   #copyright

Thomas Jefferson

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: USA Presidents

   Thomas Jefferson
   Thomas Jefferson
     __________________________________________________________________

   3rd President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1801 –  March 4, 1809
   Vice President(s)   Aaron Burr (1801-1805),
   George Clinton (1805-1809)
   Preceded by John Adams
   Succeeded by James Madison
     __________________________________________________________________

   2nd Vice President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1797 –  March 4, 1801
   President John Adams
   Preceded by John Adams
   Succeeded by Aaron Burr
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born April 13, 1743
   Albemarle County, Virginia
   Political party Jeffersonian Republican
   Spouse Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
   Religion Unitarian
   Signature

   Thomas Jefferson ( April 13, 1743 N.S. – July 4, 1826) was the third
   President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the
   Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential
   Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in
   the United States. Major events during his presidency include the
   Louisiana Purchase (1803), the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806),
   and the failed Embargo Act of 1807.

   As a political philosopher, Jefferson idealized the independent yeoman
   farmer as the exemplar of republican virtue, distrusted cities and
   financiers, and favored states' rights and a strictly limited federal
   government. He supported the separation of church and state and was the
   author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786). He
   was the eponym of Jeffersonian democracy and the founder and leader of
   the Jeffersonian Republican party (eventually to become known as the
   Democratic-Republican Party), which dominated the First Party System
   for a quarter-century. Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of
   Virginia (1779–1781), first United States Secretary of State
   (1789–1793), and second Vice President (1797–1801).

   A polymath, Jefferson was achieved distinction as an horticulturist,
   architect, paleontologist, author, inventor, and the founder of the
   University of Virginia, among other roles. President John F. Kennedy
   welcomed forty-nine Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962,
   saying, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent
   and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the
   White House -- with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson
   dined alone."

Early life and education

   Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 (Gregorian N.S) into a
   prosperous Virginia family, the third of ten children. His mother was
   Jane Randolph, daughter of Isham Randolph, and a cousin of Peyton
   Randolph. Jefferson's father was Peter Jefferson, a planter and
   surveyor who owned plantations in Albemarle County (Shadwell, then Edge
   Hill, Virginia.)
   Painting of Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale (1805)
   Enlarge
   Painting of Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale (1805)

   In 1752, Jefferson began attending a local school run by William
   Douglas, a Scottish minister. At the age of nine, Jefferson began
   studying Latin and Greek — as well as French. In 1757, when he was 14
   years old, his father died. Jefferson inherited about 5,000 acres (20
   km²) of land and dozens of slaves. He built his home there, which
   eventually became known as Monticello.

   After his father's death, he was taught at the school of the learned
   minister James Maury from 1758 to 1760. The school was in
   Fredericksburg twelve miles from Shadwell, and Jefferson boarded with
   Maury's family. There he received a classical education and studied
   history and science.

   In 1760 Jefferson entered the College of William and Mary in
   Williamsburg at the age of 16; he studied there for two years,
   graduating with highest honours in 1762. At William & Mary, he enrolled
   in the philosophy school and studied mathematics, metaphysics, and
   philosophy under W&M Professor William Small, who introduced the
   enthusiastic Jefferson to the writings of the British Empiricists,
   including John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Sir Isaac Newton (Jefferson
   would later refer to them as the "three greatest men the world had ever
   produced"). He also perfected his French, carried his Greek grammar
   book wherever he went, practiced the violin, and read Tacitus and
   Homer. A keen and diligent student, Jefferson displayed an avid
   curiosity in all fields and, according to family tradition, frequently
   studied fifteen hours a day. His closest college friend, John Page of
   Rosewell, reported that Jefferson "could tear himself away from his
   dearest friends, to fly to his studies."

   In college, Jefferson was a member of the secret Flat Hat Club, now the
   namesake of the William & Mary daily student newspaper. He lodged and
   boarded at the College in the building known today as the Sir
   Christopher Wren Building, attending communal meals in the Great Hall
   and morning and evening prayers in the Wren Chapel. After graduating in
   1762 with highest honours, he studied law with his friend and mentor,
   George Wythe, and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1767.

   In 1772, Jefferson married a widow, Martha Wayles Skelton (1748-82).
   They had six children: Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836), Jane
   Randolph (1774-1775), a stillborn or unnamed son (1777-1777), Mary
   Wayles (1778-1804), Lucy Elizabeth (1780-1781), and Lucy Elizabeth
   (1782-1785). Martha Wayles Skelton died on September 6, 1782.

Political career from 1774 to 1800

   Rudolph Evans' statue of Jefferson with the Declaration of Independence
   preamble to the right
   Enlarge
   Rudolph Evans' statue of Jefferson with the Declaration of Independence
   preamble to the right

   Jefferson practiced law and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses.
   In 1774, he wrote A Summary View of the Rights of British America,
   which was intended as instructions for the Virginia delegates to a
   national congress. The pamphlet was a powerful argument of American
   terms for a settlement with Britain. It helped speed the way to
   independence, and marked Jefferson as one of the most thoughtful
   patriot spokesmen.

   Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and
   a contributor to American political and civil culture. The Continental
   Congress delegated the task of writing the Declaration to a Committee
   of Five that unanimously solicited Jefferson, considered the best
   writer, to write the first draft.

