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To: CatoRenasci
Thanks for the post! The Adams Bio was the first bio of a founding father I have read in maybe twenty years. It is so odd to me that this was all so dry when I studied it in college and high school,,sort of what you did to get your grade, etc, and now is so intriguing to me. I am ordering the Malone books,,tell me, will they be as gripping as the Adams book {McCollough} or will they put me to sleep? I am now fascinated with Jefferson. What interested me is that Adams was alarmed by the events that unfolded during the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, etc and Jefferson was sanguine about these. I felt more in tune with Adams on that. And Jefferson seemed like such a paradox especiallly his constant spending and debt,,being from a Puritan background, the debt puzzled me. He seemed like a compulsive shopper and consumer, the constant rehab projects on his homes and even rented places. It was just odd to me. And his leaving his family for such long periods,,Adams did this to but Abigail was usually at home with the children. I also wondered if Jefferson had some sort of "woman problem",,he seemed to get these relationships with married women, sort of admiring, writiing letters etc, but never married again after his wife's death,,I know she made him promise not to but that doesn't resonate as the cause of his never remarrying.
160 posted on 12/17/2003 11:05:57 AM PST by cajungirl (no)
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To: cajungirl
Well, I found the Malone well-written and very interesting, but I was trained as an academic historian. Malone did win the Pulitzer for one of the volumes (at least) back when it meant something.

From your handle I'd guess you were a Southron like Jefferson, so your comment on Jefferson's financial problems and proclivities were somewhat surprising. I suppose if you're from a Puritan background it would seem strange. I think the most charitable thing that can be said here is the Jefferson's attitudes towards money were not atypical of his class and time. The British aristocracy, and the Virginia gentry in imitation, was typically land (and slave) rich, but cash poor. To conduct their lives at all, some sort of credit system of borrowing against future crops for both expenses and capital needs was almost essential. Jefferson's habits were expensive, but he was not, as were some of his peers, a compulsive gambler or rake-hell who spent his patrimony on fallen women. IIRC, when his father died, Jefferson inherited lands already heavily encumbered, and never worked his way out from under, indeed made it worse. As to his leaving his family, that, too, was not unusual in that period: men were often away (whether at sea or at war or for business) for years at a time. Jefferson could almost be considered a homebody by contemporary standards, except for the time he spent abroad or in Philadelphia and Washington in government service.

Jefferson's relations with women are not very clear. That he did not remarry is surprising, but, then, people took promises such as the one he made to Marth more seriously than we do today. Fascinating subject.

162 posted on 12/17/2003 11:46:59 AM PST by CatoRenasci (Ceterum Censeo [Gallia][Germania][Arabia] Esse Delendam --- Select One or More as needed)
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