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THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 307 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THOMAS See also:JEFFERSON (1743-1826)  , third See also:president of the See also:United States of See also:America, and the most conspicuous apostle of See also:democracy in America, was See also:born on the 13th of See also:April 1743, at See also:Shadwell, See also:Albemarle See also:county, See also:Virginia . His See also:father, See also:Peter See also:Jefferson (1707-1757), of See also:early Virginian See also:yeoman stock, was a See also:civil engineer and a See also:man of remarkable See also:energy, who became a See also:justice of the See also:peace, a county surveyor and a See also:burgess, served the See also:Crown in inter-colonial boundary surveys, and married into one of the most prominent colonial families, the Randolphs . Albemarle county was then in the frontier See also:wilderness of the See also:Blue See also:Ridge, and was very different, socially, from the See also:lowland counties where a few broad-acred families dominated an open-handed, somewhat luxurious and assertive See also:aristocracy . Unlike his See also:Randolph connexions, Peter Jefferson was a whig and a thorough democrat; from him, and probably, too, from the Albemarle environment, his son came naturally by democratic inclinations . Jefferson carried with him from the See also:college of See also:William and See also:Mary at See also:Williamsburg, in his twentieth See also:year, a See also:good knowledge of Latin, See also:Greek and See also:French (to which he soon added See also:Spanish, See also:Italian and Anglo-Saxon), and a familiarity with the higher See also:mathematics and natural sciences only possessed, at his See also:age, by men who have a rare natural See also:taste and ability for those studies . He remained an ardent student throughout See also:life, able to give and take in association with the many scholars, See also:American and See also:foreign, whom he numbered among his See also:friends and correspondents . With a liberal Scotsman, Dr William Small, then of the See also:faculty of William and Mary and later a friend of See also:Erasmus See also:Darwin, and See also:George Wythe (1726-1806), a very accomplished See also:scholar and See also:leader of the Virginia See also:bar, Jefferson was an habitual member, while still in college, of a partie carree at the table of See also:Francis Fauquier (c..i720—1768), the accomplished See also:lieutenant-See also:governor of Virginia . Jefferson was an See also:expert violinist, a good See also:singer and dancer, proficient in outdoor See also:sports, and an excellent horseman . Thorough-bred horses always remained to him a necessary luxury . When it is added that Fauquier was a passionate gambler, and that the gentry who gathered every See also:winter at Williamsburg, the seat of See also:government of the See also:province, were ruinously addicted to the same weakness, and that Jefferson had a taste for racing, it does See also:credit to his early strength of See also:character that of his social opportunities he took only the better . He never used See also:tobacco, never played See also:cards, never gambled, and was never party to a See also:personal See also:quarrel . Soon after leaving college he entered Wythe's See also:law See also:office, and in 1767, after five years of See also:close study, was admitted to the bar .

His thorough preparation enabled him to compete from the first with the leading lawyers of the See also:

colony, and his success shows that the bar had no rewards that were not fairly within his reach . As an See also:advocate, however, he did not shine; a weakness of See also:voice made continued speaking impossible, and he had neither the ability nor the temperament for See also:oratory . To his legal scholarship and See also:collecting zeal Virginia owed the preservation of a large See also:part of her early statutes . He seems to have lacked See also:interest in litigiousness, which was extraordinarily See also:developed in colonial Virginia; and he saw and wished to reform the law's abuses . It is probable that he turned, therefore, the more willingly to politics; at any See also:rate, soon after entering public life he abandoned practice (1774) . The See also:death of his father had See also:left him an See also:estate of 1900 acres, the income from which (about £400) gave him the position of an See also:independent See also:country See also:gentleman; and while engaged in the law he had added to his farms after the ambitious Virginia See also:fashion, until, when he married in his thirtieth year, there were 5000 acres all paid for; and almost as much See also:morel came to him in 1773 on the death of his father-in-law . On the 1st of See also:January 1772, Jefferson married Martha Wayles See also:Skelton (1749-1782), a childless widow of twenty-three, very handsome, accomplished, and very fond of See also:music . Their married life was exceedingly happy, and Jefferson never remarried after her early death . Of six See also:children born from their See also:union, two daughters alone survived See also:infancy . Jefferson was emotional and very affectionate in his See also:home, and his generous and devoted relations with his children and See also:grand-children are among the finest features of his character . Jefferson began his public service as a justice of the peace and See also:parish vestryman; he was chosen a member of the Virginia See also:house of burgesses in 1769 and of every succeeding See also:assembly and See also:convention of the colony until he entered the See also:Continental See also:Congress in 1775 . His forceful, facile See also:pen gave him See also:great See also:influence from the first; but though a foremost member of several great deliberative bodies, he can fairly be said never to have made a speech .

