Thomas Jefferson The United States is built upon a crucial document, known as the Declaration of Independence which to this date remains the most vital document known to Americans. Thomas Jefferson had such an important part in making the document that he not only goes down in history as a founding father but got his head carved into a mountain as a sign of appreciation. Jefferson is a unique character since there is very little of his works still around and those that are mostly comprised of the works of his family or close friends. This means that much of what we know about him is not from the man himself but from his colleagues all of which had different tones while writing about him which could lead to the vast difference of facts known…show more content… One thing that they can all agree upon is that Jefferson was one of the most important and influential men in America. Even though they take very different approaches one thing that they all have in common is that they all believe Jefferson was a complex man with many unknowns.
In the book American Sphinx the author, Joseph Ellis portrays his interpretations of Jefferson’s complex and mysterious character traits. Ellis quickly gets to a reason explaining why Jefferson is such a mysterious man and describes it by saying, “Moreover, there is a nearly insurmountable difficulty posed by what Jefferson specialists have come to call the problem of the Shadwell fire which destroyed most of Jefferson personal papers in 1770, making the recovery of his formative years an exercise in inspired guesswork” (Ellis, 25). Ellis prefaces his book by stating that Jefferson specialists have a lack of knowledge on the man himself due to this fire and most of what they know about either comes from his works that survived or the description of Jefferson’s work by others at the time such as John Adams. Ellis also goes on to explain that Jefferson himself was a complicated man with multiple personalities depending on who he was speaking too. For example, while Jefferson was in Versailles…show more content… The author eludes at this in the preface by stating, “This is not a book on the history of Thomas Jefferson made but a book on what history made of Thomas Jefferson” (Peterson preface). The author emphasizes that the public figure of Jefferson and the way modern day history portrays him is just as important if not more important than the amazing historical work he accomplished throughout his life. Peterson is a firm believer that when someone important dies, their spirit lives on in the people who looked up to said person. For example, Peterson says, “The passing of Jefferson and Adams was a dramatic moment in the growth of American self-consciousness” (Peterson, 5). One thing to note about this quote is that the author does not say whether that is a bad thing nor good thing but implies that it depends on how the people interpret his death. He goes on to say that some will mourn his death while others will take it as an opportunity to finish what Jefferson had started, and that being to create the best democracy possible. Another believer of this is John Adams who was a good “friend" of Jefferson who ironically died a couple hours after Jefferson but got in his last famous words of, “Thomas Jefferson still survives” (Peterson Prologue). Peterson
