THOMAS JEFFERSON
THE AUTHOR,
Declaration
of Independence (1776)
Notes
on Virginia (1785)
Jefferson's
Manual (1801)
Jefferson
Bible (1820)
INNOVATOR AND PROLIFIC RENAISSANCE MAN
Thomas
Jefferson was a Founding Father
and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the
second vice president under John Adams. Jefferson was the primary author of the
Declaration of Independence, and a leading proponent of democracy,
republicanism and natural rights.
Jefferson
was born into the Colony of Virginia's planter class. During the American
Revolution, he represented Virginia in the Second Continental Congress, which
unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson's advocacy for individual
rights, including freedom of thought, speech, and religion, helped shape the
ideological foundations of the revolution.Jefferson served as the second
governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781. In 1785, Congress appointed him as U.S.
Minister to France, where he served from 1785 to 1789. President George
Washington then appointed Jefferson the nation's first secretary of state,
where he served from 1790 to 1793. In 1792, Jefferson and political ally James
Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist
Party during the formation of the nation's First Party System. Jefferson and
Federalist John Adams became both personal friends and political rivals. In the
1796 U.S. presidential election between the two, Jefferson came in second,
which made him Adams' vice president under the electoral laws of the time. Four
years later, in the 1800 presidential election, Jefferson again challenged
Adams and won the presidency. When running for reelection in 1804, Jefferson
overwhelmingly defeated the Federalists' Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South
Carolina.
Jefferson's
presidency assertively defended the nation's shipping and trade interests
against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies, promoted a
western expansionist policy with the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the
nation's geographic size, and reduced military forces and expenditures
following successful negotiations with France. In his second presidential term,
Jefferson was beset by difficulties at home, including the trial of his former
vice president Aaron Burr. In 1807, Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act to
defend the nation's industries from British threats to U.S. shipping, limit
foreign trade, and stimulate the birth of the American manufacturing.
Jefferson
is ranked among the upper tier of U.S. presidents both by scholars and in
public opinion. Presidential scholars and historians have praised Jefferson's
advocacy of religious freedom and tolerance, his peaceful acquisition of the
Louisiana Territory from France, and his leadership in supporting the Lewis and
Clark Expedition. They acknowledge his lifelong ownership of large numbers of slaves
but offer varying interpretations of his views on and relationship with
slavery.
JEFFERSON THE LAWYER
In 1767,
Jefferson was granted admission to the Virginia bar, and lived with his mother
at Shadwell.[36] Between 1769 and 1775, he represented Albemarle County in
Virginia's House of Burgesses. While serving in the House of Burgesses,
Jefferson pursued reforms to slavery, including writing and sponsoring
legislation in 1769 to strip power from the royal governor and courts, instead
providing masters of slaves with the discretion to emancipate them. Jefferson
persuaded his cousin Richard Bland to spearhead the legislation's passage, but
it faced strong opposition in a state whose economy was largely agrarian.
As a
lawyer, Jefferson took on seven freedom-seeking enslaved people as clients and
waived his fee for one he claimed should be freed before the minimum statutory
age for emancipation. Jefferson invoked natural law, arguing "everyone
comes into the world with a right to his own person and using it at his own
will ... This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the
author of nature, because it is necessary for his own sustenance." The
judge cut him off and ruled against his client. As a consolation, Jefferson
gave his client some money, which was conceivably used to aid his escape
shortly thereafter. Jefferson's underlying intellectual argument that all
people were entitled by their creator to what he labeled a "natural
right" to liberty is a theme that he later prominently incorporated into
the Declaration of Independence. In 1767, Jefferson took on 68 cases for the
General Court of Virginia and was counsel in three notable cases of that era,
Howell v. Netherland (1770), Bolling v. Bolling (1771), and Blair v. Blair
(1772).
JEFFERSON AND THE
DOCUMENT
Jefferson
was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. At age 33, he
was one of the youngest delegates to the Second Continental Congress, which
convened in the colonial capital of Philadelphia following the Battles of
Lexington and Concord, which launched the American Revolutionary War in 1775.
Delegates to the Congress overwhelmingly favored authoring, ratifying, and
issuing a formal declaration of independence from Britain.Jefferson was
inspired by the Enlightenment ideals of the sanctity of the individual, and the
writings of Locke and Montesquieu.
Jefferson
sought out John Adams, a Continental Congress delegate from Massachusetts and
an emerging leader in the Congress.[63] They became close friends, and Adams
supported Jefferson's appointment to the Committee of Five, which the Congress
charged with authoring the Declaration: Adams, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin,
Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. The committee initially thought that
Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded the committee to choose
Jefferson due to Jefferson being a Virginian, popular, and a good writer by
Adams.
Jefferson
consulted with his fellow committee members, but mostly wrote the Declaration
of Independence in isolation between June 11 and 28, 1776.Jefferson drew
considerably on his proposed draft of the Virginia Constitution, George Mason's
draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and other sources.[65] Other
committee members made some changes, and a final draft was presented to
Congress on June 28, 1776. Congress began debate over its contents on Monday,
July 1,[resulting in the removal of roughly a fourth of Jefferson's original
draft.[67][68] Jefferson resented the changes, but he did not speak publicly
about them.[f] On July 4, 1776, the Congress voted unanimously to ratify the
Declaration, and delegates signed it on August 2. Jefferson and the other
delegates knew they were committing high treason against the Crown, which was
punishable by torture and death.
Following
its ratification, the Declaration was released publicly. Two days after its
ratification, on July 6, The Pennsylvania Evening Post, was the first newspaper
to publish it. On July 8 at noon, it was read publicly and simultaneously for
the first time at three designated locations: Trenton, New Jersey; Easton,
Pennsylvania; and Philadelphia.
Contemporary
historians generally view the Declaration of Independence as one of the most
significant and influential written documents in world history, and Jefferson's
preamble is regarded as an enduring statement on individual and human rights.
Jefferson's phrase "all men are created equal" has been called
"one of the best-known sentences in the English language". Harvard
University history chairman David Armitage has written that, "No American
document has had a greater global impact than the Declaration of
Independence", and historian Joseph
Ellis has written that the Declaration includes "the most potent and
consequential words in American history.
After an
incredible years od being in Congress, Governor of Virginia, Ambassador,
Secretary of State, Vice President, President and other endeavors Jefferson’s
health seemed to fade.
By June
1826, he was confined to bed. On July 3,
overcome by fever, Jefferson declined an invitation to attend an anniversary
celebration of the Declaration in Washington.
During
his last hours, he was accompanied by family members and friends. Jefferson
died on July 4, 1826, at 12:50 p.m. at age 83, on the 50th anniversary of the
adoption of the Declaration of Independence. In the moments prior to his death,
Jefferson instructed his treating physician, "No, doctor, nothing
more", refusing laudanum. But his final significant words were, "Is
it the Fourth?" or "This is the Fourth". When his predecessor, John Adams, died at
approximately 6:20 pm that same day, his last words were "Thomas Jefferson
survives", though Adams was unaware that Jefferson had died several hours
before. The sitting president was Adams's son, John Quincy Adams, and he called
the coincidence of their deaths on the nation's anniversary "visible and
palpable remarks of Divine Favor".
Shortly
after Jefferson died, attendants found a gold locket on a chain around his
neck, containing a small faded blue ribbon around a lock of his wife Martha's
hair.
Jefferson
was interred at Monticello, under an epitaph that he wrote:
HERE WAS
BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON, AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, OF
THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
VIRGINIA.
At a
visit to Monticello in the 80s, standing in front of that grave was one of the
most incredible feelings I ever had.
.jpg)
.png)
