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  Jefferson, Thomas
CANDIDATE DETAILS
AffiliationDemocratic-Republican  
<-  1821-01-01  
 
NameThomas Jefferson
Address931 Thomas Jefferson Pkwy
Charlottesville, Virginia , United States
EmailNone
WebsiteNone
Born April 13, 1743
DiedJuly 04, 1826 (83 years)
ContributorRalphie
Last ModifedNJLBT
Feb 17, 2021 10:23am
Tags Widowed - Atheist - Deist - Straight -
InfoIn 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 Albemarle 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.

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JOB APPROVAL POLLS
DateFirmApproveDisapproveDon't Know
06/13/2007-06/24/2007 Rasmussen Reports 89.00% ( 0.0) 4.00% ( 0.0) 7.00% ( 0.0)

BOOKS
Title Purchase Contributor
The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth: The Jefferson Bible   Purchase Homegrown Democrat 
The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission  Purchase Homegrown Democrat 

EVENTS
Start Date End Date Type Title Contributor

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor
Jul 02, 2009 02:00am News Two Centuries On, a Cryptologist Cracks a Presidential Code   Article Jason 

DISCUSSION
Importance? 10.00000 Average

FAMILY
Wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson Jan 01, 1772-Sep 06, 1782
Daughter Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph 1772-1836
Granddaughter Ellen Randolph Coolidge 1796-1876
Grandson Meriwether Lewis Randolph 1810-1837
Grandson George Wythe Randolph 1818-1867
Daughter Jane Randolph Jefferson 1774-1775
Son [FNU] Jefferson 1777-1777
Daughter Mary "Polly" "Maria" Jefferson Eppes 1778-1804
Daughter Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson I 1780-1781
Daughter Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson II 1782-1784

INFORMATION LINKS
Draft For A Bill For Establishing Religious Freedom - Thomas Jefferson  Discuss
Encyclopedia Virginia  Discuss
On Slavery - Thomas Jefferson  Discuss
President Thomas Jefferson Inaugural Address March 4, 1801  Discuss
President Thomas Jefferson Inaugural Address March 4, 1805  Discuss
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Address to Brother Handsome Lake (November 3, 1802)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Address to the Brothers of Choctaw Nation (December 17, 1803)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Address to the Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation (January 10, 1806)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Address to the Wolf and the People of the Mandan Nation (December 30, 1806)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Eighth Annual Message (November 8, 1808)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Fifth Annual Message (December 3, 1805)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - First Annual Message (December 8, 1801)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Fourth Annual Message (November 8, 1804)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Instructions to Captain Lewis (June 20, 1803)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Message to the Inhabitants of Albemarle County (April 3, 1809)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Proclamation in Response to the Chesapeake Affair (July 2, 1807)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Proclamation on Spanish Territory (November 27, 1806)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Response to Danbury Baptist Association (January 1, 1802)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Second Annual Message (December 15, 1802)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Seventh Annual Message (October 27, 1807)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Sixth Annual Message (December 2, 1806)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Special Message to Congress on Foreign Policy (December 6, 1805)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Special Message to Congress on Indian Policy (January 18, 1803)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Special Message to Congress on the Burr Conspiracy (January 22, 1807)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Special Message to Congress on the Gun Boats (February 10, 1807)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - The Reply to New Haven Remonstrance (July 12, 1801)  Discuss
Thomas Jefferson - Third Annual Message (October 17, 1803)  Discuss
RACES
  12/05/1804 U.S. President Won 92.05% (+84.09%)
  11/13/1804 DE US President Lost 21.74% (-56.52%)
  11/09/1804 NC US President Won 42.92% (+0.04%)
  11/09/1804 US President - National Vote Won 72.79% (+45.58%)
  11/08/1804 SC US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/05/1804 MA US President Won 53.34% (+6.69%)
  11/03/1804 OH US President Won 88.00% (+76.00%)
  11/02/1804 PA US President Won 93.98% (+87.96%)
  11/01/1804 GA US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/01/1804 NY US President Won 84.75% (+69.49%)
  11/01/1804 TN US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/01/1804 VT US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/00/1804 NH US President Won 52.07% (+4.15%)
  11/00/1804 NJ US President Won 99.86% (+99.71%)
  11/00/1804 MD US President Won 74.68% (+49.35%)
  11/00/1804 KY US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/00/1804 RI US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/00/1804 VA US President Won 98.64% (+97.29%)
  02/25/1804 US President - DR Caucus Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  02/17/1801 US President House Run-off Won 62.50% (+37.50%)
  12/03/1800 US President Won 26.45% (+0.00%)
  11/13/1800 US President - National Vote Won 61.43% (+22.86%)
  11/08/1800 SC US President Won 55.77% (+11.54%)
  11/03/1800 NC US President Won 51.27% (+2.53%)
  11/01/1800 GA US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/01/1800 NY US President Won 56.85% (+13.70%)
  11/01/1800 TN US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/01/1800 NJ US President Lost 28.30% (-43.40%)
  11/01/1800 DE US President Lost 31.03% (-37.93%)
  11/00/1800 KY US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/00/1800 MD US President Won 51.38% (+2.76%)
  11/00/1800 RI US President Lost 47.85% (-4.30%)
  11/00/1800 VA US President Won 77.28% (+54.57%)
  11/00/1800 PA US President Won 63.27% (+26.53%)
  05/11/1800 US President - DR Caucus Won 50.00% (+0.00%)
  12/07/1796 U.S. President Lost 24.64% (-1.09%)
  11/13/1796 US President - National Vote Lost 46.55% (-6.90%)
  11/08/1796 US Vice President Won 33.17% (+4.39%)
  11/08/1796 SC US President Won 76.35% (+55.41%)
  11/07/1796 NC US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/07/1796 MA US President Lost 0.00% (-100.00%)
  11/04/1796 PA US President Won 50.18% (+0.36%)
  11/01/1796 TN US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/01/1796 DE US President Lost 34.48% (-31.03%)
  11/00/1796 VA US President Won 59.77% (+19.53%)
  11/00/1796 NH US President Lost 20.86% (-58.29%)
  11/00/1796 KY US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/00/1796 MD US President Lost 46.84% (-6.32%)
  12/05/1792 U.S. President Lost 1.52% (-48.48%)
  11/06/1792 US Vice President Lost 3.03% (-55.30%)
  09/26/1789 U. S. Secretary of State Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  03/10/1785 US Ambassador to France Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  12/31/1783 VA Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  12/31/1782 VA Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  05/29/1780 VA Governor Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  05/29/1779 VA Governor Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  12/31/1775 VA Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  12/31/1774 VA Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
ENDORSEMENTS