How do we deal with the moral failings of our heroes? Jefferson’s is the most agonizing one to consider. Next to his transgressions as a slave owner (even without the Sally Hemings factor) stand his unparalleled achievements on behalf of us all. In addition to Mr. Weisberger’s excellent conclusions, here is another one that came to me. We are always reminded that Jefferson, though a large spirit, was formed by his era. But if someone who could rightfully be called one of the greatest geniuses of that era could be so blind, could possibly take physical advantage of his dead wife’s sister and treat his own offspring as slaves, then how can we expect lesser men to do otherwise? If you or I had been born the scion of a plantation dynasty, would we have freed our slaves? That is why it’s so important for all of us to work together on the social contract in our own time—because if the contract is flawed, it’s tough for even the very finest of us to stand against it.
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January 2011
Bernard A. Weisberger’s balanced look at the Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings story (“In the News,” November 1997) led me to wonder anew at both the staying power and the meaning of this tale. Just what is it that is so scandalous here? What is it that Jefferson’s detractors have trumpeted and his supporters denied for nearly two centuries?
That Jefferson may have been attracted to a teenage girl can’t be the crucial issue. Such feelings are virtually universal. What of Jefferson’s having had sexual relations with a slave and even impregnating her? As Weisberger points out, such incidents were common, even in Jefferson’s own family.
First, boil ground corn in fresh spring water and some backset, or sour mash, saved from a previous fermentation. (Kentucky’s distillers make a big deal of their pure limestone water, but its main advantage is simply its lack of iron, which would make whiskey bitter and black.) Next add rye or wheat, which will contribute flavor, and cook that at a lower temperature. Then add malted barley—barley that has been partially germinated to generate enzymes that convert starch to sugar. In Maker’s Mark the proportions are 70 percent corn, 16 percent wheat, and 14 percent barley; in Wild Turkey they’re about 75 percent corn, 13 percent rye, and 12 percent barley. Cook about three and a half hours in all.
After 200 years, bourbon whiskey appears to be coming into its own. It is one of America’s unique cultural contributions to the world, our native equivalent to single-malt Scotch or Cuban cigars or Russian caviar, but it has never been the object of the esteem and connoisseurship which those luxuries enjoy. Its history has, to a large extent, been one of struggle against moralism, corruption, and capricious popular taste, along with gradual improvement from frontier swill into genuine delicacy. Just in the last few years it has begun getting truly serious respect.
As April 30,1898, turned into May 1, the USS Olympia steamed down the west coast of Luzon Island in the Philippinesj and entered Manila Bay through the Boca Grande, the wider of the two channels created by thej island of Corregidor. The J cruiser, flagship of the United States Asiatic Squadron, was blacked out except for a single) stern light to guide the three other cruisers, two gunboats, two colliers, and cutter that steamed in two lines behind her.
Most Underrated War: The second question is easy: What is the most underrated war in American history? The Mexican War of 1846. How many modern wars have ended in cutting one country almost in half and adding 25 percent to the area of the victor? And this with relatively little bloodshed or disruption. Then there’s the political and moral side of it. The principled opposition (well, partly principled) by the Whigs to Polk’s expansionism foreshadowed in many ways opposition to the U.S. role in the Philippine insurrection early in this century and, far more dramatically, to Vietnam in the latter part of this century. When Rep. Abraham Lincoln rose in the House and demanded details of the alleged Mexican atrocities toward American citizens, he was anticipating by a century and a quarter those who questioned Lyndon Johnson on the Tonkin Gulf incident.
Most Overrated Vice President: Rating Vice Presidents is not exactly easy, given their general inactivity in that most bizarre of offices, where, in the words of its first holder, John Adams, one is nothing but at any moment may become everything. Therefore, one is forced to devise subjective standards, but I will try. It seems to me that at a minimum the Vice President should not try to undermine the President he is serving, and I therefore nominate as the worst (and therefore overrated) John C. Calhoun, who held the job under two Presidents—John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson—toward both of whom he showed his open jealousy and conviction that he was better qualified. (He quit as Jackson’s V.P.; and a good thing too.) Most Underrated Vice President
Most Oveziated Team: The greatest American sports team of all time? It’s no contest: Any pool of sports experts you care to name will pick the 1927 Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig New York Yankees as the greatest, most dominant team of baseball’s modern age, and in America baseball is the measure of all things sporting. Want to extend the debate to the best back-toback teams? Toss in the ’28 Yankees and tell the fat lady to clear her throat. I’m not about to tell you that those Yankee teams weren’t great. In 1927 they were a breathtaking 110-44 and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0 in the World Series. The next year they went 101-53 and swept the St. Louis Cardinals in October. They had Ruth, Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Earle Combs, Bob Meusel, and a pitching staff headed by Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, and Urban Shocker (the old-time ballplayer with the name best suited for a ’90s grunge band). The Yankees of 1927 and 1928 were pretty darn good.