I have before me "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris.

Within he relates how Roosevelt thought that Jeffersonian democracy was a subversion of the common man because "New York's aldermen were, almost to a man, 'merely the creatures of the local ward bosses or of the municipal bosses.' It was the machine, therefore, which ultimately governed the city; and Roosevelt did not consider that democratic."

Roosevelt also wrote a history of Senator Benton whereby he took several opportunities to express his disapproval of Jefferson. One example is when Roosevelt criticizes Benton and Jefferson both for their personal hypocrisies concerning the treatment of people of color. Roosevelt writes: "Like [Jefferson], [Benton] failed to see the curious absurdity of supporting black slavery, and yet claiming universal suffrage for whites as a divine right ..."

Another of Roosevelt's recurring criticisms was that Jefferson was 'timid' or 'ineffectual' or 'helpless.' For a man so robust as Roosevelt, indecisiveness or the inability to carry through a decision were mortal sins.