International Vegetarian Union (IVU) | |
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North America: 18th Century Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) |
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U.S. statesman; secretary of state (1790-93); third president (1801-09); He was the chief drafter of the Declaration of Independence (1776), the chief opponent of the centralising policies of the Federalists under Hamilton and effected the Louisiana purchase (1803). There is no suggestion that Jefferson was vegetarian, but the following quote is of interest: "SIR,--Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st
instant; and the request of the history of my physical habits would have
puzzled me not a little, had it not been for the model with which you
accompanied it, of Doctor Rush's answer to a similar inquiry. I live so
much like other people, that I might refer to ordinary life as a history
of my own. Like my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating
little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment
for the vegetables, which constitute my principle diet." |