Presidents of the USA
Before George Washington | John Adams | Thomas Jefferson | William Henry Harrison |
The Life of Abraham Lincoln |
Legacy of Abraham Lincoln |
Death of Abraham Lincoln |
Jefferson Davis - Sole President of the Confederacy |
Ulysses S Grant
William Howard Taft |
Dwight D Eisenhower - Early Life |
Dwight D Eisenhower - President |
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
John F Kennedy Administration |
Assassination of John F Kennedy |
Lyndon Baines Johnson |
Richard Milhous Nixon

'My friend, you and I have lived in serious times', John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson as they neared the end of a heroic life's journey through the wilds of Revolution and the long, weighty days of American Independence. Serious times they certainly were, and Thomas Jefferson was among the most serious to witness them.

Not possessing the wit and charm of many of his contemporaries, Jefferson was more interested in his books than in people. When standing, his lanky, lean frame was generally seen with arms folded across the chest - uninviting body language if ever there was any. At six feet, two and one half inches tall, with bright copper hair and multitudes of freckles dotting his face, Jefferson's conspicuous body was a crisp contrast to his unassuming, quiet personality.

Yet Thomas Jefferson, an unremarkable man if you met him socially, found a part for himself in the story of early America and made a name for himself as one of his country's most important and most intelligent citizens. Well versed in government, agriculture, music, architecture, language, invention, art and literature, Jefferson may have been a solitary academic but for a solid streak of ambition that ran through his veins (and which he always denied the existence of). In another time, he may have lived without distinction, but as Mr Adams said, he lived in serious times.

The Man From the Mountaintop

And our own dear Monticello, where has nature spread so rich a mantle under the eye? -- mountains, forests, rocks, rivers. With what majesty do we there ride above the storms! How sublime to look down into the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our feet! and the glorious sun when rising as if out of a distant water, just gilding the tops of the mountains, and giving life to all nature!
-Jefferson, from a letter written in 1786

In the 18th century, Virginia was the largest and most populous of the British colonies lining the American Atlantic coast. It had much fertile land and many men became rich from their profitable plantations. For years, the high end of the political and social life in Virginia was dominated by the wealthy members of the so called Virginia 'planter class' - a local aristocracy owning millions of acres of land and thousands of captive African slaves. To be a Lee, Burwell, Fitzhugh, Carter, Randolph, Berkeley, Custis or Harrison (etc) was to gain acceptance in elite circles and have unique opportunities not afforded to other people. As it happened, in 1739 a tobacco planter named Peter Jefferson married a Randolph.

Thus in 1743 the third offspring of that marriage, a boy named Thomas, was born well into a society where birth dictated many important things. He would always regard Virginia, his 'country', with a great deal of fondness, which is not surprising given his advantages in life. As a child he was carefully attended to by family slaves¹ and eventually was sent off for an education. Just as sons of New England went to Harvard, young Virginians went to the College of William and Mary, where Jefferson began to study in 1760. After a couple of years there of intense, even obsessive study, he began to learn law during a five year apprenticeship of another prominent Virginian. He practised law independently for some time, but never took to it with any interest or great relish. Not a natural public speaker, he was known as a competent, but by no means passionate or brilliant, lawyer. Owing to his pedigree and growing reputation as a young man of intelligence, he was elected in 1769 to the Virginia House of Burgesses - a colonial assembly which Jefferson thought was stocked with some of the best minds of the continent.

At about the time of his election, Jefferson began to design and construct a house on a mountain overlooking the lands he inherited after his father died. Inspired by the style of Andrea Palladio, a 16th century Italian architect, this house would come to be one of the lifelong obsessions of Jefferson. He called it 'Monticello', meaning 'little mountain'. His expensive and beautiful home was partially financed by a marriage to a young widow named Martha Wayles Skelton, who came with a great deal of money and land. He took up residence in this house overlooking his plantation well before construction was completed - and with Jefferson's exacting tastes and eye for perfection, it would not be finished for many years.

