Quote Originally Posted by Reenk Roink View Post
Reading the quotes, I would go as far to say that the author himself was not intending to portray Jefferson as an idiot in those quotes, just simply foiling him with his idea of Washington's pragmatism, which he seems favorably inclined to (I haven't read the entire book so maybe he was trying to accomplish that somewhere else or in the whole book).
He does that, but I think a major point of his is that washington's approach was much better at the time.


I disagree, I don't think wartime experience would have changed Jefferson's ideals. At the very most it might have dampened some of his rhetorical bravado when discussing the matter with others, but I believe Jefferson's inner sentiments would remain virtually unchanged. This falls in line with what I've read of Jefferson's strong idealistic personality; did the author bring some evidence to justify his implications to the contrary?
Shouldn't his sentiments have changed though? I don't know much about the french revolution, but it seems to have been pretty bad.
I'd say none of these attributes contribute to idiocy, and I personally look upon confidence in his beliefs as a generally positive trait. As for his ideas seeming detached from the world, granting for the sake of argument that Washington was more pragmatic than Jefferson and more in tune with the way of world, this still does not lead to Washington being more 'right' or 'smarter' or 'wiser' about these matters as Jefferson could have had the right idea, too bad the world wasn't at his level yet.
hmm, that's a bit opposite of how the book portrayed it. Washington came off as being more farsighted--seeing the prudence of keeping out of a war with britain and spain, being wary of the french revolution as it was getting started, etc.



Well this entire position seems to rest upon the idea of "needless deaths" outweighing the principle being fought for. What if Jefferson didn't see things that way? In those R:TW loading screens a quote from Tacitus contrasted the his dim view of the desire for safety with the his esteemed view of the noble enterprise of war and he seemed not to even regard to the "death and destruction" it may have brought. You may disagree, but I don't think you can claim that Jefferson was being inconsistent or contradictory with his moral views. How many people died as a result of the American Revolution?
It would depend on the war...I'm not concerned with jefferson being inconsistent, just with pushing war for the wrong reasons.