Positive reconstruction · reader-scoped, not an inferred-absence lacuna
This reconstruction covers the readable fraction of Thomas Jefferson's formation -- attested reading and writing only, not the whole of a life.
Thomas Jefferson and Eulogium on David Rittenhouse
Thomas Jefferson's attested relationship to Eulogium on David Rittenhouse.
Thomas Jefferson is attested as having read this work by Benjamin Rush.
Evidence ledger
- First-person reading testimony (Explicit first-person perusal: 'the eulogium it covered on the subject of our late invaluable friend Rittenhouse, & I perused it with the avidity & approbation...' Author = the addressee (Rush); proposed as a new Work.). Self-report reliability discount 0.85: Explicit perusal 'with the avidity & approbation which the matter & manner of everything from your pen has long taught me to [expect]' - addressed to the author (flattery discount), but the avidity claim is specific and the subject (their late mutual friend) motivates genuine reading.