"Near the end of his life, in 1825, Jefferson contrasted the Saxon and the Norman conquests of England 'the former exhibiting the genuine form and political principles of the people constituting the nation, and founded in the rights of man; the latter built on conquest and physical force, not at all affecting moral rights, nor even assented to by the free will of the vanquished. The battle of Hastings, indeed, was lost, but the natural rights of the nation were not staked on the events of a single battle. Their will to recover the Saxon constitution continued unabated.' [TJ letter Oct. 25, 1825]. This view of Anglo-Saxon England was in its way as unreal as those writings which depicted Arthur's England as a Camelot of brave knights, fair ladies, and magic swords, but it persisted in English and American thinking long after Jefferson's death."
-- Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism, Reginald, Horsman, 1981, p. 21.
No comments:
Post a Comment