Jefferson was a part of what was known as "The Republic of Letters". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Letters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_

Jefferson was a part of what was known as "The Republic of Letters". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Letters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Letters Being that most of the leading members of the Enlightenment were geographically dispersed (except for cells like the Lunar Society) this sort of letter writing was pretty typical — letters would be shared, forwarded on, etc. Also, many of these men knew they'd be memorialized by history, and knew their letters would be preserved — hence the style of their writing. (e.g. Jefferson destroyed all of his correspondence with Martha.)