In the
thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a
private letter, "I have sworn upon the altar of God
eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind
of man."
This
powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743 in Albermarle
County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and
surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a
Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of
William and Mary, then read law. In 1772 he married Martha
Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his partly
constructed mountaintop home, Monticello.
Freckled
and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson was
eloquent as a correspondent, but he was no public speaker. In
the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress,
he contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot
cause. As the "silent member" of the Congress,
Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. In
years following he labored to make its words a reality in
Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill establishing religious
freedom, enacted in 1786.
Jefferson
succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. His
sympathy for the French Revolution led him into conflict with
Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson was Secretary of State in
President Washington's Cabinet. He resigned in 1793.
Sharp
political conflict developed, and two separate parties, the
Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, began to form.
Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the Republicans, who
sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. Attacking
Federalist policies, he opposed a strong centralized
Government and championed the rights of states.
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As a
reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came
within three votes of election. Through a flaw in the
Constitution, he became Vice President, although an opponent
of President Adams. In 1800 the defect caused a more serious
problem. Republican electors, attempting to name both a
President and a Vice President from their own party, cast a
tie vote between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of
Representatives settled the tie. Hamilton, disliking both
Jefferson and Burr, nevertheless urged Jefferson's election.
When
Jefferson assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France had
passed. He slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget,
eliminated the tax on whiskey so unpopular in the West, yet
reduced the national debt by a third. He also sent a naval
squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were harassing
American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further, although the
Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new
land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms over constitutionality
when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory
from Napoleon in 1803.
During
Jefferson's second term, he was increasingly preoccupied with
keeping the Nation from involvement in the Napoleonic wars,
though both England and France interfered with the neutral
rights of American merchantmen. Jefferson's attempted
solution, an embargo upon American shipping, worked badly and
was unpopular.
Jefferson
retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as his grand
designs for the University of Virginia. A French nobleman
observed that he had placed his house and his mind "on an
elevated situation, from which he might contemplate the
universe."
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Thomas
Jefferson