I've always held that Jefferson, while a first-rate political theorist, was a lousy practical politician. The Embargo Act was a disaster. His tenure as Governor of Virginia was a Fiasco. And, together with Madison, he formented Nullification, Secession and the States' Rights movement with the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions.

But, for all that, he was a fascinating guy: Deist, man of the Enlightenment, advocate of the separation of church and state and author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor, founder of the University of Virginia and the modern Library of Congress, oenophile, gourmet... and of course Author of the Declaration of Independence, whithout which we'd be speaking in faggy British accents and wouldn't be drinking this early on a Wednesday.