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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Thomas Jefferson Biography JEFFERSON, Thomas, third president of the United States, born in Shadwell, Virginia, April 13, 1743; died in Monticello, Virginia, July 4, 1826. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a planter, and died when Thomas was but fourteen years old. After attending private schools, he entered William and Mary College in 1760, and seven years later began the practice of law. He was chosen representative from his county to the Virginia house of burgesses in 1769, a position he held until the beginning of the Revolution. In 1772 he married Mrs. Martha Skelton, daughter of John Wales, an eminent Virginian jurist. The following year he was chosen a member of the first committee of correspondence established by the colonial legislature, became a member of the continental congress in 1775, and was one of a committee of five to prepare the Declaration of Independence, which, at the request of the committee, he drafted, and on July 4, 1776, it was adopted with only slight amendments. Soon after he resigned his seat in congress and became a member of the Virginia legislature. That body elected him governor of the state on June 1, 1779, to succeed Patrick Henry. Congress appointed him minister plenipotentiary in 1782 to act with others in negotiating a treaty of peace with Great Britain, and the following year he was elected a delegate to congress, in which capacity he secured the adoption of the dollar as the monetary unit and the present decimal system of coins. In 1784 he was appointed minister plenipotentiary to assist Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in negotiating commercial treaties in Europe, and the following year became minister at the French court to succeed Franklin, where he remained till September, 1789. On returning to America, he became secretary of state under President Washington, but resigned in 1793 and retired to private life at his home. His party brought him forward as a candidate for president in 1796, but Adams received the highest number of votes, and accordingly became president and Jefferson vice-president. In the presidential election of 1800 the anti-federalist, or republican-democratic, party, as it began to be called, again selected Jefferson as its candidate, but as he received electoral votes exactly equal to those of Burr, the election went to the house of representatives, where he was elected president after a bitter struggle. In 1804 he was reelected, and, after serving with eminent success, retired from public life, but continued an efficient adviser of his party. His administration was marked by efficiency, strict devotion to the common welfare, and the abolition of many usages of an aristocratic nature. Among the important events are the Tripolitan War, Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clarke expedition, the Chesapeae incident, the embargo act, and the organization of the democratic party. His state papers are able and clear, his practice was democratic, and his sympathy favorable to the limitation of slavery in the territories and the state of Virginia. The system of education adopted in Virginia was largely devised by him, and he also superintended the founding of the university of that state. It is certain that the practical teachings of Thomas Jefferson have had a wider influence upon the public life of Americans than those of any other man. His death and that of John Adams, both occurring on July 4, 1826, on the semicentennial of the Declaration of Independence, is a peculiar incident of history. The Teachers' and Pupils' Cyclopædia, Vol. II (Kansas City: Bufton Book Co., 1909) 914-915. |