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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (227678)	11/11/2007 11:14:42 PM
From: MJ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793914

From the 1st link by the Wikipedia writer-----note the attempt by J.T.Callendar, a RICHMOND NEWSPAPER REPORTER of 1801, to discredit Jefferson after Jefferson, was elected President. " Callender's original claims In 1802, James T. Callender, a Richmond newspaper reporter, published the first claim that Thomas Jefferson was the father of who he claimed was Sally Hemings's son, Tom. Callender had a contemporary reputation as a scandal monger. Callender sarcastically called the boy "President Tom" and said that he closely resembled the President and had been born upon Jefferson and Hemings' return from Paris. The Woodson family later said that Tom was Thomas Woodson, and the Woodsons' and Callender's assertions were refuted by the 1998 DNA evidence. In 1798, Callender had been incarcerated by President John Adams under the Sedition Act. Three years later, after Callendar had been released and Jefferson had been elected president, Callender asked Jefferson to appoint him Postmaster of Richmond, Virginia. When Jefferson refused, Callender wrote an article that he fathered children "by this wench Sally" in retaliation.[14]" Seems little has changed in 200 years in politics. mj

To: LindyBill who wrote (227678)	11/12/2007 1:45:39 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793914

I think it's too polemical to see interest in Jefferson/Hemings as an effort to 'smear' Jefferson. These liasons are of interest to historians. Surely they were too common to be a matter of 'smearing'?

To: LindyBill who wrote (227678)	11/12/2007 2:18:21 AM
From: ManyMoose	Respond to of 793914

The way I see it is that both Thomas Jefferson and Sally Heming were bound by the society, traditions, economies, and other conditions that existed in their time. Thus neither had any say-so and both coped with their environment as best they could. If we had no Thomas Jefferson in our history we would have no United States of America, and who knows what we would have. So I say that Jefferson's negatives pale by comparison to the vast array of contributions he made to this country. I don't know what would have happened if Sally Heming had not existed or if Jefferson had not had whatever relationship he actually had with her. Probably not much, but that is not a pejorative assertion. To my way of thinking, both Jefferson and Heming are immune from any smear tactics or other efforts at discrediting one or the other. Bottom line: If smear is your game, you are wasting your time. Get a life.