Virginia reader : a treasury of writings from the first voyages to the present by Rosenberger Francis Coleman 1915-

Author:Rosenberger, Francis Coleman, 1915-
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Virginia in literature, American literature--Virginia, Authors, American--Virginia
Publisher: New York : Dutton
Published: 1948-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

THOMAS JEFFERSON

1743-1826

Thomas Jefferson, America's most brilliant apostle of democracy, was born at Shadwell, in Albermarle County, Virginia, on April 13, 1743. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a substantial landowner of the Virginia up-country. His mother, Jane Randolph, was a member of one of the most prominent families of the tidewater aristocracy. "They trace their pedigree far back in England and Scotland," Jefferson wrote pithily, "to which let every one ascribe the faith and merit he chooses."

As a youth Jefferson enjoyed the advantages of social position but grew up in the democratic-minded Virginia frontier. He received an excellent education, was graduated from the College of William and Mary when he was twenty, further pursued his studies in science and languages independently (he had a good knowledge of Greek, Latin, French, Anglo-Saxon, Spanish and Italian) and studied law under George Wythe, the leader of the Virginia bar.

He was admitted to the bar in 1767 and rapidly built up a successful practice, but when at the beginning of the Revolution he turned his back on the profession he left it with few regrets and no very high opinion of lawyers. He was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769 and was reelected to every assembly until the Revolution. He became a figure of conspicuous influence, and with Patrick Henry and others vigorously championed the cause of American liberty. In 1774 he prepared A Summary View of the Rights of British America, which considered the basic issues of allegiance and natural rights. It was considered too radical a document for adoption by the Virginia Convention, but was widely distributed as a pamphlet and on both sides of the Atlantic it attracted attention to its author as a foremost intellectual leader of the revolutionary movement.

Jefferson was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775 and there he drew up the reply of the Congress to Lord North's proposals to the colonies. The following year he had the responsibility of drafting the most important document in American history, the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and others made some changes in Jefferson's draft, but the language of that momentous document is his. Had he died at the age of thirty-three his place in the history of America

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