Posted by
Rogue Historian on Saturday, April 21, 2007 4:58:53 AM
In the wake or recent events, it is interesting to revisit the reputation of one of our most revered founding fathers. What possible explanation can there be for our persistent reverence for Thomas Jefferson? Jefferson was not only a towering political and intellectual figure. He was also a committed racist and a life-long opponent of abolition. Jefferson used his national status to preserve his state's perogative. He was in Washington's cabinet and even obtained the office which the General defined; but he was always, first and foremost, a Virginian.
The question remains, how a dogmatic defender of racial subjection retains admirers in a day and age in which even a whiff of prejudice can sink a career. The answer may lie in our subconscious. Clearly, we distinguish a racist then from a racist (presumed or otherwise) now. We recognize that being a racist in Jefferson's time indicated a lesser degree of turpitude. And indeed, it may have. Even three decades after slavery ended, Justice Harlan spoke positively of racial pride, of white pride in our nation's accomplishments. And he did so in a rightly famous opinion against legalized racism. Such were his times. Harlan is, perhaps, the last great national figure to share the Jefferson enigma. The contradictions of Jefferson's Declaration and Harlan's dissent run in parallel.
Jefferson and Harlan's failures, though vastly different in extent, were primarily moral. They ably compartmentalized the suffering of blacks in America while retaining their nation's faith. Their minds were uncorrupted, if their hearts were cold.
Neither Jefferson nor Harlan would survive a moment in today's political climate were they to retain and vocalize their views. There is no doubt that we are better for it. The reason is that racism today is not just a moral failure. It is an intellectual one. To accept the inferiority of blacks is to negate the existence of Ellison, the courage and intelligence of King, the temerity of Steele. So the racist today stands at an altogether different relation to reason. He is both a moral coward and a mental degenerate.
Consideration of the Jefferson Enigma cannot but lead one to question the appropriateness of racialist politics. The policies and actions of the racial absolvers would have been appropriate- and eminently courageous- in Jefferson's times, when men of power and prestige could hold power and be openly racist. Racism today is indefensible. The person who holds such views is marginalized. It is often said that racists really hate themselves. To the extent this is true- and I, for one, consider it so- we have indeed come a very long way.
But if Jefferson's bigotry is excusable, and racism in today's enlightened age is not, in what esteem should we hold a man like Alexander Hamilton, an abolitionist and an intellectual? I would argue, higher. Much, much higher.