>Quite right. The specifics of this case aside, we
>could just as easily dismiss Marx for being a sexist
>or overly fond of hamburgers, or any other figure from
>the past for some deviation for contemporary left mores.
Yes, by all means let's forgive Jefferson for this, too - an excerpt from a Sep 23 1800 letter to Dr Benjamin Rush regarding yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia:
"Providence has in fact so established the order of things that most evils are the means of producing some good. The yellow fever will discourage the growth of great cities in our nation; & I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere, and less perfection in others, with more health, virtue, and freedom would be my choice."
If we could all be slaveowning rural squires, what a paradise America would be!
Doug