Modern-day smear campaigners

Nothing funnier than irrelevant academics mocking Thomas Jefferson. Spoiler alert: nobody is naming monuments after them.

Real history demands the same standard as an American courtroom: innocent until proven guilty. You do not carve a verdict into the permanent record without concrete, undeniable evidence. That is what makes William G. Hyland Jr.’s book In Defense of Thomas Jefferson so refreshing. Approaching the past with the sharp rigor of a trial lawyer rather than the guesswork of a storyteller, Hyland cuts through centuries of rumor. He traces the Sally Hemings allegations back to their partisan origin in James Callendar, a bitter political propagandist, and exposes what the 1998 DNA testing actually proved. It showed a genetic link to a Jefferson male, like his younger brother Randolph, rather than conclusive proof against the third president himself.

Unfortunately, hard evidence does not pay the bills in today’s academic echo chambers. Too many modern commentators and professors have zero shame, endlessly hijacking Jefferson’s name just to sell books, pad their resumes, and advance their careers. They trade primary-source discipline for armchair psychology and trendy smears because tearing down an icon guarantees applause and royalties. It is easy to lob cynical accusations at a man who has been dead for two centuries and cannot step forward to cross-examine his accusers.

Why the relentless urge to knock down a giant? Envy. History belongs to the builders, not the bleachers. To the modern cynic, a figure of Jefferson’s monumental stature feels too towering, too principled, and too accomplished. Rather than grappling with the extraordinary legacy of a man who mastered six languages, played the violin, designed architectural landmarks, invented our decimal currency system, designed over a dozen devices, authored the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, championed the Bill of Rights, fought in court to free enslaved people, signed the law banning the international slave trade, wrote the exact anti-slavery language later used in the 13th Amendment, served as our first Secretary of State and third President, governed without a single ounce of corruption, slashed the national debt by over 30 percent while eliminating all internal federal taxes, doubled the nation with the Louisiana Purchase, launched the Lewis and Clark Expedition, built the modern Library of Congress, and founded the University of Virginia — a legacy so undeniable that America’s greatest Presidents from Washington and Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, and Reagan all looked up to him — these grifters insist on inventing a sordid angle. When the facts fall short, speculation fills the void.

Yet for all their noise, Jefferson’s detractors are making a fatal miscalculation. They assume that because Thomas Jefferson is dead, he stands alone without an advocate. They are wrong. Thomas Jefferson lives on in the soul of the American experiment, and he lives on in every citizen who cherishes liberty and self-government. He poured his intellect, his fortune, and his life into building this republic, and millions of grateful Americans will fiercely defend his honor when he no longer can.

At the end of the day, these critics are shouting at a mountain. Nobody is building a monument to a bitter professor, and nobody will remember their names a hundred years from now, let alone a thousand. They are footnotes trying to rewrite the headline. Thomas Jefferson is carved into the bedrock of this nation. Future generations will speak his name until the end of time, while his detractors disappear into the dust they tried to kick up.