Jefferson served as the secondgovernor ofrevolutionary Virginia from 1779 to 1781. In 1785,Congress appointed Jefferson asU.S. Minister to France, where he served from 1785 to 1789. President Washington then appointed Jefferson the nation's first secretary of state, where he served from 1790 to 1793. In 1792, Jefferson and political allyJames Madison organized theDemocratic-Republican Party to oppose theFederalist Party during the formation of the nation'sFirst Party System. Jefferson and FederalistJohn Adams became both personal friends and political rivals. In the1796 U.S. presidential election between the two, Jefferson came in second, which made him Adams' vice president under the electoral laws of the time. Four years later, in the1800 presidential election, Jefferson again challenged Adams and won the presidency. In1804, Jefferson was reelected overwhelmingly to a second term, crushing his main opposition, theFederalist'sCharles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina.
Jefferson's presidency assertively defended the nation's shipping and trade interests againstBarbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies, promoted a western expansionist policy with theLouisiana Purchase, which doubled the nation's geographic size, and reduced military forces and expenditures following successful negotiations withFrance. In his second presidential term, Jefferson was beset by difficulties at home, includingthe trial of his former vice presidentAaron Burr. In 1807, Jefferson implemented theEmbargo Act to defend the nation's industries from British threats to U.S. shipping, limit foreign trade, and stimulate the birth of theAmerican manufacturing.
Jefferson isranked among the upper tier of U.S. presidents both by scholars and in public opinion. Presidential scholars and historians have praised Jefferson's advocacy of religious freedom and tolerance, his peaceful acquisition of theLouisiana Territory from France, and his leadership in supporting theLewis and Clark Expedition. They acknowledge his lifelong ownership of large numbers of slaves, but offer varying interpretations of hisviews on and relationship with slavery.[9]
Jefferson began his education together with theRandolph children at Tuckahoe under tutors.[14] Thomas' father Peter, who was self-taught and regretted not having a formal education, entered Thomas into an English school at age five. In 1752, at age nine, he attended a local school run by aPresbyterian minister and also began studying the natural world, which he grew to love. He studiedLatin,Greek, andFrench, and began learning to ride horses. Thomas read books from his father's modest library.[15] He was taught from 1758 to 1760 by the ReverendJames Maury nearGordonsville, Virginia, where he studied history, science, and theclassics while boarding with Maury's family.[15][16] Jefferson came to know variousAmerican Indians, includingCherokee chiefOstenaco, who often stopped at Shadwell to visit on their way toWilliamsburg to trade.[17][18] In Williamsburg, the young Jefferson met and came to admirePatrick Henry.[19]
Thomas's father died in 1757, and his estate was divided between his sons, Thomas andRandolph.[20]John Harvie Sr. became 14-year-old Thomas' guardian.[21] Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres (7.8 sq mi; 20.2 km2), which included the land on which he later builtMonticello in 1772.[22]
In 1761, at the age of eighteen, Jefferson entered theCollege of William & Mary in Williamsburg, where he studied mathematics and philosophy withWilliam Small. Under Small's tutelage, Jefferson encountered the ideas of Britishempiricists, includingJohn Locke,Francis Bacon, andIsaac Newton. Small also introduced Jefferson toGeorge Wythe andFrancis Fauquier. Small, Wythe, and Fauquier recognized Jefferson as a man of exceptional ability and included him in their inner circle, where he became a regular member of their Friday dinner parties. Jefferson later wrote that, while there, he "heard more common good sense, more rational & philosophical conversations than in all the rest of my life".[23]
During his first year in college, Jefferson spent considerable time attending parties and dancing and was not very frugal with his expenditures; in his second year, regretting that he had squandered away time and money in his first year, he committed to studying fifteen hours a day.[24] While at William & Mary, Jefferson became a member of theFlat Hat Club, the nation's oldest secret society, a small group whose members included St. George Tucker, Edmund Randolph, and James Innes.[25][26]
Jefferson concluded his formal studies in April 1762.[27] Heread the law under Wythe's tutelage while working as alaw clerk in his office.[28] Jefferson was well-read in a broad variety of subjects, including law, philosophy, history, natural law, natural religion, ethics,[citation needed] and several areas of science, including astronomy[29] and agriculture.
Jefferson kept twocommonplace books: from about age 15 to 30, he compiled a book of sayings and quotations, published in the 20th century asJefferson's Literary Commonplace Book.[30] During his years of legal study under Wythe, Jefferson began recording his notes on law, history, and philosophy, and continued to do so until the end of his life; hisLegal Commonplace Book was also published in the 20th century.[31]
On July 20, 1765, Jefferson's sister Martha married his close friend and college companionDabney Carr, which greatly pleased Jefferson. In October of that year, however, Jefferson mourned his sister Jane's unexpected death at age 25.[32]
Jefferson treasured his books and amassed three sizable libraries in his lifetime. He began assembling his first library, which grew to 200 volumes, in his youth.[33] Wythe was so impressed with Jefferson that he later bequeathed his entire library to him.[34] In 1770, however, Jefferson's first library was destroyed in a fire at his Shadwell home. His second library, which replenished the first, grew to nearly 6,500 volumes by 1814.[35] Jefferson organized his books into three broad categories of the human mind: memory, reason, and imagination.[36] AfterBritish forces set theLibrary of Congress on fire in theBurning of Washington in 1814, Jefferson sold his second library to theU.S. government for $23,950, hoping to help jumpstart the Library of Congress's rebuilding. Jefferson used a portion of the proceeds to pay off some of his large debt. Jefferson soon resumed collecting his third personal library. In a letter toJohn Adams, Jefferson wrote, "I cannot live without books."[37][38] By the time of Jefferson's death a decade later, his third and final library had grown to nearly 2,000 volumes.[39]
In 1767, Jefferson was granted admission to the Virginia bar, and lived with his mother at Shadwell.[40] Between 1769 and 1775, he representedAlbemarle County in Virginia'sHouse of Burgesses.[41] While serving in the House of Burgesses, Jefferson pursued reforms to slavery, including writing and sponsoring legislation in 1769 to strip power from the royal governor and courts, instead providing masters of slaves with the discretion to emancipate them. Jefferson persuaded his cousinRichard Bland to spearhead the legislation's passage, but it faced strong opposition in a state whose economy was largely agrarian.[42]
As a lawyer, Jefferson took on seven freedom-seeking enslaved people as clients[43] and waived his fee for one he claimed should be freed before the minimum statutory age for emancipation.[44] Jefferson invokednatural law, arguing "everyone comes into the world with a right to his own person and using it at his own will ... This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the author of nature, because it is necessary for his own sustenance." The judge cut him off and ruled against his client. As a consolation, Jefferson gave his client some money, which was conceivably used to aid his escape shortly thereafter.[44] Jefferson's underlying intellectual argument that all people were entitled by their creator to what he labeled a "natural right" to liberty is a theme that he later prominently incorporated into the Declaration of Independence.[45] In 1767, Jefferson took on 68 cases for the General Court of Virginia and was counsel in three notable cases of that era,Howell v. Netherland (1770),Bolling v. Bolling (1771), andBlair v. Blair (1772).[46]
In 1768, Jefferson began constructing his primary residence,Monticello near present-dayCharlottesville, Virginia. ItsItalian name means "Little Mountain" in English. Monticello is located on a hilltop overlooking his 5,000-acre (20 km2; 7.8 sq mi) plantation.[c] He spent most of his adult life designing Monticello as an architect and was quoted as saying, "Architecture is my delight, and putting up, and pulling down, one of my favorite amusements."[49] Construction was done mostly by local masons and carpenters, assisted by Jefferson's slaves.[50] He moved into the South Pavilion in 1770. Turning Monticello into aneoclassical masterpiece in thePalladian style became Jefferson's lifelong project.[51]
On January 1, 1772, Jefferson married his third cousin,[52]Martha Wayles Skelton, a 23-year-old widow of Bathurst Skelton.[53][54] She was a frequent hostess for Jefferson, and managed the large household. HistorianDumas Malone described the marriage as the happiest period of Jefferson's life.[55] Martha was a skilled pianist; Jefferson often accompanied her on the violin or cello.[56] During their ten-year marriage, Martha bore six children:Martha "Patsy" (1772–1836); Jane Randolph (1774–1775); an unnamed son who lived for only a few weeks in 1777;Mary "Polly" (1778–1804); Lucy Elizabeth (1780–1781); and another Lucy Elizabeth (1782–1784).[57][d] Only Martha and Mary survived to adulthood.[60] Martha's father, John Wayles, died in 1773, and the couple inherited 135 enslaved people, 11,000 acres (45 km2; 17 sq mi), and the estate's debts. The debts took Jefferson years to satisfy, contributing to his financial problems.[53]
Martha later suffered from ill health, includingdiabetes, and frequent childbirth weakened her. A few months after the birth of her last child, she died on September 6, 1782, with Jefferson at her bedside. Shortly before her death, Martha made Jefferson promise never to marry again, telling him that she could not bear to have another mother raise her children.[61] Jefferson was grief-stricken by her death, relentlessly pacing back and forth for roughly three weeks, and finally emerging to take long rambling rides on secluded roads with his daughter, Martha, who said she was "a solitary witness to many a violent burst of grief".[60][62]
Jefferson sought outJohn Adams, a Continental Congress delegate fromMassachusetts and an emerging leader in the Congress.[67] They became close friends, and Adams supported Jefferson's appointment to theCommittee of Five, which the Congress charged with authoring the Declaration: Adams, Jefferson,Benjamin Franklin,Robert R. Livingston, andRoger Sherman. The committee initially thought that Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded the committee to choose Jefferson due to Jefferson being a Virginian, popular, and a good writer by Adams.[e]
Jefferson consulted with his fellow committee members, but mostly wrote the Declaration of Independence in isolation between June 11 and 28, 1776.[63] Jefferson drew considerably on his proposed draft of theVirginia Constitution,George Mason's draft of theVirginia Declaration of Rights, and other sources.[69] Other committee members made some changes, and a final draft was presented to Congress on June 28, 1776.[70] Congress began debate over its contents on Monday, July 1,[70] resulting in the removal of roughly a fourth of Jefferson's original draft.[71][72] Jefferson resented the changes, but he did not speak publicly about them.[f] On July 4, 1776, the Congress voted unanimously to ratify the Declaration, and delegates signed it on August 2. Jefferson and the other delegates knew they were committinghigh treason againstthe Crown, which was punishable bytorture and death.[74]
Following its ratification, the Declaration was released publicly. Two days after its ratification, on July 6,The Pennsylvania Evening Post, was the first newspaper to publish it. On July 8 at noon, it was read publicly and simultaneously for the first time at three designated locations:Trenton, New Jersey;Easton, Pennsylvania; and Philadelphia.[75]
Contemporary historians generally view the Declaration of Independence as one of the most significant and influential written documents in world history, and Jefferson's preamble is regarded as an enduring statement onindividual andhuman rights. Jefferson's phrase "all men are created equal" has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language".Harvard University history chairmanDavid Armitage has written that, "No American document has had a greater global impact than the Declaration of Independence",[76] and historianJoseph Ellis has written that the Declaration includes "the most potent and consequential words in American history".[72][77]
At the start of the American Revolution,Colonel Jefferson was named commander of theAlbemarle County Militia on September 26, 1775.[78] He was then elected to theVirginia House of Delegates for Albemarle County in September 1776, when finalizing the state constitution was a priority.[79][80] For nearly three years, Jefferson assisted with the constitution and was especially proud of his Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, which prohibited state support of religious institutions or enforcement of religious doctrine.[81] The bill failed to pass, as did his legislation to disestablish theAnglican Church, but both were later revived byJames Madison.[82]
