| Patriotic Quotes
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country. Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. |
Thomas Jefferson Posters
Thomas Jefferson: Third President
(1801-1809)
Born: April 13, 1743 in Albermarle County, Virginia
Died: July 4, 1826 in Monticello in Virginia
Married to Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
 Thomas Jefferson 16.00x20.00in. Print |
 Thomas Jefferson 19.00x23.00in. Print |
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.
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."
He died on July 4, 1826.