If we rate him simply as a president, rather than as a man with many other accomplishments to his name, Jefferson must be regarded as a mixed success. His administration was unprincipled, and he tended as president to violate the precepts he'd established earlier in his writing. As a congressional representative he counted the ballots that ensured his own election. As President he purchased Louisiana on the sly, without consulting congress. His Embargo was a thorough disaster. Jefferson was a fascinating and fallible human being, and one of those fascinations is the fact that, for me, he was a great writer but only a somewhat above-average president.
