Thomas Jefferson (April 13, [O.S. April 2]
1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American Founding
Father who was the principal author of the
Declaration of Independence and later served
as the third President of the United States
from 1801 to 1809. Previously, he had been
elected the second Vice President of the United
States, serving under John Adams from 1797
to 1801. He was a proponent of democracy,
republicanism, and individual rights motivating
American colonists to break from Great Britain
and form a new nation; he produced formative
documents and decisions at both the state
and national level.
Jefferson was mainly of English ancestry,
born and educated in colonial Virginia. He
graduated from the College of William & Mary
and briefly practiced law, with the largest
number of his cases concerning land ownership
claims. During the American Revolution, he
represented Virginia in the Continental Congress
that adopted the Declaration, drafted the
law for religious freedom as a Virginia legislator,
and served as a wartime governor (1779–1781).
He became the United States Minister to France
in May 1785, and subsequently the nation's
first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under
President George Washington. Jefferson and
James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican
Party to oppose the Federalist Party during
the formation of the First Party System. With
Madison, he anonymously wrote the controversial
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1798–1799,
which sought to strengthen states' rights
by nullifying the federal Alien and Sedition
Acts.
As President, Jefferson pursued the nation's
shipping and trade interests against Barbary
pirates and aggressive British trade policies.
He also organized the Louisiana Purchase,
almost doubling the country's territory. As
a result of peace negotiations with France,
his administration reduced military forces.
He was reelected in 1804. Jefferson's second
term was beset with difficulties at home,
including the trial of former Vice President
Aaron Burr. American foreign trade was diminished
when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act
of 1807, responding to British threats to
U.S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began a
controversial process of Indian tribe removal
to the newly organized Louisiana Territory,
and he signed the Act Prohibiting Importation
of Slaves in 1807.
Jefferson, while primarily a planter, lawyer
and politician, mastered many disciplines,
which ranged from surveying and mathematics
to horticulture and mechanics. He was an architect
in the classical tradition. Jefferson's keen
interest in religion and philosophy led to
his presidency of the American Philosophical
Society; he shunned organized religion but
was influenced by both Christianity and deism.
A philologist, Jefferson knew several languages.
He was a prolific letter writer and corresponded
with many prominent people. His only full-length
book is Notes on the State of Virginia (1785),
considered perhaps the most important American
book published before 1800. After retiring
from public office, Jefferson founded the
University of Virginia.
Although regarded as a leading spokesman for
democracy and republicanism in the era of
the Enlightenment, Jefferson's historical
legacy is mixed. Some modern scholarship has
been critical of Jefferson's private life,
pointing out the contradiction between his
ownership of the large numbers of slaves that
worked his plantations and his famous declaration
that "all men are created equal." Another
point of controversy stems from the evidence
that after his wife Martha died in 1782, Jefferson
fathered children with Martha's half-sister,
Sally Hemings, who was his slave. Nonetheless,
presidential scholars and historians generally
praise his public achievements, including
his advocacy of religious freedom and tolerance
in Virginia. Jefferson continues to rank highly
among U.S. presidents.
== Early life and career ==
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743
(April 2, 1743, Old Style, Julian calendar),
at the family home in Shadwell in the Colony
of Virginia, the third of ten children. He
was of English, and possibly Welsh, descent
and was born a British subject. His father
Peter Jefferson was a planter and surveyor
who died when Jefferson was fourteen; his
mother was Jane Randolph. Peter Jefferson
moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in
1745 upon the death of William Randolph, the
plantation's owner and Jefferson's friend,
who in his will had named him guardian of
his children. The Jeffersons returned to Shadwell
in 1752, where Peter died in 1757; his estate
was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph.
Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres
(2,000 ha; 7.8 sq mi) of land, including Monticello.
He assumed full authority over his property
at age 21.
=== Education, early family life ===
Jefferson began his childhood education beside
the Randolph children with tutors at Tuckahoe.
Thomas' father, Peter, self-taught, regretting
not having a formal education, entered Thomas
into an English school early, at age five.
In 1752, at age nine, he began attending a
local school run by a Scottish Presbyterian
minister, and also began studying the natural
world, for which he grew to love. At this
time he began studying Latin, Greek, and French,
while also learning to ride horses. Thomas
also read books from his father's modest library.
He was taught from 1758 to 1760 by Reverend
James Maury near Gordonsville, Virginia, where
he studied history, science, and the classics
while boarding with Maury's family. During
this period Jefferson came to know and befriended
various American Indians, including the famous
Cherokee chief, Ontassete, who often stopped
at Shadwell to visit, on their way to Williamsburg
to trade. During the two years Jefferson was
with the Maury family, he traveled to Williamsburg
and was a guest of Colonel Dandridge, father
of Martha Washington. In Williamsburg the
young Jefferson met and came to admire Patrick
Henry, who was eight years his senior, sharing
a common interest of violin playing.Jefferson
entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg,
Virginia, at age 16 and studied mathematics,
metaphysics, and philosophy under Professor
William Small. Small introduced him to the
George Wythe and Francis Fauquier along with
British Empiricists including John Locke,
Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton. Small, Wythe
and Fauquier recognized in Jefferson a man
of exceptional ability and included him in
their inner circle where the young Jefferson
became a regular member of their Friday dinner
parties where such men gathered and discussed
politics and philosophy. Jefferson later wrote
that he "heard more common good sense, more
rational & philosophical conversations than
in all the rest of my life". During his first
year at the college he was given more to parties,
dancing and was not very frugal with his expenditures;
during his second year, regretting that he
had squandered away much time and money, he
applied himself to fifteen hours of study
a day. Jefferson improved his French and Greek
and his skill at the violin. He graduated
two years after starting in 1762. He read
the law under Professor Wythe's tutelage to
obtain his law license, while working as a
law clerk in his office. He also read a wide
variety of English classics and political
works. Jefferson was well read in a broad
variety of subjects, which along with law
and philosophy, included history, natural
law, natural religion, ethics, and several
areas in science, including agriculture. Overall,
he drew very deeply on the philosophers. During
the years of study under the watchful eye
of Wythe, Jefferson authored a survey of his
extensive readings in his Commonplace Book.
So impressed with Jefferson, Wythe would later
bequeath his entire library to him.1765 was
an eventful year in Jefferson's family. In
July, his sister Martha married his close
friend and college companion Dabney Carr,
which greatly pleased Jefferson. In October,
he mourned his sister Jane's unexpected death
at age 25 and wrote a farewell epitaph in
Latin.
Jefferson treasured his books. In 1770, his
Shadwell home was destroyed by fire, including
a library of 200 volumes inherited from his
father and those left to him by George Wythe.
Nevertheless, he had replenished his library
with 1,250 titles by 1773, and his collection
grew to almost 6,500 volumes in 1814. The
British burned the Library of Congress that
year; he then sold more than 6,000 books to
the Library for $23,950. He had intended to
pay off some of his large debt, but he resumed
collecting for his personal library, writing
to John Adams, "I cannot live without books."
=== Lawyer and House of Burgesses ===
Jefferson was admitted to the Virginia bar
in 1767 and then lived with his mother at
Shadwell. In addition to practicing law, Jefferson
represented Albemarle County as a delegate
in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1769
until 1775. He pursued reforms to slavery.
He introduced legislation in 1769 allowing
masters to take control over the emancipation
of slaves, taking discretion away from the
royal governor and General Court. He persuaded
his cousin Richard Bland to spearhead the
legislation's passage, but reaction was strongly
negative.Jefferson took seven cases for freedom-seeking
slaves and waived his fee for one client,
who claimed that he should be freed before
the statutory age of thirty-one required for
emancipation in cases with inter-racial grandparents.
He invoked the Natural Law to argue, "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, conceivably used to aid his escape
shortly thereafter. He later incorporated
this sentiment into the Declaration of Independence.
He also took on 68 cases for the General Court
of Virginia in 1767, in addition to three
notable cases: Howell v. Netherland (1770),
Bolling v. Bolling (1771), and Blair v. Blair
(1772).The British Parliament passed the Intolerable
Acts in 1774, and Jefferson wrote a resolution
calling for a "Day of Fasting and Prayer"
in protest, as well as a boycott of all British
goods. His resolution was later expanded into
A Summary View of the Rights of British America,
in which he argued that people have the right
to govern themselves.
=== Monticello, marriage and family ===
In 1768, Jefferson began constructing his
primary residence Monticello (Italian for
"Little Mountain") on a hilltop overlooking
his 5,000-acre (20 km2; 7.8 sq mi) plantation.
Construction was done mostly by local masons
and carpenters, assisted by Jefferson's slaves.He
moved into the South Pavilion in 1770. Turning
Monticello into a neoclassical masterpiece
in the Palladian style was his perennial project.
On January 1, 1772, Jefferson married his
third cousin Martha Wayles Skelton, the 23-year-old
widow of Bathurst Skelton, and she moved into
the South Pavilion. She was a frequent hostess
for Jefferson and managed the large household.
Biographer Dumas Malone described the marriage
as the happiest period of Jefferson's life.
Martha read widely, did fine needlework, and
was a skilled pianist; Jefferson often accompanied
her on the violin or cello. During their ten
years of marriage, Martha bore six children:
Martha "Patsy" (1772–1836); Jane (1774–1775);
a son who lived for only a few weeks in 1777;
Mary Wayles "Polly" (1778–1804); Lucy Elizabeth
(1780–1781); and another Lucy Elizabeth
(1782–1785). Only Martha and Mary survived
more than a few years. Martha's father John
Wayles died in 1773, and the couple inherited
135 people of color who were legally enslaved,
11,000 acres (45 km2; 17 sq mi), and the estate's
debts. The debts took Jefferson years to satisfy,
contributing to his financial problems.Martha
later suffered from ill health, including
diabetes, and frequent childbirth further
weakened her. Her mother had died young, and
Martha lived with two stepmothers as a girl.
