IN RECENT ARTICLES AND BOOKS, ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST BELOVED 
FIGURES HAS COME UNDER ATTACK AS AN IRRESPONSIBLE ANARCHIST AND 
RACIST. IRISH WRITER CONOR CRUISE O'BRIEN HAS SAID THAT THOMAS 
JEFFERSON, FOUNDING FATHER, AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF 
INDEPENDENCE AND ONE OF THE FOUR FACES ON MOUNT RUSHMORE, SHOULD 
BE REMOVED FROM THE PANTHEON OF U-S HEROS. MR O'BRIEN AND SOME 
OF THE SCHOLARS AND CRITICS WHO AGREE WITH HIM, DERIDE JEFFERSON 
AS A RACIST SLAVE OWNER. FURTHERMORE, THEY MAINTAIN THAT THERE 
IS A DIRECT LINK BETWEEN JEFFERSON'S MORE RADICAL MUSINGS AND THE
TWISTED THINKING OF PEOPLE LIKE TIMOTHY MCVEIGH, WHO HAS BEEN 
ACCUSED OF BOMBING THE FEDERAL BUILDING IN OKLAHOMA CITY IN 1995,
KILLING 168 PEOPLE.

     EVEN JEFFERSON'S DEFENDERS ADMIT THAT MR O'BRIEN AND THE 
OTHER JEFFERSON CRITICS HAVE A POINT.  JEFFERSON SCHOLAR CLAY 
JENKINSON, WHO TEACHES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA IN RENO, SAYS 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAS OFTEN WERE QUITE RADICAL. 

CONOR CRUISE O'BRIEN IS RIGHT. I THINK HE IS RATHER NASTY AND 
JUDGMENTAL, BUT I THINK HE IS RIGHT, THAT THE MOVEMENT OF 
MILITIAS, STATES' RIGHTS, THE SAGEBRUSH REBELLION, THE MILITANCY 
THAT YOU SEE INCREASINGLY IN WHITE MALES IN THE AMERICAN WEST IS 
INSPIRED BY JEFFERSON. APPARENTLY, AND THIS IS ONE OF THE POINTS
THAT CONOR CRUISE O'BRIEN MAKES, WHEN TIMOTHY MCVEIGH WAS 
ARRESTED, HE WAS WEARING A JEFFERSON TEE SHIRT. IT SAID "THE 
TREE OF LIBERTY MUST BE REFRESHED FROM TIME TO TIME WITH THE 
BLOOD OF PATRIOTS AND TYRANTS." IF YOU READ THE MANIFESTO OF THE
FREEMEN IN MONTANA, IT IS FILLED WITH QUOTES FROM JEFFERSON AND 
THEY ARE VERY JEFFERSONIAN IN THEIR PROTESTS AND THEIR SENSE OF 
AUTONOMY.

BUT CLAY JENKINSON SAYS THAT JUST BECAUSE MILITIA GROUPS AND
ANTI-GOVERNMENT RADICALS LIKE THE FREEMEN TAKE INSPIRATION FROM 
SOME SELECTED JEFFERSON STATEMENTS, DOES NOT MEAN THAT CRITICS 
SHOULD BLAME JEFFERSON FOR THE BEHAVIOR OF THESE GROUPS.

RATHER THAN CONDEMN THE FREEMEN FOR NOT BEING GOOD STUDENTS OF 
HISTORY, CONOR CRUISE O'BRIEN AND MEN LIKE HIM WANT TO CONDEMN 
JEFFERSON FOR HAVING SAID THOSE THINGS. BUT JEFFERSON, IF HE 
COULD SEE THE FREEMEN, I FEEL CERTAIN WOULD CONDEMN THEM. HE 
CERTAINLY WOULD CONDEMN WHAT HAPPENED IN OKLAHOMA CITY BECAUSE 
JEFFERSON BELIEVED THAT TERRORISM IS IMPORTANT AND EVEN 
INEVITABLE, BUT IT NEEDS TO BE SURGICAL. YOU DON'T SIMPLY 
TERRORIZE THE INNOCENT, YOU TERRORIZE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE YOUR 
ENEMIES. WELL, NO ONE CAN SAY THAT WOMEN AND CHILDREN INNOCENTLY
GOING ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS IN A FEDERAL BUILDING ARE THE ENEMIES 
OF ANYONE.

MR JENKINSON SAYS THAT IF JEFFERSON WERE ALIVE TODAY, HE 
WOULD PROBABLY BE DISMAYED BY THE WAY SOME RADICAL GROUPS HAVE 
TWISTED HIS WORDS TO MOUNT MOVEMENTS AGAINST THE VERY DEMOCRATIC 
INSTITUTIONS HE HELPED ESTABLISH.

     ON THE ISSUE OF RACE, HOWEVER, CLAY JENKINSON SAYS 
JEFFERSON'S CRITICS CAN BUILD A VERY STRONG CASE AGAINST THE 
FOUNDING FATHER USING HIS OWN WORDS AND ACTIONS.

