Chapter 2355 Hypocrite (Ⅱ) (Fifth)

Rebecca smiled sarcastically, making no secret of her mockery of Alexander Jefferson.

"This is really strange. Isn't Mr. Jefferson self-contradictory and self-slap in the face when Mr. Jefferson tries to confuse two incompatible concepts, blaming the imperial government for slavery while blaming the imperial authorities for emancipating the slaves? "

"If I conclude that this person says one thing and does another, and is utterly hypocritical, you may not be convinced, but that's okay. Mr. Jefferson's words and deeds have also provided us with more vivid examples of his hypocritical nature."

Rebecca sat back in the armchair, took a sip of coffee to moisten her throat, and continued to chase and beat.

"I think you all have read Mr. Jefferson's other book—"Alfheim's Notes."

"In this collection of essays, Mr. Jefferson goes to great lengths to argue that black slaves were mentally backward and inherently inferior to their white slave masters, and based on this point of view, he firmly opposed interracial marriage, claiming that it was 'a biological farce against nature. '."

"Since Mr. Jefferson loathes and even fears the combination of blacks and whites so much, how can he explain that there are a lot of mulattos in his own family? How can he explain that his favorite slave girl, Sally Hemings, is three-quarters whites Lineage?"

"If Mr. Jefferson is really opposed to cross-race sexual behavior, really dislikes mixed-race people, and regards it as a crime of moral corruption, why doesn't he sell the mixed-race female slave around him, or give her the status of a free person?"

"I don't know what you think, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were revealed some day that Mr. Jefferson had an indecent relationship with his half-breed slave girl—rather, it would be a shame for such a thing to happen to a hypocrite. It couldn't be more appropriate."

"Enough! Rebecca! You're too much!"

Joan couldn't bear it anymore and couldn't keep silent.

"If you want to accuse Mr. Jefferson of adultery with Miss Hemings, please show the evidence!"

Rebecca obviously didn't expect Joan to get angry suddenly, she shrugged her shoulders, and her eyes couldn't hide the regret.

"Evidence, this..."

"If you accuse someone of being morally corrupt, you must have evidence in your hand, right?" Qiao An asked holding back her anger.

"I don't have any evidence yet, but the relationship between Mr. Jefferson and that half-blood slave girl is definitely not normal. Have you noticed the way they look at each other? I have an intuition..."

"Don't talk about intuition!" Joan interrupted Rebecca, "If intuition can be regarded as evidence, then in the eyes of a persecuted paranoid, how can there be innocent people in the world?!"

"You have different political views from Mr. Jefferson. Normal criticism is understandable, but you can't attack someone's private life without grounds!" Joan became angrier and couldn't help raising her voice, "Convict Mr. Jefferson based on your own feelings. , this is no longer criticism, it is simply slander!"

"Okay, okay, what you said is right, can't I admit my mistake?"

Rebecca saw that Joan was really angry, and she was wronged and pitifully backed down.

"The part of the remarks about Miss Hemings just now was my inadvertent remarks. I retract these words. If I offend anyone, I can apologize, but I don't think I have said anything wrong in the comments made before that. , and I don’t force you to agree with my point of view, who is the truth in the hands of? Let us give time to verify.”

Joan sat back in the chair and didn't speak again.

To a certain extent, Principal Jefferson is his idol, satisfying his beautiful fantasy of "The Philosopher King".

If there is a model of the "intellectual class", Joan thinks it should be Principal Jefferson:

Wisdom, elegance, erudition, gentleness and eloquence, compassion and justice, noble birth but always on the side of the common people, love freedom more than life.

It was precisely because of the above psychology that Rebecca's sharp criticism of Mr. Jefferson made him particularly uncomfortable-similarly, even if he criticized himself, he would not be so angry.

Things that are lost and found are always precious, and Joan doesn't want to argue with Rebecca because of her political conflicts, not to mention that she has already apologized for her excessive remarks—although she is not very willing.

After the salon was over, Joan declined Rebecca's invitation to take a walk, left the White House Manor, and returned to his apartment still unhappy and frustrated.

