Thomas Jefferson Era

Thomas Jefferson Era

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the third president of the United States, and author of the Declaration of Independence. He was one of the most brilliant individuals in history. His interests were boundless, and his accomplishments were great and varied. He was a philosopher, educator, naturalist, politician, scientists, architect, and inventor, pioneer in scientific farming, musician, and writer(Cunningham 57). He was also the foremost spokesman for democracy of his day.

As president, Jefferson strengthened the powers of the executive branch of government. He was the first president to lead a political party, and through it he exercised control over the Congress of the United States of the United States (Cunningham 102). He had great faith in popular rule, and it is this optimism that is the essence of what came to be called Jeffersonian Democracy.

“Thomas Jefferson’s father, Peter Jefferson, was a prosperous Virginia planter. His mother Jane Randolph Jefferson was a member of the old and distinguished Randolph family of Virginia. In 1743 the Jefferson’s moved to western Goochland County, where Peter Jefferson had acquired 162 hectares (400 acres) of undeveloped land. He named his estate Shadwell. At first the family lived in a single log cabin” (Chinard 254).

Thomas Jefferson was born in this cabin in 1743 (earthlink.net). A year after his birth, Albemarle County was formed from the western portion of Goochland County. Peter Jefferson soon became a leader in the new county. He was a justice of the peace, a magistrate, and commander of the county militia. Although young Jefferson was accepted into the Virginia aristocracy through hi mother’s family, it was his father, a self-made man, whom he especially admired.

“In 1745, a man by the name of William Randolph, a cousin of Mrs. Jefferson and a close friend of the family, died. His will requested that Peter Jefferson move to his estate, manage the house and land, and supervise the education of Randolph’s four children. The Jefferson’s accepted and remained at Randolph’s estate, known as Tuckahoe, for more than seven years” (Dumbauld 75).

“Thomas Jefferson was five years old when he began his education under the family tutor at Tuckahoe. In 1752 the Jefferson’s returned to Shadwell and started work on a plantation home. Thomas, however, spent little time at Shadwell. Almost immediately he was sent to Dover, Virginia, where he studied Latin with the Reverend William Douglas until 1757, when his father died. He was then sent to the school of the Reverend James Maury at Hanover, Virginia, and spent two years studying Greek and Latin classics, history, literature, geography, and natural science” (Chinard 312).

Thomas Jefferson was a tall, slender boy with sandy hair of a reddish cast and fair skin that freckled and sunburned easily. A serious student, he also enjoyed the lighter aspects of the education of Virginia gentleman. He learned to dance and play the violin and holidays he spent either at Shadwell entertaining guests or at his friends’ plantations.

“In March of 1760 Jefferson entered the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and soon came under the influence of Dr. William Small. Jefferson became a favorite of the doctor who taught mathematics, natural history, metaphysics, and moral philosophy. Jefferson also continued his study of classical literature. After two years at William and Mary, Jefferson left to study with Dr. Small’s friend George Wythe, the most learned lawyer in Virginia. Jefferson was very fond of Wythe and called him “my second father.” Even while reading law, Jefferson had too many other interests. He studied French, Italian, and English history and literature. He was keenly interested in the new scientific theory of inoculation and traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to have himself inoculated against smallpox” (polytechnic.org).

In 1767, after five years of work and study under Wythe, Jefferson was admitted to the practice of law in Virginia (Dumbauld 67). He was reasonably successful as a lawyer, but did not learn enough to support a Virginia gentleman. Jefferson’s main source of income, like that of most other Virginia lawyers, was his land.

“Throughout his years of law practice, Jefferson spent much time supervising the Shadwell plantation. In his occupation, as in his studies, he was most methodical. He observed the growth of his plants and trees, keeping records of them in a special garden book. A careful observer of his environment, he kept a lifelong record of such things as temperature, weather, expenses, recipes, and anything else that struck him as noteworthy” (earthlink.net).

“On New Year’s Day, 1772, Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton, a 24-year-old widow. Patty, as Jefferson called her, shared her husband’s love of music and played the piano. The marriage was a happy one despite Mrs. Jefferson’s ill health. Of their six children, only two, both of them girls, lived to maturity, Martha Jefferson died in 1782” (Cunningham 154). The death of his wife had a profound effect on Jefferson and probably influenced his return to politics, which he had considered abandoning.

By the time of his marriage, Jefferson had for several years been a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. This was the lower chamber of the Virginia legislature, which was called the General Assembly. “He was elected in 1768 and took his seat at Williamsburg in the spring of 1769. As a burgess, Jefferson took an active part in the events that led to the American Revolution” (Chinard 385). He belonged to the so-called radical group that was in opposition to the conservative planters of the Tidewater region. “Many of his democratic views came from his experience as a resident of the western part of the colony, near the frontier, where he saw the colonists carve a civilization out of the wilderness. This strengthened his lifelong belief that people could and should govern themselves” (mtsu.edu).

Jefferson became the leader of a group that called themselves Democratic Republicans. They wanted the United States to remain a republic of the small, property-holding farmers who, they believed, were its most trustworthy citizens. Democratic Republicans envisioned a central government that was strong enough to protect property but not strong or active enough to threaten property or other republican rights. Jefferson feared the national debt, the federal taxes, and the enlarged civil service that Hamilton’s required.

“When Jefferson was elected president 1800, he paid off much of the debt that Hamilton had envisioned as a permanent fixture of government. The Jeffersonian then abolished federal taxes other than the tariff, reduced the number of government employees, and drastically reduced the size of the military. They did, however, retain the Bank of the United States. Internationally, the Jeffersonians had no ambitions other than free trade the right of Americans to trade the produce of their plantations and farms for finished goods from other countries” (clscc.cc).

Jeffersonians cared more about farmers than about the merchants who carried their produce to Europe and imported European goods, particularly when those merchants operated within established British trade networks and voted for Federalist candidates. “Jeffersonians demanded that the United States be free to trade with any nation and that both France and Britain respect American sovereignty and neutral rights” (Dumbauld 265).

During most of Jefferson’s presidency, Europe was at peace during a break in the Napoleonic Wars. “The one major foreign policy issue was a huge success: Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. The purchase gave western farmers free use of the river system that emptied at New Orleans, removed the French presence from the western boarder of the United States, and provided American farmers with vast new lands on which to expand their rural republic. Ignoring the fact that independent Native American people occupied the Louisiana Territory, Jefferson proclaimed his new land a great “empire of liberty”” (Chinard 247).

“The War of 1812 had been a product of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. After Napoleon was defeated in 1814, neither the Americans nor the British cared to keep on fighting” (mhhe.com). In the treaty, the British abandoned their Native American allies, and the Americans dropped their complaints about maritime rights. Both assumed that peace would eliminate issues that had been created by war in Europe.

“On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, who was also a congressman from Virginia, proposed a resolution stating, “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.” Jefferson was one of a committee of five appointed to draft a declaration “to the effect of the said…resolution.” The committee asked Jefferson to draft the paper, and according to committee member John Adams, Jefferson replied, “Well, if you are decided, I will do as well as I can.” When his draft was completed, Adams, committee member Benjamin Franklin, and Jefferson himself made corrections” (mtsu.edu).

On July 2, 1776, Congress passed Lee’s resolution for independence (polytechnic.org). Technically, this was the actual day of American Independence. Then the declaration was debated, several changes were made, and some parts were dropped entirely. Jefferson regretted especially the deletion of a long paragraph denouncing the slave trade and the whole institution of slavery as a cruel war against human nature itself.

“The objective of the declaration, in Jefferson’s own words, was to justify American independence “in terms so plain and full as to command their assent.” As an expression of the philosophy of the natural rights of people in an age when absolute monarchs ruled throughout the world, it had an immense impact in America and in Europe as well. Jefferson did not originate the concept of government by consent and the belief that all people are endowed with certain right that government cannot infringe upon. These ideas came from European philosophers, most notably 17th century British philosopher John Locke. However, in the declaration they were given a practical application for the first time. Furthermore, in Jefferson’s words they achieved their most eloquent expression. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was formally adopted. The bands that had connected America with Great Britain were broken. Within a few days the declaration was being read to people throughout the colonies” (Dumbauld 450).

Peace talks between the United States and Britain had begun even before fighting in the War of 1812 began. But serious negotiations did not begin until August 1814, when American and British diplomats met in Ghent, Belgium. John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Albert Gallatin led the American delegation.

Although both sides began with extravagant demands, the final treaty did little accept end the fighting itself. The Americans gave up their demand for a British renunciation of impressments and for the cession of Canada to the United States (clscc.cc). The British abandoned their call for the creation of an Indian buffer state in the Northwest and made other, minor territorial concessions. The negotiators referred other disputes to arbitration. Hastily drawn up, the treaty was signed on Christmas Eve 1814 (Chinard 268).

“Both sides had reason to accept this skimpy agreement. The British were exhausted and in debt from their prolonged conflict with Napoleon and eager to settle the lesser dispute in North America. The Americans realized that with the defeat of have much incentive to interfere with American commerce. Indeed, by the end of 1815, impressments had all but ceased” (earthlink.net).

Other settlements followed the Treaty of Ghent and contributed to a long-term improvement in Anglo-American relations. “A commercial treaty in 1815 gave Americans the right to trade freely with England and much of the British Empire. The Rush-Bagot agreement of 1817 provided for mutual disarmament on the Great Lakes; eventually the Canadian-American boundary became the longest frontier in the world” (mhhe.com).

“For the other parties to the War of 1812, the Indian tribes east of the Mississippi, the Treaty of Ghent was of no lasting value. It required the United States to restore to the tribes lands seized by white Americans in the fighting, but those provisions were never enforced. Ultimately, the war was another disastrous blow to the capacity of Native Americans to resist white expansion. Tecumseh, their most important leader, was dead. The British, their most important allies, were gone from the Northwest. The alliance that Tecumseh and the Prophet had forged was in disarray. And the end of the war spurred a great new drive by white settlers deeper into the west, into land the Indians were less than ever able to defend” (Cunningham 411).

Bibliography: