Thomas Jefferson became the third President of the United States.  He is best known for writing the Declaration of Independence, and the Louisiana Purchase.  While as President, he expanded the country to the far west with the aforementioned purchase of Louisiana Territory from the French.  Below you will find information and resources about the life and times of this president, known as "The Sage of Monticello".

 

 

 

Time in Office:

 March 4, 1801 to March 3, 1809

Events while in Office:

 1803

Supreme Court ruled in Marbury v. Madison . Any law passed by Congress can be declared unconstitutional by the courts.

The Louisiana Territory was purchased from France for $15 million dollars. The price works out to three cents per acre for the 512 million acres.

1804

12th Amendment changed Presidential election rules.

Jefferson reelected.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began exploration of the Northwest.

Vice President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel July 11.

1807

Congress outlaws importing slaves from Africa, March 2.

Embargo Act, December 22, forbids American ships to leave American waters.

1808

Slave importation outlawed. Yet, another 1/4 million brought in by 1860.

1809

Non-Intercourse Act, March 1, repeals the Embargo Act, which didn't work.

Presidential Facts:

• Jefferson was the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
• Approximately 6,000 books from Jefferson's private library were purchased for $23,950 to help start the Library of Congress.
• Jefferson was right-handed, but taught himself to write with his left hand.
• Bears brought back from Lewis and Clark's famous expedition were displayed in cages on the White House lawn. For years the White House was sometimes referred to as the "president's bear garden."
• The only presidents to sign the Declaration of Independence, Adams and Jefferson both died on its 50th anniversary, July 4, 1826. Adams' dying words were "Thomas Jefferson survives". Jefferson, however, had passed on a few hours earlier.
• Jefferson is credited with several inventions, including the swivel chair, a pedometer, a machine to make fiber from hemp, a letter-copying machine, and the lazy susan.
• Jefferson wrote his own epitaph without mentioning that he served as president of the United States.

Source: POTUS 

 

Articles About This President:

1. American Founders: Thomas Jefferson
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. Great Americans of History: Thomas Jefferson
4. Thomas Jefferson And Monticello
5. Thomas Jefferson Biographies 

Presidential Documents:

1. Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address
2. Thomas Jefferson's Autobiography 1743-1790
3. Thomas Jefferson's Collected Works
4. Letters of Thomas Jefferson 1760 - 1826
5. Indian Addresses by Thomas Jefferson 1781 - 1806
6. State of the Union Messages by Thomas Jefferson
7. The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America (Declaration of Independence)

 

Internet Resources:

1. Jefferson Biography - on the White House Website.
2. Jefferson Resources - on the Miller Center website (University of Virginia) 
3. Thomas Jefferson, Son of Virginia - Colonial Williamsburg website.
4. Jefferson Papers - on the Founders website.
5. Jefferson Papers - The Avalon Project
6. Monticello -  Jefferson's Home.
7. Poplar Forest - Jefferson's favorite retreat website.

 

 

 

Thomas Jefferson

In writing of a man like Jefferson, whose name has been a household word since the birth of the Nation, it is well-nigh impossible to avoid being commonplace; so that in the beginning, I ask you indulgence, if in reviewing his life, I should recount facts that are as familiar to you as the Decalogue.

Yet, in studying that life, I find such a richness of achievement, such an abundance of attainment, such a world of interest, that I am at a loss how to prepare a paper that will not require an extra session for its reading.

Thomas Jefferson was the eldest child of a seemingly strange union; the father, an uneducated pioneer, surveyor, and Indian fighter, living in the mountains of Virginia--the mother, Jane Randolph, coming from the best blood of that blue blooded commonwealth. I think we need dig no further around Jefferson's family tree in order to understand how a gentleman of education, culture, and aristocratic instincts could affect a dress so different from men of his class, and could so deeply and sincerely love the masses as to spend his life in their behalf. And this he certainly did. He worked, thought, planned, and accomplished for them--yet, throughout his life, his associations were always with the upper classes.

He began life in 1743, in the small village of Shadwell, Va., where he spent his childhood and youth among the freedom of the hills. Afterwards, whenever he escaped from public duty, it was to retire to this same neighborhood, for it was on one of his ancestral hills that Monticello was built.