In 1778, Jefferson was given the task of revising the state's laws. He drafted 126 bills in three years, including laws to streamline the judicial system. He proposed statutes that provided for general education, which he considered the basis of "republican government".[79] Jefferson also was concerned that Virginia's powerful landed gentry were becoming a hereditary aristocracy and took the lead in abolishing what he called "feudal and unnatural distinctions."[83] He targeted laws such asentail andprimogeniture by which a deceased landowner's oldest son was vested with all land ownership and power.[83][g]
Jefferson was electedgovernor for one-year terms in 1779 and 1780.[85] He transferred the state capital from Williamsburg toRichmond, and introduced additional measures for public education, religious freedom, and inheritance.[86]
During GeneralBenedict Arnold's 1781invasion of Virginia, Jefferson escaped Richmond just ahead of the British forces, which razed the city.[87][88] He sent emergency dispatches to ColonelSampson Mathews and other commanders in an attempt to repel Arnold's efforts.[89][90]General Charles Cornwallis that spring dispatched a cavalry force led byBanastre Tarleton to capture Jefferson and members of the Assembly at Monticello, butJack Jouett of theVirginia militia thwarted the British plan.[h] Jefferson escaped toPoplar Forest, his plantation to the west.[93] When the General Assembly reconvened in June 1781, it conducted an inquiry into Jefferson's actions which eventually concluded that Jefferson had acted with honor, but Jefferson was not reelected.[94]
In April of the same year, his daughter Lucy died at age one. A second daughter of that name was born the following year, but she died at age two.[95]
In 1782, Jefferson refused a partnership offer by North Carolina GovernorAbner Nash, in a profiteering scheme involving the sale of confiscated Loyalist lands.[96] Unlike some Founders, Jefferson was content with his Monticello estate and the land he owned in the vicinity of Virginia'sShenandoah Valley. Jefferson thought of Monticello as an intellectual gathering place forJames Madison,James Monroe, and other friends.[97]
In 1780, Jefferson received a letter of inquiry from French diplomatFrançois Barbé-Marbois into the geography, history, and government of Virginia, as part of a study of the United States. Jefferson organized his responses in a book,Notes on the State of Virginia (1785).[98] The book explores what constitutes a good society, using Virginia as an exemplar. Jefferson included extensive data about the state's natural resources and economy and wrote at length about slavery andmiscegenation; he articulated his belief that blacks and whites could not live together as free people in one society because of justified resentments of the enslaved.[99] He also wrote of his views on the American Indians, equating them to European settlers.[100][101]
Notes was first published in 1785 inFrench and appeared in English in 1787.[102] BiographerGeorge Tucker considered the work "surprising in the extent of the information which a single individual had been thus far able to acquire, as to the physical features of the state";[103]University of Virginia historianMerrill D. Peterson described it as an accomplishment for which all Americans should be grateful.[104]
The Assembly Room atIndependence Hall inPhiladelphia, where Jefferson served as a delegate to theSecond Continental Congress and where the Congress edited but unanimously ratified his draft of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776
Jefferson was appointed a Virginia delegate to theCongress of the Confederation organized following thepeace treaty with Great Britain in 1783. He was a member of the committee setting foreign exchange rates andrecommended an American currency based on the decimal system that was adopted.[105] He advised the formation of theCommittee of the States to fill the power vacuum when Congress was in recess.[106] The committee met when Congress adjourned, but disagreements rendered it dysfunctional.[107]
Jefferson sent a letter (revealed in 2025) to Virginia GovernorBenjamin Harrison, dated December 31, 1783, in which he relates the wave of enthusiasm of Europeans for taking up arms against their leaders. Jefferson was sharing the affirmation of his own promotion of the right to bear arms that brought about the American Revolution. The letter also conveys Jefferson's anxiety over the final ratification of the Treaty of Paris formally ending the revolutionary war. Signed initially by the parties in September, the still-outstanding consent of two colonies was required in London (then a two-month journey) by the following March. The deadline was ultimately but barely met, with the required signatures made in mid-January.[108]
In the Congress's 1783–1784 session, Jefferson acted as chairman of committees to establish a viable system of government for the new Republic and to propose a policy for settlement of the western territories. He was the principal author of theLand Ordinance of 1784, whereby Virginia ceded to the national government the vast area that it claimed northwest of theOhio River. He insisted that this territory should not be used as colonial territory by any of the thirteen states, but that it should be divided into sections that could become states. He plotted borders for nine new states in their initial stages and wrote an ordinance banning slavery in all the nation's territories. Congress made extensive revisions and rejected the ban on slavery.[109][110] The provisions banning slavery, known as the "Jefferson Proviso", were modified and implemented three years later in theNorthwest Ordinance of 1787 and became the law for the entireNorthwest Territory.[109]
Minister to France
A 1779 engraving ofChamps-Élysées seen through the Grille de Chaillot with Jefferson's residence in Paris on the left
On May 7, 1784, Jefferson was appointed by theCongress of the Confederation[i] to joinBenjamin Franklin andJohn Adams in Paris as MinisterPlenipotentiary for Negotiating Treaties of Amity and Commerce withGreat Britain and other countries.[111][j] With his young daughter Patsy and two servants, he departed in July 1784, arriving in Paris the next month.[113][114] Jefferson had Patsy educated atPentemont Abbey. Less than a year later, he was assigned the additional duty of succeeding Franklin as Minister to France. French foreign ministerCount de Vergennes commented, "You replace Monsieur Franklin, I hear." Jefferson replied, "I succeed. No man can replace him."[115] During his five years in Paris, Jefferson played a leading role in shapingU.S. foreign policy.[116]
In 1786, he met and fell in love withMaria Cosway, a married 27-year-old Italian-English musician. She returned to Great Britain after six weeks, but she and Jefferson maintained a lifelong correspondence.[117]
During the summer of 1786, Jefferson arrived in London to meet with John Adams, who was then serving as the nation's firstUS Ambassador to Britain. Adams had official access toGeorge III and arranged a meeting between Jefferson and the king. Jefferson later described the king's reception of the men as "ungracious." According to Adams's grandson, George III turned his back on both in a gesture of public insult. Jefferson returned to France in August.[118]
Jefferson sent for his youngest surviving child, nine-year-old Polly, in June 1787. She was accompanied by a young slave from Monticello,Sally Hemings. Jefferson had taken her older brother,James Hemings, to Paris as part of his domestic staff and had him trained in French cuisine.[119] According to Sally's son,Madison Hemings, 16-year-old Sally and Jefferson began a sexual relationship in Paris, where she became pregnant.[120] The son indicated Hemings agreed to return to the United States only after Jefferson promised to free her children when they came of age.[120]
While in France, Jefferson became a regular companion of theMarquis de Lafayette, aFrench hero of the American Revolution, and Jefferson used his influence with Lafayette to procure trade agreements with France.[121][122] As theFrench Revolution began, Jefferson agreed to allow his Paris residence atHôtel de Langeac to be used for meetings by Lafayette and other revolutionary leaders. He was in Paris during thestorming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, and he consulted with Lafayette as Lafayette drafted theDeclaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.[123] Jefferson often found his mail opened by postmasters, so he invented his own enciphering device, the "Wheel Cipher"; he wrote important communications in code for the rest of his career.[124][k] Unable to attend the 1787 Constitution Convention, Jefferson supported theConstitution but desired the addition of the promised Bill of Rights.[125] Jefferson left Paris for America in September 1789.[126] He remained a firm supporter of the French Revolution while opposing its more violent elements.[127]
Soon after returning from France, Jefferson accepted President Washington's invitation to serve asSecretary of State.[128] Pressing issues at the time, the national debt and where the new national capital should be placed following its planned relocation fromPhiladelphia in 1800, placed him at odds withSecretary of the TreasuryAlexander Hamilton, who favored a capital close to major commercial centers in theNortheast, while Washington, Jefferson, and other agrarians wanted it further south.[129] After lengthy deadlock, theCompromise of 1790 was struck, permanently locating the capital on thePotomac River, and the federal government assumed the war debts of all original13 states.[129]
Jefferson opposed a national debt, preferring that each state retire its own, which contrasted with Hamilton's vision of thefederal government consolidating state debts[130] and establishing national credit and a national bank. Jefferson strenuously opposed both policies and attempted to undermine Hamilton's agenda, which nearly led Washington to dismiss him from thecabinet. He later left the cabinet voluntarily.[131]
Jefferson's goals were to decrease American dependence on British commerce and to expand commercial trade with France. He sought to weakenSpanish colonialism of theTrans-Appalachia and British control in the North, believing this would aid in the pacification ofNative Americans.[132]
Along with political protegéJames Madison, then aU.S. Representative, and authorPhilip Freneau, Jefferson co-founded theNational Gazette in Philadelphia in 1791, which sought to counter the policies of theFederalist Party, which Hamilton was promoting through theGazette of the United States, an influential Federalist newspaper. TheNational Gazette criticized the policies promoted by Hamilton, often in anonymous essays signed by the pen nameBrutus at Jefferson's urging and written by Madison.[133] In Spring 1791, Jefferson was suffering frommigraines and tiring of the in-fighting with Hamilton, and he and Madison departed for a vacation inVermont.[134]
In May 1792, Jefferson's concern about emerging political rivalries in the young nation was escalating, and he wrote Washington, imploring him to run for reelection for a second termthat year as a unifying influence.[135] He urged the president to rally the citizenry to a party that would defend democracy against the corrupting influence of banks and financial-focused interests, which the Federalists were embracing and espousing. Historians recognize Jefferson's letter to Washington as one of the first delineations ofDemocratic-Republican Party principles.[136] Jefferson, Madison, and other Democratic-Republican organizers favoredstates' rights and local control and opposed the federal concentration of power. Hamilton, conversely, sought more power vested in the federal government.[137]
Jefferson supported France against Britain when the two nations fought in 1793, though his arguments in Washington's Cabinet were undercut by French Revolutionary envoyEdmond-Charles Genêt's open scorn for Washington.[138] In discussions with British MinisterGeorge Hammond, Jefferson tried in vain to persuade the British to vacate their posts in the Northwest and to compensate the U.S. for enslaved people freed by the British at the end of the Revolutionary War. Jefferson also sought to return to private life, and resigned from the cabinet in December 1793; he may also have wanted to bolster his political influence from outside the administration.[139]
After theWashington administration negotiated theJay Treaty with Britain in 1794, Jefferson saw a cause around which he could rally the Democratic-Republican Party. He organized national opposition to the treaty from Monticello.[140] The treaty, designed by Hamilton, aimed to reduce tensions and increase trade. Jefferson warned that it would increase British influence and subvert republicanism, calling it "the boldest act [Hamilton and Jay] ever ventured on to undermine the government".[141] The Treaty passed, but it expired in 1805 during Jefferson's presidential administration, and then President Jefferson did not renew it. Jefferson continued his pro-France stance; during the violence of theReign of Terror, he declined to disavow the revolution. "To back away from France would be to undermine the cause of republicanism in America", he wrote.[142]
In thepresidential campaign of 1796, Jefferson lost the electoral college vote to FederalistJohn Adams 71–68. He did, however, receive the second-highest number of votes and, under the electoral laws at the time, was elected as vice president. As presiding officer of theUnited States Senate, Jefferson assumed a more passive role than his predecessor, John Adams. He allowed the Senate to freely conduct debates and confined his participation to procedural issues, which he called an "honorable and easy" role.[143] Jefferson previously studied parliamentary law and procedure for 40 years, making him qualified to serve as presiding officer. In 1800, he published his assembled notes on Senate procedure asA Manual of Parliamentary Practice.[144] He cast only threetie-breaking votes in the Senate.
