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 North American Review (critique on the University of Virginia, January number)
Thomas Jefferson's attested relationship to North American Review (critique on the University of Virginia, January number).
Thomas Jefferson is attested as having read this work by an unknown author.
Evidence ledger
- First-person reading testimony (Explicit first-person reading of an identified periodical article: 'I have lately had an opportunity of reading a critique on this institution in your North American Review of January last.' Venue, issue and subject all in-passage; author unnamed, so the new Work is proposed by that designation.). Self-report reliability discount 0.9: Recent, specific (named periodical, identified number, identified article) and personally motivated reading ('not without anxiety to see what that able work would say of us; and I was relieved') - anxiety-then-relief is the signature of genuine consumption; author of the critique unknown.