What remark? I think Jefferson, like any politician, needs to be judged more on what he did than what he said. Actions speak louder than words. He did some good things, but he also did some bad things. He was a human being, and to make him out as something other than what he was is not what I would call "being honest".
You've brought up Washington several times. About the only thing I remember saying about Washington here was that Washington freed his slaves, and Jefferson didn't. My respect for Washington increased greatly after reading "Founding Brothers". Jefferson apparently had no qualms about dumping on Washington, though. Consider:
He saw the world as if good and evil were the only possibilities. Republicans were good, Federalists
were bad; these truths, too, he saw as self-evident. His absolutism led him to some questionable
judgments. Among them was retaining the scandalmonger James Callender to sling mud at Federalist
enemies, including John Adams. In a pamphlet entitled ''The Prospect Before Us,'' Callender savaged
Adams as a ''corrupt and despotic monarch,'' and received letters of thanks from Jefferson himself.
When Jefferson refused him a political job, Callender returned the favor by circulating the tale of
Jefferson's alleged liaison with his slave Sally Hemings. When Jefferson denied having salaried the
pamphleteer, Callender produced the incriminating letters. nytimes.com
It turns out a famous trial grew out of that one:
The charge was the then President Thomas Jefferson had paid a James T. Callender to denounce
Washington a "a traitor, a robber, and a perjurer" and Adams as a "hoary-headed incendiary" (People v.
Croswell, NY 1804). On appeal, after conviction, to the Supreme Court, Croswell was represented by
Alexander Hamilton.
In his defense, Hamilton declared, freedom of the press
"consists in the right to publish, with impunity, truth, with
good motives, for justifiable ends, thought reflecting on
government, magistry, or individuals."
The prosecution did not argue falsity, but countered Hamilton's
claim that actual malice could not be proved, by claiming there
was an evil tendency in his motives to disrupt society. iml.jou.ufl.edu
i.e, who cares if Jefferson paid Callender to malign Washington , it was evil of him to say it. "Logic" of the sort you ought to appreciate there. |