A few months after the birth of her last child,
she died on September 6, 1782, at the age
of 33 with Jefferson at her bedside. Shortly
before her death, Martha made Jefferson promise
never to marry again, telling him that she
could not bear to have another mother raise
her children. Jefferson was grief-stricken
by her death, relentlessly pacing back and
forth, nearly to the point of exhaustion.
He emerged after three weeks, taking long
rambling rides on secluded roads with his
daughter Martha, by her description "a solitary
witness to many a violent burst of grief".After
working as Secretary of State (1790–93),
he returned to Monticello and initiated a
remodeling based on the architectural concepts
which he had acquired in Europe. The work
continued throughout most of his presidency,
being finished in 1809.
== Political career 1775–1800 ==
=== Declaration of Independence ===
Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration
of Independence. The document's social and
political ideals were proposed by Jefferson
before the inauguration of Washington. At
age 33, he was one of the youngest delegates
to the Second Continental Congress beginning
in 1775 at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary
War, where a formal declaration of independence
from Britain was overwhelmingly favored. Jefferson
chose his words for the Declaration in June
1775, shortly after the war had begun, where
the idea of independence from Britain had
long since become popular among the colonies.
He was inspired by the Enlightenment ideals
of the sanctity of the individual, as well
as by the writings of Locke and Montesquieu.He
sought out John Adams, an emerging leader
of the Congress. They became close friends
and Adams supported Jefferson's appointment
to the Committee of Five formed to draft a
declaration of independence in furtherance
of the Lee Resolution passed by the Congress,
which declared the United Colonies independent.
The committee initially thought that Adams
should write the document, but Adams persuaded
the committee to choose Jefferson.Jefferson
consulted with other committee members over
the next seventeen days, and drew on his own
proposed draft of the Virginia Constitution,
George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration
of Rights, and other sources. The other committee
members made some changes, and a final draft
was presented to the Congress on June 28,
1776.The declaration was introduced on Friday,
June 28, and congress began debate over its
contents on Monday, July 1, resulting in the
omission of a fourth of the text, including
a passage critical of King George III and
the slave trade. Jefferson resented the changes,
but he did not speak publicly about the revisions.
On July 4, 1776, the Congress ratified the
Declaration, and delegates signed it on August
2; in doing so, they were committing an act
of treason against the Crown. Jefferson's
preamble is regarded as an enduring statement
of human rights, and the phrase "all men are
created equal" has been called "one of the
best-known sentences in the English language"
containing "the most potent and consequential
words in American history".
=== Virginia state legislator and governor
===
At the start of the Revolution, Jefferson
was a Colonel and was named commander of the
Albemarle County Militia on September 26,
1775. He was then elected to the Virginia
House of Delegates for Albemarle County in
September 1776, when finalizing a state constitution
was a priority.
For nearly three years, he assisted with the
constitution and was especially proud of his
Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, which
forbade state support of religious institutions
or enforcement of religious doctrine. The
bill failed to pass, as did his legislation
to disestablish the Anglican church, but both
were later revived by James Madison.In 1778,
Jefferson was given the task of revising the
state's laws. He drafted 126 bills in three
years, including laws to streamline the judicial
system. Jefferson's proposed statutes provided
for general education, which he considered
the basis of "republican government". He had
become alarmed that Virginia's powerful landed
gentry were becoming a hereditary aristocracy.
He took the lead in abolishing what he called
"feudal and unnatural distinctions." He targeted
laws such as entail and primogeniture by which
the oldest son inherited all the land. The
entail laws made it perpetual: the one who
inherited the land could not sell it, but
had to bequeath it to his oldest son. As a
result, increasingly large plantations, worked
by white tenant farmers and by black slaves,
gained in size and wealth and political power
in the eastern ("Tidewater") tobacco areas.
During the Revolutionary era, all such laws
were repealed by the states that had them.Jefferson
was elected governor for one-year terms in
1779 and 1780. He transferred the state capital
from Williamsburg to Richmond, and introduced
measures for public education, religious freedom,
and revision of inheritance laws.During General
Benedict Arnold's 1781 invasion of Virginia,
Jefferson escaped Richmond just ahead of the
British forces, and the city was burned to
the ground. General Charles Cornwallis that
spring dispatched a cavalry force led by Banastre
Tarleton to capture Jefferson and members
of the Assembly at Monticello, but Jack Jouett
of the Virginia militia thwarted the British
plan. Jefferson escaped to Poplar Forest,
his plantation to the west. When the General
Assembly reconvened in June 1781, it conducted
an inquiry into Jefferson's actions which
eventually concluded that Jefferson had acted
with honor—but he was not re-elected.In
April of the same year, his daughter Lucy
died at age one. A second daughter of that
name was born the following year, but she
died at age three.
=== Notes on the State of Virginia ===
Jefferson received a letter of inquiry in
1780 about the geography, history, and government
of Virginia from French diplomat François
Barbé-Marbois, who was gathering data on
the United States. Jefferson included his
written responses in a book, Notes on the
State of Virginia (1785). He compiled the
book over five years, including reviews of
scientific knowledge, Virginia's history,
politics, laws, culture, and geography. The
book explores what constitutes a good society,
using Virginia as an exemplar. Jefferson included
extensive data about the state's natural resources
and economy, and wrote at length about slavery,
miscegenation, and his belief that blacks
and whites could not live together as free
people in one society because of justified
resentments of the enslaved. He also wrote
of his views on the American Indian and considered
them as equals in body and mind to European
settlers.Notes was first published in 1785
in French and appeared in English in 1787.
Biographer George Tucker considered the work
"surprising in the extent of the information
which a single individual had been thus able
to acquire, as to the physical features of
the state", and Merrill D. Peterson described
it as an accomplishment for which all Americans
should be grateful.
=== Member of Congress ===
The United States formed a Congress of the
Confederation following victory in the Revolutionary
War and a peace treaty with Great Britain
in 1783, to which Jefferson was appointed
as a Virginia delegate. He was a member of
the committee setting foreign exchange rates
and recommended an American currency based
on the decimal system which was adopted. He
advised formation of the Committee of the
States to fill the power vacuum when Congress
was in recess. The Committee met when Congress
adjourned, but disagreements rendered it dysfunctional.In
the Congress's 1783–84 session, Jefferson
acted as chairman of committees to establish
a viable system of government for the new
Republic and to propose a policy for the settlement
of the western territories. Jefferson was
the principal author of the Land Ordinance
of 1784, whereby Virginia ceded to the national
government the vast area that it claimed northwest
of the Ohio River. He insisted that this territory
should not be used as colonial territory by
any of the thirteen states, but that it should
be divided into sections which could become
states. He plotted borders for nine new states
in their initial stages and wrote an ordinance
banning slavery in all the nation's territories.
Congress made extensive revisions, including
rejection of the ban on slavery. The provisions
banning slavery were known later as the "Jefferson
Proviso;" they were modified and implemented
three years later in the Northwest Ordinance
of 1787 and became the law for the entire
Northwest.
=== Minister to France ===
In 1784, Jefferson was sent by the Congress
of the Confederation to join Benjamin Franklin
and John Adams in Paris as Minister Plenipotentiary
for Negotiating Treaties of Amity and Commerce
with Great Britain, Russia, Austria, Prussia,
Denmark, Saxony, Hamburg, Spain, Portugal,
Naples, Sardinia, The Pope, Venice, Genoa,
Tuscany, the Sublime Porte, Morocco, Algiers,
Tunis, and Tripoli. Some believed that the
recently widowed Jefferson was depressed and
that the assignment would distract him from
his wife's death. With his young daughter
Patsy and two servants, he departed in July
1784, arriving in Paris the next month. Less
than a year later he was assigned the additional
duty of succeeding Franklin as Minister to
France. French foreign minister Count de Vergennes
commented, "You replace Monsieur Franklin,
I hear." Jefferson replied, "I succeed. No
man can replace him." During his five years
in Paris Jefferson played a leading role in
shaping the foreign policy of the United States.Jefferson
had Patsy educated at the Pentemont Abbey.
In 1786, he met and fell in love with Maria
Cosway, an accomplished—and married—Italian-English
musician of 27. They saw each other frequently
over a period of six weeks. She returned to
Great Britain, but they maintained a lifelong
correspondence.Jefferson sent for his youngest
surviving child, nine-year-old Polly, in June
1787, who was accompanied on her voyage by
a young slave from Monticello, Sally Hemings.
Jefferson had taken her older brother James
Hemings to Paris as part of his domestic staff,
and had him trained in French cuisine. According
to Sally's son, Madison Hemings, the 16-year-old
Sally and Jefferson began a sexual relationship
in Paris, where she became pregnant. According
to his account, Hemings agreed to return to
the United States only after Jefferson promised
to free her children when they came of age.While
in France, Jefferson became a regular companion
of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French hero
of the American Revolutionary War, and Jefferson
used his influence to procure trade agreements
with France. As the French Revolution began,
Jefferson allowed his Paris residence, the
Hôtel de Langeac, to be used for meetings
by Lafayette and other republicans. He was
in Paris during the storming of the Bastille
and consulted with Lafayette while the latter
drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man
and of the Citizen. Jefferson often found
his mail opened by postmasters, so he invented
his own enciphering device, the "Wheel Cipher";
he wrote important communications in code
for the rest of his career. Jefferson left
Paris for America in September 1789, intending
to return soon; however, President George
Washington appointed him the country's first
Secretary of State, forcing him to remain
in the nation's capitol. Jefferson remained
a firm supporter of the French Revolution,
while opposing its more violent elements.
