In which I seek to spread 'Dearieme's load!

Regular readers will already know that any mention of early American history almost always produces a swift snarl from my e-pal, 'Dearieme' ('DM'), aimed at the unfortunate head of the late President Thomas Jefferson.  Now what this distinguished former president has ever done, or been the cause of something being done, to 'DM' I do not know.  Alas, in my ignorance of early American history I know next to nothing about Jefferson except that he was part of a group of men imbued with good British, not European, philosophy which acted as a basis for their Constitution.  Yes, I know there are some minor quibbles concerning his opposition to slavery which went, so to speak, hand-in-skirt with an affair with one of his black slaves but, hey, we're all chaps here - er, well, with the exception of Andra - and sometimes a chap has to do what a chap has to do, and all that sort of thing.  According to Wiki, whilst Jefferson kept slaves he treated them exceedingly well and certainly no worse than white tenant farmers.  Anyway, always trying to be helpful I would like to try and draw 'DM's concentration away from Jefferson and onto another and much greater hypocrite, the truly ghastly President Wilson.  In this I am aided by Prof. Paul A. Rahe writing in The National Review. 

 

Wilson, of course, is held in veneration by today's Democrat party stalwarts, not least, President Obama.  Wilson is generally reckoned to have laid the foundation for a socialist state and using it as a base for attacking and subverting the Constitution, a practice later re-enforced by Roosevelt, tried and failed by Carter, but today, renewed with vigor by Obama.  Of course, today's Democrat party draws huge support from minority groups, especially blacks, and the virulent use of 'racism' slurs against their opponenets hs proved to be very effective.

Thus there is considerable irony to be relished when one is reminded by Prof. Rahe that April 11th was the one hundreth anniversary of the bill which was rammed through Congress by Wilson and which specified the segregation of whites and blacks in the American civil service:

Wilson, our first professorial president, was a case in point. He was the
very model of a modern Progressive, and he was recognized as such. He prided
himself on having pioneered the new science of rational administration, and he
shared the conviction, dominant among his brethren, that African-Americans were
racially inferior to whites. With the dictates of Social Darwinism and the
eugenics movement in mind, in 1907, he campaigned in Indiana for the compulsory
sterilization of criminals and the mentally retarded; and in 1911, while
governor of New Jersey, he proudly signed into law just such a bill.

Prior to the segregation of the civil service in 1913, appointments had been
made solely on merit as indicated by the candidate’s performance on the
civil-service examination. Thereafter, racial discrimination became the norm.
Photographs came to be required at the time of application, and
African-Americans knew they would not be hired. The existing work force was
segregated. Many African-Americans were dismissed. In the postal service, others
were transferred to the dead-letter office, where they had no contact with the
general public. Those who continued to work in municipal post offices labored
behind screens — out of sight and out of mind. When the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People and the National Independent Political League
objected to the new policy, Wilson — a Presbyterian elder who was nothing if not
high-minded — vigorously defended it, arguing that segregation was in the
interest of African-Americans. For 35 years, segregation in the civil service
would be public policy. It was only after Adolf Hitler gave eugenics and
“scientific racism” a bad name that segregation came to seem objectionable.

The only thing that stands between the liberty of the American people and their sometimes swivel-eyed leaders is the Constitution.  Obama's efforts to circumscribe it are in a direct line from his predecessor Pres. Wilson.

 

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Comments

[Dom]

I don't want to draw attention away from the post on Wilson, but may I make a few comments on Jefferson?

You're referring to the famous DNA study, by Dr. Foster. Very misunderstood. DNA testing can not pinpoint a father, it can only say that we can not reject the hypothesis that so-and-so is the father. Here is the author trying to undo the confusion: " ... there is nothing in ... [our] DNA study that itself would lead ... [us] to suspect Thomas Jefferson as the father versus Randolph [Jefferson] or his sons." Case closed.

Concerning Jefferson as a slave owner: He was born into that, and he always considered it a curse more than anything. The original Declaration quite clearly shows him screaming that slavery has destroyed everyone, slave and owner alike.

