Thomas Jefferson was one of our founding fathers. As the third president of the united states he served a great purpose towards our history as well as our future.
Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell in what is now Albemarle County, Va., on April 13, 1743 to his parents Jane Randolph Jefferson and Peter Jefferson. His parents Peter and Jane had ten children: Jane, Mary, Thomas, Elizabeth, Martha, Peter, an unnamed son who died at birth, Lucy, Anna and Randolph (in that order). Thomas was the eldest son. When Thomas was three he and his family moved to Tuckahoe where he attended a small school. He loved to read and write.
As a young boy in school Thomas was shy and quiet, the teacher always had to ask him to speak up so that she could hear him. One day he got tired of being asked to speak up so he ran out of the school house and hid behind a shed where he was found saying the Lords Prayer over and over.
When Thomas was nine-years-old his family moved back to Shadwell but he stayed behind in order to attend a boarding school where he learned Latin, Greek, and French. Later he would also learn Italian, Anglo-Saxon, German and some Native American languages. Every summer Thomas would visit his family in Shaldwell. His father Peter taught him how to shoot and ride horses. On summer evenings Thomas and his father would paddle a boat along the Rivanna River together. Thomas was fourteen when his father died on August 17, 1757. Thomas was left his fathers bookcase with all forty of his books. His favorites were histories of England and one about the sun, moon, and stars. Thomas once said “Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.” (http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/authors/quotes_jefferson_thomas.html)
When Thomas was sixteen he started college. He entered the college of William and Mary on March 25th, 1760, there he made many friends and loved to play chess. He also danced, sang, and played the violin. Jefferson once said about one of his professors: "It was my great fortune, and what probably fixed the destinies of my life that Dr. William Small of Scotland was then professor of mathematics, a man profound in most of the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication, correct and gentlemanly manners and an enlarged and liberal mind." (http://www.wm.edu/about/jefferson/jefferson_college.php) In just two short years he had finished college and decided to practice law.
After he had finished college Thomas studied law under George Wythe who was the most famous law teacher in Virginia. Thomas attained an unusually great education in law and was admitted to the bar in 1767. He practiced law until 1774 when the courts were closed by the American Revolution.
When Jefferson returned to Virginia in 1776 he served in the House of Delegates, part of the new Virginia legislature. He did that until 1779, when he became Governor. This is when he set out to reform the laws of Virginia. “His aim was to replace the artificial aristocracy of birth and wealth, to which he himself belonged, with a natural aristocracy of talent and virtue.” (http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/nbk/bios/03pjeff.html). He set the highest value on his Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom which although introduced in 1779 was not passed until 1786, seven years later. This bill called for the complete separation of church and state and to allow people think and worship as they wished. He had also written a second document called the Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, this bill however did not pass. This bill would have created a system of public schools in Virginia. In this aspect Jefferson was ahead of his time.
The years that Jefferson served as governor (from 1779 to 1781), were unhappy years. Although he was governor he had little power towards changes in the state constitution and in his last year as governor the British invaded Virginia.
Prior to becoming the President of the United States, Thomas had held several political offices. These were: Governor of Virginia, Congressman, Minister to France, Secretary of State, and the Vice President (under John Adams).
Although he served only briefly, he was its most useful and industrious member. (http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/nbk/bios/03pjeff.html). Jefferson recommended the dollar as the American monetary unit and the decimal system for its coinage. In addition he had drafted a report on the 1783 peace treaty with Britain that ended the Revolutionary War.
"The essential principles of our Government... form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety." (1st Inaugural Address, 1801).
Jefferson’s cabinet included James Madison as the Secretary of State, Samuel Dexter (1801) and Albert Gallatin (1801-1809) as the Secretaries of the Treasury, Henry Dearborn as the Secretary of War, Levi Lincoln (1801-1804), John Breckinridge (1805-1806), and Caesar A. Rodney as the Attorney Generals (1807-1809), and Benjamin Stoddert (1801) and Robert Smith (1801-1809) as the Secretaries of the Navy.
During his service as the Secretary of State James Madison played a minor role in the development of judicial review through the Maurbury vs. Madison case. Samuel Dexter the Secretary of the Treasury in 1801 was trained as a lawyer at Harvard had briefly conducted the affairs of the Foreign Office and administered the oath of office to Chief Justice John Marshall. Albert Gallatin who was the Secretary of the Treasury from 1801 to 1809 felt that "...the reduction of the public debt was certainly the principle in bringing me [Gallatin] into office...". It was with this thought in mind that he began his first year in office. (http://www.nps.gov/frhi/sectreas.htm), he was also the first to suggest a national road. Henry Dearborn served as Secretary of War for Jefferson’s whole term, within this time he helped plan for the removal of Native American Indian tribes to beyond the Mississippi River. Levi Lincoln had a simple idea for getting Congress to approve the cost of the Lewis and Clark expedition: promote it as a mission to bring religion to the heathen Indians.
The political party that Jefferson belonged to was the anti-federalists, or the republicans. One international event happening at the time of Jefferson’s presidency was the French Revolution. This effected the presidency because it made the Louisiana Purchase possible since the French needed money for their war. Another international event that effected the presidency was The Tripolitan War. “The immediate cause of the conflict was the demand by Tripoli for additional tribute, which the United States refused. Fought mainly at sea, the war ended in 1805 with the capture of the Tripolitan fortress of Derna by U.S. land and sea forces.” (http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/nbk/bios/03pjeff.html)
A national event that effected the presidency was the Louisiana purchase because Thomas Jefferson had to use the elastic clause which he was against. Another event was the Burr Conspiracy, which effected the presidency because he was the former vice president and he had in the past killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel and at this time was accused of treason.
I think that Thomas Jefferson was a very resourceful man and a very good president. He had an interesting childhood and seemed very shy as a young boy. I think that Thomas was a very smart and interesting man with a talent for writing, made obvious by the constitution of the united states, and I think that his interest in books was also part of what made him intelligent.
