Jefferson vs Hamilton

Format for printing
Submitted by ka1igu1a on Thu, 2008-04-10 07:39.

HBO's John Adams has sparked debate in the libertarian blogosphere in assessing the relative greatness of the Founding Fathers. Radley Balko posts a poll where Jefferson has a sizeable lead
for most favorite founding father. This prompted Will Wilkinson of Cato to dredge up an old post from his archives that reveals his most unflattering take on Jefferson.

But he also seems to have been sly, creepy, and an insufferable snob, in addition to having been a racist, slaveholding, anti-cosmopolitan,
anti-commercial, Jacobin utopian. When his visage appears on Cato promotional material, as it so often does, I try to stay positive.

Not surprisingly, this lead to a brutal counter-attack by LRC.


Episode 5 of John Adams, "Unite or Die" brings the Jefferson-Hamilton debate into focus.





Video: Part II

ka1igu1a's blog »

excellent stuff

#6268 On Fri, 2008 04 11 23:50 John said,

I'm loving this series. It is awesome. I'm also enjoying how others take notice of the most salient exchanges....this exchange between Jefferson and Hamilton being the latest.

I'm expecting some good ones in the next episode which will surely cover the election of 1800.

So far, I've found the portrayal of an intimate and friendly rivalry between Jefferson and Adams to be quite interesting. The addressing of each other on first name basis with a tone akin to one of close friends adds to this aura. I wonder if it was really like that. I know it was after both left office but I wasn't sure about the height of their political involvement in presidential politics.

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