In four confidential talks with French consul Joseph Létombe in the spring of 1797, Jefferson attacked Adams, predicting that his rival would only serve one term. He also encouraged France to invade England, and advised Létombe to stall any American envoys sent to Paris.[145] This toughened the tone that the French government adopted toward theAdams administration. After Adams's initial peace envoys were rebuffed, Jefferson and his supporters lobbied for the release of papers related to the incident, called theXYZ Affair after the letters used to disguise the identities of the French officials involved.[146] But the tactic backfired when it was revealed that French officials had demanded bribes, rallying public support against France. The U.S. began an undeclared naval war with France known as theQuasi-War.[147]
During the Adams presidency, the Federalists rebuilt the military, levied new taxes, and enacted theAlien and Sedition Acts. Jefferson believed these laws were intended to suppress Democratic-Republicans, rather than prosecute enemy aliens, and considered them unconstitutional.[148] To rally opposition, he and James Madison anonymously wrote theKentucky and Virginia Resolutions, asserting that the federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically delegated to it by the states.[149] The resolutions followed the "interposition" approach of Madison, that states may shield their citizens from federal laws that they deem unconstitutional. Jefferson advocatednullification, allowing states to entirely invalidate federal laws.[150][l] He warned that, "unless arrested at the threshold", the Alien and Sedition Acts would "drive these states into revolution and blood".[152]
BiographerRon Chernow contends that "the theoretical damage of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions was deep and lasting, and was a recipe for disunion", and contributed to the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War and later events.[153] Washington was so appalled by the resolutions that he toldPatrick Henry that, if "systematically and pertinaciously pursued", the resolutions would "dissolve the union or produce coercion."[154] Jefferson had always admired Washington's leadership skills but felt that his Federalist party was leading the country in the wrong direction. He decided not to attend Washington's funeral in 1799 because of acute differences with him while serving as secretary of state.[155]
Jefferson ran for president againstJohn Adams again in1800. Adams' campaign was weakened by unpopular taxes and vicious Federalist infighting over his actions in the Quasi-War.[156] Democratic-Republicans pointed to the Alien and Sedition Acts and accused the Federalists of being secret pro-Britain monarchists. Federalists, in turn, charged that Jefferson was a godless libertine beholden to the French.[157]UCLA history professorJoyce Appleby described the 1800 presidential election as "one of the most acrimonious in the annals of American history".[158]
The Democratic-Republicans ultimately won more electoral college votes, due in part to the electors that resulted from the addition of three-fifths of the South's slaves to the population calculation under theThree-Fifths Compromise.[159] Jefferson and his vice presidential candidateAaron Burr unexpectedly received an equal total. Because of the tie, the election was decided by the Federalist-dominatedU.S. House of Representatives.[160][m] Hamilton lobbied Federalist representatives on Jefferson's behalf, believing him a lesser political evil than Burr. On February 17, 1801, after thirty-six ballots, the House elected Jefferson president and Burr vice president.[161]
The win led to Democratic-Republican celebrations throughout the country.[162] Some of Jefferson's opponents argued that he owed his victory to the South's inflated number of electors.[163] Others alleged that Jefferson securedJames Asheton Bayard's tie-breaking electoral vote by promising to retain various Federalist posts in the government.[161] Jefferson disputed the allegation, and the historical record is inconclusive.[164]
The transition proceeded smoothly, marking a watershed in American history. HistorianGordon S. Wood writes that, "it was one of the first popular elections in modern history that resulted in thepeaceful transfer of power from one 'party' to another."[161]
Jefferson wassworn in as president byChief JusticeJohn Marshall at the newCapitol in Washington, D.C., on March 4, 1801. His inauguration was not attended by outgoing President Adams. In contrast to his two predecessors, Jefferson exhibited a dislike of formal etiquette. Plainly dressed, he chose to walk alongside friends to the Capitol from his nearby boardinghouse instead of arriving by carriage.[165] His inaugural address struck a note of reconciliation and commitment to democratic ideology, declaring, "We have been called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists."[166][167] Ideologically, he stressed "equal and exact justice to all men", minority rights, and freedom of speech, religion, and press.[168] He said that a free and republican government was "the strongest government on earth."[168] He nominated moderate Republicans to his cabinet: James Madison as secretary of state,Henry Dearborn as secretary of war,Levi Lincoln as attorney general, andRobert Smith as secretary of the navy.[167]
Widowed since 1782, Jefferson first relied on his two daughters to serve as his official hostesses.[169] In late May 1801, he askedDolley Madison, wife of his long-time friend James Madison, to be the permanent White House hostess. She was also in charge of the completion of the White House mansion. Dolley served as White House hostess for the rest of Jefferson's two terms and then for another eight years as First Lady while her husband was president.[169]
Jefferson's first challenge as president was shrinking the $83 million national debt.[170] He began dismantling Hamilton's Federalist fiscal system with help from the secretary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin.[167] Gallatin devised a plan to eliminate the national debt in sixteen years by extensive annual appropriations and reduction in taxes.[171] The administration eliminated the whiskey excise and other taxes after closing "unnecessary offices" and cutting "useless establishments and expenses".[172][173]
Jefferson believed that theFirst Bank of the United States represented a "most deadly hostility" to republican government.[171] He wanted to dismantle the bank before its charter expired in 1811, but was dissuaded by Gallatin.[174] Gallatin argued that the national bank was a useful financial institution and set out to expand its operations.[175] Jefferson looked to other corners to address the growing national debt.[175] He shrank the Navy, for example, deeming it unnecessary in peacetime, and incorporated a fleet of inexpensive gunboats intended only for local defense to avoid provocation against foreign powers.[172] After two terms, he had lowered the national debt from $83 million to $57 million.[176]
Jefferson strongly felt the need for a national military university, producing an officer engineering corps for a national defense based on the advancement of the sciences, rather than having to rely on foreign sources.[180] He signed theMilitary Peace Establishment Act on March 16, 1802, founding theUnited States Military Academy atWest Point. The act documented a new set of laws and limits for the military. Jefferson was also hoping to bring reform to the Executive branch, replacing Federalists and active opponents throughout the officer corps to promote Republican values.[181]
Jefferson took great interest in theLibrary of Congress, which had been established in 1800. He often recommended books to acquire. In 1802, Congress authorized Jefferson to name the first Librarian of Congress, and formed a committee to establish library regulations. Congress also granted both the president and vice president the right to use the library.[182]
American merchant ships had been protected fromBarbary Coast pirates by theRoyal Navy when the states were British colonies.[183] After independence, however, pirates often captured U.S. merchant ships, pillaged cargoes, and enslaved or held crew members for ransom. Jefferson had opposed paying tribute to the Barbary States since 1785. In 1801, he authorized a U.S. Navy fleet under CommodoreRichard Dale to make a show of force in the Mediterranean, the first American naval squadron to cross the Atlantic.[184] Following the fleet's first engagement, he successfully asked Congress for a declaration of war.[184] The "First Barbary War" was the first foreign war fought by the U.S.[185]
Pasha ofTripoliYusuf Karamanli captured theUSS Philadelphia, so Jefferson authorizedWilliam Eaton, the U.S. Consul toTunis, to lead a force to restore the pasha's older brother to the throne.[186] The American navy forced Tunis and Algiers into breaking their alliance with Tripoli. Jefferson ordered five separate naval bombardments of Tripoli, leading the pasha to sign a treaty that restored peace in the Mediterranean.[187] This victory proved only temporary, but according to Wood, "many Americans celebrated it as a vindication of their policy of spreading free trade around the world and as a great victory for liberty over tyranny."[188]
Spainceded ownership of the Louisiana territory in 1800 to France. Jefferson was concerned thatNapoleon's interests in the vast territory would threaten the security of the continent andMississippi River shipping. He wrote that the cession "works most sorely on the U.S. It completely reverses all the political relations of the U.S."[189] In 1802, he instructedJames Monroe andRobert R. Livingston to negotiate the purchase ofNew Orleans and adjacent coastal areas.[190] In early 1803, Jefferson offered Napoleon nearly $10 million for 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometres) of tropical territory.[191]
Napoleon realized that French military control was impractical over such a vast remote territory, and he was in dire need of funds for hiswars on the home front. In early April 1803, he unexpectedly made negotiators a counter-offer to sell 827,987 square miles (2,144,480 square kilometres) of French territory for $15 million (~$380 million in 2024), doubling the size of the United States.[191] U.S. negotiators accepted the offer and signed the treaty on April 30, 1803.[176] Word of the unexpected purchase did not reach Jefferson until July 3, 1803.[176] He unknowingly acquired the most fertile tract of land of its size on Earth, making the new country self-sufficient in food and other resources. The sale also significantly curtailed European presence in North America, removing obstacles to U.S.westward expansion.[192]
Most thought that this was an exceptional opportunity, despite Republican reservations about the Constitutional authority of the federal government to acquire land.[193] Jefferson initially thought that a Constitutionalamendment was necessary to purchase and govern the new territory; but he later changed his mind, fearing that this would give cause to oppose the purchase, and urged a speedy debate and ratification.[194] On October 20, 1803, the Senate ratified the purchase treaty by a vote of 24–7.[195] Jefferson personally was humble about acquiring the Louisiana Territory, but he resented complainers who called the vast domain a "howling wilderness".[196]
After the purchase, Jefferson preserved the region's Spanish legal code and instituted a gradual approach to integrating settlers into American democracy. He believed that a period of the federal rule would be necessary while Louisianans adjusted to their new nation.[197][n] Historians have differed in their assessments regarding the constitutional implications of the sale,[199] but they typically hail the Louisiana acquisition as a major accomplishment.Frederick Jackson Turner called the purchase the most formative event in American history.[192]
Jefferson anticipated further westward settlements due to the Louisiana Purchase and arranged for the exploration and mapping of the uncharted territory. He sought to establish a U.S. claim ahead of competing European interests and to find the rumoredNorthwest Passage.[200] Jefferson and others were influenced by exploration accounts ofLe Page du Pratz in Louisiana (1763) andJames Cook in the Pacific (1784),[201] and they persuaded Congress in 1804 to fund an expedition to explore andmap the newly acquired territory to the Pacific Ocean.[202]
Jefferson appointed secretaryMeriwether Lewis and acquaintanceWilliam Clark to lead theCorps of Discovery (1803–1806).[203] In the months leading up to the expedition, Jefferson tutored Lewis in the sciences of mapping, botany, natural history, mineralogy, and astronomy and navigation, giving him unlimited access to his library at Monticello, which included the largest collection of books in the world on the subject of the geography and natural history of the North American continent, along with an impressive collection of maps.[204] The expeditionlasted from May 1804 to September 1806 and obtained a wealth of scientific and geographic knowledge, including knowledge of many Indian tribes.[205]
Black Hoof, leader of theShawnee, accepted Jefferson's Indian assimilation policies.
