Born: April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia
Died: July 4, 1826, at Monticello (near Charlottesville, Virginia)
Nicknames: "Man of the People", "Sage of Monticello"
Married: Martha Wayles Skelton (1748-1782), on January 1, 1772
Religion: No formal affiliation
Education: Graduated from College of William and Mary (1762)
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Career: Lawyer; Farmer; Member of Virginia House of Burgesses, 1769-74; Member of Second Continental Congress, 1775-76; Governor of Virginia, 1779-81; Member of Third Continental Congress, 1783-85; Minister to France, 1785-89; secretary of state, 1790-93 (under Washington); Vice President, 1797-1801 (under J. Adams); President of the United States (1801-9)
Domestic Policy Highlights: Limiting government size and power, Marbury v. Madison, impeachment of Supreme Court justices
Foreign Policy Highlights: Barbary pirates, Louisiana Purchase, Embargo Acts
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, spent his childhood roaming the woods and studying his books on a remote plantation in the Virginia wilderness.
Thanks to the prosperity of his father, Jefferson had an excellent education. After years in boarding school where he excelled in classical languages, Jefferson enrolled in William and Mary College in his home state of Virginia, taking classes in science, mathematics, rhetoric, philosophy, and literature.
He also studied law and by the time he was admitted to the Virginia bar in April 1767, many considered him to have one of the nation's best legal minds.
Shaping America's Political Philosophy - Jefferson was shy in person, but his pen proved to be a mighty weapon. His pamphlet entitled "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," written in 1774, articulated the colonial position for independence and foreshadowed many of the ideas in the Declaration for which he is most famous. By 1774, Jefferson was actively involved in organizing opposition to British rule, and in 1776, he was appointed to the Second Continental Congress. As a powerful prose stylist and an influential Virginia representative, Jefferson was chosen to write the Declaration of Independence. This document is a brilliant assertion of fundamental human rights and America's most succinct statement of its philosophy of government.
Before becoming the nation's third president, Jefferson served as delegate to the Virginia House of Delegates, where he abolished primogeniture, the law that made the eldest son the sole inheritor of his father's property. He promoted religious freedom, helping to establish the country's separation between church and state, and he advocated free public education, an idea considered radical by his contemporaries.
During the Revolution, Jefferson served two years as governor of Virginia, barely escaping capture by British forces by fleeing to Monticello, his home. He was later charged with being a coward for not confronting the enemy. After the war, Jefferson served as America's minister to France, where he witnessed firsthand the dramatic events leading up to the French Revolution.
While abroad, Jefferson corresponded with members of the Constitutional Convention, particularly his close associate from Virginia, James Madison. He agreed to support the Constitution, and the strong federal government it created. Jefferson's support however, hinged upon on the condition that Madison add a Bill of Rights to the document in the form of ten amendments. The rights that Jefferson insisted upon—among them freedom of speech, assembly, and practice of religion—have become fundamental and synonymous with American life ever since.
Presidential Politics - Jefferson served as secretary of state under Washington, but quarrels with Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton's vision of a centralized national bank caused him to resign his post in 1793. In the election of 1796, Jefferson ran as the leader of the new Democratic-Republican Party opposite John Adams. Jefferson came in second to Adams (in electoral college votes), and became Adams's vice president.
In 1800, however, the political tide had turned against the Federalist Party of Adams and Hamilton. After winning the election, Jefferson pled for national unity in an attempt to heal the wounds of a vicious campaign, and gain support from the Federalist-controlled Congress. Due to a relatively placid first term, prosperity, lower taxes, and a reduction of the national debt, Jefferson won a landslide victory in 1804.
Defining the Powers of the Government - Jefferson believed in a "wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another," but which otherwise left them free to regulate their own affairs. In an effort to minimize the influence of the central government, he reduced the number of government employees, slashed army enrollments, and cut the national debt. Similar to his predecessor, John Adams, Jefferson had to deal with the political war waged between his Republican Party and the Federalists. The battles were focused on the nation's judiciary branch. The landmark ruling in Marbury v. Madison, which established the independent power of the Supreme Court, was handed down during Jefferson's presidency.
Foreign affairs dominated his day-to-day attentions while president, often pushing him toward Federalist policies that contrasted with his political philosophy. To ensure the safety of American ships on the high seas, Jefferson attempted to put an end to the bribes that the U.S. had been paying to the Barbary states for the past fifty years. This resulted in a war with Tripoli, in which Jefferson was forced to use his navy and to rethink his policy of reducing the U.S. military. While the U.S. at first enjoyed an economic boom due to the war between England and France, the British navy's practice of forcing American sailors into British service led to Jefferson's disastrous suspension of trade with both France and England. This trade war devastated the economy, alienated the hard-hit mercantile Northeast, and propelled America into war with England.
His brilliant negotiation and ties to France led to the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million, doubling the size of the nation. Nonetheless, the deal troubled Jefferson, who did not wish to overstep the central government's powers as outlined by the Constitution, which made no mention the power to acquire new territory. It was Jefferson who authorized the famous Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-6), led by Meriwether Lewis, a military officer who was Jefferson's clerk at the White House.
A Private Portrait of Contradictions - Jefferson preferred to live a simple lifestyle during his time in office, often greeting his dinner guests in old homespun clothes and a pair of worn bedroom slippers. Having lost his beloved wife, Martha Wayles Skelton, in 1782 to childbirth, Jefferson relied on his two married daughters, and the wife of his secretary of state, Dolly Madison, as his official hostesses. Although he disliked pomp and circumstance, Jefferson knew how to live well; his wine bill upon leaving the presidency exceeded $10,000! In 1808, Jefferson retired to his Virginia plantation home, Monticello, where he continued pursuing his widely diverse interests in science, natural history, philosophy, and the classics. Jefferson also devoted himself to founding the University of Virginia.
Contemporary debates continue to rage (as they did during Jefferson's own lifetime) concerning his relationship with Sally Hemings, one of Jefferson's slaves, after Martha's death. Although Jefferson denied their affair and the stories that he fathered two of Hemings's children, recent DNA evidence presents a convincing case that Jefferson was indeed the biological father. Most historians now believe that Jefferson and Hemings had a sexual relationship. Jefferson was ambivalent about slavery throughout his career—as a young politician he had argued for the prohibition of slavery in new American territories. Yet he never freed his own slaves. How could a man responsible for writing the sacred words "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal," have been a slave owner? He never resolved the internal conflict on this issue.
After carrying on a long and fascinating correspondence with John Adams while both men were in the twilight of their lives, death took Jefferson on July 4, 1826—exactly fifty years to the day from the signing of the Declaration of Independence. All presidents after him, historians tell us, have lived in Jefferson's shadow and are measured against his mark.
