Thomas Jefferson Found Guilty in Mock Trial!

Associated Press/Yahoo ^ | 12/21/03 | CAIN BURDEAU

[Dallas59]

Jefferson Found Guilty in Mock Trial Sat Dec 20, 5:34 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!

By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (news - web sites) nodded, agreeing with his fellow jurists that Thomas Jefferson was indeed guilty of prolonging slavery, deporting American Indians and discriminating against the French in Louisiana.

Scalia joined federal and state judges to hear the testimony of Jefferson and French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte in a mock trial to review lingering legal and historic questions about the Louisiana Purchase.

New Orleans caps a yearlong celebration of the bicentennial of the mammoth land acquisition with a host of events Saturday.

Friday evening, the verdict ran like lightning through the hushed audience in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites).

Jefferson's lawyer jumped to his feet outraged, and demanded an appeal.

Napoleon flashed a grin and a thumbs-up sign after being acquitted of abandoning the peoples in the Louisiana province when he struck the land deal with Jefferson in 1803.

On Dec. 20, 1803, the American flag was hoisted in the Place d'Armes, now Jackson Square.

Friday was the final act of this three-part yearlong trial organized by Cajun Francophone lawyers. It was performed mostly in French and also celebrated the movement to preserve the French language in the United States.

"I think this trial proves that the French language in Louisiana is alive and well," said John Hernandez III, one of the main organizers of the trial.

As the representative of the 5th Circuit on the Supreme Court, Scalia was invited to attend the "proces simule," as it was termed in French.

"It's gratifying to see that we're remembering the native cultures of the time of the Purchase," said Warren Perrin, head of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, a pivotal organization for Cajuns.

"Just to get to see a justice of the Supreme Court, state court judges and federal judges interested in something like this is hard to describe," said Fortune' Dugan, a New Orleans lawyer in the audience.

Scalia didn't utter a word during the trial, and agreed with a nod — after consultation with the bench — to the verdict: Jefferson guilty, Napoleon innocent.

The main contention in this legal play was that the development of the United States has often come with a price: The abused.

Jefferson, played by a lawyer-turned-actor in wig and breeches, took the stand first.

He was interrogated by representatives of the American Indians, black and white Creoles, Spanish and Acadians — the people who called the swamps and pine forests of the Mississippi River valley home in 1803.

For the Indians, the argument ran, the territories the United States occupied after the Purchase — the Great Plains — became the land for reservations.

"Did you ever hear of the 'Trail of Tears' which was the trail of hardship and death over which the Cherokee Indians from Georgia were marched by U.S. soldiers at gunpoint one thousand miles to Indian territory in the Louisiana Purchase?" Jefferson was asked.

"I have heard rumors of that, but it did not happen during my administration," the president replied — astonished.

For black slaves, the fertile Mississippi River valley — with its soil so ripe for cotton and tobacco — turned into plantation country.

Their representative sneered at Jefferson: "You say you wanted to abolish slavery, and yet, when you died, were not your slaves sold off at auction to pay your debts?"

Jefferson conceded: "Yes, I am sorry to admit. As I grew old, I sometimes asked myself whether my country was the better for my having lived at all."

In his defense, Jefferson added: "I did what I could. I always believed and proclaimed that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that liberty is among these rights."

The Cajuns asked: "Why do you believe that the French language had to be stamped out?"

Replied Jefferson: "Well, I will quote here a great American, Theodore Roosevelt, who shares with me a place of honor on the national monument of Mount Rushmore: 'There is room for but one language in this country, and that is the English language, for we must assure that the crucible turns out Americans and not some random dwellers in a polyglot boarding house.'"

[Dallas59]

So what?

[dts32041]

He is the founder of the demo rat party what more would you expect, along with Jackson, probably did more to enslave people and practice genocide that any other president, except FDR.

[COEXERJ145]

I'd like to ask Scalia, "Don't you have anything better to do?"

