From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: soc.history
Subject: Re: Thomas Jefferson?
Date: 6 Oct 92 18:47:44 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <1992Oct5.175757.5652@cbfsb.cb.att.com>, onf@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (omar.farooq) writes:
> Now, I don't mean to start a flame war, but is it true that while
> the Independence movement was going on, and Thomas Jefferson
> wrote "All men are created equal....", that he had slaves and 
> concubines, and plagiarized some of the writings of John Locke?

Slaves, yes.  But at least he felt guilty about it. 1/2 :-)  A lot
of men of the time knew that what they were doing was wrong, but
apparently decided that they would rather be positive forces for
American freedom (possible if they were wealthy), rather than be
positive forces for the freedom of their slaves (which would make
them poor and no longer influential).  

              If the "right to keep and bear arms" was missing, but many

            other elements  of the  Bill of  Rights were  present,  this

            might be  interpreted as  indicating a  lack of  interest or

            concern about "the right to keep and bear arms."  But nearly

            all the  other protections of our Bill of Rights are missing

            also, reflecting  an  uncomfortable  situation  for  Charles

            Pinckney, a  South Carolina  delegate to  the Constitutional

            Convention.   Pinckney had  made several  proposals  at  the

            Constitutional Convention  for what  amounted to  a Bill  of

            Rights,33 but since:
              
              Bills of  rights usually  began with a statement to the
              effect that  all men  are born  free and equal.  "Now,"
              said Pinckney,  the delegates  realized that  it  would
              "make that  declaration with  a very  bad grace, when a
              large part  of our  property consists  of men  who  are
              actually born slaves."34
              
              Pinckney said that if the South insisted on slavery, it
              must be  consistent and  not  talk  about  the  natural
              freedom of all mankind.35
            33 Robert Allen Rutland, _The Birth of the Bill of Rights
            1776-1791, rev. ed., (Boston, Northeastern University Press:
            1983), 113-114.
            34 Rutland, rev. ed., 156.
            35 Rutland, rev. ed., 156.


Concubines?  I'm not persuaded.

Plagiarized?  The ideas of John Locke were well-known to nearly
all educated Americans.  If I refer to "a thousand points of light,"
no one will consider that I am plagiarizing George Bush.  (Where the
heck did he get this phrase?)  Some of Locke's phrasing was
used, but I'm not aware of Locke writing more than a few splendid
phrases.

In any case, Jefferson's rough draft was worked over (and I mean
that in the gangster sense of the phrase "worked over") by a
committee of the Continental Congress.

> Omar
> omar.farooq@att.com


-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
Lesson learned from Gov. Wilson's signing of AB 2601: if you don't get 
your way, have a riot.  Next time, Gov. Wilson will cower appropriately.
Newsgroups: soc.history,soc.culture.indian