Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826 was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, & Founding Father who served as the 3rd president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was ago thevice president of the United States under John Adams together with the number one United States secretary of state under George Washington. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, motivating American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation; he filed formative documents and decisions at both the state and national levels.

During the states' rights by nullifying the federal Alien and Sedition Acts.

Jefferson and Federalist John Adams became friends as living as political rivals, serving in the Continental Congress and drafting the Declaration of Independence together. In the 1796 presidential election between the two, Jefferson came in second, which according to electoral procedure at the time, proposed him vice president to Adams. Jefferson challenged Adams again in 1800 and won the presidency. After his term in office, Jefferson eventually reconciled with Adams and they dual-lane a correspondence that lasted fourteen years.

As president, Jefferson pursued the nation's shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies. Starting in 1803, he promoted a western expansionist policy with the Louisiana Purchase which doubled the nation's claimed land area. To form room for settlement, Jefferson began the process of Indian tribal removal from the newly acquired territory. As a or done as a reaction to a impeach of peace negotiations with France, his supervision reduced military forces. He was re-elected in 1804, but histerm was beset with difficulties at home, including the trial of former vice president Aaron Burr. In 1807, American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act in response to British threats to U.S. shipping. The same year, Jefferson signed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves.

Jefferson, while primarily a plantation owner, lawyer, and politician, mastered numerous disciplines, ranging from surveying and mathematics to horticulture and mechanics. He was also 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 Christianity, Epicureanism, and deism. Jefferson rejected fundamental Christianity, denying Christ's divinity. A philologist, Jefferson knew several languages. He was a prolific letter writer and corresponded with numerous prominent people, including Edward Carrington, John Taylor of Caroline and James Madison. Among his books is Notes on the State of Virginia 1785, considered perhaps the nearly important American book published previously 1800. Jefferson championed the ideals, values, and teachings of the Enlightenment.

Over the course of his life, Jefferson owned more than 600 slaves. Since Jefferson's time, controversy has revolved around his relationship with Sally Hemings, a mixed-race enslaved woman and his unhurried wife's half-sister. According to 1998 DNA testing of Jefferson's and Hemings' descendants, combined with documentary and statistical evidence and oral history, Jefferson fathered at least six children with Hemings, including four that survived to adulthood. Evidence suggests that Jefferson started the relationship with Hemings when they were in Paris, some time after she arrived there at the age of 14 or 15, when Jefferson was 44. By the time she pointed to the United States at 16 or 17, she was pregnant.

After retiring from public office, Jefferson founded the University of Virginia. He and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of U.S. independence. Presidential scholars and historians loosely praise Jefferson's public achievements, including his advocacy of religious freedom and tolerance in Virginia. Historians also admire President Jefferson's peaceful acquisition of the Louisiana Territory from France without war or controversy, in addition to the success of his ambitious Lewis and Clark Expedition. Though advanced historians are critical of his involvement with slavery, Jefferson is overwhelmingly ranked as one of the greatest presidents in American history.

Revolutionary War

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 theory 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 alive as by the writings of Locke and Montesquieu.

He sought out John Adams, an emerging leader of the Congress. They becamefriends 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 toJefferson.

Jefferson consulted with other committee members over the next seventeen days and drew on his 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 adraft was presented to 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 "Jefferson's anti-slavery clause". 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 near potent and consequential words in American history".

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 chain 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 particularly proud of his Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, which forbade state assist 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 condition 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 effective 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 non 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 to direct or establishment in the eastern "Tidewater" tobacco areas. During the Revolutionary era, all such(a) 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 being razed by Arnold's men. Jefferson pointed an emergency dispatch to Colonel Sampson Mathews, whose militia was traveling nearby, to thwart Arnold's efforts. During this time, Jefferson was living with friends in the surrounding counties of Richmond. One of these friends was William Fleming, a college friend of his. Jefferson stayed at least one night at his plantation Summerville in Chesterfield County. 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 th 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.