Jefferson is turning in his grave knowing what the Democrat party has become.

[endthematrix]

"Scalia didn't utter a word during the trial, and agreed with a nod — after consultation with the bench — to the verdict: Jefferson guilty, Napoleon innocent."

Hmm...I wonder why she chose not to be on record? She was there and agreed.
How much money did this cost? And for what may I ask? Sounds like good old Jefferson was in the Hague under a UN war crimes tribunal. See, this PROVES the USA is the bad guy.

[KellyAdmirer]

So this Francophone society or whatever it is sided with Napoleon Bonaparte over Thomas Jefferson - what a surprise! I don't think members of the Federal government like Justice Scalia should be encouraging the use of alternative languages in the US, on that point Jefferson was completely correct.

[familyop]

Thomas Jefferson was a left handed weiner.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Jefferson is turning in his grave knowing what the Democrat party has become.

Looking at our bleeding borders and the endless flood of millions of illegals pouring into our country, Jefferson would probably march on Washington DC and hold both of the two party cartels at musket point.

[DeepDish]

Didn't Jefferson say something about slavery that went like this. "Slavery is like holding a wolf by the ears, you don't like it, but you don't dare let go".

I expect the next revisionist trial will be that of Eli Whitney, the evil twisted genius inventor of the cotton gin. He knew that in order to sew slavery firmly into the fabric of the South that a cheaper method of removing the seeds was crucial. An unnamed source in the district attorney's office has confirmed that Jefferson is going to testify at Whitney's trial. His testimony against Whitney and as yet uncharged and unnamed defendants is expected to result in a reduced sentence for Jefferson.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Ya. BFD.

[xp38]

Please send me all your nickels and two dollar bills and I will dispose of them properly for all freepers.

[BillSharp]

Jefferson was dead at the time of the trail of tears. Dumb question.

[stands2reason]

Quelle merde fieffé...

[luvbach1]

Does anyone seriously believe the learned and clear-headed Jefferson would be a Demorat today?

[Lancey Howard]

Hmm...I wonder why she chose not to be on record? She was there and agreed.

Who? Mr. Antonin Scalia?

[luvbach1]

Why not posthumously condemn the founding fathers to capital punishment and quiet the revisonists? On second thought that would not quiet them, so founding fathers, live on!

[FrankR]

I don't know what the writer is trying to convey, except to try to re-write history to continually tear down our forebearers in any way possible. There can be only one source of such malcontent and devious behavior, and it smacks of the socialist/communist desire to destroy all things American. They're coming for all of it...the guns, the churches, the unborn...and our forebearers as well.

But, if mr. cutie thinks it's so grand to "try" someone from another century, when everything was perceived in a different light...I'd like to invent a time machine, and try this author back in Mr. Jefferson's time and world.

I wonder what historians will think of our time in a couple hundred years?

Perhaps they will list our politically incorrect attrocities, like abortion, drugs, and other unthinkables today and pass a sentence on us.

My question is, does the statutes of limitations EVER run out on political correctness, or is it just someone else looking for an "angle" to have some outlet for the journalism degree that Mom and Dad mortgaged their house to provide many of the no-talented trying to become Clark Kent and Lois Lane?

[APFel]

Great point. Most leftists who condemn history tend to strip it from the context in which the events transpired. I hold no respect for this PC thuggery; to say it is contemptible would be a gross understatement.

[Atchafalaya]

Go Warren aka Zeus!! Acadianne toujors.

[endthematrix]

Ooops! My VERY bad! When I read Supreme Court Justice and the way tone of the the story was I instantly thought O'Connor! That story of her in Atlanta and US vs International Law.....my blood pressure is rising again, thank you!

[DeepDish]

"Why not posthumously condemn the founding fathers to capital punishment and quiet the revisonists?"

That is the next step. It reminds me of an Englishman whose name I cannot recall whose corpse was disinterred and burned years after his death. I think he was an early church reformer/theologian (pre Luther}.