Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia in 1743. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a wealthy landowner. His mother, Jane Randolph, was a member of one of Virginia’s wealthy families. His father hired private tutors to teach his son. As a young man he studied law at the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg, the capital of the colony of Virginia.
Jefferson designed his home on top of a mountain and began building it in 1768. He named his home Monticello, Italian for “mountain top.” In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a rich widow, and doubled his land holdings. Martha died just ten years after their marriage. They had six children but only three girls survived. Jefferson never remarried.
Jefferson was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses when he was only 25 years old. While serving as a member of the House of Burgesses he became concerned over English policy. He was sent to Philadelphia in 1775 as one of Virginia’s representatives to the Second Continental Congress. He wrote the “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms” soon after coming to Philadelphia. The Congress, however, thought that it was too harsh and had a member of the Pennsylvania delegation revise it.
When the British continued their policy towards the colonies, Jefferson thought it was necessary for Congress to seek independence. He was appointed along with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to a committee of five to draft a Declaration of Independence. When the committee met he was chosen to write the Declaration. Congress voted for independence on July 2 and over the next two days made a few changes in Jefferson’s draft. Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Jefferson has been called the “pen of the American Revolution.”
Jefferson went back to Virginia in 1776 and served in the Virginia legislature. In 1779 he was elected governor of the state. He wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom calling for the end of religious discrimination. The Virginia legislature failed to pass the statute. Jefferson continued to work in favor of the law that was finally passed in 1786, after the Revolutionary War.
While Jefferson was governor the British invaded Virginia and he narrowly escaped capture. Some accused him of being a coward for fleeing from the British when they occupied Monticello. These charges hurt Jefferson and he decided never to return to politics. His friends convinced him to return to politics and he was elected to Congress in 1783. The next year he was sent to Paris to work out a trade agreement with France. When Benjamin Franklin left France in 1784, Jefferson was named United States Ambassador to France. He was in France when the Constitution was written. His friend James Madison, who was one of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, kept Jefferson informed on the Constitution.
Jefferson returned to the United States in 1789 and was asked by George Washington, the newly elected president, to become Secretary of State. He served as the country’s first Secretary of State.
While in the president’s cabinet he and Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, often disagreed. Jefferson left the cabinet in 1793 to protest Washington’s support of Hamilton’s programs. Jefferson and his friends formed a political organization named the Democratic-Republican Party. Hamilton and his supporters formed a party called the Federalist.
Jefferson ran for president in the election of 1796 as the leader of the Democratic-Republican Party. The Constitution said that the person with the highest vote would be president and the person who came in second would be vice president. This system of electing the president was not changed until 1804 with the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution. John Adams, who had served as Washington’s vice president, ran as a member of the Federalist Party and was elected president. Jefferson came in second and became the vice president. Jefferson and Adams had been friends during the Revolution but now the two men disagreed over how the government should be run.
During the next presidential election in 1800, Jefferson defeated Adams and became president. Aaron Burr became vice president. Jefferson was re-elected president in 1804 and served a second four-year term. During his presidency he arranged for the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France and sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the region.
As president Jefferson refused to pay tribute to the Barbary Pirates. Both Presidents Washington and Adams had paid the pirates so that American ships could trade in the Mediterranean Sea. Jefferson sent U.S. Marines and warships to Tripoli in North Africa. After a brief struggle the United States won the war and signed a treaty with Tripoli.
Near the end of Jefferson’s second term as president, England and France were at war. In order not to be pulled into this war, Jefferson got Congress to pass a law forbidding trade with both these countries. This hurt American trade. People of the New England states who were involved in trade were against the president. In the election of 1808 James Madison who had helped Jefferson form the Democratic-Republican Party was elected fourth President of the United States. Jefferson returned to his Monticello plantation where he lived until his death in 1826. After he left office he founded the University of Virginia.
He also designed buildings for the new university. He renewed his friendship with John Adams and the two men wrote letters to one another during their retirement from politics. Both men died on the same day, July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wanted to be remembered for three things. On his tombstone he wanted the inscription, “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson; Author of the Declaration of American Independence; Of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom; And Father of the University of Virginia.”