Jefferson's lavish spending on his home was financed by the lands he owned. As a good Virginian, he did not consider himself wealthy because of a quantity of pieces of paper, but rather based on his ownership of huge swaths of Virginia land. The men of wealthy families who dominated Virginia considered themselves gentlemen farmers, but the truth was that many never touched a plough with their own hands. Thomas Jefferson was probably one of these. He was interested in the process of farming and the growing of crops, but not interested enough to attempt the backbreaking labour that inevitably accompanied cultivation. He probably never knew the true toil and hard work of farming. Characteristically, he was much more interested in the theory of farming. His personal correspondence with other luminaries of the era, such as George Washington, is filled with thoughts on crop rotation and irrigation (to the considerable annoyance of historians searching for morsels of Jeffersonian wisdom and eloquence, only to find information on corn and soil).

Singing and Signing

He seemed to most of his political contemporaries a hovering and ever-silent presence, like one of those foreigners at a dinner party who nod politely as they move from group to group but never reveal whether or not they can speak the language.
-Historian Joseph Ellis

On 22 June, 1775, the 32 year old Virginian rolled into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in an elaborate four-horse carriage accompanied by three of his slaves. Unselfconsciously, he was probably singing a song under his breath to relieve the boredom of the 300-mile trip from his home in Virginia. He was known to sing quietly to himself when he took a walk or was riding on horseback. He even supposedly sang to himself while he read.

The reason for his journey and extraction from his beloved Monticello was that he was unexpectedly selected to serve as a member of the Virginia delegation to the Continental Congress. The Congress was meeting in Philadelphia to address a rift running between the colonies and the British government. Jefferson was chosen as a sort of an afterthought, once his distinguished mentor and relative Peyton Randolph chose not to attend the meeting. While he was thought of a man of great potential, he was not yet prominent enough to serve alongside eminent Virginia figures such as Patrick Henry and George Washington. His political experience was limited to a bit of writing and acting mostly in the capacity of an observer in the Virginia House of Burgesses. What was known of him was that he had a sharp pen and was decidedly in the 'radical' Patriot camp which opposed the rights of the British King and Parliament to rule and tax the American colonies. As Jefferson's carriage rumbled over unfinished roads into Philadelphia, the rumblings of what would become the Revolutionary war had already commenced.

Not a strong public speaker, Jefferson nervously lurked in the shadows of the Continental Congress. While his silence was definitely a liability in terms of gaining prestige, any effort at recognition by Jefferson would have been overshadowed by the emotional, powerful speeches of fellow Virginian Patrick Henry.

He took a room in Philadelphia owned by a relative of his mother, named Benjamin Randolph. During the summer, Jefferson asked Randolph to build him a portable, lap-top writing desk. Naturally, the design of the desk was drawn up by the ever-inventive Jefferson. In its final form, the desk was made of a reddish mahogany, with side compartments for paper and pen. The flat writing surface had stilts underneath which could be used to create the desired tilt for writing, and it could be unfolded to create a larger writing surface if necessary.

It was on this desk, and not on the floor of the Continental Congress or in the various committees thereof, that Jefferson distinguished himself in his effort to advance the American Revolution. His first assignment was to draft a document called Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms. It was a necessary argument to make. By this time, the first shots of the American Revolution had been fired in Lexington and Concord, and war was a reality. However, the American colonies had not yet asserted their independence from Britain. Jefferson's draft of this document was eloquent and strong (though it was somewhat watered down from his own, radical views, to appease moderates in Congress). Scholars would later look back at this document and would see similarities between it and Jefferson's greatest work for the Continental Congress.

More Than Three Sentences

John Adams once said of Jefferson that, 'During the whole time I sat with him in Congress, I never heard him utter three sentences together.' While this must have been a characteristic exaggeration on Adams' part, it is true that there is no record of Jefferson ever giving a speech in the Continental Congress. There is also no record of his participating much in the informal chats where many decisions were made, or in formal committee work where much of the real work of the Congress was done. However hopelessly shy or reserved Jefferson may have been² the Congress soon found that it could apply his talents in other constructive ways. He was appointed to several drafting committees, charged with the task of writing reports, declarations, resolutions and protests.