He hated the " morbid rage of debate " because he believed that men were never convinced by See also:

argument, but only by reflection, through See also:reading or unprovocative conversation; and this belief guided him through life . Moreover it is very improbable that he could ever have shone as a public See also:speaker, and to this fact unfriendly critics have attributed, at least in part, his abstention from debate . The house of burgesses of 1769, and its successors in 1773 and 1774, were dissolved by the governor (see VIRGINIA) for their See also:action on the subject of colonial grievances and inter-colonial co-operation . Jefferson was prominent in all; was a signer of the Virginia agreement of non-importation and See also:economy (1769); and was elected in 1774 to the first Virginia convention, called to consider the See also:state of the colony and advance inter-colonial union . Prevented by illness from attending, Jefferson sent to the convention elaborate resolutions, which he proposed as instructions to the Virginia delegates to the Continental Congress that was to meet at See also:Philadelphia in See also:September . In the See also:direct See also:language of reproach and See also:advice, with no disingenuous loading of the Crown's policy upon its agents, these resolutions attacked the errors of the See also:king, and maintained that " the relation between Great See also:Britain and these colonies was exactly the same as that of See also:England and See also:Scotland after the See also:accession of See also:James and until the Union; and that our See also:emigration to this country gave England no more rights over us than the emigration of the Danes and See also:Saxons gave to the See also:present authorities of their See also:mother country over England." This was cutting at the See also:common See also:root of See also:allegiance, emigration and colonization; but such radicalism was too thorough-going for the immediate end . The resolutions were published, however, as a pamphlet, entitled A See also:Summary View of the Rights of America, which was widely circulated . In England, after receiving such modifications—attributed to See also:Burke—as adapted it to the purposes of the opposition, this pamphlet ran through many See also:editions, and procured for its author, as he said, " the See also:honour of having his name inserted in a See also:long See also:list of proscriptions enrolled in a See also:bill of See also:attainder commenced in one of the two houses of See also:parliament, but suppressed in embryo by the hasty course of events." It placed Jefferson among the foremost leaders of revolution, and procured for him the honour of drafting, later, the See also:Declaration of See also:Independence, whose See also:historical portions were, in large part, only a revised transcript of the Summary View . In See also:June 1775 he took his seat in the ' It was embarrassed with a See also:debt, however, of £3749, which, owing to conditions caused by the See also:War of Independence, he really paid three times to his See also:British creditors (not counting destruction on his estates, of equal amount, ordered by See also:Lord See also:Cornwallis) . This greatly reduced his income for a number of years . Continental Congress, taking with him fresh See also:credentials of radicalism in the shape of Virginia's See also:answer, which he had drafted, to Lord See also:North's conciliatory propositions . Jefferson soon drafted the reply of Congress to the same propositions .

Reappointed to the next Congress, he signalized his service by the authorship of the Declaration of Independence (q.v.) . Again reappointed, he surrendered his seat, and after refusing a proffered See also:

election to serve as a See also:commissioner with See also:Benjamin See also:Franklin and See also:Silas See also:Deane in See also:France, he entered again, in See also:October 1776, the Virginia legislature, where he considered his services most needed . The See also:local See also:work to which Jefferson attributed such importance was a revision of Virginia's See also:laws . Of the See also:measures proposed to this end he says: " I considered four, passed or reported, as forming a See also:system by which every trace would be eradicated of See also:ancient or future aristocracy, and a See also:foundation laid for a government truly republican "—the See also:repeal of the laws of See also:entail; the abolition of See also:primogeniture and the unequal See also:division of inheritances (Jefferson was himself an eldest son); the See also:guarantee of freedom of See also:conscience and See also:relief of the See also:people from supporting, by See also:taxation, an established See also:church; and a system of See also:general See also:education . The first See also:object was embodied in law in 1776, the second in 1785, the third' in 1786 (supplemented 1799, 18o1) . The last two were parts of a See also:body of codified laws prepared (1776-1779) by See also:Edmund See also:Pendleton,' George Wythe, and Jefferson, and principally by Jefferson . Not so fortunate were Jefferson's ambitious schemes of education . See also:District, See also:grammar and classical See also:schools, a See also:free state library and a state college, were all included in his See also:plan . He was the first American statesman to make education by the state a fundamental See also:article of democratic faith . His bill for elementary education he regarded as the most important part of the See also:code, but Virginia had no strong See also:middle class, and the planters would not assume the See also:burden of educating the poor . At this See also:time Jefferson championed the natural.right of See also:expatriation, and See also:gradual emancipation of the slaves . His earliest legislative effort, in the five-See also:day session of 1769, had been marked by an effort to secure to masters freedom to manumit their slaves without removing them from the state .