[David Duff]

Dom, I don't know enough about Jefferson to be very definite but I gain the impression that given his status and the era in which he lived he was as anti-slavery as could be - and his own 'slaves', as I understand it, were not treated in any way as the 'slave' entails. As for his possible/probably 'naughties' on the side, well, it happens to us all!

[JK]

May I be of assistance?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Little-Known-Dark-Side-of-Thomas-Jefferson-169780996.html

Hope that helps David.

[Up2L8]

A link is provided of some 600+ letters written by Jefferson over a period of 60+ years. Perhaps a more insightful knowledge can be drawn. To know someone is to read their writings.

Happy `?` reading.... `snicker snicker`.

http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/

[dearieme]

1) Jefferson didn't write the Constitution, thank goodness, being away in Paris shagging Black Sal.

2) Do stop all the special pleading about Jefferson's character: it's an embarrassment.

[dearieme]

P.S. Of course Wilson was ghastly, but he wasn't a Founding Father so you can get off with describing his ghastliness without being accused of lack of patriotism. FDR was another shit of the first water; it's harder to get off with being frank about him. The Democrat presidents of the 20th century were a conspicuously bad lot, save for Truman and Carter.

[David Duff]

"Regular readers will already know that any mention of early American history almost always produces a swift snarl from my e-pal, 'Dearieme' ('DM'), aimed at the unfortunate head of the late President Thomas Jefferson."

Well don't say I didn't warn you!

Calm down, 'DM', he's been dead for nearly 200 years! I didn't say that he wrote the Constitution, only that he was a party to it. Now, try telling me why you dislike him so much and, given my self-confessed ignorance, I might even agree with you.

As for Truman and Carter, I might have been prepared to give the former the benefit of the doubt until I read of his failure to grip 'Mad Max' MacArthur which created a disaster in Korea. As for the latter, one can only describe his short-lived presidency as insipid, except, of course, when it came to creating numerous 'Big Government' entities which plague the Republic to this day.

Anyway, I am pleased to see that your animus extends beyond poor old Jefferson!

[JK]

Too David, you know the history of "Liberia"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Colonization_Society

[JK]

Heh heh heh. Good ol' Wikipedia. Good ol' fashioned Republican values:

"Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky (now LaRue County). His family attended a Separate Baptists church, which had strict moral standards and opposed amateur actors, alcohol, dancing, and slavery."

(I wonder if there's a "Separate Baptists" church around here - belay that alcohol?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_on_slavery

[Hank]

David

My Grandmother told us that in the 1916 election she supported Wilson because "He kept us out of the war" Less than two months into his new term we declared war on Germany. After she was old enough and that woman's suffrage thing happened she never voted for a Democrat.

Of course Wilson invaded the Dominican Republic Haiti Nicaragua and Mexico (twice.) I suspect that it is not coincidence that just 15 or so years earlier the United States had been poetically exhorted to:

Take up the White man's burden
Fight the savage wars of peace.

http://eclecticmeanderings.blogspot.com/
Hank’s Eclectic Meanderings

[backofanenvelope]

The only thing my grandmother told me was how to play Solo.

[David Duff]

"opposed amateur actors"!!!!! The poor man was obviously very badly brought up because instead of watching amateur actors in later life he went to see the pros at work - and guess what happened!

Hank, what an A1 humbug the man was!

BOE, I heard it was poker she taught you!

[David Duff]

'Uppers', apologies but bloody-bloody TypePad dumped you in the Spam Box and I have only just discovered you. Thanks for the link which I have saved. I intend to publish the odd one from time to time just to make DM's day!

(And this morning I discover they did the same thing to this one, too!)

[Up2L8]

Admit it DD, those `roller derby` girls in Cali like to tease.

[David Duff]

They do, 'Uppers', they do and I love it!

[Edward Spalton]

Jonah Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism" makes it thoroughly clear that Woodrow Wilson's "War Socialism" was far more heavy handed and oppressive than anything Mussolini got up to.
Also Wilson was something of a hectoring moralist ( of a type which students of the Left Wing species often come across)

When he introduced his "Fourteen Points" after WW1, the French leader Clemenceau remarked
"Le Bon Dieu n'avait que Dix"

[David Duff]

Gee, thanks, Edward, yet another book I must buy and which will add to the tottering pile of 'waiting to be read' books already threatening my life and limbs!