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Presidential Address: Thomas Jefferson in American Historiography1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

H. Hale Bellot
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Extract

‘The contradictions in Jefferson's character’, wrote Henry Adams, ‘have always rendered it a fascinating study. Excepting his rival Alexander Hamilton, no American has been the object of estimates so widely differing and so difficult to reconcile.’ He was, said Adams in another passage,

curiously vulnerable, for he seldom wrote a page without exposing himself to attack. He was superficial in his knowledge, and a martyr to the disease of omniscience. Ridicule of his opinions and of himself was an easy task, … for his English was often confused, his assertions inaccurate, and at times of excitement he was apt to talk with indiscretion …

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 4 , December 1954 , pp. 135 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1954

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References

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page 145 note 4 Ibid.

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page 146 note 2 Ibid., p. 344.

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page 147 note 5 Ibid., i. 155.

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