There's something unbelievable about ''Thomas Jefferson,'' the
icon. He's either a national hero or a national disgrace, a
champion of American liberty in all imaginable forms or a
hypocrite who refused to free his slaves. Even his
accomplishments easily pass into the world of myth. You almost
feel sorry for the real-life Thomas Jefferson, except that he
helped create ''Thomas Jefferson'' -- and at some cost to us.
Old John Adams saw the situation clearly in the early 19th
century, when Americans began making some revolutionary
''fathers'' into heroes. The histories of the Revolution written
in his time, he said, were full of ''romance.'' They not only
showed ''mankind in such a light I can hardly believe any of
it,'' but mixed up hard facts as well. George Washington was
''represented in situations where he never stood & as the author
of measures in which he had nothing to do.'' Much the same can
be said about ''Thomas Jefferson.'' Take the Declaration of
Independence, with which Jefferson had quite a bit to