Jefferson refuted the contemporary notion that Indians were inferior and maintained that they were equal in body and mind to people of European descent,[208] although he believed them to be inferior in terms of culture and technology.[209] As governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War, Jefferson recommended moving theCherokee andShawnee tribes, who had allied with the British, to west of the Mississippi River. But when he took office as president, he quickly took measures to avert another major conflict, as American and Indian societies were in collision and the British were inciting Indian tribes from Canada.[210][211] In Georgia, he stipulated that the state would release its legal claims for lands to its west in exchange for military support in expelling the Cherokee from Georgia. This facilitated his policy of western expansion, to "advance compactly as we multiply".[212]
In keeping with hisEnlightenment thinking, President Jefferson adopted an assimilation policy toward American Indians known as his "civilization program" which included securing peaceful U.S.–Indian treaty alliances and encouraging agriculture. Jefferson advocated that Indian tribes should make federal purchases by credit holding their lands as collateral. Various tribes accepted Jefferson's policies, including the Shawnees led byBlack Hoof, theMuscogee, and the Cherokee. However, some Shawnees, led byTecumseh, broke off from Black Hoof, and opposed Jefferson's assimilation policies.[213]
Historian Bernard Sheehan argues that Jefferson believed that assimilation was best for American Indians, and next-best was removal to the west; he felt that the worst outcome of the conflict would be their attacking the whites.[211] Jefferson toldU.S. Secretary of WarHenry Dearborn, who then oversaw Indian affairs, "If we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down until that tribe is exterminated or driven beyond the Mississippi."[214] Miller agrees that Jefferson believed that Indians should assimilate to American customs and agriculture. Historians such asPeter S. Onuf and Merrill D. Peterson argue that Jefferson's actual Indian policies did little to promote assimilation and were a pretext to seize lands.[215]
Results from the1804 U.S. presidential election in which Jefferson was reelected overwhelmingly to a second term as president
Jefferson was nominated for reelection by the Democratic-Republican Party, withGeorge Clinton replacing Burr as his running mate.[216] The Federalist Party ranCharles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, John Adams's vice presidential candidate in the 1800 election. The Jefferson-Clinton ticket won overwhelmingly in the electoral college vote, by 162 to 14, promoting their achievement of a strong economy, lower taxes, and the Louisiana Purchase.[216]
In March 1806, a split developed in the Democratic-Republican Party, led by fellow Virginian and former Republican allyJohn Randolph, who viciously accused President Jefferson on the floor of the House of moving too far in the Federalist direction, permanently setting Randolph apartpolitically from Jefferson. Jefferson and Madison backed resolutions to limit or ban British imports in retaliation for British seizures of American shipping. Also, in 1808, Jefferson was the first president to propose a broad federal plan to build roads and canals across several states, asking for $20 million, further alarming Randolph and believers of limited government.[217]
Jefferson's popularity suffered further in his second term as a result of his response to wars in Europe. Relations with Britain deteriorated, due partly to the antipathy between Jefferson and British diplomatAnthony Merry. AfterNapoleon's decisive victory at theBattle of Austerlitz in 1805, Napoleon became more aggressive in his negotiations with Jefferson and the U.S. over trading rights, which the U.S. proved unsuccessful in countering. Jefferson then led the enactment of theEmbargo Act of 1807, directed at both France and Britain, which triggered economic chaos in the U.S. and was strongly criticized, leading Jefferson to abandon the policy a year later.[218]
During the American Revolution, colonial states abolished the international slave trade, butSouth Carolina reopened it. In his annual message of December 1806, Jefferson denounced the international slave trade as "violations of human rights" and called on the new Congress to immediately criminalize it. The following year, in 1807, Congress passed theAct Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which Jefferson signed.[219][220] The act established severe punishment against the international slave trade, although it did not address the issue domestically.[221]
InHaiti, Jefferson's neutrality allowed arms to flow to the slave independence movement during theHaitian Revolution, and Jefferson blocked attempts to assist Napoleon, who was defeated militarily in Haiti in 1803.[222] But Jefferson's administration refused official recognition of Haiti during his second term, in deference to southern complaints about racial violence against slave holders. Recognition was not extended to Haiti until 1862.[223]
Following the 1801 electoral deadlock, Jefferson's relationship with his vice president,Aaron Burr, rapidly eroded. Jefferson suspected Burr of seeking the presidency for himself, while Burr was angered by Jefferson's refusal to appoint some of his supporters to federal office. Burr was dropped from the Democratic-Republican ticket in 1804 in favor of charismaticGeorge Clinton.
The same year, Burr was soundly defeated in his bid to be electedNew York governor. During the campaign,Alexander Hamilton made publicly callous remarks regarding Burr's moral character.[224]Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, held on July 11, 1804. In the duel, Burr mortally wounded Hamilton, who died the following day. Burr was subsequently indicted for Hamilton's murder, causing him to flee toGeorgia, even though he remained president of theU.S. Senate during Supreme Court JusticeSamuel Chase'simpeachment trial.[225] Both indictments quietly died and Burr was not prosecuted.[226]
In August 1804, Burr contacted British MinisterAnthony Merry offering to cede U.S. western territory in return for money and British ships.[227] After leaving office in April 1805, Burr traveled west and conspired with Louisiana Territory governorJames Wilkinson, beginning a large-scale recruitment for a military expedition.[228] Burr discussed seizing control of Mexico or Spanish Florida, or forming a secessionist state in New Orleans or the Western U.S.; historians remain unclear as to his true goal.[229][o] In the fall of 1806, Burr launched a military flotilla carrying about 60 men down theOhio River. Wilkinson renounced the plot and reported Burr's expedition to Jefferson, who ordered Burr's arrest.[228][231][232] On February 13, 1807, Burr was captured in Louisiana and sent to Virginia to be tried for treason.[227]Burr's 1807 conspiracy trial became a national issue.[233] Jefferson attempted to preemptively influence the verdict by telling Congress that Burr's guilt was "beyond question", but the case came before his longtime political foe, and distant cousin,John Marshall, who dismissed the treason charge. Burr's legal team subpoenaed Jefferson, but Jefferson refused to testify, making the first argument forexecutive privilege.[234] Instead, Jefferson provided relevant legal documents.[235] After a three-month trial, the jury found Burr not guilty, while Jefferson denounced his acquittal.[232][236][p][237] Jefferson subsequently removed Wilkinson as territorial governor but retained him in the U.S. military. Historian James N. Banner criticized Jefferson for continuing to trust Wilkinson, a "faithless plotter".[232]
Wilkinson's misconduct
Commanding GeneralJames Wilkinson was a holdover of the Washington and Adams administrations. In 1804, Wilkinson received 12,000 pesos from the Spanish for information on American boundary plans.[238] Wilkinson also received advances on his salary and payments on claims submitted to Secretary of WarHenry Dearborn. This damaging information apparently was unknown to Jefferson. In 1805, Jefferson trusted Wilkinson and appointed him Louisiana Territory governor, admiring Wilkinson's work ethic.
