American Founding Father, Declaration of Independence (1776) major author, and third President of the United States (1801–1809) Thomas Jefferson was a democratic speaker.
The son of a planter and surveyor, this prominent libertarian was born in 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia, to affluent parents. His father had inherited 5,000 acres of land, and his mother had been a Randolph. He attended William and Mary and went on to study law. Martha Wayles Skelton was a widow when he wed her in 1772; they moved into Monticello, his partially built mansion on top of a mountain, together.
Jefferson, who was tall and ungainly with freckles and sandy hair, was a gifted journalist but a terrible public speaker. Instead of speaking out for the patriot cause, he used his pen to contribute to the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress.
At the age of 33, Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence while serving as the "silent member" of Congress. He worked hard in the years that followed to turn its provisions into law in Virginia. Notably, in 1786, he authored a measure that was later passed, ensuring religious freedom.
Initial stages
Jefferson was born in Albermarle County, Virginia, which was located in what was then considered a western province of the Old Dominion, near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Peter Jefferson, who was self-taught in surveying, had a neat estate and sixty slaves; he was Jefferson Jr.'s father.
Tradition has it that when Jefferson was three years old, he remembers "being carried on a pillow by a mounted slave" during the family's relocation from Shadwell to Tuckahoe.
His mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, was from a prestigious Virginia family. Jefferson was the first of her two sons and six girls that she brought up. Since Jefferson did all in his power to avoid his mother's oversight and barely mentioned her in his memoirs, it is reasonable to assume that their relationship was troubled, particularly following his father's death in 1757. Before enrolling at Williamsburg's College of William & Mary in 1760, he stayed with the local schoolmaster to study Latin and Greek.
The Administration of Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson became the first Republican to ever assume the presidency when he did so in early 1801. John Adams, the president and a Federalist, had failed in his attempt to be re-elected.
While Adams had increased federal power at the cost of personal freedoms as president, Jefferson campaigned on a platform of rolling back such protections. It was also the first time in American history that two political parties traded positions of power when Jefferson was elected president. Jefferson was anxious to demonstrate that the Republican platform, which prioritized personal freedoms, would be best for the country as a whole.
Presidential Deeds
More than 800,000 square miles west of the Mississippi River made up the Louisiana Territory, which Jefferson was able to acquire from France in 1803. It was widely believed by both Federalists and Republicans that the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory was a tremendous boon to the fledgling republic. Jefferson soon after authorized the Corps of Discovery in 1804, an exploratory group led by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, to discover a way across the Louisiana Territory to the Pacific Ocean.
People in the United States were enthusiastic about the Lewis and Clark expedition because they saw so many opportunities in the territory they had just gained.
With these victories riding high, Jefferson cruised to reelection in 1804. But rather than focusing on westward development, the second term of Jefferson's presidency was characterized by diplomatic matters.
The United States was trying to maintain its neutrality as tensions rose between France and Britain at this time. Since they were still distrustful of Britain after the Revolutionary War, Jeffersonian Republicans took a bold stance in favor of France. But Britain had the backing of the Federalists. For the rest of his presidency, Jefferson successfully avoided going to war with Britain over trade disputes.
Establishing the Authority of the State
If there was a "wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another" and still provide them the freedom to manage their own business, according to Jefferson, that would be ideal. He lowered the national debt, reduced the number of government employees, and cut Army enlistments in an attempt to minimize the authority of the central government.
Jefferson, like his predecessor John Adams, had to cope with the political conflict raging between the Federalists and his Republican Party. The nation's judicial branch was the focal point of the conflicts. It was during Jefferson's administration that the Supreme Court's independence was solidified with the decision in Marbury v. Madison.
Interesting Facts
- Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence in 1776, proclaiming the emancipation of the 13 colonies from England and the monarchy's governance.
- He possessed a vast collection of books and had a deep passion for reading, regardless of whether the content was written in Latin. Jefferson personally sold 10,000 copies of his own publications to the US Library of Congress.
- He had a significant role in the development of the human Bill of Rights as an addition to the United States Constitution.
- He had a deep fascination for observing and scrutinizing stars, planets, and comets.
- Thomas Jefferson meticulously maintained a logbook documenting factual information and intricate illustrations of the diverse flora and fauna indigenous to the state of Virginia.
- Jefferson served as a representative to the Second Continental Congress.
- Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, had two terms in office, totaling 8 years. (4 years each)
An Individual's Reflection on Inconsistencies: The Philosophy
During his tenure as president, Jefferson favored a more austere way of life, frequently greeting dinner guests in weathered bedroom slippers and a ragtag assortment of homemade clothing. Dolley Madison, the wife of Jefferson's secretary of state, and his two married daughters filled in as his official hostesses after the tragic loss of Martha Wayles Skelton during childbirth in 1782.
Jefferson knew how to live it up; his wine bill when he left the presidency was more than $10,000, despite his distaste for formality. Jefferson moved his extensive interests in philosophy, physics, history of science, and the classics to his Virginia plantation house, Monticello, in 1809 and continued to pursue them there. Establishing the University of Virginia was another of Jefferson's lifelong goals.
Even after Martha's death, arguments over Jefferson's connection with Sally Hemings—one of his slaves—reign in modern times, just as they did during his lifetime. Historians generally agree that Jefferson and Hemings had an intimate sexual relationship for a long time, and new DNA evidence makes a strong case that Jefferson was the biological father of Heming's children. Jefferson maintained ambivalence about slavery all through his life and work.
Despite his stance against slavery in the newly acquired American lands while he was a young statesman, he did not liberate his own slaves. What gives this man the power to write the hallowed words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," yet he was also a slave owner? This matter remained an unresolved internal dilemma for him.
Nearing the end of his life, Jefferson maintained an interesting and lengthy conversation with John Adams. He passed away on July 4, 1826, which was precisely fifty years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.
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