Thomas Jefferson
- A Concise BiographyIn the thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson
wrote in a private letter, "I have sworn upon the altar of God
eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind
of man."
This powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743 in
Albermarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a
planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his
mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the
College of William and Mary, then read law. In 1772 he married
Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his
partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello.
Freckled and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward,
Thomas Jefferson was eloquent as a correspondent, but he was no
public speaker. In the Virginia House of Burgesses and the
Continental Congress, he contributed his pen rather than his
voice to the patriot cause. As the "silent member" of the
Congress, Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of
Independence. In years following he labored to make its words
a reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill
establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786.
Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France
in 1785. His sympathy for the French Revolution led him into
conflict with Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson was Secretary
of State in President Washington's Cabinet. He resigned in
1793.
Sharp political conflict developed, and two separate
parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, began
to form. Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the
Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in
France. Attacking Federalist policies, he opposed a strong
centralized Government and championed the rights of states.
As a reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson
came within three votes of election. Through a flaw in the
Constitution, he became Vice President, although an opponent
of President Adams. In 1800 the defect caused a more serious
problem. Republican electors, attempting to name both a
President and a Vice President from their own party, cast a
tie vote between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of
Representatives settled the tie. Hamilton, disliking both
Jefferson and Burr, nevertheless urged Jefferson's election.
When he assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France
had passed. He slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the
budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey so unpopular in the
West, yet reduced the national debt by a third. He also sent a
naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were
harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further,
although the Constitution made no provision for the
acquisition of new land, he suppressed his qualms over
constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the
Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803.
During his second term, he was increasingly
preoccupied with keeping the Nation from involvement in the
Napoleonic wars, though both England and France interfered
with the neutral rights of American merchantmen. His solution, an embargo upon American shipping, worked
badly and was unpopular.
He retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as
his grand designs for the University of Virginia. A French
nobleman observed that he had placed his house and his mind
"on an elevated situation, from which he might contemplate the
universe."
He died on July 4, 1826.
