Thomas Jefferson – Author of the Declaration of Independence

When our Founding Fathers were faced with meeting Britain’s demands or breaking away, it was a big decision. They knew that any resistance on their part would be great enough to categorize them as traitors with the death penalty for treason. They came together and bravely made the decision to put their beliefs, “Liberty and Justice for All” and the American people first.

His influence as a founding father:

Thomas Jefferson was asked to put pen to paper and write down the principles they espoused. He wrote the Declaration of Independence without notes, writing and rewriting until the page was filled with edits. His goal was to create a document that his countrymen would understand, that would inspire them to take the great risk of seceding from Britain. Thomas Jefferson’s courage came from an unshakeable belief that he would succeed in this task and that the resulting Revolutionary War would also succeed. His bravery was marked by an optimism that other Founding Fathers lacked. Even George Washington doubted that the new republic would be a success. Thomas Jefferson’s unwavering conviction that a government based on “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” would endure and prosper demonstrates a courage that intrepid men around the world are still struggling to prove.

Initially, Thomas Jefferson wanted John Adams to draft the Declaration of Independence, but Adams convinced everyone that Jefferson was the man for the heavy lifting. Some reasons for this that we can safely assume are that Thomas Jefferson had spent his entire life ardently pursuing his love of learning. His gift for words combined with a passionate belief in the concept of liberty would result in the document that would not only lead to the Revolutionary War but also shape the ideals that the nation would cherish for centuries to come. Ideals that we maintain to this day.

“I believe in the dreams of the future more than in the history of the past” Jefferson once wrote to his lifelong friend, John Adams. They had a difficult friendship. Brothers since the beginning of the Revolutionary War, their postwar differences in their political parties caused a rift between them in the late 1790s, which was not healed until 1812 when they established a close correspondence that would continue until his death in 1826. It has been said that if John Adams wrote the words of the American Revolution, Jefferson wrote the music. Both died within four hours of each other on the fifth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The last words of John Adams were: “Independence Forever” and “Thomas Jefferson Survives”. Just before his death, Jefferson called his family and friends to his bedside and said:

“I have done for my country and for all humanity all that I could do, and now I surrender my soul without fear to my God, – my daughter to my country.”

His life and greatest achievements:

So where did this man come from? With such a legendary life, we would expect him to be born predestined for her. Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia in 1743. His father, Peter Jefferson, managed a plantation until his death in 1757, when Thomas was only 12 years old. From an early age, Thomas was blessed with a lively curiosity. At the time of his father’s death, he had already begun to learn Latin, Greek, and French. However, Thomas Jefferson was not without his faults. In both his political and personal life, his actions have sometimes been seen as contradictory to his core beliefs. Although he valued freedom and equality above all else, he not only owned slaves, but is also believed to have had children with one of them, Sally Hemings. The fact that he owned slaves while advocating the end of slavery is particularly disturbing because Jefferson sincerely believed that when a man lived a moral life, that morality influenced and improved the lives of others. It seems that this was an internal conflict that he lived with all his life.

Thomas Jefferson won the presidency in 1800 after a tie with Aaron Burr sent the election to the House of Representatives. He had run the campaign on the new Democratic-Republican ticket, a party formed to counter the growing power of the Federalist Party. He disagreed with Federalist Alexander Hamilton’s view of liberty. Hamilton believed that individual freedom should be preserved through social and economic policies enacted by the central government, while Jefferson felt that too much government endangered individual freedom. His beliefs are still found in our government today. The Democratic Party is a branch of his party and although the modern Republican Party would not be created until 1854 and is not a direct branch, his name was chosen in homage to the beliefs of Thomas Jefferson. Now we owe him another debt for continuing to fight the fight of a lesser government.

As president, Thomas Jefferson’s remarkable achievements reflected his courage to envision America as a great country that would play a positive role on the world stage. Just as his writings in the Declaration of Independence inspired the belief that a nation built on liberty and equality would succeed, Jefferson’s drive to expand the nation’s borders reinforced the belief in a bright future for America. Jefferson oversaw the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, doubling the size of the country. In 1804, he led the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the West. Thomas Jefferson is considered the father of the American West, although he himself never traveled more than a few miles west of his beloved home of Monticello.

Other achievements of Thomas Jefferson include the formation of the military academy known today as West Point, the ability of the Supreme Court to declare laws passed by Congress unconstitutional, and the prohibition of the importation of slaves from Africa. He was the first president to show that the transfer of power between parties could take place without chaos or revolution. However, his vision of a country where freedom and equality prevail is his greatest legacy.

Thomas Jefferson along with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt is one of four men sculpted on Mount Rushmore, South Dakota.

What inspires me as I look back on the life of Thomas Jefferson is that the path he chose to follow was not necessarily the easiest, but he knew it was paved with beliefs and moral values ​​that he held close to his heart. He believed in freedom for everyone equally and in the freedom to love his God. He believed that citizens come first and that the government is there to protect the people. When we think about our freedom, it is important to remember that this Intrepid Man, Thomas Jefferson, was the main author of the Declaration of Independence detailing why they were breaking away from Great Britain. At the time this was considered treason and punishable by death. Thomas Jefferson stood his ground and we are better for it.