Jefferson spent some of his free time writing up a draft of a proposed Constitution for the new state of Virginia. Greatly influenced by the pamphlet 'Thoughts on Government' by John Adams, Jefferson helped to shape the future of the commonwealth of Virginia considerably.

When finally the radical forces of Independence won the day in the Continental Congress, led by John Adams, Jefferson was placed on a subcommittee along with Adams and others to draft a declaration. Jefferson was chosen as the person to write the document. Nobody really thought that the text of this particular declaration would be very important. Others were more concerned with arguing for its adoption on the floor of the Congress, or with their various state Constitutions. Years later, Adams would relate one story of how Jefferson was chosen in a letter-

The sub-committee met. Jefferson proposed to me to make the draught I said, "l will not." "You should do it." "Oh! no." "Why will you not? You ought do it." "I will not." "Why?" "Reasons enough." "What can be your reasons?" "Reason first--You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second--I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are much otherwise. Reason third--You can write ten times better than I can."

Adams was probably bending the truth to appear modest and important in later years (which he did often) but if there is some truth in that story, we can assume that nobody thought that the assignment would prove significant. If Adams had thought it was important, he would have surely grabbed the job for himself, being famously vain. However, Jefferson was really the obvious choice for the assignment. He would later tell the story in a much more succinct fashion. According to Jefferson, the subcommittee met and unanimously chose him to write it, and he agreed.

Seventh and Market

The Philadelphia of the 1700s was the largest and most diverse city in America with a population of 30,000. It was the busiest port city in the colonies, and traffic on the centrally planned, straight streets went briskly throughout the day. In the summertime it could be stiflingly hot and an army of mosquitoes and flies would invade the city and conquer the diverse Quaker, English, Welsh, Scottish and German population with equal viciousness.

Yet because the city was still relatively new, the metropolis only extended so far. Travelling on the main street of the city, known as Market Street, the busy street corners became largely uninhabited greenland around Sixth Street. It was during one of the summer months of 1776 that Thomas Jefferson withdrew into a house at the intersection of Seventh and Market Streets. He hoped that the open spaces would allow for more breezes and more comfort. It was in the parlour of that house on Seventh and Market that he composed his most famous work, the Declaration of Independence. Sitting in a wooden Windsor chair with his mahogany lap desk, he composed the words which would find their way into immortality...

We hold these truths to be self-evident³, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

While the particular phrasing and the wording of the Declaration is now considered to be the definitive statement of the ideals of the American revolution, it was by no means the first document to make the points it made. Jefferson owed much to his earlier works, which are remarkably similar to the Declaration in places. The influence of George Mason, James Wilson, John Adams and gaggles of philosophers throughout history is evident in the Declaration. Jefferson would later declare with honesty-

Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind.

The Declaration was adopted by Congress on 4 July, 1776. After that, Jefferson wanted to go home to attend to his pregnant wife, but was bound by duty to stay in Philadelphia. On 2 August, the Declaration was signed by all members of Congress. More than a bit miffed by changes made to his draft by Congress, he affixed his signature to the document despite claiming that his words had been 'mangled'. Posterity has judged it to be pretty good, though - probably better with the changes, in fact. Whatever Jefferson's ultimate judgment, he headed home to Monticello.

Living His Words

When Jefferson was throwing together a draft of the Virginia Constitution in 1776, he probably didn't realize that he would be working in a couple of the positions specified quite so soon. He was elected to the State House of Delegates and he introduced some very important bills, including a bill guaranteeing religious freedom in Virginia. Most of his bills were not passed for several years, however. When the Statute for Religious Freedom was passed, Virginia became the first state to assure religious tolerance, and Jefferson's words were a forerunner to the First Amendment.

In the draft of the Virginia Constitution, Jefferson had decided that the Executive Branch of government should not be very strong compared with the Legislature. To reflect this, he named the Executive the 'Administrator' - a name which did not survive various edits. It suited him perfectly well that he had seen fit to make the Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Virginia a very weak office because in 1779, he was selected by the Assembly to serve as the second Governor of his state. True to his original intention, he 'administrated' rather than 'governed' and did very little. His most famous act as Governor was leaving the capital city undefended and fleeing into the woods when the British came. Mercifully, a governor's term in Virginia only lasted one year and after two terms too many, he left office in 1781. He considered himself to be retired from public life, and told his friends so.

