Thomas J Essay, Research Paper

U.S. History 131

6/1/00

Thomas Jefferson

The most influential person in American history would be Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, became the first republican president,

and began the self improvement thought process by learning through going to school.

Jefferson told people that knowledge was the way to becoming a better person, and that

all Americans need to improve on what they think, not by changing day by day

themselves, but overall becoming a better person through their thoughts. He believed

that if a person thought on his own, and learned that they would become an improved

person and be more happy overall, weather at home or at work. Jefferson was big on

reform and that was the biggest change in his presidency over Washington?s.

Washington set rules and regulations, Jefferson improved on them and made everything

better.

Jefferson was a very important person in U.S. history. His first major

contribution to our creation was that he developed and wrote the Declaration of

Independence. He was very smart and creative, he said when he wrote the declaration ? I

turned neither book nor pamphlet preparing the paper ? ( Morris 102 ). That shows how

creative he was by drawing up such a magnificent piece of writing under difficult

circumstances, after all he was writing a complete divorce paper from Britain to create a

new nation all on his own, with just John Adams revising it. Twenty five years after

writing the Declaration of Independence to create the U.S., Jefferson lead that nation as

its president. He was the first republican president that was going to change the nation

radically. He set out to make improvements on individuals by teaching them how to

make themselves better. His motives were to self improve all Americans so they could

feel better about who they were. He was well liked and re-elected in 1804 for a second

term in office. Jefferson was very brilliant, he could speak very well influencing people

to understand his ideology about self improvements and his ways of making the U.S. a

better nation.

Thomas Jefferson?s impact on the U.S. would be the greatest of any American

who has ever lived. Jefferson was wise and had abilities to create ideas that would

spread throughout the US and even over seas. His first creation was the Declaration of

Independence which was sent to England to show that the U.S. was wanting to become a

separate entity of its mother country. He also became the President of the U.S. which

changed the ways Americans thought. He showed them the reasons why they needed to

learn, and why we needed schools to teach children so that they could be intellectual

when they grew up. He was brilliant and contributed to the U.S. in many ways, without

him we may have different ideologies about several things, possibly even the way we

think learning is crucial in becoming a better person.

If Jefferson never lived then we may not have had such success in parting from

Britain. Jefferson wrote sensibly creating the Declaration of Independence so it wasn?t

too offensive, yet not too conservative so the British didn?t think too much of one way

against America. Not too many others could have worded the Declaration the way

Jefferson did, and if he did not Adams, who is a little more brutish than Jefferson, may

have mucked things up in writing with his own vigorous opinions which could have led

to bigger problems. Jefferson gave people ideas on how to become better and improving

themselves, without him people may have continued on with their lifestyles until now.

We would be less intelligent, and possibly a little less eager to learn to make ourselves

better. Thomas Jefferson contributed greatly to the creation of the US and gave many

ideas to the American public on how to become a great person like himself, without him

may have been a tragedy, kind of like a Shakespeare play, everything is well in the U.S.

but we would all be dumbfound without a little direction such as Jefferson?s.