????托馬斯·杰斐遜“是最令我們著迷的開國總統，”喬恩·米查姆這樣寫道。不僅僅是我們，他同代的人也為他著迷，其中當然包括女士。在米查姆精湛且詳盡的新傳記《托馬斯·杰斐遜：權力的藝術》（Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power）一書中，那段描述杰斐遜造訪報紙出版商、共和黨同仁塞繆爾·哈里森·史密斯華盛頓官邸的文字是我最喜歡的故事之一。史密斯的太太瑪格麗特（她個人的政治傾向偏向于聯邦黨人）在客廳中與這位來訪的紳士獨處了幾分鐘，但她起初并不知道杰斐遜的身份。

????起初，杰斐遜“凝重而矜持的神態”讓她“頗有些不自在，”史密斯太太后來寫道。但這種感覺很快就消失了?！八呐e止、表情和聲音中似乎蘊含著某種東西，一下子就打開了我的心扉，”她回憶道，同時還特別提及“他聆聽我說話時所表現出來的那種興致”。后來，史密斯太太發現這位高大英俊的陌生人不是別人，正是“杰斐遜先生”，她頓時覺得“臉頰緋紅，心怦怦直跳……難道這就是我經常聽聞聯邦黨人厲聲譴責的那位兇暴的民主黨人、粗俗的煽動家、大膽的無神論者，那位行為不檢點的浪子？眼前這位的舉止是那么地溫順，聲音是那么地輕柔，面容是那么地寬厚而睿智，他怎么可能是一位無畏的派系領袖、和平的擾亂者、一切等級和秩序的公敵呢？”

????米查姆曾憑借其上一部總統傳記《美國雄獅：白宮中的安德魯·杰克遜》（American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House）榮膺普利策獎（Pulitzer Prize）。米查姆對杰斐遜的主要興趣集中在他如何行使手中的權力，或許還包括今天的領袖（筆者想補充的是，這里所說的領袖不僅包括政界，還包括商界）能夠從他的身上學到哪些教益。當然，我們現在生活在黨派立場對峙的時代，但我們很難想象在杰斐遜時代的美國，政治分歧有多么嚴重，有多少政治問題懸而未決。我們不再爭辯民選總統相對于世襲君主制的優點。我們無須擔心爆發軍事政變或者外國入侵的可能性。我們都認為，奴隸制是邪惡的；即使有幾個紅色州遞交了分離請愿書，但我們依然有理由相信這個聯邦將永存下去。或者，我們至少不再擔心擁護聯邦制，藐視“邪惡的民主體制”的馬薩諸塞州有可能自行其是，而且還將帶走新英格蘭地區的其他幾個州——而杰斐遜一直到1804年還非常擔心這件事。

????Thomas Jefferson, Jon Meacham writes, "is the founding president who charms us most." Not just us. He charmed his contemporaries, too, and not only but definitely also the ladies. One of my favorite stories in Meacham's masterful and intimate new biography,?Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, is about a visit Jefferson made to the Washington home of newspaper publisher and fellow Republican Samuel Harrison Smith. Smith's wife, Margaret, whose own leanings were toward the Federalists, spent a few minutes alone in the parlor with the gentleman caller, not yet knowing who he was.

????At first, she was "somewhat checked" by his "dignified and reserved air," Mrs. Smith later wrote, but the feeling quickly passed. "There was something in his manner, his countenance and voice that at once unlocked my heart," she recalled, noting especially "the interest with which he listened" to her. When she discovered that the tall, handsome stranger was none other than "Mr. Jefferson," Mrs. Smith "felt my cheeks burn and my heart throb … And is this the violent democrat, the vulgar demagogue, the bold atheist and profligate man I have so often heard denounced by the Federalists? Can this man so meek and mild, so soft and low, with a countenance so benignant and intelligent, can he be that daring leader of a faction, that disturber of the peace, that enemy of all rank and order?"

????Meacham, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his last big presidential biography,?American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, is mainly interested in how Jefferson wielded power, and perhaps what today's leaders -- in business as much as government, I'd add -- might learn from his example. We live in partisan times, to be sure, but we can hardly conceive of how deep the political divisions were in Jefferson's America, and how much was yet unsettled. We no longer debate the relative merits of an elected presidency versus a hereditary monarchy. We don't fret about the possibility of a military coup, or an invasion by a foreign power. We all agree that slavery is evil; and certain red-state secession petitions aside, we can be reasonably sure that the union will survive. (Or at least we're no longer worried, as Jefferson was right to be as late as 1804, that Federalist Massachusetts, despising the "evils of democracy," could go its own way and take the rest of New England with it.)