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