In June 1790, I attended an extraordinary dinner. Through a tear in the fabric of time, I found myself seated at a small table with three revolutionary figures: Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. While the dinner itself was real, it was reconstructed by author Charles A. Cerami in Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s. Even if the precise words spoken...

In a letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God … I contemplate with sovereign reverence … thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” In my commentary, “When Power Rewrote the Message” (July 17), I opened with this question:...

In 1826, a month before the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Washington publisher, and civic leader Robert C. Weightman declining an invitation to attend next month’s celebration due to his “sufferings and sickness.” While the first reading of American Independence took place on July 8, 1776 in Philadelphia, the first event honoring...

“A democracy cannot survive merely by being well informed, it must also be contemplative, and wise.” – E.B. White John and Jeremy Zogby are part of the team at Zogby Strategies whose mission is to examine Americans’ thinking to keep us better informed, and hopefully, more “contemplative and wise.” Before Tuesday’s election, both correctly recognized that the race between Trump...

In countless letters to his wife and partner, Abigail, John Adams poured out his heart and his mind. Abigail was not just a sounding board for his political conscience; she was his moral compass in every way. Adams, 90, and Thomas Jefferson 83, while gravely ill, wanted very much to live to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of...