Attacking a person's character on insufficient evidence is not only illustrative of bad scholarship, but also of insidiousness, hypocrisy, and dishonesty—that is, the sort of moral depravity of which Jefferson today is commonly accused. Jefferson devoted much of his life to serving his fellow human beings in the capacities of statesman, inventor, farmer, scientist, patron of the sciences, benefactor, father, grandfather, friend, letter writer, and so forth. Those things we do know. There is no firm evidence to indicate that he did have a relationship with Sally Hemings. When evidence is
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