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writing for godot

Thomas Jefferson Was Not A God

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Written by David Starr   
Tuesday, 02 October 2012 23:14
Without a doubt, Thomas Jefferson has to be the most popular and symbolic figure representing what it means to be “American.” But Gordon S. Wood, author of the article, “The Trials and Tribulations of Thomas Jefferson,” (“The Jefferson Enigma,” Frontline, PBS.) writes that, “Jefferson scarcely seems to exist as a real, historical person. Most Americans think of Jefferson much as our first, professional biographer James Parton did. ‘If Jefferson was wrong,’ wrote Parton, ‘America is wrong. If America is right, Jefferson was right.’”

It became a tradition in the ensuing years to make Jefferson out, in the words of Leonard Levy, author of, “Jefferson & Civil Liberties: The Darker Side,” (1963) as a “plaster saint” and “demi-god.” Scholars such as Joseph Ellis and Dumas Malone have been adamant in keeping Jefferson’s “saintliness” intact. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Society, comprised of Jefferson’s descendants, has also kept up appearances for the Jefferson legacy. The Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, Jefferson’s daughter and granddaughters, among others, also upheld the Jefferson legacy as pristine. (“The Story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’ First Son;” review by Publicist Jennifer Pullinger of Byron Woodson’s book.)

As of late, a book entitled, “The Jefferson Lies,” by David Barton, Tea Party supporter and evangelical, conjures up his own version of a Jefferson “halo.” Barton has claimed that, “…Jefferson was an orthodox evangelical and not an anti-Christian secularist.” His mission is to “debunk liberal beliefs,” “rescuing” the legacy from “bleeding hearts.” The book, however, was recalled after its publisher, evangelical Thomas Nelson, “detected factual inaccuracies” in it. Scholars have gone after Barton with their own writings, e.g., Greg Forster’s denouncements that “…Barton’s inability to write reliable history stretches beyond ideological cheerleading into outright incompetence.” (“Publisher Pulls Jefferson Book Over Inaccuracies,” [8/2012] by Scott Stump; Today.com)

Despite the tradition of Jefferson-worshipping, critics over the years have tried to make public of a Jefferson that is not exactly a resident of Mount Olympus. An early critic was political journalist James T. Callender, a former Jefferson ally, who exposed in an 1802 article the personal relationship between Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings. Callender wrote that Hemings was Jefferson’s “...concubine,” adding that “several children” were the result of this “relationship.” Jefferson’s “reaction” was nonreaction: No public or private responses to the assertion. It’s plausible to think that the nonreaction was a means to protect his image as a founding father, and in turn not tarnish his reputation for posterity. (“…A brief Account,” by Pullinger.)

In recent history, there have been more exposures about Jefferson. A book directly confronting his transgressions was, “Jefferson & Civil Liberties: The Darker Side,” (1963) by Leonard Levy. While admitting to this book being one-sided, he reasons that this could contribute to seeing a more, fuller Jefferson, as opposed to the “sainthood.” Early in the book, Levy gives a summary of violations, afterwards detailing them: “Jefferson at one time or another supported loyalty oaths; countenanced internment camps for political suspects; drafted a bill of attainder; urged prosecutions for seditious libel; trampled on the Fourth Amendment; condoned military despotism; used the army to enforce laws in time of peace; censored reading; chose professors for their political opinions; and endorsed that the means, however odious, were justified by the ends.”

Gordon S. Wood paraphrases Levy’s summary, adding, “Far from being a skeptical, enlightened intellectual, Jefferson was portrayed by Levy and other historians as something of an ideologue, eager to fill the young with political orthodoxy while censoring books he didn’t like. Wood goes further: “Not only did Jefferson not have an opening and questioning mind [compared to his colleague, James Madison], he could in fact be downright doctrinaire…” (“The Trials and…,” by Wood.)

Wood also takes on Jefferson’s outlook on slavery. He quotes Samuel Johnson, “How is it we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of Negroes?” Wood cites the obvious hypocrisy of Jefferson’s “great declarations of liberty, and his life-long ownership of slaves…,” and that “recent historians emphasized that he bought, bred and flogged his slaves,” as well as “hunted down fugitives” as other Virginia planters/genteel would. Jefferson clung to the myth that blacks were, “inherently inferior to the white man in mind and body.”

The Jefferson-Hemings relationship is still no doubt a controversy. But in 1998, geneticists, through DNA testing, found that Eston, one of Hemings’ children, was “most probabl[y]” fathered by Jefferson. After the DNA results, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation formed a committee to research the available evidence and documentation. It concluded that Jefferson was likely “the father of all six of Sally Hemings’ children listed in the Monticello records.” (“Thomas Jefferson & Sally Hemings: A brief Account”; Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.)

One of the more significant “darker sides” revealed by Levy was the Embargo Act of 1807. Jefferson’s strategy was to try to economically hurt Britain and France with a blockade because of violations to “U.S. neutrality.” The results/consequences, however, were devastating not only to civil rights, but to the U.S. economy. Levy writes that the embargo was modified five times, each time becoming more restrictive. U.S. producers and traders, out of anger and desperation, willingly violated the embargo when the opportunity arose.(“Jefferson & Civil Liberties…,” [1963] by Levy; additionally, “Embargo: Alternative to War,” [1968] by Bradford Perkins.)

Jefferson also showed a “darker side” in foreign policy, favoring empire as with other founders. “…I would immediately erect a column on the Southernmost limit of Cuba and inscribe on it a Ne plus ultra as to us in that direction. We should then have only to include the North [Canada] in our confederacy, which would be of course in the first war, and we should have such an empire for liberty as she has never surveyed since the creation; and I am persuaded no constitution was ever so well calculated as ours for extensive empire and self-government.” (Letter to James Madison, April 27, 1809; “Thomas Jefferson: The West,” Exhibitions – Library of Congress; “The Republic of Letters: 1804-1836,” [1995].)

So as not to sound totally one-sided, Jefferson’s views on religion were apparently a part of his “lighter side,” (rather progressive) at least personally, if not publically. To quote:

“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of all this coercion? To make half the world fools and the other half hypocrites.” (“Notes on Virginia,” [1782] by Jefferson.)

“Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetuated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes led by Paul, the first corrupter of the teaching of Jesus.” (“Thomas Jefferson – Unbeliever,” http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/thomas_jefferson.htm)

“But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” (“Notes on Virginia,” [1782] by Jefferson.)

A compilation of quotes and observations by Jim Walker, from the nobeliefs website (“Thomas Jefferson on Religion and Christianity,” by Walker, http://www.nobeliefs.com/jefferson.htm), puts into perspective the kinds of distortions conjured up by the David Barton’s of the Right: “In spite of right-wing Christian attempts to rewrite history to make Jefferson into a Christian, little about his philosophy resembles that of Christianity. Although Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence wrote of the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God, there exists nothing in the Declaration about Christianity.”

To reiterate Gordon S. Wood’s opening line in his Frontline/PBS article: “Jefferson scarcely seems to exist as a real historical person.” Given his apologists and distortionists, it’s not shocking why.



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