[Servant of the 9]

Does it really matter?
I don't see this as particularly slanderous, nor did the acusations seem to have hurt him during his lifetime.
I don't think the revelations that were acknowledged true today about Strom Thurmans 'love child' are going to damage his reputation.
Whether we are speaking of Thurman or Jefferson, it is a non-issue.

Thomas Jefferson was a radical in every sense of the word.
It was not until the 20th Century that norms had changed enough that even the Democrat Party wanted to claim him as one of their own.

No one is gonna prove any of this either way.

[dion]

I agree with you. I don't know why anyone thinks that this story, true or not, in any way discredits the legacy of Thomas Jefferson. Personally, I think he was the most important founding father and find many of his quotes to be very prophetic about a lot of the problems we have today. How him possibly sleeping with Sally Hemmings in any way voids his contributions to this country is beyond me. (Ironically these same people would argue that the Monica Lewinsky scandal didn't matter because it was only about sex.) :)

[elephantlips]

In most respects you are right, it doesn't matter in this day of unmorality. However, at the time this scandel was "reborn" for the umpteenth time, the amoral Bill Clinton and his band of defenders were trying to show that "all presidents" were philanderers and he was just another one of them. "So what's the big deal," was their approach.

[JustPlainJoe]

Their whole point of bringing this up as they did in 1997 was to show that OTHER respected Presidents also had sex with the hired help. Plain and simple.
If Jefferson did it, what's the big deal now? yuh-huh, yuh-huh, yuh-huh.....

[steplock]

It is an expose not only of the lies -- but the tacticts of lies (aka PROPAGANDA) that many on this list seem to ignore or gloss over.

It is not so much what is being said as HOW it was said. That is the best propaganda tactic because you cannot write it down in black & white for proof.

Inflection in speech - a sentence that endswith a lower tone towards the end gives the impresion of sadness or seriousness - where a higher tone denotes glee or ire.

You can "hear" a sneering tone of voice if you listen to ABC radio news when they mention President Bush or anything pro American. The TV does the same, but you have to close your eyes to hear it. TV is much better for propaganda because you don't hear it - it just infects you.

Listen to the stock market reports - eyes closed ...

pro feeling (higer pitched faster speech) The DOW rose 10 points in optomistic trade"

con feeling (slower and lower tone) "the DOW rose 10 points despite the news from...."

Con feeling (higher tone -happy- fast speech) the dow fell more than 1/2 percent...

THAT is the methods of propaganda by the media - written down, it's only data - heard live, a different result.

.

[ClearCase_guy]

No one is gonna prove any of this either way.

The Truth is not known.
The Truth cannot be known.

It makes no sense for anyone to profit from this, since it is an unknown. Now, ask yourself: are fans of Thomas Jefferson talking about Sally Hammings all the time? Are they saying Jefferson was a GOD! Why? Because he never fathered a child with this woman! Isn't that great?!

Wouldn't that be a silly claim? In no way can this alleged incident be used to boost Jefferson's reputation. As why should it? There's no proof, so fans of Jefferson have no reason to say much of anything on the topic.

BUT ... people who want to claim "everybody does it" have a real reason to smear him with an unsubstantiated "fact". Oh, sure, we don't know for sure, ... but, you know, everybody does it ... and one of the Jefferson men did it ... and, you know, it could have been Tom ... so, that's almost like proving that he was a hound-dog, right? So, I guess we can ignore all the verified sex scandals too ... because, you know ... even Thomas Jefferson did it.

In short: this is useful as a smear on a great American. The story can serve no other purpose. We don't have to declare Thomas Jefferson a saint, but we should say that this is an unfounded, unsubstantiated smear job. It has no use as anything else.

[John Robertson]

It matters. The truth always matters. Something is or it isn't, and dissemblers and liars shouldn't be given a pass on manipulating a COUNTRY! The vast majority of Americans now think Thomas Jefferson indeed fathered kids with Sally Hemmings, and there is not yet conclusive proof of that. For those who would make political hay out of such a "fact," that national delusion is very useful. It matters.

[shhrubbery!]

Does it really matter?

Yes. It DOES matter. The Left is systematically trying to tear down all of our founding fathers, to further their ultimate conclusion: That all of American heritage and law is based in racism and hypocrisy, and is therefore illegitimate. All hail the [Communist] revolution!

I tend to believe he did father children for Sally from what I have read in the past.

Only one of Sally Hemings's children, Eston, showed evidence of having a father with Jefferson genes.

Eston's father could have been one of many Jefferson relatives living in Virginia at the time. Suspicion has settled on two of Thomas Jefferson's nephews, both surnamed Carr, who frequented Mount Vernon and who are buried there in the Jefferson family graveyard.

It is far more likely that one of the Carr brothers fathered Eston than Thomas Jefferson, who was quite elderly and who suffered from debilitating migraine headaches at the time of Eston's conception.

[mrustow]

Does it really matter?
I don't see this as particularly slanderous, nor did the acusations seem to have hurt him during his lifetime. I don't think the revelations that were acknowledged true today about Strom Thurmans 'love child' are going to damage his reputation.
Whether we are speaking of Thurman or Jefferson, it is a non-issue.
Thomas Jefferson was a radical in every sense of the word. It was not until the 20th Century that norms had changed enough that even the Democrat Party wanted to claim him as one of their own.

No one is gonna prove any of this either way.

It's some kind of weird control thing, as in controlling the writing of American history. Also, Jeffeson was opposed to race-mixing, and so, they want to paint him as a hypocrite. Last, and weirdest of all, they think they can somehow claim "community property" for the descendants of Jefferson's slaves for everything he accomplished.

[mrustow]

No one is gonna prove any of this either way.

Actually, the article would appear to disprove many of the claims made by the Hemings Party.

[Colt .45]

"Does it really matter?"

YES! It does matter. When will the blacks ever acknowlege that they are full of crap on this issue? Now they want to discount the Founding Fathers altogether in some school districts back east. They try to claim that they built America, not the whites. I don't however, see any black signers of the Declaration of Independence. Nor do I believe they had anything to do with the framing of the Constitution.

Blacks want the free ride of "Reparations", and to re-write history so that they play the major role in America's founding. Before you start thinking I'm racist, I'm of Irish descent and my people have been oppressed far longer than the blacks, but I am not out trying to change historical facts. Nor am I out looking for a handout. This crap about Jefferson and Hemmings is just that - CRAP! They are killing American history and that is all a part of the PC whoredom that liberal America has bought into.