Thanks to his mother, he was carefully educated at William and Mary College, from which he graduated at the age of eighteen. The Brittanica draws the following picture of him as a young man:

"He was an expert musician, a good dancer, a dashing rider, proficient in all manly exercises; a hard student; tall, straight, slim, with hazel eyes, sandy hair, delicate skin, ruddy complexion; frank, earnest, sympathetic, cordial, full of confidence in men, and sanguine in his views of life." Is not that a pleasing portrait?

Being the eldest son, his father's death, while he was at college, left him heir to his estate of nineteen hundred acres, so that he could live very comfortably. Jefferson lived in a day when a man's wealth was measured in great part by the land he owned. It is indicative of his thrift and energy that his nineteen hundred acres soon grew to five thousand--"all paid for," we are told. Indeed, he was strictly honest in paying his debts.

He was a born farmer, and to the end of his life retained his love for that mode of existence.

However, he chose the law for his profession. That he did not have to watch his practice grow through a long season of painful probation is shown by the record of sixty-eight cases before the chief court of the Province during the first year after his admission to the Bar, and nearly twice that many the second year.

Although, as I said, he loved a farmer's life, he was allowed little leisure to follow it, serving in succession as member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, member of Congress, Governor of Virginia, member of Congress again, Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice-President, and President.

Perhaps many other men have served the public for as long a term, but I challenge history to find another who has accomplished so much for his country.

From the founding of Jamestown to the present day, no man, Washington not excepted, has had the influence over the nation that Jefferson wielded.

To have been the author of the great Declaration, it would seem, were fame enough for one American, but for him that was only the beginning. Independence achieved, he set about making his own state really free and introduced into the Virginia Legislature bill after bill which cut off the excrescences of a monarchical system, lingering in the practices of a new-born nation. These bills were not all carried when he proposed them, by any means, but hear what, in the end they gave to Virginia, and remember that these things came through the efforts of one man: religious freedom, the fight for which began in '76 and continued till 1785; the system of entails broken up; the importation of slaves prohibited, and primo-geniture discontinued.

Jefferson was not a fluent speaker, but a clear thinker. Besides this, he had a great antipathy to appearing in print. Therefore, when it was necessary to say or do anything, he had only to tell somebody what to say or do, and the thing was accomplished.

Leicester Ford, who has compiled a very thorough Life of Jefferson, says that "he influenced American thought more than any other person, yet boasted that he never wrote for the press. By means of others, he promulgated that mars of doctrine, nowhere formulated, known as The Jeffersonian Principles." The doctrine that goes by the name of Monroe was probably his also.

That the principles of the Democratic Party have remained unchanged from his day to ours only shows the clearness and correctness of his logic. Not only is this true, but he thoroughly and conscientiously believed in the things he taught, the theory of States Rights being a child of his own brain.

During his two terms as President, and throughout the remainder of his life, such was the faith of his party in his wisdom, foresight, and political integrity, that he had only to express a wish, and it became, unquestioned, the law of the land.

After his retirement, his party proposed no measure until a visit was first made to the "Sage of Monticello," and his opinion obtained.

President followed President, Jefferson became old and infirm, but to the day of his death, he was undisputed leader of the American nation.

Did he not deserve the name of seer? Years before the Revolution, he warned the people against slavery, declaring that "nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free." He owned the slaves that came to him from his father and his wife, but is said never to have purchased any.

Among the things accomplished during his presidency are the extermination of the Mediterranean pirates, the exploration of the West, public debt diminished, emigration of Indians beyond the Mississippi promoted, and the wonderful Louisiana purchase.

Though his second term was clouded by constant war in Europe, and the continued depredations on American commerce, at its close, he was urged to serve for the third term, the Legislatures of five States requesting it, showing that he was not held responsible for the condition of affairs.

His was a many sided nature. Great statesman that he was, great political scientist, his ability did not stop there. His interest in commerce, agriculture, literature, history, music, education, and the natural sciences was unbounded, and his private collections, perhaps, were unexcelled at that time.

No man has done more for the cause of education among us than he. He it was who proposed a bill for "the free training of all free children, male and female." This was ten years before the admission of girls to the common schools of Boston. His reason for wanting good schools in Virginia was unique--he said he objected to being a beggar for the crumbs that fell from the tables of the North. He pleaded for nonsectarian schools, and was, therefore, called by many atheistic.