=== Secretary of State ===
Soon after returning from France, Jefferson
accepted Washington's invitation to serve
as Secretary of State. Pressing issues at
this time were the national debt and the permanent
location of the capital. Jefferson opposed
a national debt, preferring that each state
retire its own, in contrast to Secretary of
the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who desired
consolidation of various states' debts by
the federal government. Hamilton also had
bold plans to establish the national credit
and a national bank, but Jefferson strenuously
opposed this and attempted to undermine his
agenda, which nearly led Washington to dismiss
him from his cabinet. Jefferson later left
the cabinet voluntarily; Washington never
forgave him, and never spoke to him again.The
second major issue was the capital's permanent
location. Hamilton favored a capital close
to the major commercial centers of the Northeast,
while Washington, Jefferson, and other agrarians
wanted it located to the south. After lengthy
deadlock, the Compromise of 1790 was struck,
permanently locating the capital on the Potomac
River, and the federal government assumed
the war debts of all thirteen states.In the
Spring of 1791, Jefferson and Congressman
James Madison took a vacation to Vermont.
Jefferson had been suffering from migraines
and he was tired of Hamilton in-fighting.
In May 1792, Jefferson was alarmed at the
political rivalries taking shape; he wrote
to Washington, urging him to run for re-election
that year as a unifying influence. He urged
the president to rally the citizenry to a
party that would defend democracy against
the corrupting influence of banks and monied
interests, as espoused by the Federalists.
Historians recognize this letter as the earliest
delineation of Democratic-Republican Party
principles. Jefferson, Madison, and other
Democratic-Republican organizers favored states'
rights and local control and opposed federal
concentration of power, whereas Hamilton sought
more power for the federal government.Jefferson
supported France against Britain when the
two nations fought in 1793, though his arguments
in the Cabinet were undercut by French Revolutionary
envoy Edmond-Charles Genêt's open scorn for
President Washington. In his discussions with
British Minister George Hammond, Jefferson
tried unsuccessfully to persuade the British
to acknowledge their violation of the Treaty
of Paris, to vacate their posts in the Northwest,
and to compensate the U.S. for slaves whom
the British had freed at the end of the war.
Seeking a return to private life, Jefferson
resigned the cabinet position in December
1793, perhaps to bolster his political influence
from outside the administration.After the
Washington administration negotiated the Jay
Treaty with Great Britain (1794), Jefferson
saw a cause around which to rally his party
and organized a national opposition from Monticello.
The treaty, designed by Hamilton, aimed to
reduce tensions and increase trade. Jefferson
warned that it would increase British influence
and subvert republicanism, calling it "the
boldest act [Hamilton and Jay] ever ventured
on to undermine the government". The Treaty
passed, but it expired in 1805 during Jefferson's
administration and was not renewed. Jefferson
continued his pro-French stance; during the
violence of the Reign of Terror, he declined
to disavow the revolution: "To back away from
France would be to undermine the cause of
republicanism in America."
=== Election of 1796 and Vice Presidency ===
In the presidential campaign of 1796, Jefferson
lost the electoral college vote to Federalist
John Adams by 71–68 and was elected vice
president because of a mistake in voting for
Adams's running mate. As presiding officer
of the Senate, he assumed a more passive role
than his predecessor John Adams. He allowed
the Senate to freely conduct debates and confined
his participation to procedural issues, which
he called an "honorable and easy" role. Jefferson
had previously studied parliamentary law and
procedure for 40 years, making him unusually
well qualified to serve as presiding officer.
In 1800, he published his assembled notes
on Senate procedure as A Manual of Parliamentary
Practice.Jefferson held four confidential
talks with French consul Joseph Létombe in
the spring of 1797 where he attacked Adams,
predicting that his rival would serve only
one term. He also encouraged France to invade
England, and advised Létombe to stall any
American envoys sent to Paris by instructing
him to "listen to them and then drag out the
negotiations at length and mollify them by
the urbanity of the proceedings." This toughened
the tone that the French government adopted
toward the Adams administration. After Adams's
initial peace envoys were rebuffed, Jefferson
and his supporters lobbied for the release
of papers related to the incident, called
the XYZ Affair after the letters used to disguise
the identities of the French officials involved.
However, the tactic backfired when it was
revealed that French officials had demanded
bribes, rallying public support against France.
The U.S. began an undeclared naval war with
France known as the Quasi-War.During the Adams
presidency, the Federalists rebuilt the military,
levied new taxes, and enacted the Alien and
Sedition Acts. Jefferson believed that these
laws were intended to suppress Democratic-Republicans,
rather than prosecute enemy aliens, and considered
them unconstitutional. To rally opposition,
he and James Madison anonymously wrote the
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, declaring
that the federal government had no right to
exercise powers not specifically delegated
to it by the states. The resolutions followed
the "interposition" approach of Madison, in
which states may shield their citizens from
federal laws that they deem unconstitutional.
Jefferson advocated nullification, allowing
states to invalidate federal laws altogether.
Jefferson warned that, "unless arrested at
the threshold", the Alien and Sedition Acts
would "necessarily drive these states into
revolution and blood".Historian Ron Chernow
claims that "the theoretical damage of the
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions was deep
and lasting, and was a recipe for disunion",
contributing to the American Civil War as
well as later events. Washington was so appalled
by the resolutions that he told Patrick Henry
that, if "systematically and pertinaciously
pursued", the resolutions would "dissolve
the union or produce coercion."Jefferson and
Madison moved to Philadelphia and founded
the National Gazette in 1791, along with poet
and writer Phillip Freneau, in an effort to
counter Hamilton's Federalist policies, which
Hamilton was promoting through the influential
Federalist newspaper the Gazette of the United
States. The National Gazette made particular
criticism of the policies promoted by Alexander
Hamilton, often through anonymous essays signed
by the pen name Brutus at Jefferson's urging,
which were actually written by Madison.Jefferson
had always admired Washington's leadership
skills but felt that his Federalist party
was leading the country in the wrong direction.
Jefferson thought it wise not to attend his
funeral in 1799 because of acute differences
with Washington while serving as Secretary
of State, and remained at Monticello.
=== Election of 1800 ===
In the 1800 presidential election, Jefferson
contended once more against Federalist John
Adams. Adams's campaign was weakened by unpopular
taxes and vicious Federalist infighting over
his actions in the Quasi-War. Republicans
pointed to the Alien and Sedition Acts and
accused the Federalists of being secret monarchists,
while Federalists charged that Jefferson was
a godless libertine in thrall to the French.
Historian Joyce Appleby said the election
was "one of the most acrimonious in the annals
of American history".Republicans ultimately
won more electoral college votes, but Jefferson
and his vice presidential candidate Aaron
Burr unexpectedly received an equal total.
Due to the tie, the election was decided by
the Federalist-dominated House of Representatives.
Hamilton lobbied Federalist representatives
on Jefferson's behalf, believing him a lesser
political evil than Burr. On February 17,
1801, after thirty-six ballots, the House
elected Jefferson president and Burr vice
president.The win was marked by Republican
celebrations throughout the country. Some
of Jefferson's opponents argued that he owed
his victory over Adams to the South's inflated
number of electors, due to counting slaves
as partial population under the Three-Fifths
Compromise. Others alleged that Jefferson
secured James Asheton Bayard's tie-breaking
electoral vote by guaranteeing the retention
of various Federalist posts in the government.
Jefferson disputed the allegation, and the
historical record is inconclusive.The transition
proceeded smoothly, marking a watershed in
American history. As historian Gordon S. Wood
writes, "it was one of the first popular elections
in modern history that resulted in the peaceful
transfer of power from one 'party' to another."
== 
Presidency (1801–1809) ==
Jefferson was sworn in by Chief Justice John
Marshall at the new Capitol in Washington,
D.C. on March 4, 1801. In contrast to his
predecessors, Jefferson exhibited a dislike
of formal etiquette; he arrived alone on horseback
without escort, dressed plainly and, after
dismounting, retired his own horse to the
nearby stable. His inaugural address struck
a note of reconciliation, declaring, "We have
been called by different names brethren of
the same principle. We are all Republicans,
we are all Federalists." Ideologically, Jefferson
stressed "equal and exact justice to all men",
minority rights, and freedom of speech, religion,
and press. He said that a free and democratic
government was "the strongest government on
earth." He nominated moderate Republicans
to his cabinet: James Madison as Secretary
of State, Henry Dearborn as Secretary of War,
Levi Lincoln as Attorney General, and Robert
Smith as Secretary of the Navy.Upon assuming
office, he first confronted an $83 million
national debt. He began dismantling Hamilton's
Federalist fiscal system with help from Secretary
of Treasury Albert Gallatin. Jefferson's administration
eliminated the whiskey excise and other taxes
after closing "unnecessary offices" and cutting
"useless establishments and expenses". They
attempted to disassemble the national bank
and its effect of increasing national debt,
but were dissuaded by Gallatin. Jefferson
shrank the Navy, deeming it unnecessary in
peacetime. Instead, he incorporated a fleet
of inexpensive gunboats used only for defense
with the idea that they would not provoke
foreign hostilities. After two terms, he had
lowered the national debt from $83 million
to $57 million.Jefferson pardoned several
of those imprisoned under the Alien and Sedition
Acts. Congressional Republicans repealed the
Judiciary Act of 1801, which removed nearly
all of Adams's "midnight judges" from office.
