Jefferson or Hamilton: Who was smarter?

[NHartphotog]

Originally Posted by maf763

Save your bold-face outrage, nobody was suggesting America did invent slavery. But Jefferson had no idea how to mitigate the damage that slavery was doing to the US, especially after the explosion of the practice in the early 1800's. Go read his 'wolf by the ear' letter.

And since we're at it, African involvement in the slave trade doesn't absolve America of its responsibilities in expanding and prolonging the process. A few hundred thousand Africans were shipped to the US and the prior colonies, the last ones legally arriving in 1808. In 1860, there were about 4 million. As far as ruling elite, most of the adult population was disenfranchised in the early years of the republic as compared to now, so that's a pretty vacuous statement as well.

The fact that that the media is constantly blaming America's modern-day societal problems on a practice that ended 150 years ago actually DOES imply that America is at fault for the very idea of slavery.

Let's try dealing with today's world, instead of implying that every white person today got a staff of slaves & countless other benefits of the "white priviledge" that only exist in the minds of those who repeat the media sound bites to save themselves the trouble of thinking.

[Thoreau424]

I don't care for either of them. Others were much brighter and wiser (Franklin, Washington, the Adamses, etc.)

[maf763]

Originally Posted by NHartphotog

The fact that that the media is constantly blaming America's modern-day societal problems on a practice that ended 150 years ago actually DOES imply that America is at fault for the very idea of slavery.

Let's try dealing with today's world, instead of implying that every white person today got a staff of slaves & countless other benefits of the "white priviledge" that only exist in the minds of those who repeat the media sound bites to save themselves the trouble of thinking.

So, is this ignorance or an agenda? Just curious.

[cebuan]

Will Rogers — 'You know, everybody's ignorant, just on different subjects.'

So, the answer depends on how you weight the different subjects. The current paradigm is to give political correctness paramountcy over everything else.

[Dangerous-Boy]

i think its a tie


I like hamilton better though

[craigiri]

I think Hamilton was smarter and more rounded in general due to his serving in the Military and not being "landed" Gentry. That makes for more of a generalist.

But "smart" is hard to define. Jefferson may have had more varied interests, but both were amazing students of history.