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What Did Lincoln Really Think of Jefferson?
New York Times ^ | 07/05/2015 | By ALLEN C. GUELZO

Posted on 07/05/2015 3:24:11 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — “Lincoln hated Thomas Jefferson.” That is not exactly what we expect to hear about the president who spoke of “malice toward none,” referring to the president who wrote that “all men are created equal.”

Presidents have never been immune from criticism by other presidents. But Jefferson and Lincoln? These two stare down at us from Mount Rushmore as heroic, stainless and serene, and any suggestion of disharmony seems somehow a criticism of America itself. Still, Lincoln seems not to have gotten that message.

“Mr. Lincoln hated Thomas Jefferson as a man,” wrote William Henry Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner of 14 years — and “as a politician.” Especially after Lincoln read Theodore F. Dwight’s sensational, slash-all biography of Jefferson in 1839, Herndon believed “Mr. Lincoln never liked Jefferson’s moral character after that reading.”

True enough, Thomas Jefferson had not been easy to love, even in his own time. No one denied that Jefferson was a brilliant writer, a wide reader and a cultured talker. But his contemporaries also found him “a man of sublimated and paradoxical imagination” and “one of the most artful, intriguing, industrious and double-faced politicians in all America.”

Lincoln, who was born less than a month before Jefferson left the presidency in 1809, had his own reasons for loathing Jefferson “as a man.” Lincoln was well aware of Jefferson’s “repulsive” liaison with his slave, Sally Hemings, while “continually puling about liberty, equality and the degrading curse of slavery.” But he was just as disenchanted with Jefferson’s economic policies.

Jefferson believed that the only real wealth was land and that the only true occupation of virtuous and independent citizens in a republic was farming. “Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people,” Jefferson wrote.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: abrahamlincoln; allencguelzo; americanhistory; greatestpresident; jefferson; lincoln; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; presidents; sallyhemings; theodorefdwight; thomasjefferson; williamhenryherndon
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To: kiryandil

The country was full of studs, north and south.

Again, it’s a shame so many hundreds of thousands of them had their lives cut short.

It’s no coincidence that more men died than in all our other wars put together.

Nothing on this earth is more dangerous than armed, committed Americans.

And Americans fighting Americans is nearly the equivalent of an immovable object being accosted by an irresistible force.


161 posted on 07/05/2015 10:17:35 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (I understand the temptation to defeatism, but that doesn't mean I approve of it.)
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To: kiryandil

I’m about as conservative as it gets, yeah.


162 posted on 07/05/2015 10:18:02 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (I understand the temptation to defeatism, but that doesn't mean I approve of it.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Thomas Jefferson had not been easy to love, even in his own time. No one denied that Jefferson was a brilliant writer, a wide reader and a cultured talker. But his contemporaries also found him “a man of sublimated and paradoxical imagination” and “one of the most artful, intriguing, industrious and double-faced politicians in all America.”

The Founding Liberal. No surprise there. Spent money lavishly on his palatial Monticello as well as his unfinished summer home Poplar Forest, and died in debt. Edited the Bible to take out the parts he didn't agree with. Somehow, he always gets excused from the left's excoriation of slaveholding Founders, probably because of the sexual rumors. The above cited text is a long-winded way to say "born liar."

163 posted on 07/05/2015 10:19:15 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (When the left says justice, it means power. -- Daniel Greenfield)
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To: kiryandil

The Owners have me on retainer to shill for them. It’s the best-paying job I’ve ever had!


164 posted on 07/06/2015 1:45:53 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: JohnBrowdie

Don’t read a NY Slimes article and make a decision. This is the Progressives’s bible and about as truthful as Joseph Goebbles.

You’re talking about the author of the Declaration of Independence and a main contributor to the Constitution


165 posted on 07/06/2015 2:57:18 AM PDT by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: BlackElk
It isn’t hard to blame the late unpleasantness between the states on Dishonest Abe.

Especially if that's your only purpose to begin with.

166 posted on 07/06/2015 3:49:03 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: NaturalScience

you forgot Jefferson: Owned 700 slaves in his lifetime
Lincoln: Owned no slaves in his lifetime


167 posted on 07/06/2015 3:50:45 AM PDT by X Fretensis
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To: DoodleDawg

Funny how he felt compelled to talk about, to wit justify ignoring, southern agents wanting to negotiate peace prior to hostilities in his second inaugural. It is also funny how that piece of history was import to LINCOLN but historians of present seem to gloss that over.


168 posted on 07/06/2015 3:53:30 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: BlackElk

What tariffs did Lincoln impose on the Southland?


169 posted on 07/06/2015 3:56:23 AM PDT by X Fretensis
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To: DoodleDawg
You can say that the South wanted that war. But Lincoln wanted that war just as much if not more so.

The second inaugural he justifies ignoring peace talks pre war. Yes he does....

170 posted on 07/06/2015 3:58:05 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
...but historians of present seem to gloss that over.

Maybe because historians of present, with the advantage of all the documents from the period to refer to, have realized that peace was the last thing on the southern agent's mind?

171 posted on 07/06/2015 3:58:22 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: X Fretensis

A blockade is the ultimate tariff.


172 posted on 07/06/2015 3:58:58 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
You can say that the South wanted that war. But Lincoln wanted that war just as much if not more so.

Being willing to accept war rather than back down to Southern demands is not the same as wanting war.

173 posted on 07/06/2015 4:00:29 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg
Maybe because historians of present, with the advantage of all the documents from the period to refer to, have realized that peace was the last thing on the southern agent's mind?

Then why did the lanky goon feel it necessary to devote an entire paragraph to that subject in what he knew to be his historic address? The Gettysburg address was panned at the time, forgotten by then, but the inaugural address in the spring '65 was a big deal, even then. Are you more informed than the MAN himself? Are you God?

174 posted on 07/06/2015 4:02:51 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: DoodleDawg
Southern hater bump.

Did you burn a CBF over the weekend? You stupid < expletive deleted > .

175 posted on 07/06/2015 4:07:05 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

The blockade of Southern ports was declared on the 19th of April, 1861. By that time the South had already opted for war against the United States.


176 posted on 07/06/2015 4:08:53 AM PDT by X Fretensis
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To: central_va
Then why did the lanky goon feel it necessary to devote an entire paragraph to that subject in what he knew to be his historic address?

Maybe because the war was a topic of some interest to those assembled? </sarcasm>

Besides Lincoln summed it up very nicely: "Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came." The South made war. The North accepted it when it was forced on them.

177 posted on 07/06/2015 4:09:42 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: central_va
Did you burn a CBF over the weekend?

Nope. Had the family over for the 4th. Worked around the house Friday and Sunday. Quiet weekend.

You stupid < expletive deleted > .

What's the matter? Not willing to put into your posts what you have no problems putting into your private replies?

178 posted on 07/06/2015 4:12:22 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: DoodleDawg
Maybe because the war was a topic of some interest to those assembled?

Again why is that topic of no interest to any historians of the modern era? Because the war mongering goon is justifying his lack of foresight to avoid the conflict. It doesn't fit the contrived narrative that the North was just sitting there minding there own business and the nice Mr. Lincoln was throw onto the fray.

There it is I said it. It is true. Live it learn it love it. The truth will set you free ..


179 posted on 07/06/2015 4:15:32 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: DoodleDawg

Here is what some of your fellow Lincoln Cultists did over the weekend.

180 posted on 07/06/2015 4:19:40 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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