Jefferson

Presidential reputations rise and fall. In my lifetime, I've noticed two remarkable changes.  When I was in college Truman was considered one of the worst Presidents in history, largely because of a relentless Republican campaign to paint him as corrupt and soft on Communism. That's all gone now. And Grant was portrayed by my history professors as a brutal drunken general and a foolish or corrupt President.

In recent years younger historians have pointed out that Grant won the Civil War, popping Lee like a pimple, and, as President, smashed the KKK, enforced the civil rights of people of color and wrote America's best autobiography on his deathbed.   (You can see how these achievements disqualified Grant in the books of Southern professors.)

At the moment Thomas Jefferson's reputation is in disarray, in part because, although he very quietly considered slavery a bad thing, he did nothing about it. But it may be time to reconsider. Jefferson was the most radical President we've had, opposed to Hamilton's goal of maintaining a governing oligarchy. Jefferson did not like oligarchies. "Those who rule are a confederacy against the happiness of the mass of people," he wrote in a letter. At the time of his death, Jefferson believed he had defeated the Hamiltons of America--but, dude, look at us now.