A subsequent appointment battle led to the
Supreme Court's landmark decision in Marbury
v. Madison, asserting judicial review over
executive branch actions. Jefferson appointed
three Supreme Court justices: William Johnson
(1804), Henry Brockholst Livingston (1807),
and Thomas Todd (1807).Jefferson strongly
felt the need for a national military university,
producing an officer engineering corps for
a national defense based on the advancement
of the sciences, rather than having to rely
on foreign sources for top grade engineers
with questionable loyalty. He signed the Military
Peace Establishment Act on March 16, 1802,
thus founding the United States Military Academy
at West Point. The Act documented in 29 sections
a new set of laws and limits for the military.
Jefferson was also hoping to bring reform
to the Executive branch, replacing Federalists
and active opponents throughout the officer
corps to promote Republican values.
=== First Barbary War ===
American merchant ships had been protected
from Barbary Coast pirates by the Royal Navy
when the states were British colonies. After
independence, however, pirates often captured
U.S. merchant ships, pillaged cargoes, and
enslaved or held crew members for ransom.
Jefferson had opposed paying tribute to the
Barbary States since 1785.
In March 1786, he and John Adams went to London
to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy, ambassador
Sidi Haji Abdrahaman (or Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman
Adja).
In 1801, he authorized a U.S. Navy fleet under
Commodore Richard Dale to make a show of force
in the Mediterranean, the first American naval
squadron to cross the Atlantic. Following
the fleet's first engagement, he successfully
asked Congress for a declaration of war. The
subsequent "First Barbary War" was the first
foreign war fought by the U.S.Pasha of Tripoli
Yusuf Karamanli captured the USS Philadelphia,
so Jefferson authorized William Eaton, the
U.S. Consul to Tunis, to lead a force to restore
the pasha's older brother to the throne. The
American navy forced Tunis and Algiers into
breaking their alliance with Tripoli. Jefferson
ordered five separate naval bombardments of
Tripoli, leading the pasha to sign a treaty
that restored peace in the Mediterranean.
This victory proved only temporary, but according
to Wood, "many Americans celebrated it as
a vindication of their policy of spreading
free trade around the world and as a great
victory for liberty over tyranny."
=== 
Louisiana Purchase ===
Spain ceded ownership of the Louisiana territory
in 1800 to the more predominant France. Jefferson
was greatly concerned that Napoleon's broad
interests in the vast territory would threaten
the security of the continent and Mississippi
River shipping. He wrote that the cession
"works most sorely on the U.S. It completely
reverses all the political relations of the
U.S." In 1802, he instructed James Monroe
and Robert R. Livingston to negotiate with
Napoleon to purchase New Orleans and adjacent
coastal areas from France. In early 1803,
Jefferson offered Napoleon nearly $10 million
for 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometers)
of tropical territory.Napoleon realized that
French military control was impractical over
such a vast remote territory, and he was in
dire need of funds for his wars on the home
front. In early April 1803, he unexpectedly
made negotiators a counter-offer to sell 827,987
square miles (2,144,480 square kilometers)
of French territory for $15 million, doubling
the size of the United States. U.S. negotiators
seized this unique opportunity and accepted
the offer and signed the treaty on April 30,
1803. Word of the unexpected purchase didn't
reach Jefferson until July 3, 1803. He unknowingly
acquired the most fertile tract of land of
its size on Earth, making the new country
self-sufficient in food and other resources.
The sale also significantly curtailed British
and French imperial ambitions in North America,
removing obstacles to U.S. westward expansion.Most
thought that this was an exceptional opportunity,
despite Republican reservations about the
Constitutional authority of the federal government
to acquire land. Jefferson initially thought
that a Constitutional amendment was necessary
to purchase and govern the new territory;
but he later changed his mind, fearing that
this would give cause to oppose the purchase,
and he therefore urged a speedy debate and
ratification. On October 20, 1803, the Senate
ratified the purchase treaty by a vote of
24–7.After the purchase, Jefferson preserved
the region's Spanish legal code and instituted
a gradual approach for integrating settlers
into American democracy. He believed that
a period of federal rule would be necessary
while Louisianians adjusted to their new nation.
Historians have differed in their assessments
regarding the constitutional implications
of the sale, but they typically hail the Louisiana
acquisition as a major accomplishment. Frederick
Jackson Turner called the purchase the most
formative event in American history.
=== Lewis and Clark expedition ===
Jefferson anticipated further westward settlements
due to the Louisiana Purchase and arranged
for the exploration and mapping of the uncharted
territory. He sought to establish a U.S. claim
ahead of competing European interests and
to find the rumored Northwest Passage. Jefferson
and others were influenced by exploration
accounts of Le Page du Pratz in Louisiana
(1763) and Captain James Cook in the Pacific
(1784), and they persuaded Congress in 1804
to fund an expedition to explore and map the
newly acquired territory to the Pacific Ocean.Jefferson
appointed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
to be leaders of the Corps of Discovery (1803–1806).
In the months leading up to the expedition,
Jefferson tutored Lewis in the sciences of
mapping, botany, natural history, mineralogy,
and astronomy and navigation, giving him unlimited
access to his library at Monticello, which
included the largest collection of books in
the world on the subject of the geography
and natural history of the North American
continent, along with an impressive collection
of maps.The expedition lasted from May 1804
to September 1806 (see Timeline) and obtained
a wealth of scientific and geographic knowledge,
including knowledge of many Indian tribes.
Other expeditions
In addition to the Corps of Discovery, Jefferson
organized three other western expeditions:
the William Dunbar and George Hunter expedition
on the Ouachita River (1804–1805), the Thomas
Freeman and Peter Custis expedition (1806)
on the Red River, and the Zebulon Pike expedition
(1806–1807) into the Rocky Mountains and
the Southwest. All three produced valuable
information about the American frontier.
=== American Indian policies ===
Jefferson's experiences with the American
Indians began during his boyhood in Virginia
and extended through his political career
and into his retirement. He refuted the contemporary
notion that Indians were an inferior people
and maintained that they were equal in body
and mind to people of European descent.As
governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary
War, Jefferson recommended moving the Cherokee
and Shawnee tribes, who had allied with the
British, to west of the Mississippi River.
But when he took office as president, he quickly
took measures to avert another major conflict,
as American and Indian societies were in collision
and the British were inciting Indian tribes
from Canada. In Georgia, he stipulated that
the state would release its legal claims for
lands to its west in exchange for military
support in expelling the Cherokee from Georgia.
This facilitated his policy of western expansion,
to "advance compactly as we multiply".In keeping
with his Enlightenment thinking, President
Jefferson adopted an assimilation policy towards
American Indians known as his "civilization
program" which included securing peaceful
U.S. – Indian treaty alliances and encouraging
agriculture. Jefferson advocated that Indian
tribes should make federal purchases by credit
holding their lands as collateral for repayment.
Various tribes accepted Jefferson's policies,
including the Shawnees led by Black Hoof,
the Creek, and the Cherokees. However, some
Shawnees broke off from Black Hoof, led by
Tecumseh, and opposed Jefferson's assimilation
policies.Historian Bernard Sheehan argues
that Jefferson believed that assimilation
was best for American Indians; second best
was removal to the west. He felt that the
worst outcome of the cultural and resources
conflict between American citizens and American
Indians would be their attacking the whites.
Jefferson told Secretary of War General Henry
Dearborn (Indian affairs were then under the
War Department), "If we are constrained to
lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will
never lay it down until that tribe is exterminated
or driven beyond the Mississippi." Miller
agrees that Jefferson believed that Indians
should assimilate to American customs and
agriculture. Historians such as Peter S. Onuf
and Merrill D. Peterson argue that Jefferson's
actual Indian policies did little to promote
assimilation and were a pretext to seize lands.
=== Re-election in 1804 and second term ===
Jefferson's successful first term occasioned
his re-nomination for president by the Republican
party, with George Clinton replacing Burr
as his running mate. The Federalist party
ran Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina,
John Adams's vice presidential candidate in
the 1800 election. The Jefferson-Clinton ticket
won overwhelmingly in the electoral college
vote, by 162 to 14, promoting their achievement
of a strong economy, lower taxes, and the
Louisiana Purchase.In March 1806, a split
developed in the Republican party, led by
fellow Virginian and former Republican ally
John Randolph who viciously accused President
Jefferson on the floor of the House of moving
too far in the Federalist direction. In so
doing, Randolph permanently set himself apart
politically from Jefferson. Jefferson and
Madison had backed resolutions to limit or
ban British imports in retaliation for British
actions against American shipping. Also, in
1808, Jefferson was the first president to
propose a broad Federal plan to build roads
and canals across several states, asking for
$20 million, further alarming Randolph and
believers of limited government.Jefferson's
popularity further suffered in his second
term due to his response to wars in Europe.
Positive relations with Great Britain had
diminished, due partly to the antipathy between
Jefferson and British diplomat Anthony Merry.
After Napoleon's decisive victory at the Battle
of Austerlitz in 1805, Napoleon became more
aggressive in his negotiations over trading
rights, which American efforts failed to counter.
Jefferson then led the enactment of the Embargo
Act of 1807, directed at both France and Great
Britain. This triggered economic chaos in
the U.S. and was strongly criticized at the
time, resulting in Jefferson having to abandon
the policy a year later.During the revolutionary
era, the states abolished the international
slave trade, but South Carolina reopened it.
