An examination of the long life of Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) reveals a circle of friends and acquaintances that is a veritable Who’s Who of the American Revolution and the half-century that followed. He was well acquainted with men like George Washington, made enemies of Alexander Hamilton and other Federalists, called his mentor Benjamin Franklin “a great and dear friend,” enjoyed an intellectual correspondence with Abigail Adams, and counted three presidents—John Adams, James Madison, and James Monroe—as close personal friends.
Examining his relationships with Adams, Madison and his boyhood friend Dabney Carr tells us much about Jefferson’s high regard for friendship, of which he once wrote to another friend and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush: “I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk, & restorative cordial.”