JEFFERSON WAS A RACIST. THERE IS NO QUESTION ABOUT THAT. IT IS 
NOT USEFUL FOR US TO JUDGE THE PAST BY CONTEMPORARY STANDARDS AND
IT IS NOT USEFUL FOR US TO JUDGE THE PAST AT ALL. UNDERSTANDING,
I THINK IS DIFFICULT, JUDGMENT IS EASY. BUT THE FACT IS, WHEN 
YOU SORT OUT ALL OF JEFFERSON'S BEHAVIORS AND PRONOUNCEMENTS ON 
RACE, HE WAS A RACIST. HE BELIEVED, ALBEIT RELUCTANTLY, THAT 
BLACKS WERE INFERIOR IN MENTAL AND PHYSICAL CAPACITY TO WHITES.  
IN SOME REGARD, HE BELIEVED THAT THEY WERE WHAT ARISTOTLE 
WOULD HAVE CALLED "NATURAL SLAVES, " THAT THEY HAD FOUND THEIR 
LEVEL AND WERE BETTER OFF UNDER BENEVOLENT SLAVERY THAN IN THEIR 
TRIBAL ARRANGEMENTS IN AFRICA OR UNDER ANY SORT OF FREE 
CIRCUMSTANCES ELSEWHERE. 

MR JENKINSON SAYS THOMAS JEFFERSON IS FUNDAMENTALLY 
DISAPPOINTING ON THE ISSUE OF RACE. THE MAN WHO WROTE THAT "ALL 
MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL," HE SAYS, APPARENTLY DID NOT MEAN IT, AT 
LEAST WHEN IT CAME TO BLACK PEOPLE. JEFFERSON NEVER FREED HIS 
OWN SLAVES AND HE SAID THAT BLACKS WHO WERE FREE SHOULD LIVE 
APART FROM WHITES. STILL, THE JEFFERSON EXPERT INSISTS, IT IS 
IMPORTANT TO RECOGNIZE THAT ADVANCES TOWARDS RACIAL EQUALITY WERE
FOUNDED ON THE PRINCIPLES THAT JEFFERSON PUT FORWARD.

JEFFERSON'S OWN PRINCIPLES HAVE GONE ON TO DO WHAT HE HIMSELF 
COULD NOT DO, TO LIBERATE SLAVES, TO INSIST THAT EQUALITY BE 
COLORBLIND, CLASSBLIND AND CREEDBLIND, SEXBLIND. SO, IN A SENSE,
JEFFERSON'S VISION WAS GREATER THAN HE WAS. THAT IS ONE 
CONCLUSION WE CAN DRAW. AND SECONDLY, AS WE REACH THE END OF THE
20TH CENTURY, AT A TIME OF INCREASING RACIAL TENSION, WE CAN 
RELUCTANTLY ADMIT THAT WE ARE ALL THE INHERITORS, WE ARE ALL THE 
CHILDREN OF JEFFERSON AND THE RACE TRAGEDY OF AMERICAN HISTORY, 
THE UNRESOLVED RACE TENSION OF AMERICAN HISTORY GOES ALL THE WAY 
BACK TO JEFFERSON AND BEYOND. 

CLAY JENKINSON SAYS AMERICANS NEED TO CONFRONT THE 
CONTRADICTIONS IN JEFFERSON IN ORDER TO FULLY UNDERSTAND AND DEAL
WITH THE RACIAL PROBLEMS THAT FACE THE NATION TODAY. HE SAYS IT 
IS ALSO IMPORTANT THAT PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THAT ALL HUMAN BEINGS, 
EVEN GREAT ONES, HAVE THEIR DARK AND TROUBLING ASPECTS.

TRUE HUMANITY, TRUE WISDOM COMES FROM ACKNOWLEDGING THE DARK 
SIDE, THE SHADOW. IF ANY OF US THINKS THAT JEFFERSON DID NOT 
HAVE A SHADOW, YOU ARE LIVING IN FAIRY TALE LAND, RATHER THAN IN 
HISTORY AND IF ANY OF US THINKS THAT WE DO NOT HAVE A SHADOW THAT
SOME FUTURE GENERATION WILL LOOK AT WITH UNGENEROUS SCRUTINY, WE 
HAVE NOT THOUGHT IT THROUGH.

MR JENKINSON SAYS THAT IT WOULD BE UNWISE TO REMOVE 
JEFFERSON FROM HIS EXALTED POSITION SINCE TO DO SO WOULD INVITE 
THE SAME SORT OF ACTION AGAINST VARIOUS OTHER AMERICAN HEROS WHO 
WERE ALSO FLAWED. IN THE END, HE SAYS, WE SHOULD ACCEPT GREAT 
MEN AND WOMEN FOR WHO THEY WERE, WARTS AND ALL, AND LEARN HOW TO 
DEAL WITH OUR OWN IMPERFECTIONS IN THE PROCESS.  

12-Feb-97
Source: Voice of America