Write a response to the Conor Cruise OBrien letter. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/96oct/obrien/obrien.htm

The article Thomas Jefferson : Radical and Racist ' by Conor Cruise O 'Brien is a rather ambitious project . Its purpose is to encourage a distinct change in how Thomas Jefferson is viewed as a historical figure , hoping to move Jefferson from a celebrated spot as one of America 's foremost forefathers to a vilified position with a rather dubious heritage . O 'Brien 's contentions center on Jefferson 's failure to condemn the atrocities associated with a French revolution that he had helped to foster as well as Jefferson 's seemingly hypocritical view on

the rights and status of slaves and freedmen . When combined , O 'Brien argues , these factors point towards the third President 's true legacy one that does not reflect the true liberal idealism for which Jefferson is commonly revered , but rather one that is caustically more conservative and dangerous , mired in both revolution and racism . While much of O 'Brien 's argument seems compelling , it also seems based on assumptions that are neither flattering nor necessary O 'Brien is criticizing a man that lived 300 years prior through the lens of a modern ideology that did not fully exist in Jefferson 's time . It is true that Jefferson was a revolutionary in a time of revolutionaries and a slaver-owner in the days of slavery , but it is also true that he was a leading part of a movement that eventually gave rights to all in the civilized world

O 'Brien begins his criticism by outlining what he sees as Jefferson 's current position in what he refers to as the American civil religion which he uses another 's words to describe as an institutionalized collection of sacred American beliefs providing sources of cohesion and prophetic guidance through times of national crises ' At the center of these beliefs is the matter of liberty , which is both the focus of the Declaration of Independence and the subject of which O 'Brien finds Jefferson the most hypocritical . O 'Brien offers Jefferson as the current pope of the American civil religion and then flatly rejects him as an appropriate candidate , because of his apparent radicalism and racism . By breaking down O 'Brien 's arguments an attempt can be made to cleanse Jefferson 's standing

The first point of O 'Brien 's attack on Jefferson focuses on Jefferson 's attitude towards the French Revolution and Shay 's Rebellion . O 'Brien quite correctly sees that Jefferson was not averse to the use of bloodshed during disputes against tyranny . In regards to Jefferson 's beliefs regarding the French Revolution , O 'Brien notes , In private the esoteric doctrine of the Republican leaders -- as revealed by Jefferson to William Short -- was that what the Federalists called excesses were really taking place but were entirely justifiable , however drastic because they were undertaken in the cause of liberty ' O 'Brien clearly feels that Jefferson 's willingness to accept radical violence as a political tool steps beyond the tenants of the American civil religion as it contradicts the apparent...