   In September 1776, Jefferson returned to Virginia and was elected to
   the new Virginia House of Delegates. During his term in the House,
   Jefferson set out to reform and update Virginia's system of laws to
   reflect its new status as a democratic state. He drafted 126 bills in
   three years, including laws to abolish primogeniture, establish freedom
   of religion, and streamline the judicial system. In 1778, Jefferson's
   "Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge" led to several
   academic reforms at his alma mater, including an elective system of
   study — the first in an American university.
   John Trumbull's famous painting is usually incorrectly identified as a
   depiction of the signing of the Declaration. What the painting actually
   depicts is the five-man drafting committee presenting their work to the
   Congress. Trumbull's painting can also be found on the back of the U.S.
   $2 bill.
   Enlarge
   John Trumbull's famous painting is usually incorrectly identified as a
   depiction of the signing of the Declaration. What the painting actually
   depicts is the five-man drafting committee presenting their work to the
   Congress. Trumbull's painting can also be found on the back of the U.S.
   $2 bill.

   Jefferson served as governor of Virginia from 1779-1781. As governor,
   he oversaw the transfer of the state capitol from Williamsburg to the
   more central location of Richmond in 1780. He continued to advocate
   educational reforms at the College of William and Mary, including the
   nation's first student-policed honour code. In 1779, at Jefferson's
   behest, William and Mary appointed George Wythe to be the first
   professor of law in an American university. Dissatisfied with the rate
   of changes he wanted to push through, he would go on later in life to
   become the "father" and founder of the University of Virginia, which
   was the first university at which higher education was completely
   separate from religious doctrine.

   Virginia was invaded twice by the British during Jefferson's term as
   governor. He, along with Patrick Henry and other Virginia Patriot
   leaders, were but ten minutes away from being captured by Banastre
   Tarleton, a British colonel leading a cavalry column that was raiding
   the area in June 1781. Public disapproval of his performance delayed
   his future political prospects, and he was never again elected to
   office in Virginia.

   From 1785–1789, Jefferson served as minister to France. He did not
   attend the Constitutional Convention. He did generally support the new
   Constitution, although he thought the document flawed for lack of a
   Bill of Rights.

   After returning from France, Jefferson served as the first Secretary of
   State under George Washington (1789–1793). Jefferson and Alexander
   Hamilton began sparring over national fiscal policy, especially the
   funding of the debts of the war. In further sparring with the
   Federalists, Jefferson came to equate Hamilton and the rest of the
   Federalists with Tories and monarchists who threatened to undermine
   republicanism. In the late 1790s, he worried that "Hamiltonianism" was
   taking hold. He equated this with "Royalism", and made a point to state
   that "Hamiltonians were panting after...and itching for crowns,
   coronets and mitres". Jefferson and James Madison founded and led the
   Republican party, which eventually became Democratic-Republican Party
   (United States). He worked with Madison and his campaign manager John
   J. Beckley to build a nationwide network of Republican allies to combat
   Federalists across the country--what historians call the First Party
   System.

   Jefferson strongly supported France against Britain when war broke out
   between those nations in 1793. Historian Lawrence S. Kaplan notes
   Jefferson's "visceral support for the French cause," while agreeing
   with Washington that the nation should not get involved in the
   fighting. The arrival in 1793 of an aggressive new French minister,
   Citizen Genêt caused a crisis for the Secretary of State, as he watched
   Genêt try to violate American neutrality, manipulate public opinion,
   and even go over Washington's head in appealing to the people; projects
   which Jefferson helped to thwart. As Schachner observes that Jefferson
   believed that political success at home depended on the success of the
   French army in Europe:

          Jefferson still clung to his sympathies with France and hoped
          for the success of her arms abroad and a cordial compact with
          her at home. He was afraid that any French reverses on the
          European battlefields would give "wonderful vigor to our
          monocrats, and unquestionably affect the tone of administering
          our government. Indeed, I fear that if this summer should prove
          disastrous to the French, it will damp that energy of
          republicanism in our new Congress, from which I had hoped so
          much reformation."

   Jefferson at the end of 1793 retired to Monticello where he continued
   to orchestrate opposition to Hamilton and Washington. However, the Jay
   Treaty of 1794, orchestrated by Hamilton, brought peace and trade with
   Britain--while Madison, with strong support from Jefferson, wanted,
   Miller says, "to strangle the former mother country" without actually
   going to war. "It became an article of faith among Republicans that
   'commercial weapons' would suffice to bring Great Britain to any terms
   the United States chose to dictate." Jefferson, in retirement, strongly
   encouraged Madison.

   As the Republican candidate in 1796 he lost to John Adams, but had
   enough electoral votes to become Vice President (1797–1801). He wrote a
   manual of parliamentary procedure, but otherwise avoided the Senate.
   Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1800
   Enlarge
   Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1800

   With a quasi-War with France underway (that is, an undeclared naval
   war), the Federalists under John Adams started a navy, built up the
   army, levied new taxes, readied for war and enacted the Alien and
   Sedition Acts in 1798. Jefferson interpreted the Alien and Sedition
   Acts as an attack on his party more than on dangerous enemy aliens;
   they were used to attack his party, most notably Matthew Lyon,
   Congressman from Vermont. He and Madison rallied support by anonymously
   writing the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions which declared that the
   federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically
   delegated to it by the states. Should the federal government assume
   such powers, its acts under them could be voided by a state. The
   Resolutions' importance lies in being the first statements of the
   states' rights theory that led to the later concepts of nullification
   and interposition.

