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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