Thomas Jefferson Essay, Research Paper

Early Years

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 and grew up on the family

plantation at Shadwell in Albermarle County, Virginia. His father, Peter Jefferson owned thirty slaves and a tobacco and wheat farm. Thomas was the third of ten children. He learned to speak French, Greek and Latin. He enjoyed politics, mathematics and practicing the violin. When

Jefferson was fourteen his father died, leaving him their entire estate. After he

graduated in 1762 from College of William and Mary, Jefferson began to study law under George Wythe. In April 1764, Jefferson gained control of his father s estate and was named justice of the peace and vestryman.

Early in 1767, Jefferson became a member of the bar of the state of Virginia.

He became a lawyer and practiced law eight years until the Revolutionary War. On January 1, 1772 Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton, who was the daughter of John Wayles, a rich Williamsburg lawyer. In May of 1769 Jefferson took his seat as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. Jefferson was only twenty-six years old.

In 1776, Jefferson resigned his seat in congress because of the failing

health of his wife. He had again been elected a member of the Virginia legislature, and he worked on the unsuitable laws, and bringing the laws of Virginia up to the level of the Declaration. Jefferson procured the abolition of entails and led the fight for the disestablishment of the Church.

While in Congress Jefferson made two contributions. In April 1784 he submitted

a proposition on the establishment of a money unit and of a coinage for the country in

which he advised the use of a decimal system. This led to the dollar, rather than the pound, as the basic monetary unit in the United States.

Jefferson became chairman of the committee dealing with the government of

Western lands. He proposed the ordinance of 1784, which stated that the western territories should be self-governing and join the Union when they reached a certain stage of growth. Jefferson also proposed that slavery should be excluded from all of the American western territories after 1800. In 1784 the provision banning slavery was narrowly defeated.

Declaration of Independence

In June of 1776, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston were selected to write the Declaration of Independence. Since Jefferson was the chairman of the committee, he was asked to write the document. Congress revised his draft many times, making many changes, most of which were improvements. The document was discussed in congress on July 2, 3 and 4 and singed on July 4th. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin amended the Declaration of Independence. Although the Declaration of Independence was thought to have been written by the entire Congress, Jefferson wrote the entire composition in only a few days.

Presidency

Jefferson and his running mate Aaron Burr defeated John Adams in the elections of 1800. Jefferson was not named president for a couple of weeks because he was tied with his running mate because of the original electoral system. The House of Representatives decided the election. Finally, enough of the Federalist stopped there voting. Because of this Jefferson became the 3rd president of America. He was the first president to be inaugurated in Washington DC, which he helped design.

His first term as president was very successful. He lowered Army and Navy

spending, ended the tax on whiskey, cut the budget, and reduced the national debt by a third. He also sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates who were disrupting American shipping in the Mediterranean. Even though the Constitution said nothing about gaining new land, Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803. This was probably the most significant achievement of his presidency.

During Jefferson’s second term, he was busy keeping the Nation from

becoming involved in the Napoleonic Wars. Both England and France interfered with American shipping, which was neutral. The Embargo Act, passed by Congress in an effort to stop British and French restrictions on neutral shipping during the Napoleonic Wars, stopped all international trade to and from American ports in an attempt to make Britain and France realize the value and rights of neutrality. In January 1808, the prohibition was extended to inland waters and land and stopped trading with Canada. Britain and France stood firm and enforcement was difficult, especially in New England because they were entirely dependent on foreign trade. Jefferson eventually ended the embargo with Britain and France.

Jefferson started the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which explored the Louisiana

Territory. The expedition found a passage to the Pacific Ocean and returned home with much information. The West also began a conspiracy involving Aaron Burr, he wanted to either establish an independent republic in the Louisiana Territory or to invade Spanish-held Mexico. Jefferson acted promptly to arrest Burr and bring him to trial for treason. Burr however, was acquitted.

Louisiana Purchase

The meetings between Robert Livingston and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-

P rigord, the French minister of foreign affairs, had been unsuccessful in giving Louisiana to America. Things worsened for France. Yellow fever and the revolutionists destroyed the French army in Santo Domingo, and a war with England appeared in the midst.

With the British threatening Louisiana, Napoleon decided to make the best of a

bad situation. Napoleon told Talleyrand to sell the territory and in April the foreign minister sold to them all of Louisiana. The price was $15 million and $11,250,000 was to be paid right away by the U.S. to France. Jefferson though it was illegal to add new land without adding a new amendment to the Constitution. The law did give Jefferson treaty-making power, and the U.S. Senate put the Louisiana Purchase into law as a treaty. The Louisiana Purchase is the largest area of land ever added to the U.S. at one time.

Alien Sedition Acts

The Alien Sedition acts were four laws passed in 1798. First was The Naturalization Act, it raised the number of years to fourteen in which a United States residence required for naturalization. It was repealed in 1802. The Alien Act, gave the president power to arrest and deport any alien considered dangerous, ended in 1800. The Alien Enemies Act, which ended in 1801, allowed the deportation of people of foreign countries at war with the United States. The Sedition Act made it illegal to print or publish false, malicious, or scandalous statements directed against the U.S. government, the president, or Congress, to encourage citizens to break laws passed by Congress, or to help a foreign country in plotting against the United States. The penalties were severe and they were imprisonment for up to five years and fines up to $5,000.

Jefferson was against these acts and wrote the Kentucky Resolutions in response.

They stated that the government had no right to apply powers not given to it by the Constitution. Another resolution stated that the individual states could repeal federal laws that were disapproved of.

Architecture

Jefferson received no formal education in architecture. He was self-taught and

assembled a library of art and architecture, which included several copies of Quattro Libri. Jefferson designed many of his civic buildings in a neo-Roman style. Jefferson s home, Monticello was rebuilt many times over 40 years. He began construction on it at the age of 26. Jefferson said his home was his essay in architecture . While Minister to France, Jefferson studied architecture there. He learned about architecture from architectural historians and visits.

While in France he sent home many architectural drawings and studied there

culture. He worked with his friend Benjamin H. Latrobe on the Capitol design. Jefferson also helped design the city of Washington. He was also the first president to live in the White House. His last architectural achievement was the University of Virginia. He chose the site for the college as well as designing all of its buildings.

Slavery

A part of Jefferson s wealth was in the form of slaves. Jefferson worked at trying

to have the slave trade abolished in the Declaration of Independence. When it was revised

it was not included. Also, when he changed the laws of citizenship in Virginia, he added that all born in the state were freed. This part was not included in the Virginia constitution.

Jefferson said in his essay on slavery… It will probably be asked, Why not retain

and incorporate the blacks into the state, and thus save the expense of supplying, by importation of white settlers, the vacancies they will leave? Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances, will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions, which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race This section of his essay is an explanation of why he did not free his slaves because he felt that they would still be treated unfairly.

Jefferson never remarried after his wife died. There had been rumors though that

Jefferson had a child with slave Sally Hemings, and this was backed up by DNA, but still remained controversial.

Final Achievement and Death

Jefferson retired to Monticello in 1809. He founded the University of Virginia He designed the buildings, chose the curriculum and educators for his college. Jefferson died on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence at twenty minutes to one p.m. on July 4, 1826.