Powerful words that echo down to the debates of today.
Yes, Jefferson was a slave owner and a hypocrite, a man whose intellect demanded freedom for all while his greed and social standing kept others in chains. Such is human nature.
He was a political leader, not a Saint.
But I think, if he had been removed from his specific moment in time, that he would have eventually married that intellectual ideal with practical reality.
That's the sign of a Great Man I guess: the ability to have even your sins serve as an example for the ages.
