ABSTRACT
The monarchs, foreign ministers, state officials, and diplomats to whom Jefferson was formally presented were distant if polite, and the young diplomat felt that the American representatives were considered "the lowest of the diplomatic tribe". Jefferson never ceased to be an American amidst his European travels and experiences. His European education was an intellectual and political overlay on his essential Americanism. His letters from France on the efforts to change the American government show Jefferson's strength did not lie in a realistic appraisal of governmental institutions. Jefferson was one of the illustrious intellectuals and one of the shrewdest diplomats and statesmen of his era, but he was not a disciplined social thinker. Exactly because he believed in the progress of mankind and was sensitive to the aspirations of his time, he was bound to have illusions about the course of revolutions.
