This is the most ignorant statement I've ever read on Free Republic. Jefferson did nothing but warn against what the Democrat party is today. And if some of today's Rats claim him as their founder, it's just another slanderous lie from a party of liars. To promote such garbage is to act as their tool, and grievously defame one of the greatest warriors for fredom who ever lived.
Not to mention that your statement is the exact opposite of this article - which I'm sure you're well aware.
Actually if’n ya look @ US History Van Buran was the REAL “founder” of the “Modern” Dem “party”. I was a party founded on NOTHING!
Jefferson was the Left wing of the Founding generation and happily allied with the highly Democratic Burr machine in NY City in order to win the presidency. Burr’s Tammany Hall boys lied, cheated and stole just as today’s Democrats do. He also defended and worked with the French Revolution after it had become obviously tyrannical.
Jefferson operated under a mask of virtue but was as big a liar and manipulator as has ever been seen in American politics. Just read what he did to his henchman Burr for no discernible reason. Tell me about the Burr Treason Trials and also that they were something an honorable man would have forced. Listen to what his own cousin, John Marshall, says about him.
Most of my life I believed Jefferson was a great president and great patriot. Then I started doing some intense research into the period of the Founding. Boy was I shocked when I started getting into Jefferson. Malone whitewashes, overlooks or excuses a lot. What I found did not make me happy.
Nor do I think Jefferson liked or (from anything I can see) really understood the Constitution certainly not like Madison or Hamilton. We are fortunate that he was in France when it was written and ratified.