re: #1126 calcajun

re: #1126 calcajun
Well, regardless of what you may have read about Jefferson, and especially with regard to the Declaration, he did write it and Ben Franklin was the only editor - read any decent history of Franklin and of Jefferson regarding this. I’ve seen the first draft in Jefferson’s own handwriting and the “X”ing out of that paragraph (and some other minor changes) by Franklin.
As to the issue of slavery, it is a matter of court record that Jefferson, on three different occasions, tired to set his slaves free, but was blocked by a court from doing so, as the slaves were valuable property and Jefferson’s creditors asked the court to prevent Jefferson from freeing his own slaves. Again, I have seen photocopies of those court records.
Finally, after being President, Jefferson was elected to the House of Burgess of the Commonwealth of Virginia for, iirc, 7 consecutive terms and in each of those terms he introduced legislation that would have either freed existing slaves or would have prohibited adding slaves to the State of Virginia and he lost each and every one of those legislative fights.
And, prior to their retirement as active politicians, Jefferson and Adams were fierce political opponents.
After they both retired, they commenced a daily correspondence with each other, the reading of which is truly magnificent to behold. Two genuine intellectual giants trading ideas about nearly everything under the sun.
Indeed, they both died on July 4th, 1826 and although Jefferson died first, the news didn’t reach Adams who, on his deathbed, said “Thank God Jefferson still lives”.
Methinks you need to read some more history on both of those men, and try to read some non-revisionist history about them as well.
(BTW -Full disclosure here: I wrote a research paper on the roll of Jefferson and his adversarial relationship with Adams as a history honors undergraduate paper and on the strength of that research paper and my grades, etc. was accepted to - TA DA - the University of Virginia’s accelerated PhD program in American History. Alas, I felt my obligation to serve in the Army during Vietnam superseded that wonderful offer - as did, BTW, my draft board, and went off to Vietnam).