In January 1806, Jefferson received information from Kentucky U.S. Attorney Joseph Davies that Wilkinson was on the Spanish payroll. Jefferson took no action against Wilkinson, since there was not then significant evidence against him.[239] An investigation by theU.S. House of Representatives in December 1807 exonerated Wilkinson.[240] In 1808, a military court looked into the allegations against Wilkinson but also found a lack of evidence. Jefferson retained Wilkinson in theU.S. Army.[241] Evidence found in Spanish archives in the 20th century proved Wilkinson was on the Spanish payroll.[238]
Foreign affairs (1805–1809)
Attempted annexation of Florida
In the aftermath of theLouisiana Purchase, Jefferson attempted to annexWest Florida from Spain. In his annual message to Congress, on December 3, 1805, Jefferson railed against Spain over Florida border depredations.[242][243] A few days later Jefferson secretly requested a two-million-dollar expenditure to purchase Florida. Floor leaderJohn Randolph opposed annexation, was upset over Jefferson's secrecy on the matter, and believed the money would end up going to Napoleon.[243][244] The Two Million Dollar bill passed only after Jefferson successfully maneuvered to replace Randolph withBarnabas Bidwell as floor leader.[243][244] This aroused suspicion of Jefferson and charges of undue executive influence over Congress. Jefferson signed the bill into law in February 1806. Six weeks later the law was made public. The two million dollars was to be given to France as payment, in turn, to put pressure on Spain to permit the annexation of Florida by the United States. France, however, refused the offer and Florida remained under Spanish control.[245][243] The failed venture damaged Jefferson's reputation among his supporters.[246][243]
Starting in 1806, the Royal Navy began stopping American merchantmen to search for deserters from the British navy; approximately 6,000 sailors were impressed into the Royal Navy this way, leading to deep anger and resentment among the U.S. public. In 1806, Jefferson issued a call for a boycott of British goods; on April 18, Congress passed the Non-Importation Acts, but they were never enforced. Later that year, Jefferson asked James Monroe andWilliam Pinkney to negotiate an end to foreign interference with American merchant shipping, though relations with Britain showed no signs of improving. TheMonroe–Pinkney Treaty was finalized but lacked any provisions regarding the issue of impressment, and Jefferson refused to submit it to the Senate for ratification.[247]
The British warshipHMS Leopardencountered theUSS Chesapeake off the Virginia coast in June 1807;Leopard fired atChesapeake after the latter refused to allow for a search for deserters before removing four deserters from the ship.[248] Jefferson issued a proclamation banning British warships from U.S. waters. He presumed unilateral authority to call on the states to prepare 100,000 militia and ordered the purchase of arms, ammunition, and supplies, writing, "The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation [than strict observance of written laws]". TheUSS Revenge was dispatched to demand an explanation from theBritish government, and Jefferson called for a special session of Congress in October to enact an embargo or alternatively to consider war.[249]
An 1807 political cartoon on theEmbargo Act, depicting merchants dodging the "Ograbme", which is "Embargo" spelled backward
In December 1807, news arrived that Napoleon had extended theBerlin Decree, globally banning British imports. The Royal Navy, meanwhile continued to impress sailors from American merchant ships. However, Congress had no appetite to prepare the U.S. for war; Jefferson asked for and received the Embargo Act, an alternative that allowed the U.S. more time to build up defensive works, militias, and naval forces. Meacham argued that theEmbargo Act was a projection of power that surpassed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and R. B. Bernstein said that Jefferson "was pursuing policies resembling those he had cited in 1776 as grounds for independence and revolution".[250]
In November 1807, Jefferson, for several days, met with his cabinet to discuss the deteriorating foreign situation.[251] Secretary of State James Madison supported the embargo,[252] while Treasury Secretary Gallatin opposed it, due to its indefinite time frame and the risk to the policy of American neutrality.[253] The U.S. economy suffered, criticism grew, and opponents began evading the embargo. Instead of retreating, Jefferson sent federal agents to secretly track down smugglers and violators.[254] Three acts were passed in Congress during 1807 and 1808, called theSupplementary, theAdditional, and theEnforcement acts.[248] The government could not prevent American vessels from trading with the European belligerents once they had left American ports, although the embargo triggered a devastating decline in exports.[248]
In December 1807, Jefferson announced his intention not to seek a third term. He turned his attention increasingly to Monticello during the last year of his presidency, giving Madison and Gallatin almost total control of affairs.[255] Shortly before leaving office in March 1809, Jefferson signed the repeal of the Embargo. In its place, theNon-Intercourse Act was passed, but it proved no more effective.[248] The day before Madison was inaugurated as his successor, Jefferson said that he felt like "a prisoner, released from his chains".[256]
After his presidency, Jefferson remained influential and continued to correspond with many of the country's leaders (including his two protégées, Madison and Monroe, who succeeded him as president); theMonroe Doctrine strongly resembles solicited advice that Jefferson gave to Monroe in 1823.[257][258]
Jefferson envisioned a university free of church influences where students could specialize in new areas not offered at other colleges. He believed that education engendered a stable society, which should provide publicly funded schools accessible based solely on ability.[259] He initially proposed his university in a letter toJoseph Priestley in 1800[260] and, in 1819, founded theUniversity of Virginia. He organized the state legislative campaign for its charter and, with the assistance ofEdmund Bacon, purchased the location. He was the principal designer of the buildings, planned the university's curriculum, and served as the first rector upon its opening in 1825.[261]
Jefferson was a strong disciple of Greek and Roman architectural styles, which he believed to be most representative of American democracy. Each academic unit, called a pavilion, was designed with a two-story temple front, while the library "Rotunda" was modeled on theRoman Pantheon. Jefferson referred to the university's grounds as the "Academical Village", and he reflected his educational ideas in its layout. The ten pavilions included classrooms and faculty residences; they formed a quadrangle and were connected by colonnades, behind which stood the student rooms. Gardens and vegetable plots were placed behind the pavilions and were surrounded byserpentine walls, affirming the importance of the agrarian lifestyle.[262] The university had a library rather than a church at its center, emphasizing its secular nature—controversial at the time.[263]
When Jefferson died in 1826, James Madison replaced him as rector.[264] Jefferson bequeathed most of his reconstructed library of almost 2,000 volumes to the university.[265] Only one other ex-president has founded a university;Millard Fillmore founded theUniversity at Buffalo in 1846.[266]
Reconciliation with Adams
In 1804,Abigail Adams, wife and confidant ofJohn Adams, was one of several people who intervened in an attempt to reconcile differences between Jefferson and John Adams. Jefferson and Adams ultimately reconciled, established a lengthy correspondence and renewed friendship, which historianDavid McCullough has called "one of the most extraordinary correspondences in American history." On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson and Adams died within hours of each other, which then U.S. presidentJohn Quincy Adams called "visible and palpable remarks of Divine Favor."
Jefferson andJohn Adams became good friends in the first decades of their political careers, serving together in the Continental Congress in the 1770s and in Europe in the 1780s. The Federalist/Republican split of the 1790s divided them, however, and Adams felt betrayed by Jefferson's sponsorship of partisan attacks, such as those of James Callender. Jefferson was angered by Adams' appointment of "midnight judges".[267] The two men did not communicate directly for more than a decade after Jefferson succeeded Adams as president.[268] A brief correspondence took place betweenAbigail Adams and Jefferson after Jefferson's daughter Polly died in 1804, in an attempt at reconciliation unknown to Adams. However, an exchange of letters resumed open hostilities between Adams and Jefferson.[267]
As early as 1809,Benjamin Rush began to prod the two through correspondence to re-establish contact.[267] In 1812, Adams wrote a short New Year's greeting to Jefferson, prompted earlier by Rush, to which Jefferson warmly responded. This initial correspondence began what historianDavid McCullough calls "one of the most extraordinary correspondences in American history".[269] Over the next 14 years, Jefferson and Adams exchanged 158 letters discussing their political differences, justifying their respective roles in events, and debating the revolution's import to the world.[270]
When Adams died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, his last words were an acknowledgment of his longtime friend and rival. "Thomas Jefferson survives", Adams said, unaware that Jefferson had died a few hours earlier.[271][272][273]
Autobiography
In 1821, at the age of 77, Jefferson began writing hisAutobiography of Thomas Jefferson: 1743–1790, in which he said he sought to "state some recollections of dates and facts concerning myself".[274] He focused on the struggles and achievements he experienced until July 29, 1790, where the narrative stopped short.[275] He excluded his youth, emphasizing the revolutionary era. He related that his ancestors came from Wales to America in the early 17th century and settled in the western frontier of the Virginia colony, which influenced his zeal for individual and state rights. Jefferson described his father as uneducated, but with a "strong mind and sound judgement". He also addressed his enrollment in theCollege of William & Mary and his election to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775.[274]
He expressed opposition to the idea of a privilegedaristocracy made up of large landowning families partial to the King, and instead promoted "the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, & scattered with equal hand through all its conditions, was deemed essential to a well-ordered republic".[274] The work is primarily concerned with the Declaration and reforming the government of Virginia. He used notes, letters, and documents to tell many of the stories. He suggested that this history was so rich that his personal affairs were better overlooked, but he incorporated a self-analysis using the Declaration and other patriotism.[276]
In the summer of 1824, theMarquis de Lafayette accepted an invitation from PresidentJames Monroe to visit the country. Jefferson and Lafayette had not seen each other since 1789. After visits to New York,New England, and Washington, Lafayette arrived atMonticello on November 4.[261]
Jefferson's grandsonRandolph was present and recorded the reunion: "As they approached each other, their uncertain gait quickened itself into a shuffling run, and exclaiming, 'Ah Jefferson!' 'Ah Lafayette!', they burst into tears as they fell into each other's arms." Jefferson and Lafayette then retired to the house to reminisce.[283] The next morning Jefferson, Lafayette, and James Madison attended a tour and banquet at the University of Virginia. Jefferson had someone else read a speech he had prepared for Lafayette, as his voice was weak and could not carry. This was his last public presentation. After an 11-day visit, Lafayette bid Jefferson goodbye and departed Monticello.[284]
Jefferson's approximately $100,000 of debt weighed heavily on his mind in his final months, as it became increasingly clear that he would have little to leave to his heirs.[285][286] In February 1826, he successfully applied to the General Assembly to hold a public lottery as a fundraiser.[287] His health began to deteriorate in July 1825, due to a combination ofrheumatism from arm and wrist injuries, andintestinal andurinary disorders.[261] By June 1826, he was confined to bed.[287] On July 3, overcome by fever, Jefferson declined an invitation to attend an anniversary celebration of the Declaration inWashington.[288]
During his last hours, he was accompanied by family members and friends. Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, at 12:50 p.m. at age 83, on the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. In the moments prior to his death, Jefferson instructed his treating physician, "No, doctor, nothing more", refusinglaudanum. But his final significant words were, "Is it the Fourth?" or "This is the Fourth".[289] WhenJohn Adams died later that same day, his last words were "Thomas Jefferson survives", though Adams was unaware that Jefferson had died several hours before.[290][291][292][293] The sitting president was Adams's son,John Quincy Adams, and he called the coincidence of their deaths on the nation's anniversary "visible and palpable remarks of Divine Favor".[294]
Shortly after Jefferson died, attendants found a gold locket on a chain around his neck, containing a small faded blue ribbon around a lock of his wifeMartha's hair.[295]
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.[296]
In his advanced years, Jefferson became increasingly concerned that people would understand the principles in the Declaration of Independence, and the people responsible for writing it, and he continually defended himself as its author. He considered the document one of his greatest life achievements, in addition to authoring theStatute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and founding theUniversity of Virginia. Absent from his epitaph were his political roles, including his presidency.[297]
Jefferson died deeply in debt, and was unable to pass on his estate freely to his heirs.[298] He gave instructions in his will for disposal of his assets,[299] including the freeing of Sally Hemings's children;[300] but his estate, possessions, and slaves were sold at public auctions starting in 1827.[301] In 1831, Monticello was sold byMartha Jefferson Randolph and the other heirs.[302]
Jefferson wrote letters and speeches prolifically; these show him to be well-read in the philosophical literature of his day and of antiquity. Nevertheless, some scholars do not take Jefferson seriously as a philosopher mainly because he did not produce a formal work on philosophy. However, he has been described as one of the most outstanding philosophical figures of his time because his work provided the theoretical background to, and the substance of, the social and political events of the revolutionary years and the development of theAmerican Constitution in the 1770s and 1780s.[311] Jefferson continued to attend to more theoretical questions ofnatural philosophy and subsequently left behind a rich philosophical legacy in the form of presidential messages, letters, and public papers.[312]
According to Jefferson's philosophy, citizens have "certain inalienable rights" and "rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others."[316][317] A staunch advocate of the jury system, he proclaimed in 1801, "I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."[318] Jeffersonian government not only prohibited individuals in society from infringing on the liberty of others, but also restrained itself from diminishingindividual liberty as a protection againsttyranny of the majority.[319] Initially, Jefferson favored restricted voting to those who could actually have the free exercise of their reason by escaping any corrupting dependence on others. He advocated enfranchising a majority of Virginians, seeking to expand suffrage to include "yeoman farmers" who owned their own land while excluding tenant farmers, city day laborers, vagrants, most American Indians, and women.[320]
He was convinced that individual liberties were the fruit of political equality, which was threatened by the arbitrary government.[321] Excesses of democracy in his view were caused by institutional corruption rather than human nature. He was less suspicious of a working democracy than many contemporaries.[320] As president, Jefferson feared that thefederal system enacted by Washington and Adams had encouraged corrupting patronage and dependence. He tried to restore a balance between the state and federal governments more nearly reflecting theArticles of Confederation, seeking to reinforce state prerogatives where his party was in the majority.[320]
According to Stanford ScholarJack Rakove, "[w]hen Jefferson wrote 'all men are created equal' in the preamble to the Declaration, he was not talking about individual equality. What he really meant was that the American colonists, as a people, had the same rights of self-government as other peoples, and hence could declare independence, create new governments and assume their 'separate and equal station' among other nations."[317] Jefferson's famous mantra later became a statement "of individual equality that everyone and every member of a deprived group could claim for himself or herself."[317] HistorianHenry Wiencek has noted Jefferson included slaves when he penned "all men are created equal" in the Declaration. As early as 1774, Jefferson had supported ending domestic slavery, and making slaves citizens.[322] Later, writing inNotes (1781), Jefferson supported gradual emancipation of slaves, to be sent away from the U.S. to an unspecified place. The former slaves would be replaced by white immigrant workers.[323] In 1792, Jefferson calculated that he was making a 4 percent profit every year on the birth of black children. After this he wrote that slavery presented an investment strategy for the future. Historian Brion Davis writes that Jefferson's emancipation efforts virtually ceased.[324]
Jefferson was steeped in theWhig tradition of the oppressed majority set against a repeatedly unresponsive court party in the Parliament. He justified small outbreaks of rebellion as necessary to get monarchial regimes to amend oppressive measures compromising popular liberties. In a republican regime ruled by the majority, he acknowledged "it will often be exercised when wrong".[325] But "the remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them."[326] As Jefferson saw his party triumph in two terms of his presidency and launch into a third term under James Madison, his view of the U.S. as a continental republic and an "empire of liberty" grew more upbeat. On departing the presidency, he described America as "trusted with the destines of this solitary republic of the world, the only monument of human rights, and the sole depository of the sacred fire of freedom and self-government".[327]
Jefferson was a supporter ofAmerican expansionism, writing in 1801 that "it is impossible not to look forward to distant times when our rapid multiplication will expand itself beyond those limits, and cover the whole northern, if not the southern continent."[328]
Democracy
Jefferson, at age 78, depicted in an 1821Thomas Sully portrait
Jefferson considered democracy to be the expression of society and promoted national self-determination, cultural uniformity, and education of all males of the commonwealth.[329] He supported public education and a free press as essential components of a democratic nation.[330]
After resigning assecretary of state in 1795, Jefferson focused on the electoral bases of the Republicans and Federalists. The "Republican" classification for which he advocated included "the entire body of landholders" everywhere and "the body of laborers" without land.[331] Republicans united behind Jefferson as vice president, with the election of 1796 expanding democracy nationwide at grassroots levels.[332] Jefferson promoted Republican candidates for local offices.[333]
Beginning with Jefferson's electioneering for the "revolution of 1800", his political efforts were based on egalitarian appeals.[334] In his later years, he referred to the 1800 election "as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of '76 was in its form", one "not effected indeed by the sword ... but by the ... suffrage of the people".[335] Voter participation grew during Jefferson's presidency, increasing to "unimaginable levels" compared to the Federalist Era, with turnout of about 67,000 in1800 rising to about 143,000 in1804.[336]
At the onset of theAmerican Revolution, Jefferson acceptedWilliam Blackstone's argument that property ownership would sufficiently empower voters' independent judgement, but he sought to further expand suffrage by land distribution to the poor.[337] In the heat of the Revolutionary Era and afterward, several states expanded voter eligibility from landed gentry to all propertied male, tax-paying citizens with Jefferson's support.[338] In retirement, he gradually became critical of his home state for violating "the principle of equal political rights"—the social right of universal male suffrage.[339] He sought a "general suffrage" of all taxpayers and militia-men, and equal representation by population in the General Assembly to correct preferential treatment of the slave-holding regions.[340]
Baptized in his youth, Jefferson became a governing member of his localEpiscopal Church inCharlottesville, which he later attended with his daughters.[341] Jefferson, however, spurned Biblical views of Christianity.[342] Influenced byDeist authors during his college years, Jefferson abandoned orthodox Christianity after his review ofNew Testament teachings.[343][344] Jefferson has sometimes been portrayed as a follower of the liberal religious strand of Deism that values reason over revelation.[345] Nonetheless, in 1803, Jefferson asserted, "I am Christian, in the only sense in which [Jesus] wished any one to be".[220]
Jefferson later defined being a Christian as one who followed the simple teachings of Jesus. Influenced byJoseph Priestley,[345] Jefferson selected New Testament passages of Jesus' teachings into a private work he calledThe Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, known today as theJefferson Bible, which was never published during his lifetime.[346][347] Jefferson believed that Jesus' message had been obscured and corrupted byPaul the Apostle, theGospel writers andProtestant reformers.[345] Peterson states that Jefferson was atheist "whose God was the Creator of the universe ... all the evidences of nature testified to His perfection; and man could rely on the harmony and beneficence of His work".[348] In a letter toJohn Adams, Jefferson wrote that what he believed was genuinely Christ's, found in the Gospels, was "as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill".[342] By omitting miracles and theresurrection, Jefferson made the figure of Jesus more compatible with a worldview based on reason.[342]
Jefferson was firmlyanticlerical, writing in "every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty ... they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon."[349] The full letter to Horatio Spatford can be read at the National Archives.[350] Jefferson once supported banning clergy from public office but later relented.[351] In 1777, he drafted theVirginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Ratified in 1786, it made compelling attendance or contributions to any state-sanctioned religious establishment illegal and declared that men "shall be free to profess ... their opinions in matters of religion".[352] The Statute is one of only three accomplishments he chose for his epitaph.[353][354] Early in 1802, Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Connecticut Baptist Association that "religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God". He interpreted theFirst Amendment as having built "a wall ofseparation between Church and State".[355] The phrase 'Separation of Church and State' has been cited several times by theSupreme Court in its interpretation of theEstablishment Clause.[356]
Jefferson donated to theAmerican Bible Society, saying theFour Evangelists delivered a "pure and sublime system of morality" to humanity. He thought Americans would rationally create "Apiarian" religion, extracting the best traditions of every denomination.[357] He contributed generously to several local denominations near Monticello.[358] Acknowledgingorganized religion would always be factored into political life, he encouraged reason over supernatural revelation to make inquiries into religion. He believed in acreator god, anafterlife, and the sum of religion as loving God and neighbors. But he also controversially rejected fundamental Christian beliefs, denying the conventional ChristianTrinity, Jesus's divinity as theSon of God and miracles, the Resurrection of Christ, atonement from sin, andoriginal sin.[347][359][360] Jefferson believed that original sin was a gross injustice.[347]
Jefferson's unorthodox religious beliefs became an important issue in the1800 presidential election.[361] Federalists attacked him as anatheist. As president, Jefferson countered the accusations by praising religion in his inaugural address and attending services at the Capitol.[361]
Islam
In October 1765, while Jefferson was still a law student he bought a copy of theQuran from the year 1734.[362] He had the Quran shipped from England to Williamsburg, Virginia.[363]
Jefferson distrusted government banks and opposed public borrowing, which he thought created long-term debt, bred monopolies, and invited dangerous speculation as opposed to productive labor.[364] In one letter to Madison, he argued each generation should curtail all debt within 19 years, and not impose a long-term debt on subsequent generations.[365]
In 1791, President Washington asked Jefferson, then secretary of state, and Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, if the Congress had the authority to create anational bank. While Hamilton believed so, Jefferson and Madison thought a national bank would ignore the needs of individuals and farmers, and would violate theTenth Amendment by assuming powers not granted to the federal government by the states.[366] Hamilton successfully argued that theimplied powers given to the federal government in the Constitution supported the creation of a national bank, among other federal actions.
Jefferson used agrarian resistance to banks and speculators as the first defining principle of an opposition party, recruiting candidates for Congress on the issue as early as 1792.[367] As president, Jefferson was persuaded by Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin to leave the bank intact but sought to restrain its influence.[368][q]
Page 30 of Jefferson's 1795 Farm Book, which lists 163 slaves at Monticello
Scholars give radically differing interpretations onJefferson's views and relationship with slavery.[9] Opinions range from "emancipationists" who view him as an earlyproto-abolitionist, who subsequently made pragmatic compromises with theslave power topreserve the union; to "revisionists", who argue that he in fact entrenched the institution in American society; with people also having more nuanced opinions, who either argue that Jefferson held inconsistent views on the institution throughout his lifetime or that both interpretations are too overly simplistic.[9]
Jefferson lived in a planter economy largely dependent upon slavery, and as a wealthy landholder, used slave labor for his household, plantation, and workshops. He first recorded his slaveholding in 1774, when he counted 41 enslaved people.[370] Over his lifetime he enslaved about 600 people; he inherited about 175 people while most of the remainder were people born on his plantations.[371] Jefferson purchased some slaves in order to reunite their families. He sold approximately 110 people for economic reasons, primarily slaves from his outlying farms.[371][372] In 1784, when the number of people he enslaved likely was approximately 200, he began to divest himself of many slaves, and by 1794 he had divested himself of 161 individuals.[373][r]
Approximately 100 slaves lived at Monticello at any given time. In 1817, the plantation recorded its largest slave population of 140 individuals.[374]
Jefferson once said, "My first wish is that the labourers may be well treated".[371] Jefferson did not work his slaves on Sundays and Christmas and he allowed them more personal time during the winter months.[375] Some scholars doubt Jefferson's benevolence,[376] noting cases of excessive slave whippings in his absence. His nail factory was staffed only by enslaved children. Many of the enslaved boys became tradesmen. Burwell Colbert, who started his working life as a child in Monticello's Nailery, was later promoted to the supervisory position of butler.[377]
Jefferson felt slavery was harmful to both slave and master but had reservations about releasing slaves from captivity, and advocated for gradual emancipation.[378][379][380] In 1779, he proposed gradual voluntary training and resettlement to the Virginia legislature, and three years later drafted legislation allowing slaveholders to free their own slaves.[70] In his draft of the Declaration of Independence, he included a section, stricken by other Southern delegates, criticizing King George III for supposedly forcing slavery onto the colonies.[381] In 1784, Jefferson proposed the abolition of slavery in all western U.S. territories, limiting slave importation to 15 years.[382] Congress, however, failed to pass his proposal by one vote.[382] In 1787, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance, a partial victory for Jefferson that terminated slavery in the Northwest Territory. Jefferson freed his slave Robert Hemings in 1794 and he freed his cook slave James Hemings in 1796.[383] Jefferson freed his runaway slaveHarriet Hemings in 1822. Upon his death in 1826, Jefferson freed five male Hemings slaves in his will.[384]
During his presidency, Jefferson allowed the diffusion of slavery into theLouisiana Territory hoping to prevent slave uprisings in Virginia and to preventSouth Carolina secession.[385] In 1804, in a compromise, Jefferson and Congress banned domestic slave trafficking for one year into the Louisiana Territory.[386] In 1806 he officially called for anti-slavery legislation terminating the import or export of slaves. Congress passed the law in 1807.[378][387][388]
In 1819, Jefferson strongly opposed a Missouri statehood application amendment, which banned domestic slave importation and freed slaves at the age of 25 on grounds that it would destroy the union.[389] InNotes on the State of Virginia, he created controversy by calling slavery a moral evil for which the nation would ultimately have to account to God.[390] Jefferson wrote of his "suspicion" that Black people were mentally and physically inferior to Whites, but argued that they nonetheless had innate human rights.[378][391][392] He therefore supported colonization plans that would transport freed slaves to another country, such asLiberia orSierra Leone, though he recognized the impracticability of such proposals.[393] According toEric Foner, "In 1824 Jefferson proposed that the federal government purchase and deport 'the increase of each year' (that is, children), so that the slave population would age and eventually disappear."[394]
During his presidency, Jefferson was for the most part publicly silent on the issue of slavery and emancipation,[395] as the Congressional debate over slavery and its extension caused a dangerous north–south rift among the states, with talk of a northern confederacy in New England.[396][s] The violent attacks on white slave owners during theHaitian Revolution due to injustices under slavery supported Jefferson's fears of a race war, increasing his reservations about promoting emancipation.[378][397] After numerous attempts and failures to bring about emancipation,[398] Jefferson wrote privately in an 1805 letter toWilliam A. Burwell, "I have long since given up the expectation of any early provision for the extinguishment of slavery among us." That same year he also related this idea toGeorge Logan, writing, "I have most carefully avoided every public act or manifestation on that subject."[399]
An 1804 cartoon depicting Jefferson as a rooster andSally Hemings as a hen
Claims that Jefferson fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings after his wife's death have been debated since 1802. In that yearJames T. Callender, after being denied a position aspostmaster, alleged Jefferson had taken Hemings as a concubine and fathered several children with her.[400] In 1998, a panel of researchers conducted aY-DNA study of living descendants of Jefferson's uncle, Field, and of a descendant of Hemings's son,Eston Hemings. The results showed a match with the male Jefferson line.[401][402] Subsequently, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) formed a nine-member research team of historians to assess the matter.[402] The TJF report concluded that "the DNA study ... indicates a high probability that Thomas Jefferson fathered Eston Hemings".[402][403][t] The TJF also concluded that Jefferson likely fathered all of Hemings's children listed at Monticello.[402][u]
In July 2017, the TJF announced that archeological excavations at Monticello had revealed what they believe to have been Sally Hemings's quarters, adjacent to Jefferson's bedroom.[405][406] Since the results of the DNA tests were made public, the consensus among most historians has been that Jefferson had a sexual relationship with Sally Hemings and that he was the father of her son Eston Hemings.[407]
A minority of scholars maintain the evidence is insufficient to prove Jefferson's paternity conclusively. Based on DNA and other evidence, they note the possibility that additional Jefferson males, including his brother Randolph Jefferson and any one of Randolph's four sons, or his cousin, could have fathered Sally Hemings's children.[408] In 2002, historianMerrill Peterson said: "in the absence of direct documentary evidence either proving or refuting the allegation, nothing conclusive can be said about Jefferson's relations with Sally Hemings."[409] Concerning the 1998 DNA study, Peterson said that "the results of the DNA testing of Jefferson and Hemings descendants provided support for the idea that Jefferson was the father of at least one of Sally Hemings's children".[409]
After Jefferson's death in 1826, although not formallymanumitted, Sally Hemings was allowed by Jefferson's daughter Martha to live inCharlottesville as afree woman with her two sons until her death in 1835.[410][v] TheMonticello Association refused to allow Sally Hemings' descendants the right of burial at Monticello.[412]
Jefferson was a farmer, obsessed with new crops, soil conditions, garden designs, and scientific agricultural techniques. His main cash crop was tobacco, but its price was usually low and it was rarely profitable. He tried to achieve self-sufficiency with wheat, vegetables, flax, corn, hogs, sheep, poultry, and cattle to supply his family, slaves, and employees, but he lived perpetually beyond his means[413] and was always in debt.[414] Jefferson also planted two vineyards at Monticello and hoped to growVitis vinifera, the European wine grape species, to make wine, but the crop failed. His efforts were nonetheless an important contribution to the development of American viticulture.[415]
Inarchaeology in 1784, Jefferson, using thetrench method, started excavating several Native American burial mounds inVirginia. His excavations were prompted by the"Moundbuilders" question and his careful methods allowed him to witness thestratigraphic layout, the various human remains and other artifacts inside the mound. The evidence present at the site granted him enough insight to admit that he saw no reason why the ancestors of the present-day Native Americans could not have raised those mounds.[419]
He was interested in birds and wine, and was a notedgourmet.[420] As a naturalist, he was fascinated by theNatural Bridge geological formation, and in 1774 successfully acquired the Bridge by a grant from George III.[421]
As an advocate of Enlightenment ideals, Jefferson studied many aspects of the natural sciences and frequently corresponded, and even hosted on multiple occasions, withPrussian explorer,Alexander von Humboldt. These two figures regularly shared ideas and knowledge with one another with letters spanning multiple years.[422]
American Philosophical Society
Jefferson was a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society for 35 years, beginning in 1780. Through the society he advanced thesciences and Enlightenment ideals, emphasizing that knowledge of science reinforced and extended freedom.[423] HisNotes on the State of Virginia was written in part as a contribution to the society.[424] He became the society's third president on March 3, 1797, a few months after he was elected Vice President of the United States.[424][425] In accepting, Jefferson stated: "I feel no qualification for this distinguished post but a sincere zeal for all the objects of our institution and an ardent desire to see knowledge so disseminated through the mass of mankind that it may at length reach even the extremes of society, beggars and kings."[423]
On March 10, 1797, Jefferson gave a lecture, later published as a paper in 1799, which reported on the skeletal remains of an extinct large sloth, which he namedMegalonyx, unearthed by saltpeter workers from a cave in what is now Monroe County, West Virginia.[426][427] Jefferson is considered to be a pioneer of scientific paleontology research in North America.[428]
Jefferson served as APS president for the next eighteen years, including through both terms of his presidency.[424] He introducedMeriwether Lewis to the society, where various scientists tutored him in preparation for theLewis and Clark Expedition.[424][429] He resigned on January 20, 1815, but remained active through correspondence.[430]
Linguistics
Jefferson had a lifelong interest inlinguistics, and could speak, read, and write in a number of languages, including French, Greek, Italian, and German. In his early years, he excelled in classical languages.[431][432] Jefferson later came to regard Greek as the "perfect language" as expressed in its laws and philosophy.[433] While attending the College of William & Mary, he taught himself Italian.[434] Here Jefferson first became familiar with theAnglo-Saxon language, studying it in a linguistic and philosophical capacity. He owned 17 volumes of Anglo-Saxon texts and grammar and later wrote an essay on the Anglo-Saxon language.[431] Jefferson claimed to have taught himself Spanish during his nineteen-day journey to France, using only a grammar guide and a copy ofDon Quixote.[435]
Linguistics played a significant role in how Jefferson modeled and expressed political and philosophical ideas. He believed that the study of ancient languages was essential in understanding the roots of modern language.[436] Jefferson criticizedlanguage purists and supported the introduction of neologisms to English, foreseeing the emergence of"an American dialect". He described theAcadémie Française, a body designated to regulate the French language, as an "endeavor to arrest the progress of their language".[437]
He collected and understood a number ofAmerican Indian vocabularies and instructed Lewis and Clark to record and collect various Indian languages during their Expedition.[438] When Jefferson moved from Washington after his presidency, he took 50 Native American vocabulary lists back to Monticello along with the rest of his possessions. Somewhere along the journey, a thief stole the heavy chest, thinking it was full of valuables, but its contents were dumped into the James River when the thief discovered it was only filled with papers. Thirty years of collecting were lost, with only a few fragments rescued from the muddy banks of the river.[439]
Jefferson was not an outstanding orator and preferred to communicate through writing or remain silent if possible. Instead of delivering hisState of the Union addresses himself, Jefferson wrote the annual messages and sent a representative to read them aloud in Congress, which started a tradition that continued until 1913, when PresidentWoodrow Wilson chose to deliver his State of the Union address to Congress verbally and in person.[440]
Inventions
Jefferson invented many small practical devices and improved contemporary inventions, including a revolving book-stand and a "Great Clock" powered by the gravitational pull on cannonballs. He improved thepedometer, thepolygraph (a device for duplicating writing),[441] and themoldboard plow, an idea he never patented and gave to posterity.[442] Jefferson can also be credited as the creator of theswivel chair, the first of which he created and used to write much of the Declaration of Independence.[443] He first opposed patents but later supported them. From 1790 to 1793, as Secretary of State, he was theex officio head of the three-person patent review board. He drafted reforms of US patent law which led to him being relieved of this duty in 1793, and also drastically changed the patent system.[444]
As Minister to France, Jefferson was impressed by the military standardization program known as theSystème Gribeauval, and initiated a program as president to developinterchangeable parts for firearms. For his inventiveness and ingenuity, Jefferson was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree fromHarvard University in 1787.[445]
Jefferson is seen as an icon of individual liberty, democracy, andrepublicanism, hailed as the author of the Declaration of Independence, an architect of the American Revolution, and arenaissance man who promoted science and scholarship.[446] The participatory democracy and expanded suffrage he championed defined his era and became a standard for later generations.[447]Jon Meacham opined that Jefferson was the most influential figure of the democratic republic in its first half-century, succeeded by presidential adherentsJames Madison,James Monroe,Andrew Jackson, andMartin Van Buren.[448] ASiena Research Institute poll of presidential scholars, which began in 1982, has consistently ranked Jefferson as one of the five best U.S. presidents,[449] and a 2015Brookings Institution poll ofAmerican Political Science Association members ranked him as the fifth-greatest president.[450]
TheJefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., in 1943, on the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth. The interior of the memorial includes a 19-foot (6 m) statue of Jefferson byRudulph Evans and engravings of passages from Jefferson's writings. Most prominent among these passages are the words inscribed around the Jefferson Memorial: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man", a quote from Jefferson's September 23, 1800, letter toBenjamin Rush.[452]
In October 2021, in response to lobbying, the New York City Public Design Commission voted unanimously to remove the plaster model ofthe statue of Jefferson that currently stands in theUnited States Capitol rotunda from the chamber of theNew York City Council, where it had been for more than a century, due to him fathering children with people he enslaved.[453] The statue was taken down the next month.[454]
^A number of historians and geneticists argue that while DNA testing of Hemings' descendants reveals a genetic connection with a male ancestor in the Jefferson family, it does not conclusively prove that it was Jefferson himself who sired these children, seeJefferson-Hemings controversy.[4][5]
^Jefferson personally showed little interest in his ancestry; on his father's side, he only knew of the existence of his grandfather.[11][12] Malone writes that Jefferson vaguely knew that his grandfather "had a place on the Fluvanna River which he calledSnowden after a mountain in Wales near which the Jeffersons were supposed to have once lived".[11] See alsoPeter Jefferson#Ancestry.
