[MamaTexan]

So, nothing but documentation counts in your view of history? Personal diaries, speeches, newspaper accounts, letters, memoirs, etc. are all discounted?

In my view of history, no. But history and legal fact are two very different animals.

The former is based on perception, while the latter is based in law.

"When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."
– Thomas Jefferson

[durasell]

That’s an interesting view of the world. Not the one I would adopt, but interesting.