Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the third president of the United States and a creator of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was a philosopher, politician, scientist, architect, inventor, musician, and writer. Thomas Jefferson was also one of the smartest leaders in history. His father was named Peter Jefferson, a very rich Farmer from Virginia. Thomas’s Mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, was part of the Randolph family. The Randolph Family was a big part of Virginia history, and also very rich also.
Peter and Jane Jefferson moved to Goochland county, because Peter had just gotten 400 acres of land there. Thomas Jefferson was born in the log cabin in which the family lived. Thomas Jefferson was the third child out of four brother and six sisters. Two years after Thomas was born, William Randolph, a cousin of Mrs. Jefferson and a close friend of the family, died. His will requested that Peter Jefferson move to his estate, take care of the house and land, and make sure Randolph’s four children get educated. The Jefferson’s remained at Randolph’s estate for seven years.
The estate was called Shadwell. Thomas Jefferson was quite the little intelligent boy. At age nine, Thomas Jefferson Started Latin, Greek, and French Studies at a boarding school. Thomas liked to Horse back ride, Canoe, Hunt, and fish. When Thomas was fourteen years old, his father passed away. Thomas Jefferson was the oldest son, so Thomas had to take care of the family. Jefferson was a tall, slender boy with sandy reddish hair and fair skin that freckled and sunburned easily. A serious student, Thomas also enjoyed the lighter aspects of the education of a Virginia gentleman.
Jefferson learned to dance and play the violin. Weekends and holidays Thomas spent either at Shadwell entertaining guests or at his After two years at William and Mary (A College in Virginia’s capital city), Jefferson left to study law. Thomas still studied French, Italian, and English history and literature. In 1767, Jefferson was chosen to the practice of law in Virginia. Jefferson’s main source of income was his land. That’s because most lawyers didn’t make enough On New Year’s Day, 1772, Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton, a 24-year-old widow.
Patty (That’s Jefferson called her) shared her husband’s love of music and played the harpsichord and piano. The marriage was happy, except Mrs. Jefferson’s ill health. Of their six children, only two, both of them girls, lived to maturity. Martha Jefferson died in 1782. The death of his wife had a profound effect on Jefferson and probably influenced his return to politics, which Thomas Jefferson had considered leaving. On June 21, 1775, Jefferson took his seat in Congress. The following summer, Jefferson sat in Congress as an elected delegate, not as an alternate.
It was at this session that Thomas Jefferson wrote his most famous document, the Declaration of On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was formally adopted. The connections with America with Great Britain were broken. Within a few days the declaration was being read to people throughout the colonies, and it was received with Jefferson managed to spend considerable time with his family. Thomas took up building projects at Monticello and continued to develop his land. Jefferson was a philosopher a architect, and an inventor.
Thomas invented the dumbwaiter, a swivel chair, a lamp-heater, and an improved plow. In May, 1784, Congress appointed Jefferson a diplomat. Jefferson was to go to France. There Thomas Jefferson was to help the other ministers, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, in arranging commercial treaties with various European countries. When Franklin retired in 1785, Jefferson replaced him as the U. S. diplomatic representative to One of Jefferson’s most important functions in France was to report home how “the vaunted scene of Europe … struck a savage of the mountains of America. ” Thomas Jefferson was not well impressed.
Thomas Jefferson urged his friend, Congressman James Monroe, to come and see for himself what France was like. It wasn’t as bad as they thought, but they did not have land like America did. The Bill of Rights was one of the biggest documents to ever be written. Based on Jefferson’s suggestions, James Madison proposed a Bill of Rights, consisting of the first ten amendments, which was added to the Constitution in 1791. Jefferson toured much of Europe, taking note of its architecture and studying its scientific achievements. However, Thomas Jefferson longed to return to the United States, and permission finally came in September, 1789.
When Jefferson returned to the United States, President Washington asked him to become Secretary of State. Although Jefferson wanted to return to American life, Thomas Jefferson accepted the president’s request. Jefferson became Vice-president when Thomas Jefferson was 54 years old. Thomas Jefferson was the Vice-president under President Adams, Even though they did not agree on all subjects. The Republicans nominated Jefferson for president in 1800. For Vice-president they nominated Aaron Burr. President Adams was the Federalist candidate. There was a tie in the electoral vote.
