| Birth: | Apr. 13, 1743
Albemarle City
Virginia, USA | | Death: | Jul. 4, 1826
Monticello
Virginia, USA | 
American Founding Father. Third President of the United States. He was a philosopher, statesman, scholar, attorney, planter, architect, violinist, writer, and natural scientist who wished to be remembered as the author of the Declaration of Independence and of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and as the founder of the University of Virginia. Born of a moderately well-off planter family, Jefferson was early imbued by his father Peter with a love both of nature, and of books. (He was to describe his mother Jane, a descendent of the noted Randolph family of Virginia, as a "zero sum" in his life). He studied with two private schoolmasters, the Reverend William Douglas, for whom he had little use, and the Reverend James Maury (later plaintiff in the famous Parson's Cause case), for whom he was to have profound respect all his life. Peter Jefferson's sudden death in 1757 left him "completely on his own"; he entered the College of William and Mary in 1760, and applied himself to his studies, while begining the collection of his eventually massive library. While at college, he met, and frequently dined with, three men who taught him Enlightenment philosophy, and altered the course of his thought and life: Governor Francis Fauquier, attorney and scholar George Wythe, and professor William Small. Jefferson later read law with Wythe, and was admitted to the bar in 1767. Despite being shy, and a poor public speaker, he was a successful attorney. (When compared with his then-friend, and sometimes legal rival, it was said that "Patrick Henry speaks to the heart, Jefferson to the mind"). Jefferson was elected to the House of Burgesses from Albemarle County in 1768; while in Williamsburg, he met, around 1770, a wealthy widow named Martha Wayles Skelton. The couple married on New Years' Day, 1772, and set up life at Jefferson's under-construction new home at Monticello. "Patty" Jefferson was never very healthy, and six pregnancies in ten years (only the daughters Patsy and Polly would survive to adulthood), completely destroyed her strength; she died in 1782, leaving Jefferson prostrated for weeks. He published "A Summary View of the Rights of British America" in 1774, setting forth his view that loyalty was owed only to the Crown, not to Parliament; this was much further on the road to independence..."the God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time"... than the public was then ready to travel. After serving in the Continental Congress of 1775, he was returned in 1776, and tasked with writing the Declaration of Independence (after Benjamin Franklin declined); the work was not generally known as Jefferson's until later, he resented certain of the revisions for the remainder his life, and the precise meanings of some phrases are still debated. Returning home, he was assigned the job, along with Edmund Pendleton and George Wythe, of revising the laws of Virginia; success mixed with failure...he got rid of entail and primogeniture (laws affecting inheritance), and limited capital punishment, but his 1779 Bill Establishing Religious Freedom was stalled until James Madison pushed it thru in 1786. Jefferson served two thoroughly miserable one year terms as Governor of Virginia (during which time, the capital was moved to Richmond); an investigation of his conduct in escaping from British troops resulted in the final, permanent, probably unjustified, rupture of his relationship with Patrick Henry. Jefferson received one of his proudest honors, election to the Philadelphia-based American Philosophical Society in 1780, and was to serve as its president from 1797 until 1815. In 1785, he was sent to Paris as the American Minister...thru correspondence, he kept up on events...of Shay's 1787 Rebellion, he wrote that "the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants from time to time... but he was denied an active hand in the framing of the Constitution. In August, 1786, he met, thru painter Jonathan Trumbull, the beautiful, married, artist Maria Cosway. Either an illicit romance, or merely an improper friendship, of short duration, resulted. During one of their escapades, Jefferson fractured his right wrist, and had problems with it ever after. The end of the relationship brought forth the famous "My Head and My Heart" letter, still one of Jefferson's most studied writings. Returning to America in 1789 (he thought the trip would be brief), he was appointed the first Secretary of State. He was to be unhappy in the job; his document on weights and measures, which would have put the United States on the metric system, was rejected. His advice to meet the Barbary pirates with military force, rather than with negotiation and ransom, would have to wait. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton frequently undercut him by secretly feeding classified information to British representative George Hammond. The 1793 "Citizen Genet affair" strained his devotion to France. Hatred for Hamilton, and a growing rupture with John Adams, and, to a lesser extent, George Washington, resulted in his founding, with Madison, of the Republican Party. Jefferson retired to Monticello at the end of 1793, but was called upon to run for President in 1796; getting the second-highest vote total, he became Adams' Vice President, and was, again, miserable, forced to fight the Alien and Sedition Acts at personal risk. In 1800, he again opposed Adams in probably the nastiest campaign in American history. Called a "howling athiest", he remained silent. (Jefferson's religion, like much else was private, with views expressed in terms the definition of which were known only to him; a life-long Anglican, he was not an athiest, and was probably a Deist, or a Unitarian). Narrowly defeating Adams, and after a House of Representatives fight with his running mate Aaron Burr, he became the third President of the United States. His first term was filled with triumph....the Louisiana Purchase, the starting of the Lewis and Clark expedition; the second saw mostly trouble...the Aaron Burr treason trial of 1807 (which transformed his relations with John Marshall from courteous mutual dislike to blind hatred), and the failed trade embargo against England. Retiring to Monticello, he renewed, at the behest of Dr. Benjamin Rush, his friendship and correspondence with John Adams. Jefferson was essentially broke for his last 50 years, spending too much on Monticello, lavish entertaining, food, wine, and, mostly, books; in 1814, he negotiated the sale of his 6,487 volume library for $23,950 to replace the Library of Congress burned by the British. In 1819, Jefferson saw his final dream realized when the Virginia Legislature approved the University of Virginia; he designed the buildings, hired the professors, and saw the first students admitted in 1825. Jefferson died on the 50th. anniversary of the Decalaration of Independence of a chronic gastric problem, probably cancer. His tombstone is a replacement, the original having been destroyed by souvenir hunters. Of his philosophy he said: "I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
(bio by: Bob Hufford)
Family links:
Parents:
Peter Jefferson (1707 - 1757)
Jane Randolph Jefferson (1720 - 1776)
Spouse:
Martha Wayles Jefferson (1748 - 1782)
Search Amazon for Thomas Jefferson | | | Burial:
Monticello, Jefferson Historic Site
Charlottesville
Charlottesville City
Virginia, USA |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Jan 01, 2001
Find A Grave Memorial# 544 |
|
|
|
-
His Molly.
Added: Nov. 20, 2009 |
Continental Congressman from Virginia, 1775-1776; Governor of Virginia, 1779-1781; Continental Congressman from Virginia, 1783-1784; Minister to France, 1785-1789; Secretary of State, 1789-1793; Vice President of the United States, 1797-1801; President of...(Read more)
-
Garver Graver
Added: Nov. 11, 2009 |
-
sierra
Added: Nov. 11, 2009 |
| There are 862 more notes not showing...
Click here to view all notes...
| |
|
|
(4.9 after 427 votes)