In his annual message of December 1806, Jefferson
denounced the "violations of human rights"
attending the international slave trade, calling
on the newly elected Congress to criminalize
it immediately. In 1807, Congress passed the
Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which
Jefferson signed. The act established severe
punishment against the international slave
trade, although it did not address the issue
domestically.In the wake of the Louisiana
Purchase, Jefferson sought to annex Florida
from Spain, as brokered by Napoleon. Congress
agreed to the President's request to secretly
appropriate purchase money in the "$2,000,000
Bill". The Congressional funding drew criticism
from Randolph, who believed that the money
would wind up in the coffers of Napoleon.
The bill was signed into law; however, negotiations
for the project failed. Jefferson lost clout
among fellow Republicans, and his use of unofficial
Congressional channels was sharply criticized.
In Haiti, Jefferson's neutrality had allowed
arms to enable the slave independence movement
during its Revolution, and blocked attempts
to assist Napoleon, who was defeated there
in 1803. But he refused official recognition
of the country during his second term, in
deference to southern complaints about the
racial violence against slave-holders; it
was eventually extended to Haiti in 1862.
Domestically, Jefferson's grandson James Madison
Randolph became the first child born in the
White House in 1806.
=== Burr conspiracy and trial ===
Following the 1801 electoral deadlock, Jefferson's
relationship rapidly eroded with his vice
president, former New York Senator Aaron Burr.
Jefferson suspected Burr of seeking the presidency
for himself, while Burr was angered by Jefferson's
refusal to appoint some of his supporters
to federal office. Burr was dropped from the
Republican ticket in 1804.
The same year, Burr was soundly defeated in
his bid to be elected New York governor. During
the campaign, Alexander Hamilton publicly
made callous remarks regarding Burr's moral
character. Subsequently, Burr challenged Hamilton
to a duel, mortally wounding and killing Hamilton
on July 11, 1804. Burr was indicted for Hamilton's
murder in New York and New Jersey, causing
him to flee to Georgia, although he remained
President of the Senate during Supreme Court
Justice Samuel Chase's impeachment trial.
Both indictments quietly died and Burr was
not prosecuted. Also during the election,
certain New England separatists approached
Burr, desiring a New England federation and
intimating that he would be their leader.
However, nothing came of the plot, since Burr
had lost the election and his reputation was
ruined after killing Hamilton. In August 1804,
Burr contacted British Minister Anthony Merry
offering to capture U.S. western territory
in return for money and British ships.After
leaving office in April 1805, Burr traveled
west and conspired with Louisiana Territory
governor James Wilkinson, beginning a large-scale
recruitment for a military expedition. Other
plotters included Ohio Senator John Smith
and an Irishman named Harmon Blennerhassett.
Burr discussed a number of plots—seizing
control of Mexico or Spanish Florida, or forming
a secessionist state in New Orleans or the
Western U.S. Historians remain unclear as
to his true goal.In the fall of 1806, Burr
launched a military flotilla carrying about
60 men down the Ohio River. Wilkinson renounced
the plot, apparently from self-interested
motives; he reported Burr's expedition to
Jefferson, who immediately ordered Burr's
arrest. On February 13, 1807, Burr was captured
in Louisiana's Bayou Pierre wilderness and
sent to Virginia to be tried for treason.Burr's
1807 conspiracy trial became a national issue.
Jefferson attempted to preemptively influence
the verdict by telling Congress that Burr's
guilt was "beyond question", but the case
came before his longtime political foe John
Marshall, who dismissed the treason charge.
Burr's legal team at one stage subpoenaed
Jefferson, but Jefferson refused to testify,
making the first argument for executive privilege.
Instead, Jefferson provided relevant legal
documents. After a three-month trial, the
jury found Burr not guilty, while Jefferson
denounced his acquittal. Jefferson subsequently
removed Wilkinson as territorial governor
but retained him in the U.S. military. Historian
James N. Banner criticized Jefferson for continuing
to trust Wilkinson, a "faithless plotter".
=== Chesapeake–Leopard affair and Embargo
Act ===
The British conducted raids on American shipping
and kidnapped seamen in 1806–07; thousands
of Americans were thus impressed into the
British naval service. In 1806, Jefferson
issued a call for a boycott of British goods;
on April 18, Congress passed the Non-Importation
Acts, but they were never enforced. Later
that year, Jefferson asked James Monroe and
William Pinkney to negotiate with Great Britain
to end the harassment of American shipping,
though Britain showed no signs of improving
relations. The Monroe–Pinkney Treaty was
finalized but lacked any provisions to end
impressment, and Jefferson refused to submit
it to the Senate for ratification.The British
ship HMS Leopard fired upon the USS Chesapeake
off the Virginia coast in June 1807, and Jefferson
prepared for war. He issued a proclamation
banning armed British ships from U.S. waters.
He presumed unilateral authority to call on
the states to prepare 100,000 militia and
ordered the purchase of arms, ammunition,
and supplies, writing, "The laws of necessity,
of self-preservation, of saving our country
when in danger, are of higher obligation [than
strict observance of written laws]". The USS
Revenge was dispatched to demand an explanation
from the British government; it also was fired
upon. Jefferson called for a special session
of Congress in October to enact an embargo
or alternatively to consider war.In December,
news arrived that Napoleon had extended the
Berlin Decree, globally banning British imports.
In Britain, King George III ordered redoubling
efforts at impressment, including American
sailors. But the war fever of the summer faded;
Congress had no appetite to prepare the U.S.
for war. Jefferson asked for and received
the Embargo Act, an alternative that allowed
the U.S. more time to build up defensive works,
militias, and naval forces. Later historians
have seen irony in Jefferson's assertion of
such federal power. Meacham claims that the
Embargo Act was a projection of power which
surpassed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and
R. B. Bernstein writes that Jefferson "was
pursuing policies resembling those he had
cited in 1776 as grounds for independence
and revolution".
Secretary of State James Madison supported
the embargo with equal vigor to Jefferson,
while Treasury Secretary Gallatin opposed
it, due to its indefinite time frame and the
risk that it posed to the policy of American
neutrality. The U.S. economy suffered, criticism
grew, and opponents began evading the embargo.
Instead of retreating, Jefferson sent federal
agents to secretly track down smugglers and
violators. Three acts were passed in Congress
during 1807 and 1808, called the Supplementary,
the Additional, and the Enforcement acts.
The government could not prevent American
vessels from trading with the European belligerents
once they had left American ports, although
the embargo triggered a devastating decline
in exports.Most historians consider Jefferson's
embargo to have been ineffective and harmful
to American interests. Appleby describes the
strategy as Jefferson's "least effective policy",
and Joseph Ellis calls it "an unadulterated
calamity". Others, however, portray it as
an innovative, nonviolent measure which aided
France in its war with Britain while preserving
American neutrality. Jefferson believed that
the failure of the embargo was due to selfish
traders and merchants showing a lack of "republican
virtue." He maintained that, had the embargo
been widely observed, it would have avoided
war in 1812.In December 1807, Jefferson announced
his intention not to seek a third term. He
turned his attention increasingly to Monticello
during the last year of his presidency, giving
Madison and Gallatin almost total control
of affairs. Shortly before leaving office
in March 1809, Jefferson signed the repeal
of the Embargo. In its place, the Non-Intercourse
Act was passed, but it proved no more effective.
The day before Madison was inaugurated as
his successor, Jefferson said that he felt
like "a prisoner, released from his chains".
== Post-presidency (1809–1826) ==
Following his retirement from the presidency,
Jefferson continued his pursuit of educational
interests; he sold his vast collection of
books to the Library of Congress, and founded
and built the University of Virginia. Jefferson
continued to correspond with many of the country's
leaders, and the Monroe Doctrine bears a strong
resemblance to solicited advice that Jefferson
gave to Monroe in 1823. As he settled into
private life at Monticello, Jefferson developed
a daily routine of rising early. He would
spend several hours writing letters, with
which he was often deluged. In the midday,
he would often inspect the plantation on horseback.
In the evenings, his family enjoyed leisure
time in the gardens; late at night, Jefferson
would retire to bed with a book. However,
his routine was often interrupted by uninvited
visitors and tourists eager to see the icon
in his final days, turning Monticello into
"a virtual hotel".
=== University of Virginia ===
Jefferson envisioned a university free of
church influences where students could specialize
in many new areas not offered at other colleges.
He believed that education engendered a stable
society, which should provide publicly funded
schools accessible to students from all social
strata, based solely on ability. He initially
proposed his University in a letter to Joseph
Priestley in 1800 and, in 1819, the 76-year-old
Jefferson founded the University of Virginia.
He organized the state legislative campaign
for its charter and, with the assistance of
Edmund Bacon, purchased the location. He was
the principal designer of the buildings, planned
the university's curriculum, and served as
the first rector upon its opening in 1825.Jefferson
was a strong disciple of Greek and Roman architectural
styles, which he believed to be most representative
of American democracy. Each academic unit,
called a pavilion, was designed with a two-story
temple front, while the library "Rotunda"
was modeled on the Roman Pantheon. Jefferson
referred to the university's grounds as the
"Academical Village," and he reflected his
educational ideas in its layout. The ten pavilions
included classrooms and faculty residences;
they formed a quadrangle and were connected
by colonnades, behind which stood the students'
rows of rooms. Gardens and vegetable plots
were placed behind the pavilions and were
surrounded by serpentine walls, affirming
the importance of the agrarian lifestyle.
The university had a library rather than a
church at its center, emphasizing its secular
nature—a controversial aspect at the time.When
Jefferson died in 1826, James Madison replaced
him as rector. Jefferson bequeathed most of
his library to the university.