   Working closely with Aaron Burr of New York, Jefferson rallied his
   party, attacking the new taxes especially, and stood for the Presidency
   in 1800. Consistent with the traditions of the times, he did not
   formally campaign for the position. Prior to the passage of the 12th
   Amendment, a problem with the new union's electoral system arose. He
   tied with Burr for first place in the Electoral College, leaving the
   House of Representatives (where the lame duck Federalists still had
   some power) to decide the election.

   After lengthy debate within the Federalist-controlled House, Hamilton
   convinced his party that Jefferson would be a lesser political evil
   than Burr and that such scandal within the electoral process would
   undermine the still-young regime. The issue was resolved by the House,
   on February 17, 1801 after thirty-six ballots, when Jefferson was
   elected President and Burr Vice President. Burr's refusal to remove
   himself from consideration would create a divide between Jefferson and
   Burr and lead to Jefferson replacing Burr as Vice President in
   Jefferson's second term.

Presidency 1801-1809

   Jefferson's Presidency, from 1801 to 1809, was the first to start and
   end in the White House (though at the time it was known as the
   Presidential Mansion).

Inauguration and Beliefs

   Jefferson's term was marked by his belief in agrarianism, state's
   rights, and limited government. He insisted that his Republican party
   was the true expression of republicanism.

Continuation of Federalist policies

   Jefferson continued the basic Hamiltonian programs of the national
   bank, tariffs, and funding the national debt. The Sedition Act expired
   on schedule in 1801, and one of the Alien acts was repealed.

Patronage, Congress

   Jefferson systematically identified and removed federalist office
   holders. He created the military academy at West Point to train a new
   cadre of republican officers. His floor leader in the House was John
   Randolph of Roanoke.

Judiciary

   Jefferson was highly suspicious of the judges appointed by his
   predecessors; his opinion of good judges was much higher: one of his
   arguments for a bill of rights would be the power they would give the
   judiciary He repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801, abolishing numerous
   courts. He orchestrated the impeachment of one Federalist judge but the
   Senate refused to convict a more important target, Justice Chase.
   Jefferson was frustrated when the Supreme Court handed him a nominal
   victory in Marbury vs. Madison, while also seizing control of the
   interpretation of the Constitution.

Foreign Policy; Louisiana Purchase

   Jefferson continued the Jay Treaty, and kept the Federalist minister in
   London to continue negotiations on debts and boundaries, which were
   mostly successful.
     * Louisiana Purchase (1803)

Lewis and Clark

   He commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition during his first term.
     * Creation of the Orleans Territory (1804)

Reelection

   Jefferson was re-elected in the 1804 election.

Quids

   Congressman John Randolph of Roanoke, starting as Jefferson's leader in
   the House, broke with the president and called for a return to the
   "principles of '98," and a small weak national government. Randolph was
   supported by Nathaniel Macon and other Southerners, known as "Old
   Republicans" (or sometimes called Quids.) They failed to link up with
   the Federalist minority, and proved an ineffective opposition.
   Jefferson was easily reelected in 1804. His second term was dominated
   by foreign policy concerns, as American neutrality was imperiled by war
   between Britain and France.

Burr Conspiracy

Relations with Europe

     * Embargo Act of 1807, an attempt to force respect for U.S.
       neutrality by ending trade with the belligerents in the Napoleonic
       War

Slavery Trade, Pirates

     * Outlawing of the external slave trade (1808)
     * First Barbary War (1801-1805)

   Throughout his two terms, Jefferson did not once use his power of veto.
   The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States
   Enlarge
   The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States

Speeches

Inaugural Addresses

     * First Inaugural Address (4 March 1801)
     * Second Inaugural Address (4 March 1805)

State of the Union Address

     * First State of the Union Address (8 December 1801)
     * Second State of the Union Address (15 December 1802)
     * Third State of the Union Address (17 October 1803)
     * Fourth State of the Union Address (8 November 1804)
     * Fifth State of the Union Address (3 December 1805)
     * Sixth State of the Union Address (2 December 1806)
     * Seventh State of the Union Address (27 October 1807)
     * Eighth State of the Union Address (8 November 1808)

Administration and Cabinet

   OFFICE                    NAME              TERM
   President                 Thomas Jefferson  1801–1809
   Vice President            Aaron Burr        1801–1805
                             George Clinton    1805–1809
   Secretary of State        James Madison     1801–1809
   Secretary of the Treasury Samuel Dexter     1801
                             Albert Gallatin   1801–1809
   Secretary of War          Henry Dearborn    1801–1809
   Attorney General          Levi Lincoln      1801–1804
                             Robert Smith      1805
                             John Breckinridge 1805–1806
                             Caesar A. Rodney  1807–1809
   Postmaster General        Joseph Habersham  1801
                             Gideon Granger    1801–1809
   Secretary of the Navy     Benjamin Stoddert 1801
                             Robert Smith      1801–1810

