And that, of course, is what this really is all about. The Left’s culture-war politics has nothing to do with slavery or slave traders: You don’t hear very many American progressives complaining about the College of William and Mary or Napoleon, N.D. The target is the Founding Fathers — and, through them, the Founding itself, and its ideals.
The American people, like every people, has its corporate sins — and slavery is prominent among them. Penance is necessary, a fact expressed perhaps better than anyone else by Thomas Jefferson: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.” But redecorating the lawn at UVA is not going to change the fact that Thomas Jefferson — if we may be so bold as to remind the excruciatingly enlightened teenagers at UVA — founded the university. More important was his role in founding the United States, an act that did more for liberty and human flourishing than any other single political act in human history so far. Jefferson’s greatness does not erase Jefferson’s sins — but neither is that greatness erased by those sins.
To the kids at the Cavalier Daily: Grow up and maybe think about developing some humility and some gratitude. And if at UVA you learn to write a sentence half as good as one of Thomas Jefferson’s, then you should add that to the list of blessings that you owe, directly or indirectly, to that flawed and complicated man.
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