Footnote - Jefferson and Franklin Letters

Find Your Ancestors In History

I usually get up very early during the week...I mean really early.  Some think it's silly, but early in the morning is the only time I can read and write without the usual chaos hovering around me.  Today was a reading morning.  I just finished spending a couple of hours browsing Footnote.com...I think I've said before that I tend to lose myself on this site.   In particular I was reading letters of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.  Although I didn't plan it this way, but I was reading letters that both wrote from France - Franklin in 1776 and Jefferson in 1785.  The Franklin letters are a little harder to read because the writing is a bit faded, but what hit me over the head for both of these men is how well they wrote.  Now these are letters.  I would understand their formal writing would be good after editing and many revisions, but one usually doesn't do that with letters.  Not only did they write well, but their thinking, as expressed in these letters, was so incisive and clear.  It's obvious while reading these documents you are eavesdropping on the thoughts of genius.  I sure wish we had these kinds of deep thinkers in government today.  The documents under the US Presidents section of Footnote are free.  Anyway, that's how I spent my Friday morning before work - reading a little Jefferson and Franklin.  It was a good way to start off the day.