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Great Americans of History
THOMAS JEFFERSON - A CHARACTER SKETCH
WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON.
Dr. James Schouler says: "That Jefferson did not enter into the rhapsodies of
his times which magnified the first President into a demigod infallible, is very
certain; and that, sincerely or insincerely, he had written from his distant
retreat to private friends in Congress with less veneration for Washington's
good judgment on some points of policy than for his personal virtues and
honesty, is susceptible of proof by more positive testimony than the once
celebrated Mazzei letter. Yet we should do Jefferson the justice to add that
political differences of opinion never blinded him to the transcendent qualities
of Washington's character, which he had known long and intimately enough to
appreciate with its possible limitations, which is the best appreciation of all.
Of many contemporary tributes which were evoked at the close of the last century
by that great hero's death, none bears reading so well in the light of another
hundred years as that which Jefferson penned modestly in his private
correspondence."
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