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To: lugsoul
Jefferson undoubtedly had a hand in advising the French on the Declaration...

Well, it couldn't have been much given the hauteur of the French, and the fact that Jefferson couldn't speak (fluent) French.

No, in this regard Jefferson, IMHO, was more like a love-smitten school boy, for he was there to see only the beginning of the Revolution when it was still brights and shinning...and for the rest of his life refused to admit that it ever had a darker side. Sort of like early-mid 20th c. American communists and USSR.

116 posted on 01/18/2005 11:45:24 AM PST by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: yankeedame
That's impressive. Two incorrect factual themes in a single post.

Well, your opinion that it couldn't have been much might mean something it it was supported by any evidence other than your assessment of TJ's communications skills. The man was our ambassador, fgs. You don't think he was communicating with French officials? If you actually look at evidence, rather than simply spouting uninformed opinions, you'll see a pile of correspondence between TJ and members of the Assembly about the specific provisions of the DRMC. But don't trouble yourself with evidence.

As for your statement that TJ "refused to admit a darker side" for the rest of his life - that's just false.

I know it is alot easier to simply make statements without regard for their accuracy, but it doesn't advance the ball.

124 posted on 01/18/2005 12:02:01 PM PST by lugsoul (Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin on the mountainside.)
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To: yankeedame
"I received, through Mr. Warden, the copy of your valuable work on the French Revolution, for which I pray you to accept my thanks. That its sale should have been suppressed is no matter of wonder with me. The friend of liberty is too feelingly manifested, not to give umbrage to its enemies. We read in it, and weep over, the fatal errors which have lost to nations the present hope of liberty, and to reason for fairest prospect of its final triumph over all imposture, civil and religious. The testimony of one who himself was an actor in the scenes he notes, and who knew the true mean between rational liberty and the frenzies of demagogy, are a tribute to truth of inestimable value. The perusal of this work has given me new views of the causes of failure in a revolution of which I was a witness in its early part, and then augured well of it. I had no means, afterwards, of observing its progress but the public papers, and their information came through channels too hostile to claim confidence. An acquaintance with many of the principal characters, and with their fate, furnished me grounds for conjectures, some of which you have confirmed, and some corrected. Shall we ever see as free and faithful a tableau of subsequent acts of this deplorable tragedy?"

"fatal errors". "frenzies of demagogy". "deplorable tragedy." It doesn't take much looking to find his own words recognizing the "darker side" you reference.

131 posted on 01/18/2005 12:27:51 PM PST by lugsoul (Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin on the mountainside.)
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To: yankeedame
"I received, through Mr. Warden, the copy of your valuable work on the French Revolution, for which I pray you to accept my thanks. That its sale should have been suppressed is no matter of wonder with me. The friend of liberty is too feelingly manifested, not to give umbrage to its enemies. We read in it, and weep over, the fatal errors which have lost to nations the present hope of liberty, and to reason for fairest prospect of its final triumph over all imposture, civil and religious. The testimony of one who himself was an actor in the scenes he notes, and who knew the true mean between rational liberty and the frenzies of demagogy, are a tribute to truth of inestimable value. The perusal of this work has given me new views of the causes of failure in a revolution of which I was a witness in its early part, and then augured well of it. I had no means, afterwards, of observing its progress but the public papers, and their information came through channels too hostile to claim confidence. An acquaintance with many of the principal characters, and with their fate, furnished me grounds for conjectures, some of which you have confirmed, and some corrected. Shall we ever see as free and faithful a tableau of subsequent acts of this deplorable tragedy?"

"fatal errors". "frenzies of demagogy". "deplorable tragedy." It doesn't take much looking to find his own words recognizing the "darker side" you reference.

132 posted on 01/18/2005 12:28:15 PM PST by lugsoul (Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin on the mountainside.)
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