It was unsuccessful, and the more See also:

radical measure he now favoured was even more impossible of attainment; but a bill he introduced to prohibit the importation of slaves was passed in 1778—the only important See also:change effected in the slave system of the state during the War of Independence . Finally he endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to secure the introduction of juries into the courts of See also:chancery, and—a See also:generation and more before the fruition of the labours of See also:Romilly and his co-workers in England—aided in securing a humanitarian revision of the penal code,' which, though lost by one See also:vote in 1785, was sustained by public sentiment, and was adopted in 1796 . Jefferson is of course not entitled to the See also:sole credit for all these services: Wythe, George See also:Mason and James See also:Madison, in particular, were his devoted lieutenants, and—after his departure for France—the principals in the struggle; moreover, an approving public See also:opinion must receive large credit . But Jefferson was throughout the See also:chief inspirer and foremost worker . In 1779, at almost the gloomiest See also:stage of the war in the See also:southern states, Jefferson succeeded See also:Patrick See also:Henry as the governor of Virginia, being the second to hold that office after the organization of the state government . In his second See also:term (178o-1781) the state was overrun by British expeditions, and Jefferson, a civilian, was blamed for the ineffectual resistance . Though he cannot be said to have been eminently fitted for the task that devolved upon him in such a crisis, most of the See also:criticism of his The first law of its See also:kind in Christendom, although not the earliest practice of such See also:liberty in America . 3 George Mason and See also:Thomas L . See also:Lee were members of the See also:commission, but they were not lawyers, and did little actual work on the revision . 'See also:Capital See also:punishment was confined to See also:treason and See also:murder; the former was not to be attended by corruption of See also:blood, See also:drawing, or quartering; all other felonies were made punishable by confinement and hard labour, See also:save a few to which was applied, against Jefferson's See also:desire, the principle of See also:retaliation . See also:administration was undoubtedly grossly unjust . His conduct being attacked, he declined renomination for the governorship, but was unanimously returned by Albemarle as a delegate to the state legislature; and on the day previously set for legislative inquiry on a See also:resolution offered by an impulsive critic, he received, by unanimous vote of the house, a declaration of thanks and confidence .

He wished however to retire permanently from public life, a wish strengthened by the illness and death of his wife . At this time he composed his Notes on Virginia, a semi-statistical work full of humanitarian liberalism . Congress twice offered him an See also:

appointment as one of the plenipotentiaries to negotiate peace with England, but, though he accepted the second offer, the business was so far advanced before he could See also:sail that his appointment was recalled . During the following winter (1783) he was again in Congress, and headed the See also:committee appointed to consider the treaty of peace . In the succeeding session his service was marked by a See also:report, from which resulted the present monetary system of the United States (the fundamental See also:idea of its decimal basis being due, however, to Gouverneur See also:Morris) ; and by the honour of See also:reporting the first definitely formulated plan for the government of the western territories,' that embodied in the See also:ordinance of 1784 . He was already particularly associated with the great territory north-See also:west of the See also:Ohio; for Virginia had tendered to Congress in 1781, while Jefferson was governor, a cession of her claims to it, and now in 1784 formally transferred the territory by See also:act of Jefferson and his See also:fellow delegates in congress: a consummation for which he had laboured from the beginning . His See also:anti-See also:slavery opinions See also:grew in strength with years (though he was somewhat inconsistent in his attitude on the See also:Missouri question in 1820-1821) . Not only justice but patriotism as well pleaded with him the cause of the negroes,2 for he foresaw the certainty that the See also:race must some day, in some way, be freed, and the dire See also:political dangers involved in the institution of slavery; and could any feasible plan of emancipation have been suggested he would have regarded its cost as a See also:mere See also:bagatelle . From 1784 to 1789 Jefferson was in France, first under an appointment to assist Benjamin Franklin and See also:John See also:Adams in negotiating See also:treaties of See also:commerce with See also:European states, and then as Franklin's successor (1785-1789) as See also:minister to France.' In these years he travelled widely in western See also:Europe . Though the commercial principles of the United States were far too liberal for See also:acceptance, as such, by See also:powers holding colonies in America, Jefferson won some specific concessions to American See also:trade . He was exceedingly popular as a minister . The criticism is even to-day current with the uninformed that Jefferson took his See also:manners,4 morals, " irreligion " and political See also:philosophy from his French See also:residence; and it cannot be wholly ignored .

It may therefore be said that there is nothing except unsubstantiated See also:

scandal to contradict the conclusion, which various See also:evidence ' This plan applied to the See also:south-western as well as to the north-western territory, and was notable for a See also:provision that slavery should not exist therein after 1800 . This provision was defeated in 1784, but was adopted in 1787 for the north-western territory—a step which is very often said to have saved the Union in the Civil War; the south-western territory (out of which were later formed See also:Mississippi, See also:Alabama, &c.) being given over to slavery . Thus the anti-slavery clause of the ordinance of 1784 was not adopted; and it was preceded by unofficial proposals.to the same end; yet to it belongs rightly some See also:special honour as blazoning the way for federal See also:control of slavery in the territories, which later proved of such enormous consequence . Jefferson in the first draft of the Ordinance of 1784, suggested the names to be given to the states eventually to be formed out of the territory concerned . For his suggestions he has been much ridiculed . The names are as follows: Illinoia, Michigania, Sylvania, Polypotamia, Assenisipia, Charronesus, Pelisipia, See also:Saratoga, Metropotamia and See also:Washington . 2 He owned at one time above 15o slaves . His overseers were under See also:contract never to bleed them; but he manumitted only a few at his death . ' During this time he assisted in negotiating a treaty of amity and commerce with See also:Prussia (1785) and one with See also:Morocco (1789), and negotiated with France a " convention defining and establishing the functions and privileges of consuls and See also:vice-consuls " (1788) . 4 Patrick Henry humorously declaimed before a popular See also:audience that Jeffers6n, who favoured French See also:wine and See also:cookery, had " abjured his native victuals."supports, that Jefferson's morals were pure . His religious views and political beliefs will be discussed later . His theories had a deep and broad basis in See also:English whiggism; and though he may well have found at least See also:confirmation of his own ideas in French writers—and notably in See also:Condorcet—he did not read sympathetically the writers commonly named, See also:Rousseau and See also:Montesquieu; besides, his democracy was seasoned, and he was rather a teacher than a student of revolutionary politics when he went to See also:Paris .

The Notes on Virginia were widely read in Paris, and undoubtedly had some influence in forwarding the See also:

dissolution of the doctrines of divine rights and passive obedience among the cultivated classes of France . Jefferson was deeply interested in all the events leading up to the French Revolution, and all his ideas were coloured by his experience of the five seething years passed in Paris . On the 3rd of June 1789 he proposed to the leaders of the third estate a See also:compromise between the king and the nation . In See also:July he received the extraordinary honour of being invited to assist in the deliberations of the committee appointed by the See also:national assembly to draft a constitution . This honour his See also:official position compelled him, of course, to decline; for he sedulously observed official proprieties, and in no way gave offence to the government to which he was accredited . When Jefferson left France it was with the intention of soon returning; but President Washington tendered him the secretary-See also:ship of state in the new federal government, and Jefferson reluctantly accepted . His only essential objection to the constitution—the See also:absence of a bill of rights—was soon met, at least partially, by amendments . See also:Alexander See also:Hamilton (q.v.) was secretary of the See also:treasury . These two men, antipodal in temperament and political belief, clashed in irreconcilable hostility, and in the conflict of public sentiment, first on the See also:financial measures of Hamilton, and then on the questions with regard to France and Great Britain, Jefferson's sympathies being predominantly with the former, Hamilton's with the latter, they formed about themselves the two great parties of Democrats and Federalists . The schools of thought for which they stood have since contended for mastery in American politics: Hamilton's gradually strengthened by the necessities of stronger administration, as time gave widening See also:amplitude and increasing See also:weight to the specific powers—and so to Hamilton's great See also:doctrine of the " implied powers "—of the general government of a growing country; Jefferson's rooted in colonial life, and buttressed by the hopes and convictions of democracy . The most perplexing questions treated by Jefferson as secretary of state arose out of the policy of See also:neutrality adopted by the United States toward France, to whom she was See also:bound by treaties and by a heavy debt of gratitude . Separation from European politics—the doctrine of " America for Americans " that was embodied later in the See also:Monroe declaration—was a tenet cherished by Jefferson as by other leaders (not, however, Hamilton) and by none cherished more firmly, for by nature he was peculiarly opposed to war, and peace was a fundamental part of his politics .

However deep, therefore, his French sympathies, he See also:

drew the same safe See also:line as did Washington between French politics and American politics,' and handled the See also:Genet complications to the See also:satisfaction of even the most See also: