Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), was one of the leading Founding Fathers of the United States. He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), the first Secretary of State (1789-1793), the founder of the Republican Party (1793) in opposition to the Federalist Party of his arch-rival Alexander Hamilton. As President (1801-1809) Jefferson purchased Louisiana in 1803, but relations with Britain soured after 1805. Jefferson is best known as political theorist who helped redefine Republicanism and promoted democracy and equal rights, while fighting aristocracy and established religion.
Early Career
Jefferson was born to a well-connected planter family of moderate wealth in Virginia. He was well educated at William and Mary College (class of 1762), and studied law. He was a polymath who read voraciously in history, politics, philosophy, linguistics, architecture and natural science. He became a spokesman of the patriot cause by 1774, and as a delegate to the Continental Congress he took the lead in pushing for independence. He drafted the Declaration of Independence using ideas and suggestions from many sources. As governor of Virginia (1779-81) he had to flee the invading British army in 1781, until it was captured at Yorktown. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France (1785-89), and so was not present when the Constitution was written and ratified.
1790s
Jefferson returns in 1789 and became the first Secretary of State (178901793) in the cabinet of President George Washington. With his close ally James Madison Jefferson opposed the Hamiltonian programs for national finance, especially the First National Bank, and created a new party the Republicans, to oppose Hamilton's Federalist party. These were the first two modern political parties in the world (that is the first to reach out to the voters for support). Jefferson and his Republicans supported the French Revolution (from 1793 to 1800), while the Federalists favored Britain. President Washington managed to maintain neutrality in the war between Britain and France. Hamilton had more influence than Jefferson, even in foreign policy, as shown by Hamilton's success in securing the Jay Treaty of 1795 that opened ten years of friendly trade with Britain. Jefferson was defeated for president in the election of 1796 by John Adams, but became Vice President. When the Quasi War (that is undeclared war) with France broke out in 1798 and Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition laws, Jefferson and Madison protested by secretly writing the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798. They argued the right of state governments to nullify federal laws considered unconstitutional; this was the start of the States Rights theory that played a role in the coming of the American Civil War in 1861 and still plays a role in Constitutional debates.
President 1801-1909
Jefferson defeated Adams and was elected President in 1800, in what his supporters called the Revolution of 1800. In his first term Jefferson negotiated the Louisiana Purchase with France. He removed many fedearlist office holders and judges, but was unable to purge the Supreme Court. Indeed his cousin John Marshall, a Federalist, as chief justice made the Supreme Court a bastion of nationalism, much to Jefferson's disgust. Jefferson's second term was marked by escalating tensions with both Britain and France (which were at war with each other). Jefferson's use of economic warfare, especially the Embargo of 1807, failed, and the War of 1812 with Britain came three years after he left office.
Retirement
In political retirement Jefferson helped create and design the University of Virginia, as well as his home of Monticello. Jefferson, a deist was keenly interested in religion, and worked to create a "wall of separation" between church and state, fearing that unifying the two would create tyranny over the free minds of people. He owned slaves--some 200 at one time or another--but despite his theoretical opposition to slavery he was always so much in debt he could never free them. The modern Democratic party claims direct descent from Jefferson, and he has been commemorated in the names of many counties and schools. Conservative commentator George Will has called Jefferson the "Man of the Millennium"-- that is the most influential person in world history over the last 1000 years.
Bibliography
- Richard B. Bernstein. Thomas Jefferson (2005) short biography
- Noble E. Jr Cunningham. In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson (1988, short biography)
- Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, Age of Federalism (1994) best political history of 1790s
- Joseph J. Ellis. American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson (1998), interpretive essays
- Forrest McDonald, The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson (1987) intellectual history approach to TJ's presidency
- Peter Onuf, ed. Jeffersonian Legacies (1993), scholarly essays
- Peter Onuf, "The Scholars' Jefferson," William and Mary Quarterly 1993 50(4): 671-699; overview of historiography; in JSTOR
- Merrill D. Peterson. Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography (1986), long, detailed biography
- Merrill D. Peterson, ed. Thomas Jefferson: A Reference Biography. (1986), very good, encyclopedic essays
- Merrill Peterson, The Jefferson Image in the American Mind (1960)
- Marshall Smelser. The Democratic Republic: 1801-1815 (1968) good one-volume history of TJ's presidency and Madison's;
- Robert W. Tucker and David C. Hendrickson. Empire of Liberty: The Statecraft of Thomas Jefferson (1992) best guide to foreign policy
Primary sources
- Thomas Jefferson Writings (1984, Library of America); includes Autobiography, Notes on the State of Virginia, Public and Private Papers, Addresses and Letters. 1600pp