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→Slavery: John Quincy Adams defense of Jefferson
In his ''Memoirs'', Jefferson wrote that Congress struck out his clause of the first draft of the Declaration of Independence which dealt directly with slavery, because of "complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia", who did not make any attempts whatsoever to restrain the importation of slaves like the other colonies did.<ref name=memoir>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QQZFhE-bdZEC&pg=PA16 Memoirs Corespondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson Late, President of the United States: Now First Published the Original Manuscripts]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6u5EAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA251 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society]</ref>
In his ''Memoirs'', Jefferson wrote that Congress struck out his clause of the first draft of the Declaration of Independence which dealt directly with slavery, because of "complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia", who did not make any attempts whatsoever to restrain the importation of slaves like the other colonies did.<ref name=memoir>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QQZFhE-bdZEC&pg=PA16 Memoirs Corespondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson Late, President of the United States: Now First Published the Original Manuscripts]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6u5EAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA251 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society]</ref>
Over the years, claims of hypocrisy have been thrown Jefferson's way over the issue of slavery, but none other than President [[John Quincy Adams]] pointed out the logical consistency of Jefferson's views.(Quincy Adams was a life-long, die-hard [[abolitionist]].) Adams said:
<blockquote>The inconsistency of the institution of domestic slavery with the principles of the Declaration of Independence was seen and lamented by all the southern patriots of the Revolution; by no one with deeper and more unalterable conviction than by the author of the Declaration himself. No charge of insincerity or hypocrisy can be fairly laid to their charge. Never from their lips was heard one syllable of attempt to justify the institution of slavery. They universally considered it as a reproach fastened upon them by the unnatural step-mother country and they saw that before the principles of the Declaration of Independence, slavery, in common with every other mode of oppression, was destined sooner or later to be banished from the earth. Such was the undoubting conviction of Jefferson to his dying day. In the Memoir of His Life, written at the age of seventy-seven, he gave to his countrymen the solemn and emphatic warning that the day was not distant when they must hear and adopt the general emancipation of their slaves.</blockquote>
Helo and Onuf (2003) have explored the logic of Jefferson's philosophical position against slavery in light of his ownership of slaves and his belief that the wholesale and immediate emancipation of slaves would threaten the new Republic. Heavily influenced by the writings of political philosophers [[Charles de Montesquieu]], Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, and especially Lord Kames, Jefferson grounded his position regarding slavery on the Kamesian principle that man was capable of moral development and, consequently, moral codes varied among different nations and progressed (or retrograded) over time in each nation. Kames posited that moral progress in a society, however, required a government. These concepts and others helped Jefferson shape his arguments in the Declaration of Independence, as rationale for the American Revolution. Moreover, they were the basis for his belief that slaves should be freed only when they could be assured of having their own government and a means, thereby, of self-determination as well as practical and moral education. Jefferson was convinced that emancipation on a large scale, before Virginia slaveholders and American society as a whole advanced morally, would precipitate racial violence and put the American experiment at risk.<ref>Ari Helo and Peter Onuf, "Jefferson, Morality, and the Problem of Slavery." ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2003 60(3): 583-614. Issn: 0043-5597 Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref>
Helo and Onuf (2003) have explored the logic of Jefferson's philosophical position against slavery in light of his ownership of slaves and his belief that the wholesale and immediate emancipation of slaves would threaten the new Republic. Heavily influenced by the writings of political philosophers [[Charles de Montesquieu]], Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, and especially Lord Kames, Jefferson grounded his position regarding slavery on the Kamesian principle that man was capable of moral development and, consequently, moral codes varied among different nations and progressed (or retrograded) over time in each nation. Kames posited that moral progress in a society, however, required a government. These concepts and others helped Jefferson shape his arguments in the Declaration of Independence, as rationale for the American Revolution. Moreover, they were the basis for his belief that slaves should be freed only when they could be assured of having their own government and a means, thereby, of self-determination as well as practical and moral education. Jefferson was convinced that emancipation on a large scale, before Virginia slaveholders and American society as a whole advanced morally, would precipitate racial violence and put the American experiment at risk.<ref>Ari Helo and Peter Onuf, "Jefferson, Morality, and the Problem of Slavery." ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 2003 60(3): 583-614. Issn: 0043-5597 Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref>