From Garet Garrett's The American Story (1955):
George Washington was unanimously elected President. John Adams was Vice-President. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence but had nothing to do with writing the Constitution because he was then in Paris, was Secretary of State. Washington was conservative. Adams was the self-contained middle class principle. Jefferson, who loved revolution and hated bloodshed, was the common man's first hero. Nearly every line of political cleavage for more than one hundred and fifty years thereafter could be traced back to that triangle.
Interesting, that. Unfortunately, Garrett wasn't around to see Barack Obama and the disorder he introduced. None of the special-interest group politics that has driven the Democratic Party falls in any of the three camps. Jefferson comes closest, but the reference to Jefferson's hatred of bloodshed rules him out as their archetype.
