And in Burr’s defense, Hamilton could have used a little killing as well.
The Burr-Hamilton duel resulted in one combatant dying and one combatant being disgraced. The winner was American politics which was improved by the removal of both of them.
That’s why I’m fascinated by him. I’m not as brilliant as Jefferson, but smarter than average. I’m not as flawed as Jefferson, yet flawed.
My Dad was intrigued by him for the same reasons.
If you’re a religious Christian, you might not like his “Jefferson Bible”, where he cut out all the supernatural stuff.
Good looking guy, but he never should have married Marcy. No wonder he was a member of No Ma’am.
When I visited the Smithsonian last month, there was an exhibit devoted entirely to this, the Jeffersion Bible. I’d heard of it, but never seen it. Did you know that for years they handed out free copies of it to incoming legislators? For all I know, they still do. I’ll bet THAT annoys the hell out of some of the more fundamehntalist members.
Moving from MPSIMS to IMHO.
My, you’re busy this morning!
Meh, that was just one of his quirks. He obviously believed in a higher power with his “creator” talk in the DOI. But he seemed to hate organized religion.
I heard a story once that on his deathbed (and I’m making up the preacher’s name) that a friend asked if he would like Reverend Smith to come and visit. Jefferson replied that he would be happy to see his good friend, Mr. Smith. The implication was clear that he wanted to see the man, but not in his capacity as a preacher.
I think its more then just being against “organized religion”. He believed in a vague “higher power”, but not in the divinity of Christ, or any sort of supernatural miracle, or in the Bible as any sort of revealed truth. So a deist, but not a Christian in any sort of usual sense.
Very true. However he struggled with Christianity. He talked about the Book of Revelation as the “ravings of a lunatic.” He obviously felt that Jesus’ teachings were worthwhile. All of that adds to the complexity.
Well, to be fair, if he denied that there was a creator, he would no longer qualify to be a Freemason.
I about spit my drink all over my monitor on that last sentence… 
Tell me about it. These threads are heavy, too!
I find Jefferson incredibly annoying, in part because modern ideologues put him on such a high pedestal and ignore his faults. As already noted he was by far the most hypocritical of the FFs. To wit:
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Jefferson wrote many papers deploring slavery; the Declaration of Independence rails against the slavery pushed on the American colonies by King George. And yet he never made any practical effort to get rid of it, including freeing his own slaves. (Caveat: I believe he freed two(?) slaves near his death.)
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He eviscerated Adams as president for violating the US Constitution and plotted his downfall (he also plotted against Washington). Yet, as president, he supported acts which privately he considered to be unconstitional, like the the Louisiana Purchase.
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He is largely responsible for starting dirty politics at the Federal level, both during the presidency and when campaigning. He paid an unscrupulous newspaper to print lies about Adams during the 1800 elections.
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He had many brilliant ideas but also some whacko ones. He supported the French Revolution, even after the Reign of Terror. He opined to Madison that the constitution should be thrown out every 19 years to be replaced by a new one.
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Near the end of his life he tried to convince the Virginia government to run a form of lottery to help him pay his debts.
This book gets my recommendation.
I recently read Teddy Roosevelt’s “Naval History of the War of 1812.” He is harsh to Jefferson for not having built up the Navy, especially when it was obvious that the young United States was not going to be able to avoid war. John Addams, at least, built the six frigates that served so well (another great book is Ian Toll’s “Six Frigates: the Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy.”) Roosevelt emphasizes how very well the U.S. did, in naval battles at least, with those six frigates…and not a whole lot more.
She was only 1/4 black? I’d call her white then. I know back then she would be considered black but they were idiots. Sorry, rant over.
I say being a slave back in those times and having kids born into slavery pretty much disqualifies you as “white”, in a political sense.
Yes, Jefferson was a fuck-up. A fuck-up with some good ideas, but still someone you wouldn’t want to hang around with if you were a negro. His “Notes on Virginia” is pretty clear evidence of this. He couldn’t even give Benjamin Banneker or Phyllis Wheatley any props. Even if they were hacks, but he could have at least conceded that there might be exceptions to his “blacks are souless animals” theory. I mean, if a cow presented me with a working clock that she’d built with her own hooves, I’m hoping I would stop eating steak and hamburgers. Or at least publish an addendum to my paper entitled “Cows are Inferior Animals so Let’s Eat Them!”
Slavery is bad. Ohh, what a brave viewpoint to take in the 21st century.:rolleyes: