One of the most influential Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States. Under his leadership, the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory from France—instantly doubling the size of the young nation.
Jefferson was born in rural Shadwell, Virginia, into a wealthy landowning family and graduated from the College of William and Mary, the academy of the Virginia aristocracy, in 1762. He inherited his own estate at age fourteen when his father died, and he designed and built Monticello, his famous hilltop mansion, in the 1770s.
Deeply influenced by the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke (1632–1704) and Voltaire (1694–1778), Jefferson entered politics while he was still in his twenties. He was elected to the Virginia legislature, the House of Burgesses, in 1769. In the legislature, he sided with the critics of British taxation and argued that the thirteen colonies had the right to govern themselves.
Jefferson was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1775. He was named to the committee writing the Declaration of Independence the next summer. Drawing on the ideas of Locke, the Declaration explained why the patriots were rebelling against the king and explained, in eloquent language, their beliefs: “that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
After the Revolution, Jefferson served as minister to France and was the first secretary of state. Jefferson was elected vice president in 1796 and defeated the incumbent, John Adams (1735–1826), and a third candidate, Aaron Burr (1756–1836), in the first seriously contested presidential election, in 1800.
Jefferson’s presidency was marked by the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory, a war against pirates in the Mediterranean, and ineffectual attempts to defend American shipping from British attacks during the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815). The Embargo Act of 1807, which Jefferson signed in an effort to punish the British by limiting imports of British goods into the United States, instead crippled American farmers and merchants, especially in New England, contributing to Jefferson’s unpopularity in his last year in office.
After leaving the presidency, Jefferson spent the rest of his life at Monticello. He founded the University of Virginia in 1819. He died on July 4, 1826—on the fiftieth anniversary of his most famous contribution to his country.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- Jefferson sold 6,487 volumes from his personal library to the federal government in 1815 to reestablish the Library of Congress, which had been destroyed during the War of 1812.
- The University of Virginia was the first nonreligious college in the United States.
- Jefferson is featured on the front of the $2 bill.
