HISTORY
M INUTE
The Fourth is nearly here! This is the column that I would like to run for the week of the Fourth. It is the first of two parts on Thomas Jefferson. The Adams column I sent last week c an be run a fter that. Part 2 should be coming soon!
Ken The success of the American Revolution came from t he hard work and bloodshed of thousands of people. Behind the sc enes, legislators and diplomats worked to fund the armies and rally the people. Of those men a nd women, of all faiths and of all races and rich and poor alike, it was the words of one man who wrote the sentence that defined the cause and announced to the world that A merica had become an independent nation. Lawyer, scholar, legislator, inventor, scientist, and diplomat Thomas Jefferson became that man with his work on the Declaration of Independence in the fateful summer of 1776.
Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia in April 1743. He was the t hird of ten children. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a surveyor and wealthy planter. His father made sure that his children had classical educations, and Thomas Jefferson excelled in academics. He would eventually become fluent in five languages, including Latin, Greek, and French. He excelled at science and math and would become fascinated with a rchitecture, astronomy, and geology.
In 1757, his father died. He inherited more than 2,700 acres at a ge 14 a nd worked to care for his mother. In 1760, he enrolled at the College of William and Mary, graduating in two years. In 1762, he began st udying the law under George Wythe, one of the most respected legal minds in Virginia and himself later a judge and a delegate to the Continental Congress.
Jefferson was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1767. Two years later, he was elected to the c olonial legislature. He built a respected law practice, takingonsomeofthemost prominent cases in the colony and even defending slaves suing for t heir freedom. In 1768, h e b egan building Monticello, a mansion that he designed and even today is still a tourist attraction. He married Ma rtha Skelton in 1772. T hey had five children but only t wo daughters survived to adulthood.
As a legislator, Jefferson became increasingly critical of t he British. In 1774, he pushed a resolution through the legislature calling for a boycott of a ll British goods in response to the Intolerable Acts. A fterward, he published a pamphlet, “ A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” which defended the idea of self-government for the colonies and limited power for the king.
He traveled to Philadelphia in1775asamemberofthe Second Continental Congress. By the next year, independence was on the horizon a s the fighting spread. Congress decided in June 1776 to make a statement to the world, which would become the Declaration of Independence. A committee offivewasselectedtowrite the document, which included Jefferson, John Adams, Ben Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert L ivingston. The majority of the task fell to Jefferson.
Jefferson agonized over the working for weeks, ultimately borrowing heavily from English philosopher John L ocke for his ideas of government a s defending the rights of t he people a nd how Britain had failed the colonies. The C ontinental Congress declared independence on July 2, but the document itself, the Declaration of Independence, was approved on July 4 as the British army prepared to wage an invasion of New York.
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable R ights, that among these a re Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” Jefferson wrote. It was a sentence that would come todefinetheUnitedStates and its hopes for itself; and it was a sentence that would ignitedozensofrevolutions, independence movements, and social movements across the globe for the next 250 years.
The declaration that “all men are created equal” was a radical idea for 1776, especially for a British society built a round socialclass. Itmeantthere were rights beyond t he reach of Parliaments, legislators, and kings. Itmeantthatfreedom belonged to all Americans and that the law was to protect everyone. Freedom and consent of the governed would be t he new n ation's g uiding principles. Jefferson would say years later, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” But he knew that in a free society that imperfect men, f lawed men, could strive each day to be more than what they were the day before a nd should not be limited to where theycamefromorwhothey were but only by t he limits of their imaginations.
Jefferson tore through the years of g rievances against the British. He listed 27 grievances against the British and the continued attacks on the rights of t he people. Of these grievances, ta xation was only listed once, noted alongside the dissolution of legislatures and the loss of jury trials a nd the declaration of martial law. He pointed out the pet tiness of K ing George III and Parliament with their attacks on the colonists for, as Jefferson declared, “ For opposing with manly firmness, his invasions on t he rights of the people.”
He i ncluded a line condemning the British slave trade,butCongressstruckit down to gain the support of southern planters. Though Jefferson was a slaveholder, he expressed skepticism and moral agony over slavery in his writings. In a contradiction that defined his life and puzzled biographers, he c ould never justify the system; but he could never part w ith the comforts that it provided for him.
The Declaration concluded with the promise that the delegates would “ pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” The long war lay a head, and much more lay ahead for Thomas Jefferson and the nation he helped bring into existence.
