THOMAS
JEFFERSON, author of the Declaration of Independence, was born on
April 13, 1743 and grew up on the family plantation at Shadwell in Albermarle
County, Virginia.His father was
Peter Jefferson, who, with the aid of thirty slaves, tilled a tobacco and wheat
farm of 1,900 acres and like his fathers before him, was a justice of the peace,
a vestryman of his parish and a member of the colonial legislature. The first of
the Virginia Jefferson's of Welsh extraction, Peter in 1738 married Jane
Randolph.Of their ten children,
Thomas was the third.Thomas
inherited a full measure of his father's bodily strength and stature, both
having been esteemed in their prime as the strongest men of their county.He
also inherited his father's inclination to liberal politics, his taste for
literature and his aptitude for mathematics.The
Jefferson's were a musical family; the girls sang the songs of the time, and
Thomas, practicing the violin assiduously from boyhood, became an excellent
performer.
In 1757, when Thomas was
only fourteen, his father died, leaving him heir to an enormous estate.On
his deathbed, his father left an order that his son's education, already well
advanced in a preparatory school, should be completed at the College of William
and Mary, a circumstance which Thomas always remembered with gratitude, saying
that if he had to choose between the education and the estate his father left
him, he would choose the education.
At seventeen, when young
Jefferson entered the College of William and Mary he was tall, raw-boned,
freckled, and sandy haired, with large feet and hands, thick wrists, and
prominent cheekbones and chin.His
classmates described him as far from handsome, a fresh, healthy looking youth,
very erect, agile and strong, with something of rusticity in his air and
demeanor.The college at that time
had one truly outstanding educator, Dr. William Small of Scotland, professor of
mathematics.Jefferson said in his
autobiography that his coming under the influence of Dr. Small "probably
fixed the destinies of my life".Dr.
Small gave Jefferson the views of the connection of the sciences and of the
system of things of which man is a part, which then prevailed in the advanced
scientific circles of Europe.As a
student, Jefferson attended the musical parties that the lieutenant governor,
Francis Fauquier hosted.Jefferson
was always present with his violin and participated in the concert, the governor
himself also was a performer.From
Fauquier, a man of the world of the period, Jefferson learned much of the
social, political, and parliamentary life of the Old World.George
Wythe, who was then a young lawyer of Williamsburg, often frequented the
governor's table, and contributed immensely to the forming of Jefferson's mind.
Upon his graduation in 1762,
Jefferson took up the study of law, under the guidance of George Wythe.While
he was a student, he was an eyewitness of those memorable scenes in the Virginia
legislature, which followed the passage of The Stamp Act.He
was present as a spectator in the house when Patrick Henry read his five
resolutions, enunciating the principal that Englishmen living in America had all
the rights of Englishmen living in England, the chief of which was that they
could only be taxed by their own representatives.On
coming of age in April 1764, Jefferson assumed the management of his father's
estate and was appointed to two of his father's offices—justice of the peace
and vestryman.He gave much
attention to the cultivation of his lands, and remained always an attentive,
zealous and improving farmer.Early
in 1767, Jefferson was admitted to the bar of Virginia, and entered at once the
practice of his profession.Jefferson
was an accurate, painstaking and laborious lawyer and his business blossomed.He
practiced law for nearly eight years, until the Revolutionary contest summoned
him.
His public life began on May
11, 1769, when Jefferson took his seat as a member of the Virginia House of
Burgesses, George Washington also being a member.Jefferson
was then twenty-six years old.On
becoming a public man he made a resolution "never to engage, while in
public office, in any kind of enterprise for the improvement of my fortune, nor
to wear any other character than that of a farmer."On
the close of his public career of nearly half a century, he could say that he
had kept this resolution.
On January 1, 1772 Jefferson
married Martha Wayles Skelton, who was the daughter of John Wayles, a wealthy
Williamsburg lawyer, from whom she inherited a large property.Her
first husband, Bathurst Skelton died before she was twenty years of age, and
Jefferson was one of her many suitors.A
few days after their marriage, he took her to live in his partly constructed
mountaintop home, Monticello.The
next year, the death of Martha's father brought them a great increase of
fortune, doubling Jefferson's estate.
In March 1775, Jefferson was
in Richmond as a member of the convention, which assembled in the church of St.
John to consider what course Virginia should take in the crisis.The
last act of this convention was to appoint a replacement in the case of a
vacancy in the delegation of Virginia to congress.That
replacement was Thomas Jefferson and on June 21, 1775, Jefferson took his seat
as a substitute for Peyton Randolph, who had been called home.
Jefferson was an earnest,
diligent, and useful member of the congress.His
readiness in composition, his profound knowledge of British law and his innate
love of freedom and justice, gave him solid standing in the body.In
May 1776, the news reached congress that the Virginia convention had unanimously
voted for independence.On June 10,
1776, a committee of five was appointed to prepare a draft of the
Declaration—Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert R.
