US Presidency
1988

The issue before the world is still the same as the one that Jefferson faced so squarely and so memorably: Can human beings manage their own affairs? Is self determination and popular, representative government possible? Mr. Jefferson's work and life amounted to a great, mighty assent to that question. So, too, will yours and America's if we can keep in mind the greatest and last lesson of Jefferson's life. And it has something to do with what I just spoke to about the Executive and Congress. I am fond of recollecting that in the last years of their lives John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who had worked so hard and well together for the Nation's independence, both came to regret that they had let partisan differences come between them. For years their estrangement lasted.