He believed that Principal Jefferson's views carried out the "natural human rights" advocated by the Enlightenment thinkers, while Rebecca was born in an aristocratic family and advocated "elitism". The aristocratic elite enjoyed equal rights.

Mr. Jefferson's exposition is indeed not rigorous enough, too idealistic, and the chapters involving the slave trade are contradictory, and even give the impression of hypocrisy, but Rebecca's criticism of him is also suspected of personal attacks and taken out of context.

If you treat female slaves well, you suspect that you have adultery in private; when you say you want to resist taxes, you guess that you are planning to overthrow the governor and beat tax collectors;

This kind of reasoning logic is like "stealing the needle when the hour is the hour, and stealing the cow when the hour is big"-a typical "slippery slope fallacy".

Joan sat down at the desk, poured himself a cup of tea, heated it up with a "magic trick" and sipped it slowly.

After a cup of hot tea, Joan's mood eased a little. He no longer entangled with the political conflict between Rebecca and Jefferson, and instead thought about the future of his hometown.

The anti-tax movement in Yalfheim is in full swing, and judging from this posture, it may be difficult to calm down in a short time.

If the new Governor-General, Lord Fogle, does not change his arrogant and rude approach, continues to ignore the voices of the people, and even uses violence to suppress protesters, it is likely to trigger larger-scale riots.

The tense atmosphere at Leiden Port reminded Joan of the Far East across the ocean.

The independence movement in the Far East also started with the resistance to tax increases. Due to the improper handling and abuse of violence by the bureaucrats stationed in the Far East, the anti-tax movement was fueled. Only then did Kolas and his sons have the opportunity to raise the banner of rebellion and establish From the separatist forces.

If the imperial authorities do not learn their lesson and repeat the mistakes they made in the Far Eastern provinces in Alfheim, Joan dares to say that this turmoil will soon evolve from simply resisting land tax to seeking independence from the suzerain Movement, Yalfheim will eventually become the second Far East.

Joan originally wanted to stay away from political disputes, but the tide of the times was turbulent beside him, and he couldn't allow him to stay out of it.

The more he compares the past and present of the Far East and Alfheim, the more he empathizes with the suffering of the people in the Far East, and he feels disgusted with the corrupt rule of the empire.

...

Historical Materials: Jefferson's Contradictory Position on Slavery (The Life of Jefferson [US] Joseph J. Ellis)

One of the injustices stood out the most, partly because it involved an issue that quickly proved to be the most contentious issue in the Continental Congress when it debated the wording of the Declaration of Independence, and partly because Jefferson in Virginia in May What is written in the state constitution is not the same as what was written in the Declaration of Independence in June.

This is a passage from the Declaration of Independence where Jefferson accused George III of instigating and perpetuating the slave trade, thereby implying that slavery was an evil institution imposed on the people of the colonies by a corrupt monarch.

In a previous draft of the Virginia Constitution, he accused George III of "promoting the Negroes to take up arms against us; those Negroes have adopted the inhuman veto and refused to use the means of the law".

Here we find Jefferson conflating two incompatible concepts: one blaming the King of England for slavery, the other blaming him for freeing the slaves.

This revealed a deep contradiction in his thinking about slavery that he never reconciled.

Historical Materials: Jefferson's Contradictory Position on Slavery II ("Jefferson's Biography" [US] Joseph J. Ellis)

He [Jefferson] had a fundamental belief, which he himself never questioned, that white and black Americans could not live in harmony.

He has already explained why in "Virginia Notes": "The deep-rooted prejudice of the white man; the countless memories of the black man's wounds to them; Splintering into many factions, creating disturbances that will probably never stop unless one or the other genocide is exterminated."

This was an example, leading to the most important result, Jefferson's inability to believe that the forces of liberty unleashed by the American Revolution could not clear away the "diseases of the past." Blacks and whites are inherently different, although he is careful to suggest that his view is "merely speculative," that descendants of Africans are mentally inferior to whites, and that any policy of emancipation allows interracial marriage, A criminal injustice to the freed slave, a biological farce that violated "the true distinctions nature has made."

The inevitable conclusion: slavery was morally wrong, but apartheid was morally right. There is little point in rushing to free slaves unless there is a realistic solution to the problem of freed slaves.