Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd President of the United States and this informs you of his Life and Presidency
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 - July 4, 1826) was the 3rd President of the United States (1801-1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806).
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Towards revolutionJefferson practiced law and represented Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Burgesses beginning in 1769. During this time he unsuccessfully tried to emancipate slaves in Virginia. Following the passage of the Coercive Acts by the British Parliament in 1774, he wrote a set of resolutions against the acts, which were expanded into A Summary View of the Rights of British America, his first published work. Previous criticism of the Coercive Acts had focused on legal and constitutional issues, but Jefferson offered the radical notion that the colonists had the natural right to govern themselves. Jefferson also argued that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and had no legislative authority in the colonies. The pamphlet helped provide the theoretical framework for American independence, and marked Jefferson as one of the most thoughtful patriot spokesmen.
Drafting a declaration
Jefferson served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress beginning in June 1775, soon after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. When Congress began considering a resolution of independence in June 1776, Jefferson was appointed to a five-man committee to prepare a declaration to accompany the resolution. The committee selected Jefferson to write the first draft probably because of his reputation as a writer. Jefferson completed a draft in consultation with other committee members.
Jefferson presented the draft to Congress on June 28, 1776. Over several day's of debate, Congress made a few changes in wording and deleted nearly a fourth of the text, most notably a passage critical of the slave trade. On July 4, 1776, the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved. The Declaration would eventually become Jefferson's major claim to fame, and his eloquent preamble became an enduring statement of human rights
State legislatorIn John Trumbull's painting "Declaration of Independence", the five-man drafting committee is presenting its work to the Continental Congress. Jefferson is the tall figure in the center laying the Declaration on the desk.
In September 1776, Jefferson returned to Virginia and was elected to the new Virginia House of Delegates. During his term in the House, Jefferson set out to reform and update Virginia's system of laws to reflect its new status as a democratic state. He drafted 126 bills in three years.
While in the state legislature Jefferson proposed a bill to eliminate capital punishment for all crimes except murder and treason. His effort to reform the death penalty law was defeated by just one vote, and such crimes as rape remained punishable by death in Virginia until the 1960s. He succeeded in passing an act prohibiting the importation of slaves (but not slavery itself).
Governor of Virginia
Jefferson served as governor of Virginia from 1779-1781. As governor, he oversaw the transfer of the state capital from Williamsburg to the more central location of Richmond in 1780. Virginia was invaded twice by the British during Jefferson's term as governor. He, along with Patrick Henry and other leaders of Virginia, were but ten minutes away from being captured by Banastre Tarleton, a British colonel leading a cavalry column that was raiding the area in June 1781.
Congressman
The Virginia state legislature appointed Jefferson to the Congress of the Confederation on 6 June 1783, his term beginning on 1 November. He was a member of the committee set up to set foreign exchange rates, and in that capacity he recommended that the American currency should be based on the decimal system.
Minister to France
Jefferson served as minister to France from 1785 to 1789. While in Paris, he lived in a residence on the Champs-Élysées. He spent much of his time exploring the architectural sites of the city, as well as enjoying the fine arts of Paris. He became a favorite in the salon culture and was a frequent dinner guest of many of the city's most prominent people. In 1784/85, Jefferson was one of the architects of trade relations between the United States and Prussia. The Prussian ambassador Friedrich Wilhelm von Thulemeyer and John Adams, both living in the Hague, and Benjamin Franklin in Paris, were also involved. Despite his numerous friendships with the social and noble elite, when the French Revolution began in 1789, Jefferson sided with the revolutionaries.
Secretary of State
After returning from France, Jefferson served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington (1790-1793). Jefferson strongly supported France against Britain when war broke out between those nations in 1793. Historian Lawrence S. Kaplan notes Jefferson's "visceral support for the French cause," while agreeing with Washington that the nation should not get involved in the fighting. The arrival in 1793 of an aggressive new French minister, Edmond-Charles Genêt, caused a crisis for the Secretary of State, as he watched Genêt try to violate American neutrality, manipulate public opinion, and even go over Washington's head in appealing to the people; projects that Jefferson helped to thwart. According to Schachner, Jefferson believed that political success at home depended on the success of the French army in Europe.
Election of 1796 and Vice Presidency
Thomas Jefferson became Vice President (1797-1801). He wrote a manual of parliamentary procedure, but otherwise avoided the Senate.
Presidency 1801-1809
Jefferson repealed many federal taxes, and sought to rely mainly on customs revenue. He pardoned people who had been imprisoned under the Alien and Sedition Acts, passed in John Adams' term, which Jefferson believed to be unconstitutional. He repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801 and removed many of Adams' "midnight judges" from office, which led to the Supreme Court deciding the important case of Marbury v. Madison. He began and won the First Barbary War (1801-1805), America's first significant overseas war, and established the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1802.In 1803, despite his misgivings about the constitutionality of Congress' power to buy land, Jefferson purchased Louisiana from France, doubling the size of the United States. The land thus acquired amounts to 23 percent of the United States today.
In 1807 his former vice president, Aaron Burr, was tried for treason on Jefferson's order, but was acquitted. During the trial Chief Justice John Marshall subpoenaed Jefferson, who invoked executive privilege and claimed that as president he did not need to comply. When Marshall held that the Constitution did not provide the president with any exception to the duty to obey a court order, Jefferson backed down.
Jefferson's reputation was damaged by the Embargo Act of 1807, which was ineffective and was repealed at the end of his second term.
Death
Jefferson died on the Fourth of July, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. He died a few hours before the death of John Adams, his compatriot in their quest for independence, then great political rival, and later friend and correspondent. Adams is often rumored to have referenced Jefferson in his last words, unaware of his passing.Although he was born into one of the wealthiest families in the United States, Thomas Jefferson was deeply in debt when he died. Jefferson's trouble began when his father-in-law died, and he and his brothers-in-law quickly divided the estate before its debts were settled. It made each of them liable for the whole amount due - which turned out to be more than they expected.
After his death, his possessions were sold at auction. In 1831, Jefferson's 552 acres (223 hectares) were sold to James T. Barclay for $7,000- equivalent to $143 thousand today. Thomas Jefferson is buried on his Monticello estate, in Charlottesville, Virginia. His epitaph, written by him with an insistence that only his words and "not a word more" be inscribed, reads:
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
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- angelwingsandlight angelwingsandlight Aug 28, 2009 @ 11:33 am
- Excellent lens!
This has some very interesting and relevant info.
Job well done and I look forward to reading more of your lenses.
Best wishes,
Angel
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- angelwingsandlight angelwingsandlight Aug 28, 2009 @ 11:09 am
- Excellent lens!
This has some very interesting and relevant info.
Job well done and I look forward to reading more of your lenses.
Best wishes,
Angel
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