Thomas Jefferson Bio And Presidency Essay, Research Paper

Ryan Davis

U.S. History Dual Credit

Period 1

The third president of the United States, a diplomat, statesman, architect, scientist, and philosopher, Thomas Jefferson is one of the most eminent figures in American history. No leader in the period of the American Enlightenment was as articulate, wise, or conscious of the implications and consequences of a free society as Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743 (April 2, old style), on the farm called Shadwell, adjoining what is now Monticello, in the county of Albermarle, Virginia.

The date of his birth was unknown to the public until after his decease. Repeated

attempts had been made to ascertain it by formal applications to him on various

occasions, both by individuals and public bodies; but from scruples of a patriotic

nature, he always declined revealing it and enjoined the same privacy upon his family.

The principles which determined him on this subject were the great indelicacy and

impropriety of permitting himself to be made the recipient of a homage, so

incompatible with the true dignity and independence of the republican character, and

the still greater repugnance which he should feel at seeing the birthday honors of the Republic transferred in any degree, to any individual.

Soon after his inauguration as President in 1801, he was waited on by the Mayor and Corporation of the city of Washington, with the request that he would communicate

the anniversary of his birth, as they were desirous of commemorating an event which

had conferred such distinguished glory upon their country. He replied, “The only

birthday which I recognize is that of my country’s liberties.” In August, 1803, he

received a similar communication from Levi Lincoln on behalf of a certain association

in Boston, to which he replied: “Disapproving myself of transferring the honors and

veneration for the great birthday of our Republic to any individual, or of dividing them

with individuals, I have declined letting my own birthday be known, and have engaged

my family not to communicate it.” (ME 10:416) This has been the uniform answer to

every application of the kind.

On the paternal side, Mr. Jefferson could number no titles to high or ancient lineage. His ancestors, however, were of solid respectability and among the first

settlers of Virginia. They emigrated to this country from Wales, and from near the mountain of Snowden. His grandfather was the first of whom we have any particular

information. He had three sons: Thomas, who died young; Field, who resided on the waters of the Roanoke and left numerous descendants; and Peter, the father of the

subject of these memoirs, who settled in Albermarle county, on the lands called Shadwell. He was the third or fourth settler in that region of the country. They were

all gentlemen of property and influence in the colony.

But the chief glory of Mr. Jefferson’s genealogy was the sturdy contempt of hereditary honors and distinctions with which the whole race was imbued. It was a strong genealogical feature, pervading all the branches of the primitive stock and forming a remarkable head and concentration in the individual who was destined to confer immortality upon the name. With him, indeed, if there was any one sentiment which

predominated in early life and which lost none of its rightful ascendancy through a

long career of enlightened and philanthropic effort, it was that of the natural equality of all men in their rights and wants, and of the nothingness of those pretensions which

“are gained without merit and forfeited without crime.” The boldness with which, on

his first entrance into manhood, he attacked and overthrew the deep rooted institutions

of Primogeniture and Entails forms a striking commentary upon this attribute of his character.

An anecdote is related by Mr. Madison, which is no less apposite and striking. During the infant stages of our separate sovereignty, the slowness with which the wheels of government moved and the awkwardness of its forms were everywhere the prominent topics of conversation. On one occasion at which Mr. Jefferson was present, a question being started concerning the best mode of providing the executive chief, it was among other opinions gravely advanced that an hereditary determination was preferable to any elective process that could be devised. At the close of an eloquent effusion against the agitations and animosities of a popular choice and in favor of birth as, on the whole, affording a better chance for a suitable head of the government, Mr. Jefferson with a smile remarked that he had heard of a University somewhere in which the Professorship of Mathmatics was hereditary!