^His other properties includedShadwell,Tufton, Lego, Pantops, and his retreat,Poplar Forest. He also owned the unimproved mountaintop Montalto, and the Natural Bridge.[48]
^While the news from Francis Eppes, with whom Lucy was staying, did not reach Jefferson until 1785, in an undated letter,[58] it is clear that the year of her death was 1784 from another letter to Jefferson from James Currie dated November 20, 1784.[59]
^Adams recorded his exchange with Jefferson on the question. Jefferson asked, "Why will you not? You ought to do it." To which Adams responded, "I will not—reasons enough." Jefferson replied, "What can be your reasons?" and Adams responded, "Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can." "Well," said Jefferson, "if you are decided, I will do as well as I can." Adams concluded, "Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting."[68]
^Franklin, seated beside the author, observed him "writhing a little under the acrimonious criticisms on some of its parts."[73]
^Theentail laws made it perpetual: the one who inherited the land could not sell it, but had to bequeath it to his oldest son. As a result, increasingly large plantations, worked by white tenant farmers and by black slaves, gained in size, wealth, and political power in the eastern ("Tidewater") tobacco areas.[83] During the Revolutionary era, all such laws were repealed by the states that had them.[84]
^Anthony M. Hance, writing inTarleton's Fox Hunt, quotes a letter from a Bradley S. Johnson that claims an unnamed girl did the ride. "When Tarleton got to 'Castle Hill,' about twenty miles from Charlottesville, its owner, Colonel Rives, ... detained him with a Virginia break¬ fast — ... while his daughter rode at speed to warn Jefferson and the other rebels."[91] but at the timeCastle Hill was not owned by a Colonel Rives but was instead owned by its builder Thomas Walker, though the house did later pass on by inheritance into the Rives family.[92]
^Jefferson's Kentucky draft said: "where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy: that every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact, (casus non fœderis) to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits."[151]
^Louisiana nevertheless gained statehood nine years later in 1812.[198]
^Further complicating matters, Wilkinson was posthumously revealed to have been in the simultaneous pay of the British, French, and Spanish.[230]
^Burr then left for Europe and eventually returned to practicing law.
^The First Bank of the U.S. was eventually abolished in 1811 by a heavily Republican Congress.[369]
^The 135 slaves, which included Betty Hemings and her ten children, that Jefferson acquired from Wayles's estate made him the second-largest slave owner in Albemarle County with a total of 187 slaves. The number fluctuated from around 200 slaves until 1784 when he began to give away or sell slaves. By 1794 he had gotten rid of 161 individuals.[373]
^Aaron Burr was offered help in obtaining the governorship of New York byTimothy Pickering if he could persuade New York to go along, but the secession effort failed when Burr lost the election.
^The minority report authored by White Wallenborn concluded "the historical evidence is not substantial enough to confirm nor for that matter to refute his paternity of any of the children of Sally Hemings. The DNA studies certainly enhance the possibility but ... do not prove Thomas Jefferson's paternity".[404]
^Sally Heming's children recorded at Monticello included: "Harriet (born 1795; died in infancy);Beverly (born 1798); an unnamed daughter (born 1799; died in infancy); Harriet (born 1801); Madison (born 1805); and Eston (born 1808)".[402]
^Annette Gordon-Reed notes that it would have been legally challenging to free Sally Hemings, due to Virginia laws mandating the support of older slaves and requiring special permission for freed slaves to remain within the state.[411]
^"The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy Report of the Scholars Commission"(PDF). 2000–2001. p. 70.The DNA tests could not discriminate among the more than two dozen adult male Jeffersons in Virginia at the time Eston Hemings was conceived, and there is reasonable evidence to suggest that at least seven of those men (including Thomas Jefferson) may well have been at Monticello when Sally became pregnant with Eston.
^Boyd, Julian P., ed. (1953)."To Thomas Jefferson from Francis Eppes [14 October 1784]".The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 7, March 2, 1784 – February 25, 1785. Princeton University Press. pp. 441–442. RetrievedSeptember 29, 2019 – via Founders Online, National Archives.
^Boyd, Julian P., ed. (1953)."To Thomas Jefferson from James Currie, 20 November 1784".The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 7, March 2, 1784 – February 25, 1785. Princeton University Press. pp. 538–539. RetrievedSeptember 29, 2019 – via Founders Online, National Archives.
^abcBrewer, Holly (1997). "Entailing Aristocracy in Colonial Virginia: 'Ancient Feudal Restraints' and Revolutionary Reform".William and Mary Quarterly.54 (2):307–346.doi:10.2307/2953276.ISSN0043-5597.JSTOR2953276.
^Morris, Richard B. (1927). "Primogeniture and Entailed Estates in America".Columbia Law Review.27 (1):24–51.doi:10.2307/1113540.JSTOR1113540.
^Boyd, Julian P., ed. (1951)."From Thomas Jefferson to Sampson Mathews, 12 January 1781".The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 4, October 1, 1780 – February 24, 1781. Princeton University Press. p. 343. RetrievedJuly 10, 2019 – via Founders Online, National Archives.
^"Castle Hill".Virginia Department of Historic Resources. November 16, 1971. RetrievedJuly 10, 2025.Here in 1781 Walker's wife delayed the British colonel Banastre Tarleton to give the patriot Jack Jouett time to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislators of Tarleton's plan to capture them. The stately brick portion, an example of Jeffersonian classicism by master builder John M. Perry, was erected in 1823-24 for William Cabell Rives, minister to France, U.S. senator, and Confederate congressman. Columned conservatories were added in 1844 by William B. Phillips. Rives's granddaughter Amelie, ...
^Daum, Andreas W. (2024).Alexander von Humboldt: A Concise Biography. Trans. Robert Savage. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 80.ISBN978-0691247366.
^abc"People and Ideas: Early America's Formation".Public Broadcasting Service. RetrievedApril 30, 2022.Like other Founding Fathers, Jefferson was considered a Deist, subscribing to the liberal religious strand of Deism that values reason over revelation and rejects traditional Christian doctrines, including the Virgin Birth, original sin and the resurrection of Jesus. While he rejected orthodoxy, Jefferson was nevertheless a religious man. [...] Influenced by the British Unitarian Joseph Priestley, Jefferson set his prodigious intellect and energy on the historical figure at the center of the Christian faith: Jesus of Nazareth. Jefferson became convinced that Jesus' message had been obscured and corrupted by the apostle Paul, the Gospel writers and Protestant reformers.
^Neem, Johann N. "Beyond the Wall: Reinterpreting Jefferson's Danbury Address." Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 27, no. 1, 2007, pp. 139–54.JSTOR website Retrieved January 5, 2025.
^Foner, Eric, "Lincoln and Colonization", in Foner, Eric, ed.,Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008, p. 139.
Wilkinson, A. B. (2019). "Slave Life at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello".American Quarterly.71:247–264.doi:10.1353/aq.2019.0017.S2CID150519408.The general consensus among historians now agrees with Madison Hemings's version of the relationship between his mother and father ...
Lepore, Jill (September 22, 2008)."President Tom's Cabin: Jefferson, Hemings, and a Disclaimed Lineage".The New Yorker.Archived from the original on June 20, 2018. RetrievedNovember 21, 2019.[T]oday most historians agree with the conclusion of a research committee convened by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, at Monticello: Jefferson "most likely was the father of all six of Sally Hemings's children."
Ellis, Joseph J. (2000). "Jefferson: Post-DNA".The William and Mary Quarterly.57 (1):125–138.doi:10.2307/2674361.JSTOR2674361.PMID18271151.[T]he new scholarly consensus is that Jefferson and Hemings were sexual partners ... Whether Jefferson fathered all of Hemings's children is still unclear.
^Martin, Russell L. (April 1989)."Patents".Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia. Thomas Jefferson Foundation. RetrievedSeptember 20, 2022.; source also links to two related 21st-century sources
Gish, Dustin, and Daniel Klinghard.Thomas Jefferson and the Science of Republican Government: A Political Biography of Notes on the State of Virginia (Cambridge University Press, 2017)excerpt.
Scythes, James (2014). Tucker, Spencer C. (ed.).The Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Early American Republic, 1783–1812 A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO.ISBN978-1598841565.
1. Prior to the passage of theTwelfth Amendment in 1804, each presidential elector would cast two ballots; the highest vote-getter would become president and the runner-up would become vice president. Thus, in 1796, the Democratic-Republican Party fielded Jefferson as a presidential candidate, but he came in second and therefore became vice president.
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