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 To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html