Supreme Court appointments

   Jefferson appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the
   United States:
     * William Johnson – 1804
     * Henry Brockholst Livingston – 1807
     * Thomas Todd – 1807

States admitted to the Union

     * Ohio – March 1, 1803

Father of a University

   The Academical Village, University of Virginia
   Enlarge
   The Academical Village, University of Virginia

   After leaving the Presidency, Jefferson continued to be active in
   public affairs. He also became increasingly obsessed with founding a
   new institution of higher learning, specifically one free of church
   influences where students could specialize in many new areas not
   offered at other universities. A letter to Joseph Priestley, in January
   1800, indicated that he had been planning the university for decades
   before its establishment.

   His dream was realized in 1819, with the founding of the University of
   Virginia. Upon its opening in 1825, it was then the first university to
   offer a full slate of elective courses to its students. One of the
   largest construction projects to that time in North America, it was
   notable for being centered about a library rather than a church. In
   fact, no campus chapel was included in his original plans. Until his
   death, he invited university students and faculty of the school to his
   home; Edgar Allan Poe was among them.

   The university was designed as the capstone of the educational system
   of Virginia. In his vision, any citizen of the commonwealth could
   attend school with the sole criterion being ability.

Jefferson's death

   Jefferson's gravesite
   Enlarge
   Jefferson's gravesite

   Jefferson died on the Fourth of July, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the
   adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the same day as John
   Adams' death. Thomas Jefferson was deep in debt when he died. His
   possessions were sold at an auction on Monticello. In 1831, Jefferson's
   552 acres (223 hect) were sold for $7,000 to James T. Barclay. In 1836,
   Barclay sold the estate and 218 acres (88 hect) of land to United
   States Navy Lieutenant Uriah P. Levy for $2,700. Levy then bought the
   surrounding land and started to purchase original furnishings.
   Lieutenant Levy is called "the Savior of Monticello" because of this.
   Levy died in 1862 as a result of the Civil War. In his will, he left
   the Monticello to the United States to be used as a school for orphans
   of navy officers. Thomas Jefferson is buried on his Monticello estate,
   in Charlottesville, Virginia. His epitaph, written by him with an
   insistence that only his words and "not a word more" be inscribed,
   reads:

                      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

Appearance and temperament

   Jefferson was six feet, two-and-one-half inches (189 cm) in height,
   slender, erect and sinewy. He had angular features, a very ruddy
   complexion, strawberry blond hair and hazel-flecked, grey eyes. In
   later years, he was negligent in dress and loose in bearing. He was a
   poor public speaker who mumbled through his most important addresses.
   There was grace, nevertheless, in his manners; and his frank and
   earnest address, his quick sympathy (though he seemed cold to
   strangers), and his vivacious, desultory, informing talk gave him an
   engaging charm. He was a man of intense convictions and an emotional
   temperament.

   "The Sage of Monticello" also cultivated an image that earned him the
   other nickname, "Man of the People". He affected a popular air by
   greeting White House guests in homespun attire like a robe and
   slippers. Dolley Madison, wife of James Madison (Jefferson's secretary
   of state), and Jefferson's daughters relaxed White House protocol and
   turned formal state dinners into more casual and entertaining social
   events. Although a foremost defender of a free press, Jefferson at
   times sparred with partisan newspapers and appealed to the people.

   Jefferson's writings were utilitarian and evidenced great intellect,
   and he had an affinity for languages. He learned Gaelic in order to
   translate Ossian, and sent to James Macpherson for the originals.

   As President, he discontinued the practice of delivering the State of
   the Union Address in person, instead sending the address to Congress in
   writing (the practice was eventually revived by Woodrow Wilson); he
   gave only two public speeches during his Presidency. He burned all of
   his letters between himself and his wife at her death, creating the
   portrait of a man who at times could be very private. Indeed, he
   preferred working in the privacy of his office than the public eye.

Interests and activities

   Monticello
   Enlarge
   Monticello

   Jefferson was an accomplished architect who was extremely influential
   in bringing the Neo-Palladian style—popular among the Whig aristocracy
   of Britain—to the United States. The style was associated with
   Enlightenment ideas of republican civic virtue and political liberty.
   Jefferson designed his famous home, Monticello, near Charlottesville,
   Virginia; it included automatic doors, the first swivel chair, and
   other convenient devices invented by Jefferson. Nearby is the only
   university ever to have been founded by a U.S. president, the
   University of Virginia, of which the original curriculum and
   architecture Jefferson designed. Today, Monticello and the University
   of Virginia are together one of only four man-made World Heritage Sites
   in the United States of America. Jefferson also designed Poplar Forest,
   near Lynchburg, in Bedford County, Virginia, as a private retreat from
   a very public life. Jefferson is also credited with the architectural
   design of the Virginia State Capitol building, which was modeled after
   the Maison Carrée at Nîmes in southern France, an ancient Roman temple.
   Jefferson's buildings helped initiate the ensuing American fashion for
   Federal style architecture.

   Jefferson's interests included archeology, a discipline then in its
   infancy. He has sometimes been called the " father of archeology" in
   recognition of his role in developing excavation techniques. When
   exploring an Indian burial mound on his Virginia estate in 1784,
   Jefferson avoided the common practice of simply digging downwards until
   something turned up. Instead, he cut a wedge out of the mound so that
   he could walk into it, look at the layers of occupation, and draw
   conclusions from them.

   Thomas Jefferson enjoyed his fish pond at Monticello. It was around
   three feet (1 m) deep and mortar lined. He used the pond to keep fish
   that were recently caught as well as to keep eels fresh. This pond has
   been restored and can be seen from the west side of Monticello.

   In 1780, he joined Benjamin Franklin's American Philosophical Society.
   He served as president of the society from 1797 to 1815.

   Jefferson was an avid wine lover and noted gourmet. During his years in
   France (1784-1789) he took extensive trips through French and other
   European wine regions and sent the best back home. He is noted for the
   bold pronouncement: "We could in the United States make as great a
   variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds,
   but doubtless as good." While there were extensive vineyards planted at
   Monticello, a significant portion were of the European wine grape Vitis
   vinifera and did not survive the many vine diseases native to the
   Americas.

   In 1812, he wrote A Manual of Parliamentary Practice that is still in
   use.

   After the British burned Washington, D.C. and the Library of Congress
   in August 1814, Jefferson offered his own collection to the nation. In
   January 1815, Congress accepted his offer, appropriating $23,950 for
   his 6,487 books, and the foundation was laid for a great national
   library. Today, the Library of Congress' website for federal
   legislative information is named THOMAS, in honour of Jefferson.

Political philosophy

   In his May 28, 1818 letter to Mordecai Manuel Noah, Jefferson expressed
   his faith in mankind and his views on the nature of democracy.
   Enlarge
   In his May 28, 1818 letter to Mordecai Manuel Noah, Jefferson expressed
   his faith in mankind and his views on the nature of democracy.

   Jefferson was a leader in developing Republicanism in the United
   States. The idea was that the British aristocratic system was
   inherently corrupt and that Americans devotion to civic virtue required
   independence. In the 1790s he repeatedly warned that Hamilton and Adams
   were trying to impose a British-like monarchical system that threatened
   republicanism. Jefferson's vision for American virtue was that of an
   agricultural nation of yeoman farmers minding their own affairs. It
   stood in contrast to the vision of Alexander Hamilton, who envisioned a
   nation of commerce and manufacturing, which Jefferson said offered too
   many temptations to corruption. Jefferson's deep belief in the
   uniqueness and the potential of America made him the father of American
   exceptionalism. In particular, he was confident that an under-populated
   America could avoid what he considered the horrors of class-divided,
   industrialized Europe. Jefferson was influenced heavily by the ideas of
   many European Enlightenment thinkers. His political principles were
   heavily influenced by the Country party of 19th century opposition
   figures. He also was influence by John Locke (particularly relating to
   the principle of inalienable rights. Historians find few traces of any
   influence by his French contemporary, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

   His opposition to the National Bank of the United States was epitomized
   by his famous quote from a letter to John Taylor, "And I sincerely
   believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than
   standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by
   posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a
   large scale."

   Jefferson believed that each individual has "certain inalienable
   rights." That is, these rights exist with or without government; man
   cannot create, take, or give them away. It is the right of " liberty"
   on which Jefferson is most notable for expounding. He defines it by
   saying "rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will
   within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not
   add ‘within the limits of the law’, because law is often but the
   tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the
   individual." Hence, for Jefferson, though government cannot create a
   right to liberty, it can indeed violate it. And the limit of an
   individual's rightful liberty is not what law says it is but is simply
   a matter of stopping short of prohibiting other individuals from having
   the same liberty. A proper government, for Jefferson, is one that not
   only prohibits individuals in society from infringing on the liberty of
   other individuals, but also restrains itself from diminishing
   individual liberty.

   Jefferson's commitment to equality was expressed in his successful
   efforts to abolish primogeniture in Virginia, the rule by which the
   first born son inherited all the land.

   Jefferson believed that individuals have an innate sense of morality
   that prescribes right from wrong when dealing with other
   individuals—that whether they choose to restrain themselves or not,
   they have an innate sense of the natural rights of others. He even
   believed that moral sense to be reliable enough that an anarchist
   society could function well, provided that it was reasonably small. On
   several occasions, he expressed admiration for tribal, communal way of
   living of Native Americans:

   He said in a letter to Colonel Carrington: "I am convinced that those
   societies (as the Indians) which live without government, enjoy in
   their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those
   who live under the European governments." However, Jefferson believed
   anarchism to be "inconsistent with any great degree of population.".
   Hence, he did advocate government for the American expanse provided
   that it exists by "consent of the governed."

   In the Preamble to his original draft of the Declaration of
   Independence, Jefferson wrote:


   Thomas Jefferson

      We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are
   created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive
     rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of
   life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends,
    governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from
   the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall
     become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to
      alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying its
   foundation on such principles & organising its powers in such form, as
     to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.


   Thomas Jefferson

   Jefferson's dedication to "consent of the governed" was so thorough
   that he believed that individuals could not be morally bound by the
   actions of preceding generations. This included debts as well as law.
   He said that "no society can make a perpetual constitution or even a
   perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation." He
   even calculated what he believed to be the proper cycle of legal
   revolution: "Every constitution then, and every law, naturally expires
   at the end of 19 years. If it is to be enforced longer, it is an act of
   force, and not of right." He arrived at 19 years through calculations
   with expectancy of life tables, taking into account what he believed to
   be the age of "maturity"—when an individual is able to reason for
   himself. He also advocated that the National Debt should be eliminated.
   He did not believe that living individuals had a moral obligation to
   repay the debts of previous generations. He said that repaying such
   debts was "a question of generosity and not of right".

   Jefferson's very strong defense of States' Rights, especially in the
   Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, set the tone for hostility
   to expansion of federal powers. However, some of his foreign policies
   did in fact strengthen the government. Most important was the Louisiana
   Purchase in 1803, when he used the implied powers to annex a huge
   foreign territory and all its French and Indian inhabitants. His
   enforcement of the Embargo Act, while it failed in terms of foreign
   policy, demonstrated that the federal government could intervene with
   great force at the local level in controlling trade that might lead to
   war.

   Jefferson was influenced by Wawrzyniec Grzymala Goslicki's book De
   optimo senatore, and in his works paraphrased some of Goslicki's
   phrases from the book.

Views on the judiciary

   Although trained as a lawyer, Jefferson was never comfortable in court.
   He believed that judges should be technical specialists but should not
   set policy. He denounced the 1801 Supreme Court ruling in Marbury v.
   Madison as a violation of democracy, but he did not have enough support
   in Congress to propose a Constitutional amendment to overturn it. He
   continued to oppose the doctrine of judicial review:


   Thomas Jefferson

    To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional
    questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would
   place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest
    as other men and not more so. They have with others the same passions
   for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. Their maxim is
       boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem [good justice is broad
   jurisdiction], and their power the more dangerous as they are in office
    for life and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the
   elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal,
    knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time
    and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made
      all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves.


   Thomas Jefferson

Religious views

   The Declaration of Independence incorporates concepts from Deism.
   Enlarge
   The Declaration of Independence incorporates concepts from Deism.

   On matters of religion, Jefferson in 1800 was accused by his political
   opponents of being an atheist and enemy of religion. But Jefferson
   wrote at length on religion and many scholars agree with the claim that
   Jefferson was a deist, a common position held by intellectuals in the
   late 18th century. As Avery Cardinal Dulles, a leading Roman Catholic
   theologian reports, "In his college years at William and Mary he
   [Jefferson] came to admire Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and John Locke
   as three great paragons of wisdom. Under the influence of several
   professors he converted to the deist philosophy." Dulles concludes:


   Thomas Jefferson

   In summary, then, Jefferson was a deist because he believed in one God,
      in divine providence, in the divine moral law, and in rewards and
        punishments after death; but did not believe in supernatural
   revelation. He was a Christian deist because he saw Christianity as the
     highest expression of natural religion and Jesus as an incomparably
      great moral teacher. He was not an orthodox Christian because he
   rejected, among other things, the doctrines that Jesus was the promised
    Messiah and the incarnate Son of God. Jefferson's religion is fairly
              typical of the American form of deism in his day.


   Thomas Jefferson

   Biographer Merrill Peterson summarizes Jefferson's theology:


   Thomas Jefferson

       First, that the Christianity of the churches was unreasonable,
   therefore unbelievable, but that stripped of priestly mystery, ritual,
   and dogma, reinterpreted in the light of historical evidence and human
        experience, and substituting the Newtonian cosmology for the
    discredited Biblical one, Christianity could be conformed to reason.
   Second, morality required no divine sanction or inspiration, no appeal
    beyond reason and nature, perhaps not even the hope of heaven or the
     fear of hell; and so the whole edifice of Christian revelation came
                           tumbling to the ground.


   Thomas Jefferson

   Jefferson used deist terminology in repeatedly stating his belief in a
   creator, and in the United States Declaration of Independence used the
   terms "Creator", "Nature's God". Jefferson believed, furthermore, it
   was this Creator that endowed humanity with a number of inalienable
   rights, such as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". His
   experience in France just before the French Revolution made him deeply
   suspicious of Catholic priests and bishops as a force for reaction and
   ignorance. Similarly, his experience in America with
   inter-denominational intolerance served to reinforce this skeptical
   view of religion. In a letter to Willam Short, Jefferson wrote: "the
   serious enemies are the priests of the different religious sects, to
   whose spells on the human mind it's improvement is ominous."

   Jefferson was raised in the Church of England, at a time when it was
   the established church in Virginia and only denomination funded by
   Virginia tax money. Before the Revolution, Jefferson was a vestryman in
   his local church, a lay position that was part of political office at
   the time. He also had friends who were clergy, and he supported some
   churches financially. During his Presidency, Jefferson attended the
   weekly church services held in the House of Representatives. Jefferson
   later expressed general agreement with his friend Joseph Priestley's
   Unitarianism, that is the rejection of the doctrine of Trinity. In a
   letter to a pioneer in Ohio he wrote, "I rejoice that in this blessed
   country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its
   conscience to neither kings or priests, the genuine doctrine of only
   one God is reviving, and I trust that there is not a young man now
   living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian."

   Jefferson did not believe in the divinity of Jesus, but he had high
   esteem for Jesus' moral teachings, which he viewed as the "principles
   of a pure deism, and juster notions of the attributes of God, to reform
   [prior Jewish] moral doctrines to the standard of reason, justice &
   philanthropy, and to inculcate the belief of a future state." Jefferson
   did not believe in miracles. He made his own condensed version of the
   Gospels, primarily leaving only Jesus' moral philosophy, of which he
   approved. This compilation was published after his death and became
   known as the Jefferson Bible.


   Thomas Jefferson

        [The Jefferson Bible] is a document in proof that I am a real
    Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very
      different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves
      Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their
       characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw.


   Thomas Jefferson

Church and state

   For Jefferson, separation of church and state was not an abstract right
   but a necessary reform of the religious "tyranny" of one Christian sect
   over many other Christians. Jefferson tried re-instating a new religion
   for all to use, but this idea quickly failed and Jefferson was almost
   removed from office.

   Following the Revolution, Jefferson played a leading role in the
   disestablishment of religion in Virginia. Previously the Anglican
   Church had tax support. As he wrote in his Notes on Virginia, a law was
   in effect in Virginia that "if a person brought up a Christian denies
   the being of a God, or the Trinity …he is punishable on the first
   offense by incapacity to hold any office …; on the second by a
   disability to sue, to take any gift or legacy …, and by three year'
   imprisonment." Prospective officer-holders were required to swear that
   they did not believe in the central Roman Catholic doctrine of
   transubstantiation.

   From 1784 to 1786, Jefferson and James Madison worked together to
   oppose Patrick Henry's attempts to again assess taxes in Virginia to
   support churches. Instead, in 1786, the Virginia General Assembly
   passed Jefferson's Bill for Religious Freedom, which he had first
   submitted in 1779 and was one of only three accomplishments he put in
   his own epitaph. The law read:


   Thomas Jefferson

   No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship,
      place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained,
   molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer,
   on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall
     be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in
      matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish,
                 enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.


   Thomas Jefferson

   One of Jefferson’s least well known writings is: "I do not find in our
   particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming
   feature.....Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the
   introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined and
   imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make half the
   world fools and half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over
   the world"- Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia.

   Jefferson sought what he called a "wall of separation between Church
   and State", which he believed was a principle expressed by the First
   Amendment. This phrase has been cited several times by the Supreme
   Court in its interpretation of the Establishment Clause. In an 1802
   letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, he wrote:


   Thomas Jefferson

   Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between
    man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or
    his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions
   only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act
     of the whole American people which declared that their legislature
       should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
       prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of
                    separation between church and State.


   Thomas Jefferson

   He used the phrase "wall of separation" again in an 1808 letter to
   Virginia Baptists:


   Thomas Jefferson

    Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of
     every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual.
     State churches that use government power to support themselves and
    force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil
   rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy
     unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion.
   Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore,
                 is absolutely essential in a free society.


   Thomas Jefferson

   During his Presidency, Jefferson refused to issue proclamations calling
   for days of prayer and thanksgiving. Moreover, his private letters
   indicate he was skeptical of too much interference by clergy in matters
   of civil government. His letters contain the following observations:
   "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people
   maintaining a free civil government", and, "In every country and in
   every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in
   alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection
   to his own." "May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to
   some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of
   arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and
   superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the
   blessings and security of self-government".

Jefferson and slavery

   Jefferson commemorated on the 2005 U.S. Nickel.
   Enlarge
   Jefferson commemorated on the 2005 U.S. Nickel.
   Jefferson commemorated on the 2006 U.S. Nickel.
   Enlarge
   Jefferson commemorated on the 2006 U.S. Nickel.

   Records show that Jefferson owned many slaves over his lifetime. Some
   find it hypocritical that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves yet was
   outspoken in saying that slavery was immoral and it should be
   abolished. In the Declaration of Independence, he states that " All men
   are created equal", yet he owned slaves himself.

   During his long career in public office, Jefferson attempted numerous
   times to abolish or limit the advance of slavery. According to a
   biographer, Jefferson "believed that it was the responsibility of the
   state and society to free all slaves". In 1769, as a member of the
   House of Burgesses, Jefferson proposed for that body to emancipate
   slaves in Virginia, but he was unsuccessful. In his first draft of the
   Declaration of Independence (1776), Jefferson condemned the British
   crown for sponsoring the importation of slavery to the colonies,
   charging that the crown "has waged cruel war against human nature
   itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the
   persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating &
   carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere." However, this
   language was dropped from the Declaration at the request of delegates
   from South Carolina and Georgia.

   In 1778, the legislature passed a bill he proposed to ban further
   importation of slaves into Virginia; although this did not bring
   complete emancipation, in his words, it "stopped the increase of the
   evil by importation, leaving to future efforts its final eradication."
   In 1784, Jefferson's draft of what became the Northwest Ordinance
   stipulated that "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary
   servitude" in any of the new states admitted to the Union from the
   Northwest Territory. In 1807, he signed a bill abolishing the slave
   trade. Jefferson attacked the institution of slavery in his Notes on
   the State of Virginia (1784):


   Thomas Jefferson

     There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our
       people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole
    commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most
    boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part,
                   and degrading submissions on the other.


   Thomas Jefferson

   In this same work, Jefferson advanced his suspicion that blacks were
   inferior to whites "in the endowments both of body and mind". He also
   wrote, "Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that
   these people are to be free. [But] the two races...cannot live in the
   same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of
   distinction between them." According to historian Stephen Ambrose:
   "Jefferson, like all slaveholders and many other white members of
   American society, regarded Negroes as inferior, childlike,
   untrustworthy and, of course, as property. Jefferson, the genius of
   politics, could see no way for African-Americans to live in society as
   free people. He embraced the worst forms of racism to justify slavery."

   Most of Jefferson's slaves were sold after his death to pay his many
   debts. Edmund Bacon, the chief overseer of Monticello for twenty years,
   told his biographer that he believed Jefferson would have freed all his
   slaves in his will, but was too far in debt.

The Sally Hemings controversy

   Although Jefferson wrote regarding marriage between blacks and whites,
   "The amalgamation of whites with blacks produces a degradation to which
   no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character,
   can innocently consent," a subject of considerable controversy since
   Jefferson's time is whether he was the father of any of the children of
   his slave Sally Hemings. Hemings was likely the half-sister of
   Jefferson's deceased wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. The
   allegation that Jefferson fathered children with Hemings first gained
   widespread public attention in 1802, when journalist James T.
   Callender, wrote in a Richmond newspaper, "... [Jefferson] keeps and
   for many years has kept, as his concubine, one of his slaves. Her name
   is Sally." Jefferson never responded publicly about this issue but is
   said to have denied it in his private correspondence.

   A 1998 DNA study concluded that there was a DNA link between some of
   Hemings descendants and the Jefferson family, but did not conclusively
   prove that Jefferson himself was their ancestor. Three studies were
   released in the early 2000s, following the publication of the DNA
   evidence. In 2000, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which runs
   Monticello, appointed a multi-disciplinary, 9-member in-house research
   committee of Ph.D.s and an M.D. to study the matter of the paternity of
   Hemings's children. The committee concluded "it is very unlikely that
   any Jefferson other than Thomas Jefferson was the father of [Hemings's
   six] children." In 2001, the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society
   commissioned a study by an independent 13-member Scholars Commission.
   The commission concluded that the Jefferson paternity thesis was not
   persuasive. The National Genealogical Society Quarterly then published
   articles reviewing the evidence from a genealogical perspective and
   concluded that the link between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings was
   valid.

Monuments and memorials

   The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.
   Enlarge
   The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.
   Jefferson on Mount Rushmore.
   Enlarge
   Jefferson on Mount Rushmore.
     * April 13, 1943, the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth, the
       Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. The memorial
       combines a low neo-classicistic saucer dome with a portico. The
       interior includes a 19 foot statue of Jefferson and engravings of
       passages from his writings. Most prominent are the words which are
       inscribed around the monument near the roof: "I have sworn upon the
       altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over
       the mind of man."

     * Jefferson, together with George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and
       Abraham Lincoln, was chosen by President Calvin Coolidge to be
       depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial.

     * Jefferson's portrait appears on the U.S. $2 bill, nickel, and the
       $100 Series EE Savings Bond.

     * The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church ( Unitarian Universalist) is
       located in Charlottesville, Virginia.

     * July 8, 2003, the NOAA ship Thomas Jefferson was commissioned in
       Norfolk, Virginia. This was done in commemoration of his
       establishment of a Survey of the Coast, the predecessor to NOAA's
       National Ocean Service.

Trivia

     * Jefferson and John Adams were the only signers of the Declaration
       of Independence to become Presidents.
     * On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the
       Declaration of Independence, Adams died at Quincy, after
       (allegedly) uttering the famous last words "Thomas Jefferson still
       survives." Unbeknownst to Adams, Jefferson had died five hours
       earlier.
     * One of the most famous quotations attributed to Thomas Jefferson,
       "That government is best which governs least", was not from
       Jefferson at all. The quotation actually came from Henry David
       Thoreau in On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.
     * A master horticulturist, Jefferson was an early grower of tomatoes
       (among seventy types of vegetables) when the fruit was considered
       dangerous.
     * Jefferson had a lisp and preferred writing to public speaking
       partly because of this.
     * Jefferson kept two bear cubs given to him by Lewis and Clark housed
       in cages on the White House South Lawn.
     * Likening himself to the third president, President George W. Bush
       remarked that Jefferson invented more words than any other
       president.
     * He was portrayed by Ken Howard in 1776 and Nick Nolte in Jefferson
       in Paris.
     * The Thomas Jefferson Centre for the Protection of Free Expression
       chose Jefferson's name as embodying free speech, and it often works
       with the Jefferson-founded University of Virginia.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
