I’m quite familiar with the whole Jefferson/Hamilton argument. On the whole, I lean towards Hamilton.
Jefferson was a repulsive person in private and public life. While he wrote a great deal about courage, honor and honesty, he did not live up to his ideals, and does not seem to have made much effort to do so.
One example. For most of his life Jefferson talked a great game about the evils of slavery. Yet he made no effort to live his life in a way that would allow him to free his slaves when he died. Instead he lived extravagantly and died deeply in debt. Almost all his slaves, despite his having made the empty gesture of freeing them in his will, had to be sold to pay the estate’s debts, including splitting up families.
Jefferson, while writing the greatest words in human history extolling liberty, made absolutely no effort to live his life in accordance with what he claimed as his ideals.
Meanwhile, George Washington, who spent a great deal less time mouthing off about the importance of human liberty, spent the last years of his life planning and arranging that his slaves would not only be freed but would be provided for during the difficult transition to freedom.
You also might be interested in the little known fact that John Adams spent the last years of his life moving in the opposite political direction from the rest of the country, winding up with even greater attachment to the monarchical and aristocratic principles of goverment than Hamilton.
Post 132 - Utter lies.