Nevertheless, Jefferson's most important achievements as president all involved bold assertions of national government power and surprisingly liberal readings of the U.
Jefferson's most significant accomplishment as president was the Louisiana Purchase. He then devised the wonderfully informative Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore, map out and report back on the new American territories. Jefferson also put an end to the centuries-old problem of Tripoli pirates from North Africa disrupting American shipping in the Mediterranean.
During the Barbary War, Jefferson forced the pirates to capitulate by deploying new American warships. Notably, both the Louisiana Purchase and the undeclared war against the Barbary pirates conflicted with Jefferson's much-avowed Republican values.
Both actions represented unprecedented expansions of national government power, and neither was explicitly sanctioned by the Constitution. Although Jefferson easily won re-election in , his second term in office proved much more difficult and less productive than his first.
He largely failed in his efforts to impeach the many Federalist judges swept into government by the Judiciary Act of However, the greatest challenges of Jefferson's second term were posed by the war between Napoleonic France and Great Britain. Both Britain and France attempted to prevent American commerce with the other power by harassing American shipping, and Britain in particular sought to impress American sailors into the British Navy.
In response, Jefferson passed the Embargo Act of , suspending all trade with Europe. The embargo also led to the War of with Great Britain after Jefferson left office.
On March 4, , after watching the inauguration of his close friend and successor James Madison , Jefferson returned to Virginia to live out the rest of his days as "The Sage of Monticello. Jefferson's primary pastime was endlessly rebuilding, remodeling and improving his home and estate, at considerable expense.
A Frenchman, Marquis de Chastellux, quipped, "it may be said that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the Fine Arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather.
Jefferson also dedicated his later years to organizing the University of Virginia , the nation's first secular university. He personally designed the campus, envisioned as an "academical village," and hand-selected renowned European scholars to serve as its professors.
The University of Virginia opened its doors on March 7, , one of the proudest days of Jefferson's life. Jefferson also kept up an outpouring of correspondence at the end of his life. In particular, he rekindled a lively correspondence on politics, philosophy and literature with John Adams that stands out among the most extraordinary exchanges of letters in history. Nevertheless, Jefferson's retirement was marred by financial woes.
To pay off the substantial debts he incurred over decades of living beyond his means, Jefferson resorted to selling his cherished personal library to the national government to serve as the foundation of the Library of Congress. Jefferson died on July 4, — the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence — only a few hours before John Adams passed away in Massachusetts.
In the moments before he passed, Adams spoke his last words, eternally true if not in the literal sense in which he meant them, "Thomas Jefferson survives. As the author of the Declaration of Independence, the foundational text of American democracy and one of the most important documents in world history, Jefferson will be forever revered as one of the great American Founding Fathers. However, Jefferson was also a man of many contradictions. Jefferson was the spokesman of liberty and a racist enslaved people owner, a champion of the common people and a man with luxurious and aristocratic tastes, a believer in limited government and a president who expanded governmental authority beyond the wildest visions of his predecessors, a quiet man who abhorred politics and arguably the most dominant political figure of his generation.
The tensions between Jefferson's principles and practices make him all the more apt a symbol for the nation he helped create, a nation whose shining ideals have always been complicated by a complex history. Jefferson is buried in the family cemetery at his beloved Monticello, in a grave marked by a plain gray tombstone. The brief inscription it bears, written by Jefferson himself, is as noteworthy for what it excludes as what it includes. The inscription suggests Jefferson's humility as well as his belief that his greatest gifts to posterity came in the realm of ideas rather than the realm of politics: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and father of the University Of Virginia.
We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Despite his debts, when he died just a few hours before his friend John Adams on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, , he was optimistic as to the future of the republican experiment.
Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time , 6 vols. Boston: I; Appendix I, I Bear and Lucia Stanton, eds. Princeton: Princeton University Press, I: TJ to Benjamin Latrobe, 10 Oct. PTJ Letter from Abraham Lincoln to Henry L. Pierce, et al. Nicolay and John Hay, eds. Notes on the State of Virginia.
Library of America, , Buy Tickets. Home Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson, 2 July He spent much of his life laying the groundwork to insure that the great experiment would continue.
Abraham Lincoln made just this point when he declared: All honor to Jefferson — to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, and so to embalm it there, that to-day and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.
Retirement During the last seventeen years of his life, Jefferson generally remained at Monticello, welcoming the many visitors who came to call upon the Sage.
In the s, a reporter named James Callender ran articles condemning several politicians—including Alexander Hamilton and John Adams—for various indiscretions.
In , he turned his attention to Jefferson, whom he alleged was having an affair with one of his slaves, a woman named Sally Hemings. Callender eventually broke the news that Hemings and Jefferson had been involved, a relationship that resulted in several children.
Jefferson supporters ignored the story—which modern-day DNA testing later corroborated—but Callender was never in a position to gather more evidence: He drowned in the James River in Even before the Revolution, Jefferson had taken a liking to mockingbirds , and he brought this affection to the White House, which they filled with melodious song.
And, presumably, bird poop. But he was singularly affectionate toward one mockingbird he named Dick. When Jefferson played his violin, Dick would accompany with vocals. Dick and his colleagues followed Jefferson back to Monticello when he was finished with his second term in Not one to sit idle, Jefferson used his available free time to consider solutions to some of the problems that followed him at his Monticello farming endeavors.
Anxious to till soil more efficiently, he and his son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, conceived of a plow that could navigate hills. He also tinkered with a way of improving a dumbwaiter, the elevator typically used to deliver food and other goods from one floor to another. Jefferson was married for just 10 years before his wife, Martha Wayles, died in at age 33 of unknown causes.
During his second term as president, Jefferson was said to have run into a man on horseback near his Monticello estate who proceeded to engage him in a lengthy complaint of everything wrong in Washington. Reportedly, the man had no idea he was speaking to the commander-in-chief until Jefferson introduced himself. Long before Richard Nixon landed in hot water, Thomas Jefferson resisted attempts to compel him to testify in court.
Government attorneys wanted Jefferson to appear with the letter, but the president—who said that the country would be left without leadership if he traveled to Richmond to answer the subpoena—refused to appear, an act of executive willpower that was never challenged in court.
The home took years to construct and was nearly ready by the time he left office in After taking office, Jefferson offended some in Washington who believed the president should be an impeccably-dressed and polished social host. While many of his stature would opt for a carriage, Jefferson rode a horse and dressed in plain and comfortable clothing.
Centuries before wine appreciation became a national pastime, Jefferson was busy accumulating an eclectic wine cellar. His love for the drink coincided with his trip to France, where he was introduced to the various tastes and textures.
He kept a well-stocked collection at Monticello and also tried growing his own European grapes, but was never successful. Your contribution makes it possible for us to continue our mission of speaking truth and defending conservative principles. Something to Consider If you valued reading this article, please consider joining our fight by donating to our Fall Webathon. Charles C. Jim Geraghty. Michael Brendan Dougherty.
Brittany Bernstein. It's been three weeks since Biden's vaccine-mandate announcement, and businesses still don't have a concrete picture for how this will roll out.
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