=== Reconciliation with Adams ===
Jefferson and John Adams had been good friends
in the first decades of their political careers,
serving together in the Continental Congress
in the 1770s and in Europe in the 1780s. The
Federalist/Republican split of the 1790s divided
them, however, and Adams felt betrayed by
Jefferson's sponsorship of partisan attacks,
such as those of James Callender. Jefferson,
on the other hand, was angered at Adams for
his appointment of "midnight judges". The
two men did not communicate directly for more
than a decade after Jefferson succeeded Adams
as president. A brief correspondence took
place between Abigail Adams and Jefferson
after Jefferson's daughter "Polly" died in
1804, in an attempt at reconciliation unknown
to Adams. However, an exchange of letters
resumed open hostilities between Adams and
Jefferson.As early as 1809, Benjamin Rush,
signer of the Declaration of Independence,
desired that Jefferson and Adams reconcile
and began to prod the two through correspondence
to re-establish contact. In 1812, Adams wrote
a short New Year's greeting to Jefferson,
prompted earlier by Rush, to which Jefferson
warmly responded. Thus began what historian
David McCullough calls "one of the most extraordinary
correspondences in American history". Over
the next fourteen years, the former presidents
exchanged 158 letters discussing their political
differences, justifying their respective roles
in events, and debating the revolution's import
to the world. When Adams died, his last words
included an acknowledgement of his longtime
friend and rival: "Thomas Jefferson survives",
unaware that Jefferson had died several hours
before.
=== Autobiography ===
In 1821, at the age of 77 Jefferson began
writing his autobiography, in order to "state
some recollections of dates and facts concerning
myself". He focused on the struggles and achievements
he experienced until July 29, 1790, where
the narrative stopped short.* He excluded
his youth, emphasizing the revolutionary era.
He related that his ancestors came from Wales
to America in the early 17th century and settled
in the western frontier of the Virginia colony,
which influenced his zeal for individual and
state rights. Jefferson described his father
as uneducated, but with a "strong mind and
sound judgement". His enrollment in the College
of William and Mary and election to the Continental
Congress in Philadelphia in 1775 were included.He
also expressed opposition to the idea of a
privileged aristocracy made up of large land
owning families partial to the King, and instead
promoted "the aristocracy of virtue and talent,
which nature has wisely provided for the direction
of the interests of society, & scattered with
equal hand through all it's conditions, was
deemed essential to a well ordered republic".Jefferson
gave his insight about people, politics, and
events. The work is primarily concerned with
the Declaration and reforming the government
of Virginia. He used notes, letters, and documents
to tell many of the stories within the autobiography.
He suggested that this history was so rich
that his personal affairs were better overlooked,
but he incorporated a self-analysis using
the Declaration and other patriotism.
=== Lafayette's visit ===
In the summer of 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette
accepted an invitation from President James
Monroe to visit the country. Jefferson and
Lafayette had not seen each other since 1789.
After visits to New York, New England, and
Washington, Lafayette arrived at Monticello
on November 4.Jefferson's grandson Randolph
was present and recorded the reunion: "As
they approached each other, their uncertain
gait quickened itself into a shuffling run,
and exclaiming, 'Ah Jefferson!' 'Ah Lafayette!',
they burst into tears as they fell into each
other's arms." Jefferson and Lafayette then
retired to the house to reminisce. The next
morning Jefferson, Lafayette, and James Madison
attended a tour and banquet at the University
of Virginia. Jefferson had someone else read
a speech he had prepared for Lafayette, as
his voice was weak and could not carry. This
was his last public presentation. After an
11-day visit, Lafayette bid Jefferson goodbye
and departed Monticello.
=== Final days, death, and burial ===
Jefferson's approximately $100,000 of debt
weighed heavily on his mind in his final months,
as it became increasingly clear that he would
have little to leave to his heirs. In February
1826, he successfully applied to the General
Assembly to hold a public lottery as a fund
raiser. His health began to deteriorate in
July 1825, due to a combination of rheumatism
from arm and wrist injuries, as well as intestinal
and urinary disorders and, by June 1826, he
was confined to bed. On July 3, Jefferson
was overcome by fever and declined an invitation
to Washington to attend an anniversary celebration
of the Declaration.
During the last hours of his life, he was
accompanied by family members and friends.
On July 4 at 12:50 p.m., Jefferson died at
age 83 on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration
of Independence, and just a few hours before
the death of John Adams. When Adams died,
his last words included an acknowledgement
of his longtime friend and rival: "Thomas
Jefferson survives", though Adams was unaware
that Jefferson had died several hours before.
The sitting president was Adams's son John
Quincy, and he called the coincidence of their
deaths on the nation's anniversary "visible
and palpable remarks of Divine Favor".Shortly
after Jefferson had died, attendants found
a gold locket on a chain around his neck,
where it had rested for more than 40 years,
containing a small faded blue ribbon which
tied a lock of his wife Martha's brown hair.Jefferson's
remains were buried at Monticello, under a
self-written epitaph:
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.
Jefferson died deeply in debt, unable to pass
on his estate freely to his heirs. He gave
instructions in his will for disposal of his
assets, including the freeing of Sally Hemings's
children; but his estate, possessions, and
slaves were sold at public auctions starting
in 1827. In 1831, Monticello was sold by Martha
Jefferson Randolph and the other heirs.
== Political, social and religious views ==
Jefferson subscribed to the political ideals
expounded by John Locke, Francis Bacon, and
Isaac Newton, whom he considered the three
greatest men who ever lived. He was also influenced
by the writings of Gibbon, Hume, Robertson,
Bolingbroke, Montesquieu, and Voltaire. Jefferson
thought that the independent yeoman and agrarian
life were ideals of republican virtues. He
distrusted cities and financiers, favored
decentralized government power, and believed
that the tyranny that had plagued the common
man in Europe was due to corrupt political
establishments and monarchies. He supported
efforts to disestablish the Church of England
wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom,
and he pressed for a wall of separation between
church and state. The Republicans under Jefferson
were strongly influenced by the 18th-century
British Whig Party, who believed in limited
government. His Democratic-Republican Party
became dominant in early American politics,
and his views became known as Jeffersonian
democracy.
=== Society and government ===
According to Jefferson's philosophy, citizens
have "certain inalienable rights" and "rightful
liberty is unobstructed action according to
our will, within limits drawn around us by
the equal rights of others". A staunch advocate
of the jury system to protect people's liberties,
he proclaimed in 1801, "I consider [trial
by jury] as the only anchor yet imagined by
man, by which a government can be held to
the principles of its constitution."
Jeffersonian government not only prohibited
individuals in society from infringing on
the liberty of others, but also restrained
itself from diminishing individual liberty
as a protection against tyranny from the majority.
Initially, Jefferson favored restricted voting
to those who could actually have free exercise
of their reason by escaping any corrupting
dependence on others. He advocated enfranchising
a majority of Virginians, seeking to expand
suffrage to include "yeoman farmers" who owned
their own land while excluding tenant farmers,
city day laborers, vagrants, most Amerindians,
and women.He was convinced that individual
liberties were the fruit of political equality,
which were threatened by arbitrary government.
Excesses of democracy in his view were caused
by institutional corruptions rather than human
nature. He was less suspicious of a working
democracy than many contemporaries. As president,
Jefferson feared that the Federalist system
enacted by Washington and Adams had encouraged
corrupting patronage and dependence. He tried
to restore a balance between the state and
federal governments more nearly reflecting
the Articles of Confederation, seeking to
reinforce state prerogatives where his party
was in a majority.Jefferson was steeped in
the British Whig tradition of the oppressed
majority set against a repeatedly unresponsive
court party in the Parliament. He justified
small outbreaks of rebellion as necessary
to get monarchial regimes to amend oppressive
measures compromising popular liberties. In
a republican regime ruled by the majority,
he acknowledged "it will often be exercised
when wrong". But "the remedy is to set them
right as to facts, pardon and pacify them".
As Jefferson saw his party triumph in two
terms of his presidency and launch into a
third term under James Madison, his view of
the U.S. as a continental republic and an
"empire of liberty" grew more upbeat. On departing
the presidency in 1809, he described America
as "trusted with the destines of this solitary
republic of the world, the only monument of
human rights, and the sole depository of the
sacred fire of freedom and self-government".
=== 
Democracy ===
Jefferson considered democracy to be the expression
of society, and promoted national self-determination,
cultural uniformity, and education of all
males of the commonwealth. He supported public
education and a free press as essential components
of a democratic nation.After resigning as
Secretary of State in 1795, Jefferson focused
on the electoral bases of the Republicans
and Federalists. The "Republican" classification
for which he advocated included "the entire
body of landholders" everywhere and "the body
of laborers" without land. Republicans united
behind Jefferson as vice president, with the
election of 1796 expanding democracy nationwide
at grassroots levels. Jefferson promoted Republican
candidates for local offices.Beginning with
Jefferson's electioneering for the "revolution
of 1800", his political efforts were based
on egalitarian appeals. In his later years,
he referred to the 1800 election "as real
a revolution in the principles of our government
as that of '76 was in its form", one "not
effected indeed by the sword ... but by the
... suffrage of the people." Voter participation
grew during Jefferson's presidency, increasing
to "unimaginable levels" compared to the Federalist
Era, with turnout of about 67,000 in 1800
rising to about 143,000 in 1804.At the onset
of the Revolution, Jefferson accepted William
Blackstone's argument that property ownership
would sufficiently empower voters' independent
judgement, but he sought to further expand
suffrage by land distribution to the poor.