His father, Peter Jefferson, was born February 29th, 1708, and in 1739 married Jane Randolph, of the age of 19, daughter of Isham Randolph, one of the seven sons of that name and family settled in Dungeoness in Goochland county, who trace their

pedigree far back in England and Scotland, “to which,” says Mr. Jefferson, “let every one ascribe the faith and merit he chooses.” He was a self-educated man, but rose steadily by his own exertions and acquired considerable distinction. He was commissioned jointly with Joshua Fry, professor of mathematics in William and Mary College, to designate the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, and was afterwards employed with the same gentleman to construct the first regular map of Virginia. He died August 17, 1757, leaving a widow with six daughters and two sons, Thomas being the elder of the sons. To both the sons he left large estates; to Thomas the Shadwell lands, where he was born, and which included Monticello; and to his brother the estate on James river, called Snowden, after the reputed birthplace of the family. The mother of Mr. Jefferson survived to the fortunate year of 1776, the most memorable epoch in the annals of her country and in the life of her son.

At the age of five, Thomas was placed by his father at an English school, where he continued four years, at the expiration of which he was transferred to a Latin school, where he remained five years under the tuition of Mr. Douglass, a clergyman from

Scotland. With the rudiments of the Latin and Greek languages, he acquired at the same time a knowledge of the French. At this period, his father died, leaving him an orphan only fourteen years of age and without a relative or friend competent to direct or advise him.

An interesting reminiscence of this critical period of his boyhood and of the simple moral process by which he subdued and wrought into instruments of the greatest good the perilous circumstance of his position is contained in an affectionate letter, written more than fifty years afterwards to his grandson, then in Philadelphia. It is replete with sound admonition, applicable to every condition of youth, besides affording an insight into the juvenile mind and habits of the writer.

On the death of his father, Mr. Jefferson was placed under the instruction of the Rev. Mr. Maury, to contemplate the necessary preparation for college. He continued with Mr. Maury two years; and then, in 1760, at the age of seventeen, he entered the college of William and Mary, at which he was graduated, two years after, with the highest honors of the institution. While in college he was more remarkable for solidity than sprightliness of intellect. His faculties were so even and well-balanced, that no particular endowment appeared pre-eminent. His course was not marked by any of those eccentricities which often presage the rise of extraordinary genius, but by the constancy of pursuit, that

inflexibility of purpose, that bold spirit of inquiry and thirst for knowledge which are

the surer prognostics of future greatness. His habits were those of patience and severe

application, which, aided by a quick and vigorous apprehension, a talent of close and

logical combination, and a retentive memory, laid the foundation sufficiently broad and

strong for those extensive acquisitions which he subsequently made. The mathematics

were his favorite study, and in them he particularly excelled. Nevertheless, he

distinguished himself in all the branches of education embraced in the established

course of that college. To his devotion to philosophy and science, he united an

exquisite taste for the fine arts. In those of architecture, painting, and sculpture, he

made himself such an adept as to be afterwards accounted one of the best critics of

the age. For music he had an uncommon passion; and his hours of relaxation were

passed in exercising his skill upon the violin, for which he evinced an early and

extravagant predilection. His fondness for the ancient classics strengthened continually

with his maturity, insomuch that it is said he scarcely passed a day in after-life without

reading a portion of them. The same remark is applicable to his passion for

mathematics. He became so well acquainted with both the great languages of antiquity

as to read them with ease; and so far perfected himself in French as to become fluent

with it, which was, subsequently, of essential service to him in his diplomatic labors.

He could read and speak the Italian language and had competent knowledge of the

Spanish. He also made himself master of the Anglo-Saxon, as a root of the English,

and “an element in legal philology.”

The acquaintances he happily formed in college probably determined the cast and

direction of his ambition. These were the first characters in the whole province, among

whom he has placed on record the names of three individuals who were particularly

instrumental in fixing his future destinies: viz., Dr. Small, one of the professors in

college “who made him his daily companion”; Gov. Fauquier, “the noblest man who

had ever filled that office, to whose acquaintance and familiar table” he was admitted;

and George Wythe, “his faithful and beloved mentor in youth and his most

affectionate friend through life.”

To Governor Fauquier, with whom he was in habits of intimacy, is also ascribed a

high character. With the exception of an unfortunate passion for gaming, he was everything that could have been wished for by Virginia under the royal government. “With him,” continues Mr. Jefferson, “and at his table, Dr. Small and Mr. Wythe, his amici omnium horarum, and myself, formed a partie quarree, and to the habitual conversations on these occasions, I owed much instruction.”