This caused one of the weirdest crises in American history. The electors, in voting for Jefferson or Burr, had not specified whether their vote was for President or Vice-president. Therefore, despite his being his party’s Vice-presidential candidate, Burr had as many votes for the office of President as The Constitution provides that in case no candidate in a presidential election wins a majority of the electoral votes, the election must go to the House of Representatives, in which each state has one vote. To win, Jefferson or Burr had to have the support of a majority of the 16 states.
To further complicate matters, this was a lame-duck Congress, meaning that many of its members had been defeated in the recent election and were in office only because their terms had not expired. Congress was dominated by Federalists who had to choose between two Republican candidates. From February 11, when the voting began, to February 16, neither Jefferson nor Burr could win the required nine states. Because Jefferson disliked Burr even more than Thomas Jefferson did Jefferson, Hamilton favored Jefferson, but most Federalists abhorred Jefferson.
The crisis was resolved when a group of Federalists, led by James A. Bayard of Delaware, came to the realization that if an orderly transfer of government power was to be achieved, the majority party must have its choice as President. Therefore, on February 17 the deadlock was broken. On the 36th ballot, Jefferson won the support of ten states and was elected President. Burr, who had the support of only four states, As a result of this election, the 12th Amendment was added to the Constitution. This amendment specified that electors were to name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-president.
Jefferson was inaugurated on March 4, 1801, the first President to be inaugurated in Washington, D. C. Jefferson was accompanied by a small crowd of people and a company of artillery. The outgoing president, John Adams, considered Jefferson a dangerous radical and did not attend the inauguration. Jefferson’s inaugural address, one of a small number of truly memorable addresses by Presidents of the United States, attempted to dispel the notion held by many onservatives that democracy would lead to mob rule and anarchy. “The will of the majority in all cases is to prevail,” Jefferson said.
However, “the minority possess their equal rights which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. ” Jefferson sought also to unite the country. “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists,” Thomas Jefferson proclaimed. Furthermore, his program was moderate enough to win the support In January, 1803, half a year before the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson proposed his idea to Congress. In order to conceal its expansionist aims from England, France, and Spain, Thomas Jefferson suggested that the journey be presented as a “literary pursuit. ” Congress gave its approval.
Jefferson chose his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead the expedition, and Lewis selected William Clark, a frontiersman, as his Partner. Jefferson instructed them to observe and note down the physical features, terrain, soil, climate, and wildlife of the land and the language and customs of its inhabitants. In 1806 Lewis and Clark returned with their valuable journals. They had successfully breached the mountain barrier of the West, built a fort on the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River, nd mapped and explored much of the American Northwest.
Moreover, they had secured the friendship of a number of Native American peoples and given the United States a claim At the age of 65, Jefferson was at last free to return to his beloved mountaintop estate in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson devoted much of his energy to repairing and rebuilding his estate, but Thomas Jefferson yet found time to design houses for his friends. Thomas Jefferson furnished Monticello with rare and beautiful objects and with his own remarkable inventions, so that the estate was much talked about and frequently visited.
Thomas Jefferson also worked to advance agricultural science, and Thomas Jefferson filled his account books with observations of all kinds. Jefferson’s leisure time was spent in reading. Ancient history especially interested him, but Thomas Jefferson also continued his study of philosophy, religion, and law. In 1815 Thomas Jefferson sold his 6500-volume collection to the federal government as the nucleus of the restored Library of Congress, which was being built up again after its destruction in the British burning of Washington in the War of 1812. However, immediately afterward, Jefferson set about buying a new collection.
Political differences had long ago broken up the friendship between Jefferson and John Adams. Now, a mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush, brought about a reconciliation. Jefferson and Adams began a lively correspondence that touched on many subjects. “I cannot write volumes on a single sheet,” Adams wrote plaintively, “but these letters of Jefferson and his friend Adams, both of whom had played such great parts in the winning of independence, died on Independence Day, July 4, 1826. Jefferson left detailed instructions for his burial in the graveyard of his estate. A simple monument was to mark his resting place.
Thomas Jefferson specified that the monument was to be made of coarse stone so that “no one might be tempted hereafter to destroy it for the value of the materials. ” Thomas Jefferson wrote his own epitaph: Author of the Declaration of American Of the Statute of Virginia for Religious And Father of the University of Virginia These achievements were to be inscribed on the monument, and “not a word more … because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish most to be Jefferson’s wishes were carried out, but vandals later overturned and broke the stone. A careful reproduction now marks Jefferson’s grave.