BETH! I was so disturbed reading this book because there were several points where Thomas Jefferson reminded me of our current president. I KNOW. It was so upsetting! I liked him! I chalked up the Sally Hemmings thing to a character flaw! Everybody makes mistakes! George Washington almost lost his troops at the beginning of the war, John Adams had those Alien and Sedition Acts, James Madison completely abandoned the principles underpinning the strong federal government he'd fought for. It happens!
I mean, I'm no Jefferson scholar (but I really want to read more about him now), but he comes across as one of those people who are so convinced of their righteousness that the practical morality of their deicions and beliefs just don't matter. You can kind of see it in the way he was able to write something like the Declaration of Independence and later still own slaves - and not just own slaves, but author papers justifying the racial inferiority of blacks. What's fascinating is how he completely and totally did not see anything troubling or hypocritical about that. And okay, I guess you could argue that a lot of the founders were exhibiting signs of such irrational craziness, but it's really marked in Jefferson because he was such a serious, crazed BELIEVER in things like freedom! equality! democracy! to the point that he defended the violence of the French Revolution (and accused other people who were a little less enthused about the head-chopping of being as bad as the British), but saw no problem in keeping a big chunk of the population in bondage.
And another big reason Jefferson upset me so? He was SO MEAN to John Adams! Like, SO MEAN! It was like a soap opera - the two of them were close friends for years, but when the Federalist/Anti-Federalist split happened, the ended up on opposite sides. When Adams was elected President and Jefferson Vice President, Adams tried to reach over and ask Jefferson to help him lead a bi-partisan White House and at first Jefferson went along with it but then later backed out and started actively plotting against him. Actively! And then there were all sorts of personal attacks launched by Jefferson's people against Adams that were totally dirty and wrong and all the while Jefferson was all, "Who? Me?" acting as if he were above such behavior when he had to know what was going on.
It so upset John Adams that it upset me to the point that I had to take short breaks from the book. (Not to spoil things, but they do kind of make up at the end.)
BTW, did you ever read The President's Lady? I am STILL recovering from the shock of realizing that the same romantic Andrew Jackson of that historical novel was the President who drove all of those American Indians on the Trail of Tears. So upsetting!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-03-01 05:46 am (UTC)I mean, I'm no Jefferson scholar (but I really want to read more about him now), but he comes across as one of those people who are so convinced of their righteousness that the practical morality of their deicions and beliefs just don't matter. You can kind of see it in the way he was able to write something like the Declaration of Independence and later still own slaves - and not just own slaves, but author papers justifying the racial inferiority of blacks. What's fascinating is how he completely and totally did not see anything troubling or hypocritical about that. And okay, I guess you could argue that a lot of the founders were exhibiting signs of such irrational craziness, but it's really marked in Jefferson because he was such a serious, crazed BELIEVER in things like freedom! equality! democracy! to the point that he defended the violence of the French Revolution (and accused other people who were a little less enthused about the head-chopping of being as bad as the British), but saw no problem in keeping a big chunk of the population in bondage.
And another big reason Jefferson upset me so? He was SO MEAN to John Adams! Like, SO MEAN! It was like a soap opera - the two of them were close friends for years, but when the Federalist/Anti-Federalist split happened, the ended up on opposite sides. When Adams was elected President and Jefferson Vice President, Adams tried to reach over and ask Jefferson to help him lead a bi-partisan White House and at first Jefferson went along with it but then later backed out and started actively plotting against him. Actively! And then there were all sorts of personal attacks launched by Jefferson's people against Adams that were totally dirty and wrong and all the while Jefferson was all, "Who? Me?" acting as if he were above such behavior when he had to know what was going on.
It so upset John Adams that it upset me to the point that I had to take short breaks from the book. (Not to spoil things, but they do kind of make up at the end.)
BTW, did you ever read The President's Lady? I am STILL recovering from the shock of realizing that the same romantic Andrew Jackson of that historical novel was the President who drove all of those American Indians on the Trail of Tears. So upsetting!