Thomas Jefferson has faced increasing criticism from historians over the last generation regarding his views on race and slavery. Some historians argue Jefferson was a racist and that he relied heavily on slavery to support his lifestyle. However, the document provides a largely positive assessment of Jefferson's accomplishments and character. It disputes claims about a relationship with Sally Hemings and argues Jefferson regarded slavery as an "unparalleled iniquity."

1. Thomas Jefferson's Place in History
In a recent Washington Post article, "Tho-
mas Jefferson, Tarnished Icon?" (Oct. 17,
19921, staff writer Joel Achenbach subtly and
snidely sought to dethrone Thomas Jefferson
from the pinnacle on which he is so rightly
enshrined.
"Among professional historians, Jefferson's
stock has sunk in the last generation, and it
has a lot to do with race and slavery," said
historian Peter Onuf at a recent conference at
the University of Virginia. In the harsh view
of Paul Finkelman, another historian who is
quoted here with apparent approval, Jefferson
was a "pathetic" racist, and "a profligate,
undisciplined spender" who "could not live
without slaves. Too self-indulgent to manage
carefully his own lands and his life, he relied
upon slaves, as a source of ready capital,
selling scores of them to support his habits
and pleasures." In Finkelman's opinion, Jeffer-
son was "the arch traitor" against "the hopes
of the world."
Jefferson authored the Declaration of
Independence, and then served as US minister
to France, governor of Virginia, secretary of
state, vice president, and president of the
United States. During his decades bf public
service, he received no compensation above
actual expenses. His duties required him to be
away from his home so much that he fell into
debt, and was able to save his home only with
the generous help of friends. When he retired
from the presidency in 1809, the legislature of
Virginia, his native state, paid tribute to him
in a resolution that declared:
We have to thank you for the model of
an administrationconducted on the purest
principles of republicanism;for ...patron-
age discarded; internal taxes abolished; a
host of superfluous officers disbanded; . . .
more than thirty-three millions of debt
discharged; . . . and, without the guilt or
calamities of conquest, [for] a vast and
fertile region added to our country . . .
These are points in your administration
which the historian will not fail to seize,to
expand, and teach posterity to dwell upon
with delight.
It would take a small book merely to list
and describe the blessings he conferred upon
America and its people. For example, as presi-
dent he abolished the internal revenue tax
system established by Alexander Hamilton,
reduced taxes by fifty percent, and paid off
nearly half of the national debt in eight years.
Contrast this with what has been and still is
being done in Washington!
Jefferson's interests were always for the
welfare of the country and its citizens. Even
today, though, there are dishonest individuals
and various special interests who hate anyone
who shares his ideals. Jefferson once said that
he was assailed by so many enemies that if he
were to answer them all, he would not have
time for anythingelse. Instead, he declared, he
would let judgment of him and his record be
made by the people-who responded by elect-
ing him to a second term in a landslide. Later
generations have similarly shown their appre-
ciation by erecting in his honor one of the most
magnificent memorials to be found in our
capital.

2. Concerning the thorny issue of slavery,
Jefferson wrote: "Nothing is more certainly
written in the book of fate than that these
[black] people are to be free; nor is it less
certain that the two races, equally free, cannot
live under the same government." He did not
mean that the two races could not somehow
co-exist, but rather that they could not live
together in peace and harmony.
History has born out the truth of his obser-
vation. Since the abolition of slavery, the two
races have co-existed in an uneasy state of
mutual suspicion and animosity, in spite of the
enormous efforts and vast sums spent by
white America on behalf of blacks. Black
urban areas have degenerated into crime-
ridden slums, periodically torn apart by riots.
Jefferson proposed that all young blacks, with
their children, should be transported from the
United States and set up in comfort in a
faraway land, probably in Africa. If his propos-
al had been implemented, this country would
have been spared the terrible Civil War, and
perhaps other calamities.
Jefferson regarded slavery as an unparal-
leled iniquity. For this he strongly criticized
Britain's rulers, who fostered the slave trade
in large part to discourage emigration to
America of their own starving unemployed.
Washington Post writer Achenbach could
not deny himself the pleasure of bringing up
the tired old accusation that Jefferson took a
black slave, Sally Hemings, as a mistress. In
fact, there is not the slightest shred of evi-
dence of such a liaison, or that Jefferson was
the father of any of her children.
Commenting on lies and calumnies about
him that were being published in newspapers
at the time, he wrote in 1807: "As for myself,
conscious that there was not a truth on earth
which I feared, should it be known, I have lent
myself willingly as a subject of a great experi-
ment, which was to prove" that the calumnies
of a licentious press could not batter down
one who had led a blameless life and had
nothing to hide.
Martin A. Larson received his Ph.D. in English litera-
ture from the University of Michigan. He is the author
of more than 20 books, including the 414-page work,
Jefferson: Magnificent Populist (available from the IHR).
Since 1980 Larson has been a member of the Journal's
Editorial Advisory Committee, and has spoken a t several
IHR conferences. He makes his home in Arizona with his
wife.
The Sally Hemings Myth
Probably the most notorious accusation
against Thomas Jefferson is the persistent
allegation that he secretly took a mulatto slave
named Sally Hemings (or Hemmings) as a
mistress, and fathered several children by her.
The charge was first made in September
1802 (during Jefferson's first term as presi-
dent)by a Scottish immigrant named James T.
Callender, an embittered alcoholic and hypo-
chondriac. Writing in a Richmond newspaper,
Callender cited no evidence for his accusation,
merely claiming that it was "well known." On
later occasions he changed details about how
the affair allegedly began and the number of
children supposedly produced by it.
To those who knew Jefferson, his high
moral standards and his deep devotion to his
dead wife's memory, the entire story was
absurd and contemptible. Nevertheless, it soon
gained widespread circulation and many
believers. Today it is occasionally given cre-
dence by black or leftist academics.
Jefferson never replied publicly to the
charge. In a letter to a friend in June 1816, he
wrote, "I should have fancied myself half
guilty had I condescended to put pen to paper
in refutation of their falsehoods, or drawn to
them respect by any notice from myself." Years
later his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Ran-
dolph, maintained that Sally's children were
fathered by a nephew of Thomas Jefferson
named Peter Carr, thus suggesting an addi-
tional reason for his silence.
Serious scholars of Jefferson's life reject
the Hemings story. University of Virginia
professor Merrill D. Peterson, a prominent
Jefferson specialist, commented in his compre-
hensive biography of the third president: ". ..
It is difficult to imagine him caught up in a
miscegenous relationship. Such a mixture of
the races, such a ruthless exploitation of the
master-slave relationship, revolted his whole
being." (ThomasJeffersonand theNew Nation,
New York: Oxford University Press, 1970, p.
707.)
-M. W.
Since a politician never believes what he
says, he is surprised when others believe him.
-Charles De Gaulle
January / February 1993