The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson

The US did not have the money for the Louisiana Purchase and had to borrow the money from the British. The British thinking being it still was a good idea, even though the money went to Napoleon, because it helped block the French from North America.

reply to post by Matt1951


Your first link is interesting; I had no idea that Adams and Jefferson were different parties. Hmmmm...
thanks for you contribution!

Originally posted by reficul
like most of history,it is written by the victors!
like other nations,america had to have its mythical heros.
when you look deeper into the real history of most 'heros', you come across a very
different picture of the actual person,and the 'real' life that was happening around them.
pick any well known character from history and do some real research on them.
study the day to day details,forget how history paints them,and you may be surprised
at what you find!
you may even find that your first president was black!
his name was john hanson!
look it up yourself. washington was # 8!!!!

Hanson established the Great Seal of the United States, which all Presidents have since been required to use on all official documents. President Hanson also established the first Treasury Department, the first Secretary of War, and the first Foreign Affairs Department. Lastly, he declared that the fourth Thursday of every November was to be Thanksgiving Day, which is still true today. The Articles of Confederation only allowed a President to serve a one year term during any three year period, so Hanson actually accomplished quite a bit in such little time. Six other presidents were elected after him - Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Mifflin (1784), Richard Henry Lee (1785), Nathan Gorman (1786), Arthur St. Clair (1787), and Cyrus Griffin (1788) - all prior to Washington taking office. So what happened? Why don't we ever hear about the first seven Presidents of the United States? It's quite simple - The Articles of Confederation didn't work well. The individual states had too much power and nothing could be agreed upon. A new doctrine needed to be written - something we know as the Constitution. And that leads us to the end of our story. George Washington was definitely not the first President of the United States. He was the first President of the United States under the Constitution we follow today. And the first seven Presidents are forgotten in history.

Wait which one was black? And if they still taught history you would actually know all this...lol still Washington was the first recognized president of the United States under the constitution and not the president of congress...

Is it ok for one of those god~damn Britishers to venture a comment.

I've obviously heard of Jefferson,a founding father and a heavyweight historical American figure thats held in very high esteem but for someone who loves history i'm ashamed to admit that i know next to nothing about him.

Unfortunetly it's so often the way that when we found out that the figure we admire in history were all too human though often that can make them richer,rounder people to us.

One of those I admire particularly for his stand,for his belief that the monarch was a man and subject to the same laws as his people was Oliver Cromwell.But at the same time Derry
& Drogheda,his fierce Puritanism and anti Catholicism arent pretty or easy to resolve.

Quick to anger with self serving people he disbanded parliament and made himself Lord Protector,the irony of which shouts even now yet the vision he had for a truly free moral English Republic is still breathtaking and pure.

He did try to realise it and the legend he banned dancing,christmas,enjoyment is a nonsense and that as the defacto monarch he didnt forget who he was or what he was working to build but it was his vision and it died with him.

A violent storm like of which people hadnt seen before raged the night he died.Wise old women claimed it was satan who came for his soul.

Even historys major players were men when alive so flawed.Though it sounds like Jefferson was seen as a man of real virtue.

Knowing little of what he did or his beliefs were i've not had any illusions destroyed by this.

i'm not gonna much about it,wouldnt seem right except it speaks öf a man with little regard for honour or truth claiming to be boti.his image seems far more important than the people he made his money from.

Bob.

reply to post by fastbob72


Thanks for your response!

I did a ton of research into Cromwell and Charles I and the political stuff going on at the time preceding Charles' unraveling, and I also find it fascinating. I composed a story set in the mid 1630s dealing with the fall out of those issues on the regular people -- specifically a tavern-keeper's family from a market town in Essex (Saffron-Walden), and a family of well-to-do merchants in Clerkenwell outside of London -- and how they got mixed up with nobility and intrigues that led to some of them being exiled to "the colonies".....

those were intense times indeed.

Yes, the real actual people are never quite so "larger-than-life" as their legends. My ancestors were the basis for my story, they left England shortly before all hell broke loose...

Is the story true? I have no idea. I could only find evidence of who they were, where they lived, and where they went. So, lacking the real story, I made one up, based on what I learned of the civil unrest and struggles of the times (it was a time when the king wanted excessive taxes for "ships" for war, and the nobles rebelled and didn't want to pay extra taxes, nor extract them from their "vassals".) Add to that the near-hysterical superstitions of the time regarding sorcery, witchcraft, etc...

I wonder how these days we are living now will be recorded? Or if they will be read by future generations?

Jefferson wasn't all that long ago. It's only been a handful of generations ago that the Civil War here in the U.S.A took place.