Livingston.Jefferson, being the
chairman of the committee, was naturally asked to write the document.Congress
subjected his draft to a severe and prolonged revision, making many changes,
most of which were improvements.The
document was debated in congress on July 2, 3 and 4.Thursday,
the 4th was a warm day, and the members in the afternoon became weary
and impatient with the long strain upon their nerves.Jefferson
used to relate with much merriment that the final vote upon the Declaration was
hastened by swarms of flies, which came from a neighboring stable, and added to
the discomfort of the members.A few
days afterward, Jefferson was one of a committee to devise a seal for the
newborn country.Among their
suggestions (and this was the only one accepted by congress) was the best legend
ever appropriated, E pluribus unum, a phrase that had served as a motto on the
cover of the "Gentleman's Magazine" for many years.
In the fall of 1776,
Jefferson resigned his seat in congress on the grounds that the health of his
wife and the condition of his household made his presence in Virginia
indispensable.He had again been
elected a member of the Virginia legislature, and his heart was set upon the
work of purging the statute books of unsuitable laws, and bringing the laws of
Virginia up to the level of the Declaration.For
the next three years, Jefferson procured the abolition of entails, led the fight
for the disestablishment of the Church, and as a member of the Committee on
Revisors, recommended far reaching reforms in the legal code of the state.
In January 1779, the
Virginia legislature elected Jefferson governor of the state, to succeed Patrick
Henry, whose third term ended on June 1.His
governorship of two years, during a time of British invasion, ended unhappily,
largely through fault of circumstances.He
declined re-election to a third term, and induced his friends to support General
Thomas Nelson, commander-in-chief of the militia, who was elected.
On September 6, 1782,
Jefferson's wife died.Jefferson had
retained a romantic devotion to her throughout his life, and because of her
failing health refused foreign appointments in 1776 and again in 1781, having
promised that he would accept no public office that would involve their
separation.For four months prior to
her death, he was never out of calling, and he was insensible for several hours
after her death.On her death,
Martha left three daughters, the youngest four months old.
Returning to public life to
assuage his grief, 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 retired from that
office after three years. 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 just elected
President Adams.
In 1800 Jefferson ran for
president, won and served two distinguished terms.Jefferson's
career during his presidency is so integral a part of the history of the
country, that it cannot be described here.The
freedom of the individual human being was always his main concern, and it was
his faith in men that made him a prophet of progress.In
his old age, he fathered the University of Virginia, and he valued public
enlightenment next after private freedom.
Jefferson retained his health nearly to his last days, and had the happiness of
living to the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.He
died at twenty minutes to one p.m. on July 4, 1826.
Letter signed "Th:
Jefferson," as Secretary of State, to New York Governor George Clinton,
relating to copies of the first census of the United States, an act to establish
a uniform rule of naturalization and an act making appropriations for the
support of Government for the year 1790 – three pivotal laws at the very
foundation of our government.A
powerful historical letter transmitting new Federal Laws which the Great State
of New York must now abide by.George
Washington had been elected president only a year, and the first act of the
congress of the U.S. was passed on June 1, 1789, setting oaths of office for
Federal officials on March 31, 1790.
Autograph
letter signed ("Th: Jefferson") to Jeremiah Van Rensselaer,
Philadelphia, and 10 July 1791. I page 4to, integral address leaf with
Jefferson's free frank: "Th: Jefferson' and small"Free"
stamp.The Secretary of State aids "an injured and friendless"
Frenchman with a land claim.
Jefferson
writes to a former New York Congressman in Albany regarding "a claim to
some lands in the Oneida country given by the Indians to one Le Tonnelier. &
by him sold to a Mr. Osruont. This latter gentleman is arrived from France &
has fixed himself what chance there is, & what should be his proceedings to
recover the lands, and having been very particularly recommended to me from
France, I am anxious to aid hisenquiries. The circumstance of Le Tonnelier's
having married in Albany & the relations between that place & the Oneida
country have induced me to suppose it a good place to make the necessary
enquiries. Not having the advantage of any particular acquaintance at Albany; I
have presumed on behalf of Mr. Osmont to address myself to you, relying for my
excuse on the motives which lead to this liberty; and on your own goodness which
will find in aninjured & friendless stranger a proper object for its
exercise. If therefore you can either at Albany or by the means of any
acquaintance on may have within reach of the (ands. obtain information of the
realm of Le Tonnelier's rights and the means of availing Osmont of them, the
communication of it will be esteemed a very singular favor"
Jeremiah
Van Rensselaer (1738-1811) was born in New York. and raised at the manor house
"Rensselaersvcvck." He was a descendent ofKiliaen van Rensselear,
Dutch merchant, director of the West India Company and the first patroon of the
Manor of Rensselaer. Jeremiah served in the First Congress (1789—1791) became
President of the Bank of Albany in 1798 and a Democratic elector in 1800,
casting his vote for Jefferson and Burr. He served as Governor of New York
1801—1804 and died in Albany in 1810.
We invite you to read a transcription
of the complete text of the Declaration as presented by the National Archives.
&
The article "The
Declaration of Independence: A History,"
which provides a detailed account of the Declaration, from its drafting through
its preservation today at the National Archives.
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Message of President Thomas Jefferson laying before
the Senate the conventions with France for the cession of the province
of Louisiana to the United States
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