Thomas Jefferson

**Thomas Jefferson** (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He wrote the Declaration of Independence, which he and 55 other Founding Fathers signed. He also wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

Jefferson was also a plantation owner and had many slaves. He freed several people in the Hemings family.

## Early life

Jefferson, the third of ten children, was born on April 13, 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia, to a planter family. His parents were Peter and Jane Jefferson. He had six sisters and three brothers. Only nine years old, Jefferson began studying Latin, Greek, and French. He also learned to ride horses. He went on to become a lawyer.

On January 1, 1772, aged 28, Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton with whom he had six children.

## Early career

Jefferson wanted the Thirteen Colonies to be free from Great Britain. Jefferson quickly assumed a leadership role among like-minded men of his generation. A member of the Second Continental Congress, he was chosen to be in the group of officials that wrote the Declaration of Independence and was its main writer.

He was the minister to France from 1785 to 1789.

President George Washington chose him to be the first Secretary of State. Jefferson wanted the federal government to have limited powers. He had the opposite view of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who wanted a strong government. Together with James Madison in 1792, he founded the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose Hamilton and his Federalist Party. Jefferson's party became an ancestor today's Democratic Party.

Jefferson ran for president in 1796 against John Adams and got the second highest number of electoral votes. That made, according to the Constitution, Jefferson become vice-president.

## Presidency

Jefferson ran again as president for the Democratic-Republican candidate in 1800 and won. He re-elected in 1804.

During his presidency, Jefferson agreed to the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States.

Jegfferson sent the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the land that the United States had gotten by the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson had to deal with the threat of war during his second term. The United Kingdom and France were at war for almost all of his his presidency.. Both countries did things that could have made the United States enter the war. Jefferson worked hard to keep his country out of the war and keep its neutrality.

Jefferson passed the Embargo Act of 1807, which made it illegal for the United States to trade with other countries and upheld his neutrality policy. The law was hated in New England since it wrecked the region's economy, which was dependent on Britain.

## Later years in life

Jefferson started the University of Virginia.

At Monticello, Jefferson is believed to have had several children with his slave Sally Hemings. When his oldest daughter's husband was disowned, she and her children also came to live at Monticello.

When the British burned Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812, many books in the Library of Congress were burned. Jefferson sold his own personal library to replace the lost books.

Jefferson died on July 4, 1826 from pneumonia complicated by uremia on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence; he was 83 years old. The second president of the United States, John Adams, died at the age of 90 of heart failure the same day, just a few hours later.

## Monuments and museums

The Jefferson Memorial near the National Mall, in Washington, D.C. Jefferson is one of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Also, visitors can visit his home at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia.

## Other websites

- Jefferson's White House biography

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **name**: Thomas Jefferson
- **nationality**: American
- **image**: Official Presidential portrait of Thomas Jefferson (by Rembrandt Peale, 1800).jpg
- **caption**: Portrait by Rembrandt Peale, 1800
- **order**: 3rd President of the United States
- **term start**: March 4, 1801
- **term end**: March 4, 1809
- **predecessor**: John Adams
- **successor**: James Madison
- **order2**: 2nd Vice President of the United States
- **president2**: John Adams
- **term start2**: March 4, 1797
- **term end2**: March 4, 1801
- **predecessor2**: John Adams
- **successor2**: Aaron Burr
- **order3**: 1st United States Secretary of State
- **term start3**: September 26, 1789
- **term end3**: December 31, 1793
- **president3**: George Washington
- **predecessor3**: _New Office_
- **successor3**: Edmund Randolph
- **birth place**: Shadwell, Virginia, United States, U.S.
- **death place**: Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.
- **spouse**: Martha Jefferson, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
- **party**: Democratic-Republican Party (United States), Democratic-Republican
- **vicepresident**: Aaron Burr (1801–1805)
 George Clinton (vice president), George Clinton (1805–1809)
- **height**: 6 ft 2½ in (189 cm)
- **blank1**: Religion
- **data1**: Deism
- **signature**: Thomas Jefferson Signature.svg
- **signature alt**: Th: Jefferson