Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, was a tall, thin man with orange-red hair and hazel-gray eyes. Though an aristocrat by birth, he rejected the idea that the well born should be in charge of the government. He was a strong believer in the goodness of human nature and believed in establishing a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. Even while attending to his official duties as the President of the United States he wore plain clothes to show his solidarity with the common people of the new nation, a practice which more than one foreign diplomat perceived as an insult.
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in Shadwell, Goochland County (now Albemarle County), Virginia. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a prosperous planter and surveyor. His mother, Jane Randolph, was a member of a wealthy, well-established Virginia family. Thomas Jefferson received his elementary education from small private schools, where he was given a strong background in the classics. In 1760 he attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg where he learned mathematics and was introduced to science. Extremely bright, diligent, and genuinely intellectually curious, he finished his studies in two years. In 1762 he undertook studying law under the renowned law professor George Wythe. While in law school Jefferson developed a close friendship with the liberal-minded governor of Virginia, Francis Fauquier. Thomas Jefferson passed the Virginia bar in 1767.
In 1769 Jefferson was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. It was here, drafting documents for the Virginia Assembly, that he began to distinguish himself as a powerful writer.
On January 1, 1772 Thomas Jefferson married a 23-year-old Virginian widow, Martha Wayles Skelton. The marriage doubled Jefferson's land holdings, which were already considerable after having inherited his father's estate. His work on the mansion Monticello had already begun by the time he married. The couple had six children.
1774 saw the end of Jefferson's law practice when the courts closed because of the American Revolution. 1774 was also the year that Jefferson came to international attention with the publishing of his pamphlet entitled "A Summary View of Rights of British America." It was in this pamphlet that Jefferson first attempted to express his philosophy of government: "The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest."
The eloquence with which "A Summary View of the Rights of British America" was written was largely responsible for Jefferson's being nominated to the committee selected to write the Declaration of Independence at the First Continental Congress, which Jefferson attended as a Virginia Delegate in 1775. At the insistence of John Adams, the other members of the committee, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman conceded the task of writing the actual document to Jefferson. The finished document, adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776, after a minimal ratification period in which only a few sentences were altered, expresses Jefferson's philosophy of government and his faith in human nature: "We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..."
In 1776 Jefferson was elected to the Virginia State Legislature, and in 1779 he was elected governor of the State of Virginia. While governor, the British invaded Richmond, Virginia in 1781, and Jefferson was forced to flee the state capitol. Jefferson was made to stand trial on charges of cowardice, but was found innocent. The damaging effect the trial had on his reputation plagued him throughout his career, and the inquiry into Jefferson's possible misconduct caused him to develop an acute distaste for life in the public eye. He dropped out of public service for a brief period and dedicated himself to scientific observation. At length, Jefferson published a pamphlet entitled "Notes on Virginia" in 1785 and established his reputation as a scientist.
Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson died on September 6, 1782. In the wake of his wife's death, Thomas Jefferson rededicated himself to public life. He journeyed to France in 1784 were he was to become Franklin's successor as minister. While in France, Jefferson became convinced that France was a natural ally of the United States and that Britain was a natural rival. He witnessed the beginning of the French Revolution and offered what little council he could to its leaders. He did not believe that France was ready for democracy the way that he believed America was. At the time, he favored a limited monarchy. His support of the Revolution would wane in later years when he learned of all the abuses and excesses that had taken place, especially when Napoleon came to power.
While in France, Jefferson missed the drafting and ratification of the Constitution. Upon his first reading of the document in 1789, he did not support it because it did not provide protection for the rights of the individual. He also objected to the fact that there was no limit on the number of terms a President could serve; there was nothing to prevent a President from becoming king. His objections were quelled when he was assured that a Bill of Rights would be added, and when he learned that George Washington was to be the first President.
Washington appointed Jefferson the first Secretary of State in 1790. As Secretary of State Jefferson found himself in constant opposition to the Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, whose policies were distinctly pro-British and who also held the interests of industry over agriculture. Jefferson resigned the position of Secretary of State on July 31, 1794 in protest over the United States' foreign policy of neutrality in the war between Britain and France.
While he was Secretary of State, Jefferson had become a leader of partisan politics. His beliefs in a powerful local government firmly rooted in the common people and a strict interpretation of the Constitution in regards to the central government became the basis for the Democratic-Republican Party.
Thomas Jefferson ran against John Adams in the Presidential election of 1797. He came in second, thereby becoming Vice President of the United States.
During the Summer of 1798 President Adams signed into law the Alien and Sedition Acts. Under the stipulation of these acts aliens could be banished from the country during peacetime, and editors could be jailed for "scandalous or malicious" writing against the President or Congress. Jefferson was outraged by what he saw as a direct attack on freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Jefferson led the Democratic-Republicans in a movement to repeal the acts. The Alien and Sedition Acts became a prevailing issue in the election of 1801 in which Thomas Jefferson ran against President Adams. Thomas Jefferson became the third President of the United States on March 4, 1801.
Jefferson's first act as President was to pardon all those jailed under the Alien and Sedition Acts, and then to get the acts repealed. During the rest of his first term as President, Thomas Jefferson successfully cut the federal budget and lowered taxes. In 1803 he sent James Monroe and Robert Livingston to France to buy New Orleans from Napoleon. When Napoleon offered to sell not only New Orleans, but the entire region up to present day Montana for $15,000,000, Monroe and Livingston jumped at the chance without waiting for authorization. The "Louisiana Purchase" more than doubled the territory of the United States. Thomas Jefferson was elected to a second term in 1805.
See Vice President Aaron Burr: Aaron Burr served as Vice President during Jefferson's first term, from 1801 to 1805. Burr has subsequently been most regarded as the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804.
Jefferson's second term was troubled by the war between Britain and France. American merchant vessels were being attacked and seized by both the British and the French. Jefferson tried to fight back with economic measures, by instituting an embargo on all foreign trade. The Embargo Act made Jefferson very unpopular. Merchants would rather take their chances and lose the occasional vessel than to have trade stopped completely. Jefferson repealed the Embargo Act on March 1, 1809, three days before he left office.
Thomas Jefferson retired to Monticello. In his retirement he began building the University of Virginia, but he died before its completion. Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of the Independence, just a few hours before the death of the second President of the United States, John Adams.
