sleep forever."
>
>
>Henry Wiencek
>Charlottesville
>
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>
--
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East 4th Place
Tulsa, OK 74104-3189
918-631-3706 (office)
918-631-2194 (fax)
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