Jefferson's second term was an unmitigated disaster. The Embargo Act wrecked the economy in ways rarely seen again until the 1930's. The New England states nearly seceded as a result (for all those who think wrongly that secession was a uniquely southern phenomenon). He left office in disgrace, hated more than any departing president until possibly January 2009.

That being said, his first term was remarkably successful - he had Congress under his spell, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis & Clark, and prosperity. Taxes were nearly abolished, and he scored an important foreign policy victory containing the Barbary pirates of Tripoli. Considering that he weakened the navy, this was all the more amazing. That same weakening led to the disastrous Chesapeake and Leopard episode during his second term, which in turn, was used as a major justification for the doomed Embargo Act.

Of course, the irony of Louisiana was not lost on his Federalist detractors - he admittedly "stretched the Constitution until it cracked" when he made that decision, going against his usually firm strict constructionist stance. But Napoleon was strapped for cash, and Jefferson couldn't resist getting control of the Mississippi and flipping a bird to England at the same time.

Jefferson's presidency was much like the man - a study in deep contradictions and contrasts, greatness and tragedy displayed in the extremes. He thought so little of his time in office, mainly because of his second term, that he didn't even place the accomplishment on his self-written epitaph.

Jefferson's final full year in office was 200 years ago. We are as far removed from the bicentennial today as he was from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence - which gives us a parallel perspective on the longevity of his service to the republic, and how the bright beacon cast by the Declaration softens even the darker and nearly forgotten aspects of his legacy.