DC TRIP: Was Thomas Jefferson an Asshole?

In gearing up for this trip, which I knew would include a visit to Mount Vernon, I read Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow (author of Alexander Hamilton, the inspiration for the musical), which really made old George come alive. One of the biggest surprises was Chernow's account of how Jefferson conspired with James Madison to smear Washington's reputation. While strutting about like noble statemen and pretending to be his friends, they were secretly funding a newspaper that published outrageous lies about him to further their own political aims. 

Yeah. I know history is mostly subjective, but if the facts as presented by Chernow are true, Tom and Jim were a couple of World Class assholes. With that in mind, I was not surprised by the mealy-mouthed image above, found in the National Portrait Gallery. 

Or the supercilious expression in the one above, also in the NPG.  

I met him again on a tour of the State Department's Diplomatic Reception Rooms, where he's dangling the Declaration of Independence like a bath towel. 

And finally at his own memorial, where he looks like a way-less-than-jolly green giant. So was he really an asshole? I still have no reason to doubt it.