George Wythe was emphatically a second father to young Jefferson. He was born about the year 1727, on the shores of the Chesapeake. His education had been

neglected by his parents, and himself had led an idle and voluptuous life until the age

of thirty; but by an extraordinary effort of self-recovery at that point of time, he

overcame both the want and the waste of early advantages. He was one of the

foremost of the Virginia patriots during the revolution; and one of the highest legal,

legislative, and judicial characters which that State has furnished. He was early elected

to the House of Delegates, then called the House of Burgesses, and continued in it

until transferred to Congress in 1775. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of

Independence, of which he had been an eminent supporter. The same year, he was

appointed by the Legislature of Virginia one of the celebrated committee to revise the

laws of the State. In 1777, he was chosen Speaker of the House of Delegates, and the

same year was appointed Chancellor of the State, an office which he held until his

death in 1806, a period of thirty years.

After graduating from William and Mary in 1762, Jefferson studied law for five years under George Wythe. In January of 1772, he married Martha Wayles Skelton and established a residence at Monticello. When they moved to Monticello, only a small one room building was completed. Jefferson was thirty when he began his political career. He was elected to the Virginia House of Burgess in1769, where his first action was an unsuccessful bill allowing owners to free their slaves.

The impending crisis in British-Colonial relations overshadowed routine affairs of legislature. In 1774, the first of the Intolerable Acts closed the port of Boston until Massachusetts paid for the Boston Tea Party of the preceding year. Jefferson and other younger members of the Virginia Assembly ordained a day of fasting and prayer to demonstrate their sympathy with Massachusetts. Thereupon, Virginia’s Royal Governor Dunmore once again dissolved the assembly (Koch and Peden 20). The members met and planned to call together an inter-colonial congress. Jefferson began writing resolutions which were radical and better written than those from other counties and colonies. Although his resolutions were considered too revolutionary and not adopted, they were printed and widely circulated and subsequently all important writing assignments were entrusted to Jefferson.

When Jefferson arrived in Philadelphia in June, 1775, as a Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress, he already possessed, as John Adams remarked, “a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent of composition” (Koch and Peden 21).

When he returned in 1776, he was appointed to the five-man committee, including Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, which was charged with the most momentous assignment ever given in the history of America: the drafting of a formal declaration of independence from Great Britain (Daugherty 109). Jefferson was responsible for preparing the draft. The document, was finally approved by Congress on July 4, 1776. Cut and occasionally altered by Adams, or Franklin, or the Congress itself, the Declaration is almost completely Jefferson’s, and is the triumph and culmination of his early career.

At this time, had he wanted to be a political leader, he could have easily attained a position in government. Instead, he chose to return to Monticello and give his public service to Virginia. Returning to the Virginia House of Delegates in October 1776, Jefferson set to work on reforming the laws of Virginia. He also proposed a rational plan of statewide education and attempted to write religious toleration into the laws of Virginia by separating Church and State by writing the “Bill for Establishing

Religious Freedom.”

In June of 1779, Jefferson was elected Governor of Virginia. He commenced his career as a public executive, confident of his abilities, assured of the respect and almost the affection of his commonwealth. However, he took up his duties at a time when the British were raiding Virginia. General George Washington did not have resources available to send to Virginia. Jefferson, during one of the raids, narrowly escaped capture at the hands of the British troops; and the legislators were forced to flee from their new capital city of Richmond. Jefferson, as head of the state, was singled out for criticism and abuse. At the end of his second term, he announced his retirement. General Washington’s approval of Jefferson’s actions as Governor is in marked contrast to the heated charges of dereliction of duty made by certain members of the legislature. After Washington’s approval the legislature passed a resolution officially clearing Jefferson of all charges (Smith 134,135).

Jefferson returned home to Monticello in 1781, and buried himself in writing about Virginia. The pages of text turned into a manuscript later known as the Notes on Virginia. This book, rich in its minute analysis of the details of external nature as in its clarification of moral political, and social issues, was read by scientists of two continents for years to come (Smith 142).

His wife, ill since the birth of their last daughter, died in September 1782. In sorrow for his wife, Jefferson declined numerous appointments. In June 1783, he was elected as a delegate to the Confederation Congress where he headed important committees and drafted many reports and official papers. He advocated the necessity of more favorable international commercial relations, and in 1784, compiled instructions for ministers negotiating commercial treaties with European nations. In May 1784, he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to assist Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, both of whom had preceded him to Europe to arrange commercial agreements (Koch and Peden 24). He traveled throughout Europe and every place he went, he was not only an American diplomat, but a student of the useful sciences. He took notes on making wine and cheese, planting and harvesting crops, and raising livestock. He sent home to America information on the different cultures, the actual seeds of a variety of grasses not native to America, olive plants, and Italian rice. He remained in Paris until 1789 (Smith 170).

Upon his return President Washington asked Jefferson to be Secretary of State. Jefferson accepted the post and found himself at odds with the Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson thought that all of Hamilton’s acts were dominated by one purpose: to establish government by and for a privileged few. Jefferson repeatedly thought of retiring from the cabinet post in which he was constantly pitted against Hamilton, the most power-hungry man in the capital. After negotiating the country’s foreign affairs, Jefferson once again retired to Monticello. During retirement, Jefferson

supervised the farming of his estates and designed a plow which revolutionized agriculture; he tended his library like a garden; he changed the architectural plans for Monticello, and supervised the construction. After three rather active years of “retirement”, Jefferson accepted the Republican Party’s nomination in 1796 for President. He lost by three votes, which under the prevailing system, meant he was elected Vice President and the Federalist, John Adams, was elected president. The Federalist

Administration turned upon its political opponents by passing the Alien Act, to deport foreign radicals and liberal, propagandists and agitators, and the Sedition Act, to curb the press. The Sedition Act empowered the Administration to fine, imprison, and prosecute any opposition writer and thus the Republicans were muzzled in the remaining years of Adams’ Administration (Randall 523, 528). In 1800, Jefferson and Aaron Burr ran for office. The electoral vote, in marked contrast to the popular vote, resulted in a tie between Jefferson and Burr. The Federalists threatened Jefferson to bargain with them or they would elect Burr. Jefferson, however, stood firm and made no promises, until the

Federalists gave up. As President, Jefferson’s first project was to remove the bias which had recently infected America. His policy of general reconciliation and reform and his success in freeing the victims of the Alien and Sedition laws were generally supported by a favorable Congress (Randall 549). His popularity during his first term was greater than at any time during his career. In this term he was confronted with the most momentous problem of his career. Spain transferred to France it rights to the port of New Orleans, and the stretch of land constituting the province of Louisiana. Louisiana in the strong hands of the French rather than the weak hands of Spain placed an almost overwhelming obstacle in the path of American growth and prosperity. It was essential that America

acquire the Louisiana territory, either through peaceful negotiation or by war. When French dictator Napoleon, suddenly offered to sell for $15,000,000 not only the port of New Orleans but the entire fabulous slice of land from the Mississippi to the Rockies, Jefferson was faced with the problem of taking the offer or wait for a Constitutional amendment authorizing such an act. After tremendous strain, Jefferson authorized the purchase (Smith 266). Thus his first term closed in a blaze of glory when the people, united in their national good fortune, almost unanimously sent Jefferson back for a second term. Busy as he was during these years, Jefferson had found time to follow his favorite intellectual pursuits. He had not only aided in establishing a National Library, but had made many valuable additions to his own private collection.

His second term was full of difficulties. To avoid war, Jefferson promoted the Non-Intercourse Act of 1806 and the Embargo of 1807. The Embargo was heavily criticized and had not been effective. To make matters worse, the domestic front was racked with defections and desertions. When his term expired on March 3, 1809, he was thrilled to be leaving politics and returning to Monticello (Mclaughlin 376).

