It would seem that one can always count on the Bible and TJ to supply an apt quotation in support of any position: "The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose." Merchant of Venice, 1, iii And Shakespeare could be a third name on that list. ======================================================= Charles L. Dibble Post Office Drawer 1240 Columbia, South Carolina 29202-1240 email: [log in to unmask] ======================================================= -----Original Message----- From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jurretta Heckscher Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 12:40 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: "common-sense Jeffersonian conservative principles" I believe it does, though I have not yet read it, either--and of course Professor Finkelman himself has written widely on the subject. I can't speak for others, but I am not sure that many historians on this list or elsewhere would consider Sen. Allen's bid to invoke "common-sense Jeffersonian conservative principles" a wise or plausible enterprise, however much it participates of a perennial temptation in American politics. Some years ago Alf Mapp Jr. published a biography of Jefferson that attempted, at its close, to determine whether Jefferson was fundamentally "liberal" or "conservative" in the terms by which we think of those positions today. It does no injustice to what may well be the other strengths of Mapp's study--I have not read more of it than that one portion--to say that his attempt was unpersuasive and has not had any appreciable influence on subsequent scholarly discourse. Better to say, as others have wisely done and Mr. Wiencek reminds us, that Jefferson wrote so much, for so long, and in so many different circumstances that like the proof-texts of the Bible his words can be quoted on almost any side of any contemporary issue. And better, perhaps, to direct Sen. Allen to one principle which Jefferson proclaimed throughout his life: that the past should not be taken as a limit on the present or the future. "[W]e might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilised society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors" (TJ to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816, page 7; http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage? collId=mtj1&fileName=mtj1page049.db&recNum=260 ). --Jurretta Heckscher On Dec 5, 2005, at 8:44 AM, John Maass wrote: > "I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel > myself infinitely the happier for it." > Thomas Jefferson To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html