This was one of the obstacles that he had to overcome in his fight for the University of Virginia. Princeton was then sectarian--William and Mary was controlled by the Episcopal Church. The result of all this thought and desire exists for us today in the University of Virginia--the first real University in America.

Thomas Nelson Page says, "No stranger story of self sacrifice and devotion to a high ideal in the face of trials, which to lesser genius might have appeared insurmountable, and of disappointments which to less courage must have proved fatal, has ever been written than that which recounts the devotion of the last twenty years of the life of Thomas Jefferson to the establishment of a great university." The corner stone of Central College, which was afterwards enlarged to the University of Virginia, was laid in 1816 by President Monroe, in the presence of Jefferson and Madison, ex-presidents.

Not only did Jefferson see the need for this school, and work to carry it through, but he actually drew the plans for the buildings, modelling them after those of ancient Greece and Rome.

Page says, to quote from the same author--and, if you want to read an interesting book, read his "Old Dominion"--"If any pile of buildings in the world is fitted by its beauty to be the abode of philosophy it is this. * * * * The University has excelled in scholastic results any similar institution in the country. She has a larger representation in Congress than any other, a larger representation on the bench and a larger representation in the medical departments of both army and navy. This has been accomplished on an income less than that of many second rate colleges."

This result, and the high standard prevailing in the University today, have more than justified Jefferson for all his labor. His constant refrain was, "We are working for posterity."

The project was in his brain five years before he began work on it. One of his proudest titles is "Father of the University of Virginia."

Jefferson's writings consist mostly of letters and addresses, besides "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," written before the Revolution, circulated in England, and attributed to Burke, and the well known and valuable "Notes on Virginia."

He loved his home and his family, and seems to have been peculiarly blessed in them. He married a rich young widow--Martha Skelton--though it does not appear that he did so because she was rich.

Of several children only two grew to maturity, and only one survived him. His wife lived just ten years after their marriage, and almost with her last breath begged him not to give her children a step-mother. He made and kept the promise.

I know I have given a rose-colored account of him, yet some shadow belongs to the portrayal. No one could do the things that he did and not have enemies. Particularly do politicians not handle each other with gloves. Jefferson has been called all the ugly names in man's vocabulary, but very little, if any, real evidence can be adduced to support any of this.

With all his gifts, he was unfitted to lead a people in the trying time of war; consequently, his governorship of Virginia, occurring during the Revolution, and his second term as President were not eminently successful. No one can deny the bitter emnity between him and Hamilton any more than any one can prove that the former was more to blame than the latter. Admit that he was often theoretical and visionary, yet the work he accomplished proves that he was even more practical and farsighted.

That he was not free from idiosyncrasies is shown by the manner in which he went to his first inauguration, and the fact that he always dressed as a farmer--never as a President.

All this was to prove his steadfastness of faith in democratic ways and institutions. He would not indulge in making a formal speech at the opening of Congress, but wrote and sent his "message" by hand--a practice followed by every President since, with the exception of President Wilson, 1913.

In all things he was a strict constructionist. But none of these things can detract much from the name and fame of a man who has put such foundation stones in our civilization.

I have drawn my data mostly from the writings of one who holds the opposite political tenets--yet I find it recorded that "Jefferson's personal animosities were few"--that he couldn't long hold anger in his heart--that "to this day the multitude cherish and revere his memory, and in so doing, pay a just debt of gratitude to a friend, who not only served them, as many have done, but who honored and respected them, as very few have done."

His hospitality and the public desire to see him were so great that his home was for many years a kind of unprofitable hotel, because everything was free of charge. It was always full, and sometimes his housekeeper had to provide fifty beds. This great expense, added to some security debts, left him a poor man. In fact, he was in need, but when the public found it out, money came in in sufficient quantities to enable him to continue his mode of life.

Like Shakespeare, he wrote his own epitaph, any one item of which would entitle him to the love of posterity: "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."

I fear I have been tedious, I know I have been trite--yet I beg you to read for yourselves the history and letters of this great man.

That his death occurred on the 4th day of July, 1826, just fifty years from the day when the wonderful Declaration was made, and coincident with that of his former colleague, another ex-president, seems a fitting close to a most remarkable career.

 

Source: Revolutionary Reader, by Sophie Lee Foster Available at Project Gutenberg