In the heat of the Revolutionary Era and afterward,
several states expanded voter eligibility
from landed gentry to all propertied male,
tax-paying citizens with Jefferson's support.
In retirement, he gradually became critical
of his home state for violating "the principle
of equal political rights"—the social right
of universal male suffrage. He sought a "general
suffrage" of all taxpayers and militia-men,
and equal representation by population in
the General Assembly to correct preferential
treatment of the slave-holding regions.
=== Religion ===
Baptized in his youth, Jefferson became a
governing member of his local Episcopal Church
in Charlottesville, which he later attended
with his daughters. Influenced by Deist authors
during his college years Jefferson abandoned
"orthodox" Christianity after his review of
New Testament teachings. In 1803 he asserted,
"I am Christian, in the only sense in which
[Jesus] wished any one to be." Jefferson later
defined being a Christian as one who followed
the simple teachings of Jesus. Jefferson compiled
Jesus' biblical teachings, omitting miraculous
or supernatural references. He titled the
work The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,
known today as the Jefferson Bible. Peterson
states Jefferson was a theist "whose God was
the Creator of the universe ... all the evidences
of nature testified to His perfection; and
man could rely on the harmony and beneficence
of His work."Jefferson was firmly anticlerical,
writing in "every age, the priest has been
hostile to liberty ... they have perverted
the purest religion ever preached to man into
mystery and jargon." The full letter to Horatio
Spatford can be read at the National Archives.
Jefferson once supported banning clergy from
public office but later relented. In 1777,
he drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious
Freedom. Ratified in 1786, it made compelling
attendance or contributions to any state-sanctioned
religious establishment illegal and declared
that men "shall be free to profess ... their
opinions in matters of religion." The Statute
is one of only three accomplishments he chose
to have inscribed in the epitaph on his gravestone.
Early in 1802, Jefferson wrote to the Danbury
Connecticut Baptist Association, "that religion
is a matter which lies solely between Man
and his God." He interpreted the First Amendment
as having built "a wall of separation between
Church and State." The phrase 'Separation
of Church and State' has been cited several
times by the Supreme Court in its interpretation
of the Establishment Clause.
Jefferson donated to the American Bible Society,
saying the Four Evangelists delivered a "pure
and sublime system of morality" to humanity.
He thought Americans would rationally create
"Apiarian" religion, extracting the best traditions
of every denomination. And he contributed
generously to several local denominations
nearby Monticello. Acknowledging organized
religion would always be factored into political
life for good or ill, he encouraged reason
over supernatural revelation to make inquiries
into religion. He believed in a creator god,
an afterlife, and the sum of religion as loving
God and neighbors. But he also controversially
renounced the conventional Christian Trinity,
denying Jesus' divinity as the Son of God.Jefferson's
unorthodox religious beliefs became an important
issue in the 1800 presidential election. Federalists
attacked him as an atheist. As president,
Jefferson countered the accusations by praising
religion in his inaugural address and attending
services at the Capitol.
=== Banks ===
Jefferson distrusted government banks and
opposed public borrowing, which he thought
created long-term debt, bred monopolies, and
invited dangerous speculation as opposed to
productive labor. In one letter to Madison,
he argued each generation should curtail all
debt within 19 years, and not impose a long-term
debt on subsequent generations.In 1791, President
Washington asked Jefferson, then Secretary
of State, and Hamilton, the Secretary of the
Treasury, if the Congress had the authority
to create a national bank. While Hamilton
believed Congress had the authority, Jefferson
and Madison thought a national bank would
ignore the needs of individuals and farmers,
and would violate the Tenth Amendment by assuming
powers not granted to the federal government
by the states.Jefferson used agrarian resistance
to banks and speculators as the first defining
principle of an opposition party, recruiting
candidates for Congress on the issue as early
as 1792. As president, Jefferson was persuaded
by Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin to
leave the bank intact, but sought to restrain
its influence.
=== Slavery ===
Jefferson lived in a planter economy largely
dependent upon slavery, and as a wealthy landholder,
used slave labor for his household, plantation,
and workshops. He first recorded his slaveholding
in 1774, when he counted 41. Over his lifetime
he owned about 600 slaves; he inherited about
175 while most of the remainder were born
on his plantations. Jefferson purchased slaves
in order to unite their families, and he sold
about 110 for economic reasons, primarily
slaves from his outlying farms. Many historians
have described Jefferson as a benevolent slaveowner
who didn't overwork his slaves by the conventions
of his time, and provided them log cabins
with fireplaces, food, clothing and some household
provisions, though slaves often had to make
many of their own provisions. Additionally,
Jefferson gave his slaves financial and other
incentives while also allowing them to grow
gardens and raise their own chickens. The
whip was employed only in rare and extreme
cases of fighting and stealing.Jefferson once
said, "My first wish is that the labourers
may be well treated". Jefferson did not work
his slaves on Sundays and Christmas and he
allowed them more personal time during the
winter months. Some scholars doubt Jefferson's
benevolence, however, noting cases of excessive
slave whippings in his absence. His nail factory
was only staffed by child slaves, but many
of those boys became tradesmen. Burwell Colbert,
who started his working life as a child in
Monticello's Nailery, was later promoted to
the supervisory position of butler.Jefferson
felt slavery was harmful to both slave and
master, but had reservations about releasing
unprepared slaves into freedom and advocated
gradual emancipation. In 1779, he proposed
gradual voluntary training and resettlement
to the Virginia legislature, and three years
later drafted legislation allowing owners
to free their own slaves. In his draft of
the Declaration of Independence, he included
a section, stricken by other Southern delegates,
criticizing King George III's role in promoting
slavery in the colonies. In 1784, Jefferson
proposed the abolition of slavery in all western
U.S. territories, limiting slave importation
to 15 years. Congress, however, failed to
pass his proposal by one vote. In 1787, Congress
passed the Northwest Ordinance, a partial
victory for Jefferson that terminated slavery
in the Northwest Territory. Jefferson freed
his slave Robert Hemings in 1794 and he freed
his cook slave James Hemings in 1796. During
his presidency Jefferson allowed the diffusion
of slavery into the Louisiana Territory hoping
to prevent slave uprisings in Virginia and
to prevent South Carolina secession. In 1804,
in a compromise on the slavery issue, Jefferson
and Congress banned domestic slave trafficking
for one year into the Louisiana Territory.
In 1806 he officially called for anti-slavery
legislation terminating the import or export
of slaves. Congress passed the law in 1807,
taking effect in 1818. In 1819, he strongly
opposed a Missouri statehood application amendment
that banned domestic slave importation and
freed slaves at the age of 25 on grounds it
would destroy the union. Jefferson freed his
runaway slave Harriet Hemings in 1822. Upon
his death in 1826, Jefferson freed five male
Hemings slaves in his will.Jefferson shared
the common belief of his day that blacks were
mentally and physically inferior, but argued
they nonetheless had innate human rights.
In Notes on the State of Virginia, he created
controversy by calling slavery a moral evil
for which the nation would ultimately have
to account to God. He therefore supported
colonization plans that would transport freed
slaves to another country, such as Liberia
or Sierra Leone, though he recognized the
impracticability of such proposals.During
his presidency Jefferson was for the most
part publicly silent on the issue of slavery
and emancipation, as the Congressional debate
over slavery and its extension caused a dangerous
north-south rift among the states, with talk
of a northern confederacy in New England.
The violent attacks on white slave owners
during the Haitian Revolution due to injustices
under slavery supported Jefferson's fears
of a race war, increasing his reservations
about promoting emancipation at that time.
After numerous attempts and failures to bring
about emancipation, Jefferson wrote privately
in an 1805 letter to William A. Burwell, "I
have long since given up the expectation of
any early provision for the extinguishment
of slavery among us." That same year he also
related this idea to George Logan, writing,
"I have most carefully avoided every public
act or manifestation on that subject."
==== 
Historical assessment ====
Scholars remain divided on whether Jefferson
truly condemned slavery and how he changed.
Francis D. Cogliano traces the development
of competing emancipationist then revisionist
and finally contextualist interpretations
from the 1960s to the present. The emancipationist
view, held by the various scholars at the
Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Douglas L. Wilson,
and others, maintains Jefferson was an opponent
of slavery all his life, noting that he did
what he could within the limited range of
options available to him to undermine it,
his many attempts at abolition legislation,
the manner in which he provided for slaves,
and his advocacy of their more humane treatment.
The revisionist view, advanced by Paul Finkelman
and others, criticizes Jefferson for racism,
for holding slaves, and for acting contrary
to his words. Jefferson never freed most of
his slaves, and he remained silent on the
issue while he was president. Contextualists
such as Joseph J. Ellis emphasize a change
in Jefferson's thinking from emancipationist
before 1783, noting a shift toward public
passivity and procrastination on policy issues
related to slavery. Jefferson seemed to yield
to public opinion by 1794 as he laid the groundwork
for his first presidential campaign against
Adams in 1796.
==== Jefferson–Hemings controversy ====
Claims that Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings's
children have been debated since 1802. That
year James T. Callender, after being denied
a position as postmaster, alleged Jefferson
had taken Hemings as a concubine and fathered
several children with her. In 1998, a panel
of researchers conducted a Y-DNA study of
living descendants of Jefferson's uncle, Field,
and of a descendant of Hemings's son, Eston
Hemings. The results, published in the journal
Nature, showed a match with the male Jefferson
line. According to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation,
since the results of the DNA tests were made
public, most historians believe Jefferson
had a relationship with Hemings and, as of
2018, "the issue is a settled historical matter".
