THOMAS JEFFERSON

For many students of history the author of the DtocStrztxm of Independence was a true “philoso- hilosopher-king"-exactly the type of ruler Plato confers: fit to govern his ideal state.

Tbomas Jefferson’s lifelong passion was equal y for all men. How this wealthy gen- came to embrace such ideas is not clear, He was born on a plantation near Charlottesville, ito the ruling class. Peter Jefferson, his was a well-to-do landowner. His mother, render Jane Randolph, came from an influential family.

Jeccrson lived from April 13, 1743 to July 4, and his accomplishments began at an early At only thirty-one he wrote “A Summary of the Rights of British America,” one of greatest public declarations in the English ice. Dipping into history, he claimed that should be as free to work out their apart from the Mother Country as the early Saxons were when they left the Northern European wilderness to build a new society on the island of Britain. Jefferson presented this revolutionary paper privately at the Williamsburg Convention of 1774. But when published copies found their way to England, Jefferson was famous.

His educational preparation for leadership was excellent. It was one of those rare occasions when the opportunity and the right man met. After graduating from William and Mary College, he studied law for five years in the office of George Wythe, one of the most highly respected lawyers in all the colonies.

If for nothing else, Jefferson would have achieved greatness through his part in converting Virginia from a royal province into a democratic state. By helping to reform the laws and Constitution of Virginia, he succeeded in destroying some of the very property laws that supported his own social class.

But his most remarkable accomplishments at this time were in religion and education. The colonials had never liked the idea of an established church-in this case, the Episcopal Church. Because of this, Jefferson was able to achieve adoption of his Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom. This document called for the complete separation of church and state and declared that no one should be compelled to pay money to any religious body. Even George Washington thought this too strong.

Jererson’s idea of a system of free education for iH youth was remarkable for his time. How- erer. he did not believe in mass education any than Alexander Hamilton, the man who op- c him in politics. Jefferson simply believed education should be available to all those who [were tilented, regardless of personal wealth or aodi. position. Only in later years did his state agree to build the free University of Virginia, whhc'z Jefferson founded and whose buildings he

designed.

kserson served as wartime Governor of his sere from 1779-81. He was not considered a success. for by nature he was distinctly unmilitary. When the British occupied Richmond, the capital

af Mrginia, he narrowly escaped.

 Contrary to general belief, the Revolutionary W11 never was a really popular uprising. It was oersted that only one-third of the people wanted to rebel, one-third were opposed, and one-third  were not interested. At heart, many Vir- prrtins still thought of England as home and sent their sons there to be educated. The Governor are. therefore glad to remove himself from the cocnict by retiring to his estate, Monticello.

Throughout most of his life, this owner of ten thousand acres and two hundred slaves fought to free the Negroes. He believed that the slave trade mast end, that all slaves had to be freed at the

same time and provisions made for them by law. Unless slavery was abolished everywhere, no individual planter (including himself) could hope to survive financially in a slave economy with no one to work his land.

Jefferson had a hard time getting people to accept his views on this issue. He first proposed the abolition of slavery as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, though his proposal did not pass. A paragraph in his Declaration of Independence referring to the slave trade was removed, yielding to the wishes of those states who still carried on slave traffic. Back in Virginia, he again proposed prohibition of further importation of slaves, and again he was warned that such a bill would fail. But progress was made. His position on slavery was set forth in the substitute Act passed by Congress for the government of the Northwest Territory. This Act forbade slavery in all territory north of the Ohio River. This rapidly opened these lands to Northern and Eastern settlers, and, in the end, created more free states than slaveholding states.

Years later, as President, Jefferson signed the bill ending all further traffic in slavery after January i, 1808. Thus, when he was nearly sixty-five, the dream of his youth came to pass.

In 1785, Jefferson succeeded Franklin as American Minister to France, the country he loved so

In Paris, he observed the march of events tfer were leading to revolution. A few months before he sailed for home in 1789, he witnessed the fill of the Bastille.

As America’s first Secretary of State, Jefferson often argued with Hamilton in Cabinet meetings. Hamilton’s famous saying, “Your people, Sir, yoor people is a great Beast,” showed his sharp realism as opposed to Jefferson’s boundless idealise. Though Jefferson had studied government c: the rise and fall of nations, more than any ocher statesman of his time except John Adams, he had a bit too much faith in the goodness and unselfishness of his fellowmen.

Jefferson’s first term as President began in 1800. Irs outstanding accomplishment was the purchase of the vast Louisiana Territory at four cents an acre. Purchase of the territory doubled the area of the American nation and produced thirteen new states. Again, opportunity and the right man met. American commissioners in France were prepared to spend two million dollars to acquire New Orleans and West Florida. Napoleon, fearing an English-American alliance if he declared war on England, bid for American friendship by offering all of Louisiana. Jefferson accepted the offer-and told Congress about it afterward.

Jefferson’s second term was less peaceful than his first. Once more, England and Napoleonic

France were locked in struggle. The President, with a horror of violence, obtained passage of an Embargo Act designed to keep American ships off the seas and thus force both countries to respect American neutrality rights. When the embargo threatened to destroy the nation’s shipping, he substituted the Non-Intercourse Act, forbidding trade only with England and France until they respected American rights. In practice, this favored the French, who pretended to follow the law. It also hastened the useless war of 1812 with England.

Jefferson managed the nation’s domestic affairs well No other American President has been as interested in his country’s agriculture. While traveling abroad, he always looked for new crops to introduce to the American planter.

As talented as Leonardo da Vinci, Jefferson introduced new inventions, in addition to new ideas. In many ways he was the most “civilized” president America ever had. He read many foreign languages, and his library was the finest in the country.

In Jefferson, as later in Woodrow Wilson, we see an idealism that often blinded him to practical considerations. But the main difference between the two is that Jefferson’s anger died easily, giving way to a charm admitted even by his enemies. It was right for such idealism to be

in America by one so well-qualified. But a philosophy could be made to work only in a Land where all other citizens were as noble as he.