Jefferson, Thomas

Jefferson, Thomas (1743–1826) philosopher, author of the Declaration of Independence, and 3rd president of the United States (1801–09), born in Albemarle County, Virginia. His political career began in 1769 when he was elected to Virginia's House of Burgesses, and he never resumed his earlier law practice. An early leader in the movement for American independence, Jefferson believed that Americans possessed the natural right to govern themselves. Jefferson was a classical scholar, author, and architect, who built his home, Monticello, and later designed the Virginia state capitol and the campus of the University of Virginia. His writing talents were already recognized at the Second Continental Congress (1775), and he was given the task of writing the document that would declare America's independence from Britain. Although the delegates later made many changes to the body of the work, it remains essentially Jefferson's. As a lawmaker in Virginia, Jefferson was responsible for the Statute of Religious Freedom, which greatly influenced the infant nation's church-state relationship. As governor of Virginia (1779–81), Jefferson was relatively ineffective, but his service in Congress (1783–84) was highly productive: he proposed legislation dealing with the decimal system of currency and wrote the legislation establishing the principle of creating new states as Americans moved west. As minister to France (1785–89) he sought to expand markets for America's agricultural surpluses. During his tenure as secretary of state (1790–93) under President George Washington, Jefferson worked toward settlement of Anglo-American issues left over from the war; expansion of American commerce; a strengthened alliance with France; freeing the West from European colonialism; and pacification of the Indians. He also sought to advance national interests by manipulating American neutrality in European conflicts. In 1796, after a brief retirement during which he pursued his intellectual and agrarian interests, Jefferson ran unsuccessfully for president, becoming John Adams's vice president. In the next presidential election, Jefferson was victorious over Adams in a bitter contest that was decided by the House of Representatives (Jefferson and Aaron Burr had tied). As president Jefferson sought to restore harmony to the nation and the government, which had been rent by strife between Federalists and Republicans. Jefferson's greatest presidential achievement, though of doubtful constitutionality, was the Louisiana Purchase (1803), which doubled the size of the country. He also planned the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-06). Jefferson's second term was less successful, marred by continued conflicts with Chief Justice John Marshall and with the question of American neutrality in the war between Britain and France. Eventually, his plan for a state university in Virgina was approved, and the University of Virginia was chartered in 1819. Jefferson was its architectural designer, and he selected its faculty, determined its curriculum, and acquired its library.

Jefferson's library of about 6,000 volumes, which he sold to Congress in 1815, became the nucleus of the Library of Congress.