In 2000, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF)
assembled a team of historians whose report
concluded that "the DNA study ... indicates
a high probability that Thomas Jefferson fathered
Eston Hemings". In July 2017 the Thomas Jefferson
Foundation announced that archeological excavations
at Monticello had revealed what they believe
to have been Sally Hemings's quarters, adjacent
to Jefferson's bedroom. It is part of their
Mountaintop Project of restoration.After Thomas
Jefferson's death, although not formally manumitted,
Sally Hemings was allowed by Jefferson's daughter
Martha to live in Charlottesville as a free
woman with her two sons until her death in
1835.Some scholars maintain the evidence is
insufficient to prove Jefferson's paternity
conclusively. Based on DNA and other evidence,
they note the possibility that additional
Jefferson males, including his brother Randolph
Jefferson and any one of Randolph's four sons,
or his cousin, could have fathered Eston Hemings
or Sally Hemings's other children.
== Interests and activities ==
Jefferson was a farmer, obsessed with new
crops, soil conditions, garden designs, and
scientific agricultural techniques. His main
cash crop was tobacco, but its price was usually
low and it was rarely profitable. He tried
to achieve self-sufficiency with wheat, vegetables,
flax, corn, hogs, sheep, poultry, and cattle
to supply his family, slaves, and employees,
but he lived perpetually beyond his means
and was always in debt.In the field of architecture,
Jefferson helped popularize the Neo-Palladian
style in the United States utilizing designs
for the Virginia State Capitol, the University
of Virginia, Monticello, and others. Jefferson
mastered architecture through self-study,
using various books and classical architectural
designs of the day. His primary authority
was Andrea Palladio's The Four Books of Architecture,
which outlines the principles of classical
design.He was interested in birds and wine,
and was a noted gourmet; he was also a prolific
writer and linguist, and spoke several languages.
As a naturalist, he was fascinated by the
Natural Bridge geological formation, and in
1774 successfully acquired the Bridge by grant
from George III.
=== American Philosophical Society ===
Jefferson was a member of the American Philosophical
Society for 35 years, beginning in 1780. Through
the society he advanced the sciences and Enlightenment
ideals, emphasizing that knowledge of science
reinforced and extended freedom. His Notes
on the State of Virginia was written in part
as a contribution to the society. He became
the society's third president on March 3,
1797, a few months after he was elected Vice
President of the United States. In accepting,
Jefferson stated: "I feel no qualification
for this distinguished post but a sincere
zeal for all the objects of our institution
and an ardent desire to see knowledge so disseminated
through the mass of mankind that it may at
length reach even the extremes of society,
beggars and kings."Jefferson served as APS
president for the next eighteen years, including
through both terms of his presidency. He introduced
Meriwether Lewis to the society, where various
scientists tutored him in preparation for
the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He resigned
on January 20, 1815, but remained active through
correspondence.
=== Linguistics ===
Jefferson had a lifelong interest in linguistics,
and could speak, read, and write in a number
of languages, including French, Greek, Italian,
and German. In his early years he excelled
in classical language while at boarding school
where he received a classical education in
Greek and Latin. Jefferson later came to regard
the Greek language as the "perfect language"
as expressed in its laws and philosophy. While
attending the College of William & Mary, he
taught himself Italian. Here Jefferson first
became familiar with the Anglo-Saxon language,
especially as it was associated with English
Common law and system of government and studied
the language in a linguistic and philosophical
capacity. He owned 17 volumes of Anglo-Saxon
texts and grammar and later wrote an essay
on the Anglo-Saxon language.Jefferson claimed
to have taught himself Spanish during his
nineteen-day journey to France, using only
a grammar guide and a copy of Don Quixote.
Linguistics played a significant role in how
Jefferson modeled and expressed political
and philosophical ideas. He believed that
the study of ancient languages was essential
in understanding the roots of modern language.
He collected and understood a number of American
Indian vocabularies and instructed Lewis and
Clark to record and collect various Indian
languages during their Expedition. When Jefferson
removed from Washington after his presidency,
he packed 50 Native American vocabulary lists
in a chest and transported them on a river
boat back to Monticello along with the rest
of his possessions. Somewhere along the journey,
a thief stole the heavy chest, thinking it
was full of valuables, but its contents were
dumped into the James River when the thief
discovered it was only filled with papers.
Subsequently, 30 years of collecting were
lost, with only a few fragments rescued from
the muddy banks of the river.Jefferson was
not an outstanding orator and preferred to
communicate through writing or remain silent
if possible. Instead of delivering his State
of the Union addresses himself, Jefferson
wrote the annual messages and sent a representative
to read them aloud in Congress. This started
a tradition which continued until 1913, when
President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921) chose
to deliver his own State of the Union address.
=== Inventions ===
Jefferson invented many small practical devices
and improved contemporary inventions, including
a revolving book-stand and a "Great Clock"
powered by the gravitational pull on cannonballs.
He improved the pedometer, the polygraph (a
device for duplicating writing), and the moldboard
plow, an idea he never patented and gave to
posterity. Jefferson can also be credited
as the creator of the swivel chair, the first
of which he created and used to write much
of the Declaration of Independence.As Minister
to France, Jefferson was impressed by the
military standardization program known as
the Système Gribeauval, and initiated a program
as president to develop interchangeable parts
for firearms. For his inventiveness and ingenuity,
he received several honorary Doctor of Law
degrees.
== Historical reputation ==
Jefferson is an icon of individual liberty,
democracy, and republicanism, hailed as the
author of the Declaration of Independence,
an architect of the American Revolution, and
a renaissance man who promoted science and
scholarship. The participatory democracy and
expanded suffrage he championed defined his
era and became a standard for later generations.
Meacham opined, he was the most influential
figure of the democratic republic in its first
half century, succeeded by presidential adherents
James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson,
and Martin Van Buren. Jefferson is recognized
for having written more than 18,000 letters
of political and philosophical substance during
his life, which Francis D. Cogliano describes
as "a documentary legacy ... unprecedented
in American history in its size and breadth."Jefferson's
reputation declined during the Civil War due
to his support of states' rights. In the late
19th century, his legacy was widely criticized;
conservatives felt his democratic philosophy
had led to that era's populist movement, while
Progressives sought a more activist federal
government than Jefferson's philosophy allowed.
Both groups saw Hamilton as vindicated by
history, rather than Jefferson, and President
Woodrow Wilson even described Jefferson as
"though a great man, not a great American".
In the 1930s, Jefferson was held in higher
esteem; President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–45)
and New Deal Democrats celebrated his struggles
for "the common man" and reclaimed him as
their party's founder. Jefferson became a
symbol of American democracy in the incipient
Cold War, and the 1940s and '50s saw the zenith
of his popular reputation. Following the civil
rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, Jefferson's
slaveholding came under new scrutiny, particularly
after DNA testing in the late 1990s supported
allegations he had a relationship with Sally
Hemings.Noting the huge output of scholarly
books on Jefferson in recent years, historian
Gordon Wood summarizes the raging debates
about Jefferson's stature: "Although many
historians and others are embarrassed about
his contradictions and have sought to knock
him off the democratic pedestal ... his position,
though shaky, still seems secure."The Siena
Research Institute poll of presidential scholars,
begun in 1982, has consistently ranked Jefferson
as one of the five best U.S. presidents, and
a 2015 Brookings Institution poll of American
Political Science Association members ranked
him as the fifth greatest president.
=== Memorials and honors ===
Jefferson has been memorialized with buildings,
sculptures, postage, and currency. In the
1920s, Jefferson, together with George Washington,
Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, was
chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum and approved
by President Calvin Coolidge to be depicted
in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial.The
Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington,
D.C. in 1943, on the 200th anniversary of
Jefferson's birth. The interior of the memorial
includes a 19-foot (6 m) statue of Jefferson
and engravings of passages from his writings.
Most prominent are the words 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."
== 
Writings ==
A Summary View of the Rights of British America
(1774)
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of
Taking Up Arms (1775)
Declaration of Independence (1776)
Memorandums taken on a journey from Paris
into the southern parts of France and Northern
Italy, in the year 1787
Notes on the State of Virginia (1781)
Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage,
Weights, and Measures of the United States
A report submitted to Congress (1790)
"An Essay Towards Facilitating Instruction
in the Anglo-Saxon and Modern Dialects of
the English Language" (1796)
Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use
of the Senate of the United States (1801)
Autobiography (1821)
Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of
Jesus of Nazareth
== Ancestry ==
== See also ==
List of Presidents of the United States by
previous experience
List of Presidents of the United States who
owned slaves
List of abolitionist forerunners
Jefferson Monroe Levy
Clotel or The President's Daughter an 1853
Novel by William Wells Brown
Seconds pendulum
== 
Notes ==
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
Scholarly studies
== External links ==
White House biography
United States Congress. "Thomas Jefferson
(id: J000069)". Biographical Directory of
the United States Congress.
Thomas Jefferson Papers: An Electronic Archive
at the Massachusetts Historical Society
Thomas Jefferson collection at the University
of Virginia Library
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, subset of
Founders Online from the National Archives
Jefferson, Thomas, Summary View of the Rights
of British America (1774), online through
World Digital Library
The Thomas Jefferson Hour, a radio show about
all things Thomas Jefferson [1]
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson at the Avalon
Project
Works by Thomas Jefferson at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Thomas Jefferson at Internet
Archive
Works by Thomas Jefferson at LibriVox (public
domain audiobooks)
Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts
and Letters
http://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/44