Jefferson’s daughter Martha said that in retirement her father never abandon a friend or principle. He and John Adams, their earlier political differences reconciled, wrote many letters. Jefferson frequently complained about the time consumed in maintaining his ever increasing correspondence but he could not resist an intellectual challenge or turn down an appeal for his opinion, advice, or help, and continued to discuss with frankness and a brilliant clarity such diverse subjects as anthropology and political theory, religion and zoology (Koch and Peden 40).

Jefferson’s major concern during his last years was education and educational philosophy. He considered knowledge not only a means to an end, but an end in itself. He felt education was the key to virtue as it was to happiness. He reopened his campaign for a system of general education in Virginia. Through his efforts, the University of Virginia, the first American University to be free of official church connection, was established and was Jefferson’s daily concern during his last seven years (Koch and Peden 39). He sent abroad an agent to select the faculty, he chose the books for the library, drew up the curriculum, designed the buildings, and supervised their construction. The University finally opened in 1825, the winter before his death. Despite his preoccupation with the University, he continued to pursue a multitude of other tasks. In his eightieth year, for example, he wrote on politics, sending President Monroe long expositions later known to the world in Monroe’s version as the Monroe Doctrine (Daugherty 326).

Among all his interests, there was one intrusion on his time and thought which caused Jefferson endless embarrassment. His finances, always shaky, finally collapsed. Jefferson had frequently advanced money to friends who fancied themselves more hard-pressed than he, and occasionally had been forced to make good on their notes when they found it impossible to do so. He had spent money lavishly on his libraries and the arts, on Monticello, and on his children’s education. His passion for architecture cost him a small fortune. At the final stage of his financial distress, Jefferson petitioned the Virginia legislature to grant him permission to dispose of Monticello and its farms by lottery. The almost immediate response of private citizens, in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, on hearing this news was to donate a sum of over $16,000 to aid the leader who had devoted his industry and resourcefulness to all America for half a century (Smith 304).

On July 4, 1826, Jefferson died at Monticello.

His health had been impaired by a too free use of the hot spring bath in 1818. From that time, his indisposition steadily increased until the spring of 1826, when it attained a troublesome and alarming violence, giving certain indications of a gradual approach of dissolution. Of the issue, he seemed perfectly aware. On the 5th of June, he observed to a friend that “he doubted his weathering the present summer.” On the 24th of June, his disorder and weakness having reached a distressing point, he yielded to the entreaties of his family and saw his physician, Dr. Dunglison of the university. On this occasion he warned a friend who came to see him on private business that “there was no time to be lost,” and expressed with regret his only apprehension that “he could not hold out to see the blessed Fourth of July,” that he had called in a physician and to gratify his

family would follow his prescriptions, but that it would prove unavailing: the machine

had worn out and would go on no longer. On the same day, he addressed that most

remarkable letter to the mayor of Washington, copies of which, elegantly printed and

framed, adorned the mantelpieces of many of the private dwellings in that city and the

walls of its public edifices. This was the last letter he ever wrote, and surely none was

better fitted to be the last.

“RESPECTED SIR, — The kind invitation I receive from you on the part of the

citizens of the city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration on

the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence as one of the surviving signers of an instrument pregnant with our own, and the fate of the world, is most

flattering to myself, and heightened by the honorable accompaniment proposed

for the comfort of such a journey. It adds sensibly to the sufferings of sickness,

to be deprived by it of a personal participation in the rejoicings of that day. But

acquiescence is a duty under circumstances not placed among those we are

permitted to control. I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and

exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of

that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day in the bold and doubtful

election we were to make for our country between submission or the sword; and

to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact that our fellow citizens, after half

a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made.

May it be to the world what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others

later, but finally to all): the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under

which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind

themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That

form which we have substituted restores the free right to the unbounded exercise

of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights

of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every

view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles

on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them

legitimately by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For

ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of

these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

“I will ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I should have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington and its vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social intercourse; an intercourse which so

much relieved the anxieties of the public cares and left impressions so deeply

engraved in my affections as never to be forgotten. With my regret that ill health

forbids me the gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to receive for yourself

and those for whom you write, the assurance of my highest respect and friendly

attachments.” (to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826. ME 16:181)

He was buried on the hillside beside his wife. He had written the script for his headstone himself:

“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.”