Jefferson, Thomas

I

Introduction

Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826), American revolutionary leader and political philosopher, author of the Declaration of Independence, and third president of the United States (1801-1809).

Jefferson was among the most brilliant American exponents of the Enlightenment, the movement of 18th-century thought that emphasized the possibilities of human reason. A Virginia aristocrat, he had the time and resources to educate himself in history, literature, law, architecture, science, and philosophy; as a diplomat and friend of French and British intellectuals, he had direct access to European culture and thought; and as a provincial farmer and novice revolutionary leader, he had the motivation and the opportunity to apply Enlightenment political philosophy to the task of nation-building.

II

Early Life

Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell in Albemarle County, Virginia. His father was a plantation owner, and his mother belonged to the Randolph family, which was prominent in colonial Virginia. From his father and from his environment he acquired an intense interest in botany, geology, cartography, and North American exploration, and from a childhood teacher a love of Greek and Latin. As a student at the College of William and Mary in the early 1760s, he studied under William Small, who knew in depth the Scottish Enlightenment, with its highly integrated approach to law, history, philosophy, and science. In George Wythe, he found an equally gifted teacher of the law. Jefferson was admitted to the bar in 1767 and first elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769. His principal passion during his late 20s was the design and building of his home, Monticello. Despite several desultory courtships, he did not seriously consider marriage until 1770, when he met Martha Wayles Skelton, a wealthy widow of 23. They were married in 1772.

III

Theoretician of Independence

During his 20s, Jefferson read voraciously in Enlightenment philosophy, 17th-century English history, political theory, and law. Drawing on this learning, he drafted in 1774 a Summary View of the Rights of British America as instructions for Virginia's delegates to the First Continental Congress, which met to consider the colonies' grievances against Great Britain. Virginia leaders instead adopted a more legalistic set of instructions, and Summary View was published anonymously as a pamphlet. As Jefferson's authorship became widely known, however, he moved suddenly into the front rank of American political theorists.

In the pamphlet, Jefferson argued that the original settlers of the colonies came as individuals rather than as agents of the British government. The colonial governments they formed therefore embodied the natural right of expatriates from one country to select the terms of their subjection to a new ruler. Colonial legislatures and the British Parliament, he asserted, shared power, and both were responsible for protecting the “liberties and rights” of the people.

The Declaration of Independence, drafted principally by Jefferson in late June 1776 for the Second Continental Congress, drew the implications of this historical view to their logical conclusion, proclaiming that the “tyrannical” acts of the British government gave the colonists the right to “dissolve the political bands” that had connected them with the mother country.

IV

Legislative Achievements

As a legislator in Virginia (1776-1779), Jefferson sought to reform society along enlightened and republican lines. After successfully proposing the disestablishment of the Anglican Church, he was responsible for legislation abolishing entail (inheritance of land through a particular line of descent) and primogeniture (inheritance only by the eldest son), thus eliminating two major governmental restrictions on the use of private property.

The reform of the Virginia criminal code—in which Jefferson was a leading participant—did not achieve the humanitarian results to which he was dedicated but did eliminate the most barbarous and repressive practices, such as public whippings, dunkings, and bills of attainder (which condemned accused people without trial). The legislature refused outright to adopt Jefferson's bill for a public school system and library, but many years later, he succeeded in establishing the University of Virginia (which opened in 1825)—one of the three accomplishments that he memorialized in the epitaph on his tombstone. The other two were his authorship of the Declaration of Independence and of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom—the latter the most important of his achievements as a Virginia legislator. The religious freedom statute, originally introduced in 1779 but not actually passed by the legislature until 1786, prohibited any state financing of religious instruction. Almost entirely composed of an eloquent preface, it brilliantly excoriated the baneful effects of state sponsorship of worship and belief.

As governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781, Jefferson failed to prevent the British from invading the state. After leaving office he retreated to Monticello to write his classic Notes on the State of Virginia. The Notes, which were written for the information of a French correspondent, deal with social, political, and economic life in the 18th century.

After his wife's death in 1782, Jefferson again became a delegate to the Congress, and in 1784 he drafted the report that was the basis for the Ordinances of 1784, 1785, and 1787. As minister to France, from 1784 to 1789, he steeped himself in French learning and witnessed, with excitement and approval, the early stages of the French Revolution.