While I read the whole thread andit's progress the last days,
without posting, I got fascinated and start reading about Jefferson. The more the debate was passionate the more I got interested.
I am very weak in rhetoric and don't like to practice the sport - a decade of meditation kills any ability and tweaking of the mind in doing so. My intellect can't be that wise and fast. What I like is to read such debates and argumentation to get the extreme viewpoints and try to balance.
But what I retained of my reading on the net is the following, as TAJ had put a wonderfull essay - like the old sage would have done:
He was a brilliant man; possibly one of the most brilliant men in history.
He did work through the legal system as best he could to restrict slavery.
But he still owned slaves.
''
He was a brilliant man who had the luxury of time to study the subjects he wished.
But it was the fact that he owned, bought, and sold slaves that gave him that luxury and life-style.
There is ample evidence that the moral crisis troubled him deeply. Some believe that the reason he stayed in Paris so long was because he couldn't face the moral dilemma.
What I retain is that one have to know thougoughly the personnality, his life, accomplishments, flaws and dilemmas he faced , what environement, to make the best accurate judgement.
Last year I read a biography about the man with the miraculous hands - the therapist of Himmler! It's a true story that shocked me. It has been confirmed to me by an old nun whom father had known SS and Nazis who help to save many jews.
Anyway, I was amazed at how really was Himler and and his actions, many bad, few good.
After Nuremberg, his secretary was sanctionned to a death penalty for crime against mankind and this man became a shame.
The key person to allow thousands of concentration camps prisonners to be saved had been this guy.
What had been retained in Nuremberg was that as Himler's secretary,
he participated in coordination of deportation in concentration camps. The facts reported by kessler is that he only kept holding this position to save people. History had retained only one view. not the whole situation.
I recommand to read this book. You will be fascinated by the ops that were run behind the doors , in the nazis closets. Fascinating!
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Miraculous-Hands-Fantastic-Himmlers/dp/1580801226/ref=la_B001H9Y3WY_1_4/180-0245601-2583964?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404968146&sr=1-4
Anyway, thanks for this thread, I'll am sold to get some Jefferson biographies at the librairy.