Extract from Thomas Babington Macaulay to Henry S. Randall
| Holly Lodge, Kensington, London May 23, 1857. |
You are surprised to learn that I have not a high opinion of Mr. Jefferson and I am a little surprised at your surprise ... I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty, or civilisation, or both ... Thinking thus, of course, I cannot reckon Jefferson among the benefactors of mankind. I readily admit that his intentions were good and his abilities considerable. Odious stories have been circulated about his private life; but I do not know on what evidence those stories rest; and I think it probable that they are false, or monstrously exaggerated.
Published in Francis Coleman Rosenberger, ed., Jefferson Reader: A Treasury of Writings About Thomas Jefferson (New York, 1953), 262–3.
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May 23, 1857
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