The Genius of Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln admired him. So did Franklin Roosevelt. Did John F. Kennedy. Lots of other presidents exposed similar sentiments. They were discussing Thomas Jefferson, America’s 3rd president. Carol Swain checks out why their appreciation was so well must have.
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Script:
There’s a factor Thomas Jefferson’s face is on our coinage; why his toned head is on Mount Rushmore; and why there is a splendid memorial in his honor in Washington, DC.
As British historian Paul Johnson put it in A History of the American People, “… nobody did more than [Jefferson] did to produce the United States of America.”
Born upon April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia, Jefferson early on revealed an intellectual interest that would never ever be satisfied.
He feasted on books on history, approach, science, and math, while discovering Latin, Greek, and French. He would ultimately gather a personal library of 6,500 volumes, declaring, “I can not live without books.”
There was essentially no topic which he didn’t discover exceptional and didn’t try to master. The majority of the time, he succeeded.
He completed from college in just 2 years with a strategy to practice law. At age 25, he won a seat in Virginia’s House of Burgesses– Virginia’s colonial equivalent of a House of Representatives– getting in politics just as the American colonies were beginning to challenge British guideline.
Although Jefferson was not a gifted speaker, he was a genius with words.
This present did not go unnoticed.
John Adams and Benjamin Franklin– no rhetorical slouches themselves– asked him to write the first draft of America’s Declaration of Independence.
Their self-esteem was highly rewarded. Jefferson’s assertions that “all guys are established equivalent,” which “nature’s God … The Creator” had actually granted them “inalienable” rights formed the cornerstones of the American experiment.
Jefferson was not yet 34.
In 1790, President Washington designated him to be the brand-new nation’s really first Secretary of State, amongst the 2 essential posts in Washington’s cabinet. The other post was Secretary of the Treasury to which Washington picked Alexander Hamilton.
The two wound up being bitter rivals. Jefferson believed Hamilton’s belief in a powerful central federal government; Hamilton thought Jefferson was an ill-advised dreamer.
Both misinterpreted the other. This was probably unavoidable supplied their strong convictions and substantial egos. And although it’s real that Jefferson was a lofty political theorist, he was likewise a shrewd politician.
As soon as been close allies– most particularly John Adams, his hardball techniques outraged or alienated individuals who had.
After defeating Adams in a contentious election in 1800, Jefferson served two terms as America’s 3rd president– a duration historians still consider among the most substantial and successful in American history.
He lowered the scope and reach of the federal government– cutting taxes, reducing expenses, and retiring half of the nationwide monetary obligation.
This was the small-government Jefferson in action. Nevertheless he had no problem working out energetic executive authority when he felt it was required. Nowhere is this better revealed than his greatest achievement as president: the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, or just 4 cents an acre.
In one fell swoop, Jefferson managed an offer that doubled the size of the United States, including areas of what are now fifteen states, while also getting rid of the existence of a powerful European empire from North America.
After completing two terms, Jefferson, following Washington’s example, stepped down from the really first workplace.
He invested the last seventeen years of his life at his treasured home, Monticello, an estate he established not far from his birth place.
There, he not only developed the University of Virginia, but fixed his relationship with his long-lost friend, John Adams. They began a fabled correspondence that continued practically to the end of their lives.
Extremely– if one is so likely, one might even mention providentially– Jefferson and Adams passed away on the really same day, July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.
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Abraham Lincoln admired him. They were speaking about Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president. And although it’s real that Jefferson was a lofty political theorist, he was also a cunning politician.
This was the small-government Jefferson in action. No place is this much better exposed than his greatest accomplishment as president: the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, or simply 4 cents an acre.
They were speaking about Thomas Jefferson, America’s 3rd president. And although it’s real that Jefferson was a lofty political theorist, he was likewise a shrewd political leader.
This was the small-government Jefferson in action. They were talking about Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president. And although it’s true that Jefferson was a lofty political theorist, he was likewise a cunning political leader.
