Yet Jefferson (somewhat furtively) presided over the party machinery crafted as the "loyal opposition" during the presidencies of George Washington and John Adams, and developed an American political philosophy which has lasted 200 years. Unlike Harry Truman, Jefferson "couldn't stand the heat" of political life. Jefferson was not a good politician in terms of the way 20th century politicians operate. The house he designed there is a genuinely important (even essential) piece of world architectural heritage, and echoes of its lines can be seen in the shape of the Gateway Arch and many other monuments, homes and buildings across America.
Although not the inventor some claim him to have been (he invented only an iron moldboard for a plow), Jefferson adapted the best ideas he saw in America and Europe for use on his estate, Monticello. He was able to grasp and adapt new ideas instantaneously. His mind was luminous, his tastes extravagant. We know that he was a complex man, but what was Jefferson really like?īasic facts reveal that he was tall (6'2½"), freckled, sometimes rumpled, humorless, and sensitive. Who was Thomas Jefferson? Biographers have been trying to answer that question for nearly 200 years. It is a perfect example of the way in which Jefferson hid his emotions from people in his own time, and thus from modern historians as well. This somewhat strange parable shows us Thomas Jefferson at a moment when he was most vulnerable, when he internalized even his most profound grief after the death of his best friend. Two men spent 3½ hours at this job thus, Jefferson calculated, one man would take 7 hours and could therefore be expected to turn an acre of ground in four working days. While slaves were preparing Carr's grave, Jefferson sat nearby, taking notes on the time required to turn the soil.
While Thomas Jefferson was a youth, he made a pact with his best friend, Dabney Carr, that in the event of the death of either of them, the survivor would bury the other under a particular oak on a small mountain, a place Jefferson called "Monticello." When Carr died at the age of 30 in 1773, he remained Jefferson's best friend, their comradeship further solidified by the fact that Carr had married Jefferson's favorite sister Martha.
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