Jefferson, Thomas (1743–1826)

THE AUTHOR OF the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson led the first opposition party in the United States into becoming the dominant party, making the Democratic Party the oldest party in the United States. Jefferson's political contributions were substantial. [Page 249]He served as president, vice president, secretary of state, foreign ambassador, congressman, governor, and state legislator. He was also a man of multiple talents.

Thomas Jefferson's liberalism, more than other founders' philosophies, came to dominate politics in the young United States.

In addition to founding the University of Virginia, Jefferson was a lawyer, philosopher, writer, architect, and scientist. He loved books and was known to read 15 hours a day at certain periods of his life. When the Library of Congress was almost totally destroyed by British troops in 1814, Jefferson donated his own library to Congress. With the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, Jefferson doubled the physical proportions of the United States. He also turned large areas of public land into private farmland. After Jefferson left office, he continued to influence national policy during the presidencies of his allies and fellow Virginians James Madison and James Monroe.

Jefferson was born in Shadwell, Virginia, on April 13, 1743, to Peter and Jane Randolph Jefferson. Peter Jefferson was a justice of the peace, a sheriff, a politician, a surveyor, and a mapmaker. Upon his father's death, Jefferson inherited 2,700 acres of land and a large number of slaves. At 16, he entered the College of William and Mary. As a student, Jefferson often attended meetings of the Virginia House of Burgesses, obtaining a thorough grounding in the political process. In 1762, Jefferson entered the law office of George Wythe, a Williamsburg, Virginia, lawyer. Ten years later, Jefferson married a widow, Martha Wayles Skelton. After her death in 1782, Jefferson became vulnerable to rumors of a relationship with a slave, Sally Hemmings.

Ideologically, Jefferson was influenced by both 18th-century Enlightenment ideas and 19th-century Romanticism. As a prolific reader, his personal library included the works of Homer, Euripides, Cicero, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, Alexander Pope, John Dryden, David Hume, Adam Smith, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Baron de Monstesquieu, and Voltaire. As an Enlightenment thinker, Jefferson's philosophy was grounded in rationality, accepting the need for civil society and government. However, as a Romanticist, Jefferson understood the danger of governments that trampled on individuality, stripping humans of dignity and their oneness with nature. Throughout his life, Jefferson was shaped by his belief that agriculture should be the foundation of any society.