In his spare time, Jefferson wrote a book called Notes on the State of Virginia - the only book he ever wrote.

Paris, Je T'aime

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

While Jefferson was temporarily retired, an American delegation in France, including Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, John Adams and others negotiated a treaty of friendship with France. Then, once the French helped to kick British General Cornwallis's butt at the Battle of Yorktown, these diplomats negotiated a treaty ending the war with Britain. Jefferson had been appointed as one of the original commissioners to peace talks, but he had refused to go. His wife had been very ill. When she eventually died in 1782, he wanted to be away from Monticello and its painful memories, and he accepted a diplomatic post in Paris. In 1784, he left America from the port of Boston on a clear, sunny day. The undisturbed Atlantic reminded his daughter, who was travelling with him, of a calm river. Once in Paris in 1784, Jefferson settled into a home near the Opera house and took in all the culture the city had to offer. France charmed him.

Jefferson worked with Franklin and Adams on a commercial treaty, but ended up accomplishing nothing of note. He did, however, come to appreciate French society, and spent exorbitant sums, far outside his means. He acquired 2,000 books while in Paris and he purchased dozens of pieces of art. Unable to restrain himself, this threw him into considerable debt, from which he never really emerged. During his time as a diplomat, Jefferson became very close with John Adams and his family, and when Adams was made ambassador to Britain, Jefferson even went to London for a two month visit. He befriended young John Quincy Adams, who would go on to be President at the time of Jefferson's death.

Thomas also made good friends with a married woman⁴ two decades his junior named Maria Cosway. He spent a great deal of time with her, but their 'courtship' slowed after he attempted to jump over a fence to impress her and dislocated his right wrist. Writing letters with his left hand for several months, he expressed his disapproval of a document which came out of Philadelphia - a proposed new Constitution. It gave entirely too much power to a single Executive figure - the President. Jefferson feared that this man would turn into an American monarch, and that the great experiment of democratic government would fail in America. In a few months, the Constitution was ratified and went into effect, Jefferson's fears notwithstanding. Not long after, Jefferson asked to be allowed to return home from France and was granted permission. Landing in Norfolk, Virginia, he was informed that he had been made Secretary of State by the newly elected President of the US, George Washington. Much had happened while he way away, it seemed.

As Secretary of State, Jefferson was primarily concerned with issues of foreign policy. As it happened, the French Revolution was beginning just as Jefferson left the country. After the Bastille was stormed, men were decapitated and beaten, while Jefferson looked on approvingly. He earnestly believed that the French Revolution was one of the first echoes of the American Revolution that could be expected from Europe. He also believed that a little blood was a small price to pay for liberty. Americans were divided in either being outraged at or supportive of the French Revolution. The man most strongly carrying the pro-Revolutionary banner in America was unquestionably Jefferson.

A State of War

There is yet another class of opponents to the government and its administration, who are of too much consequence not to be mentioned: a sect of political doctors; a kind of Popes in government; standards of political orthodoxy, who brand with heresy all opinions but their own; men of sublimated imaginations and weak judgments; pretenders of profound knowledge, yet ignorant of the most useful of all sciences - the science of human nature
-Alexander Hamilton, referring no doubt to Jefferson, in the 18th century equivalent of a vicious put-down

Everything President George Washington did set a precedent of some kind, whether he intended it or not. One intentional precedent set was the creation of a cabinet, to consist of only three men - a Secretary of State, Treasury and War. For these roles, Washington plucked three superb minds - Jefferson to head the State Department, Alexander Hamilton of New York City for Treasury and Henry Knox of Boston for War.

It didn't take long for Jefferson and Hamilton to be at each other's throats. Washington watched helplessly as his cabinet, and Vice President John Adams, dissolved into petty squabbling. Jefferson, along with his lifelong friend James Madison who was hugely influential in the House of Representatives, took up the leadership of a faction which called itself the 'Democratic-Republicans' or 'Republicans' (or even 'Jeffersonians'). On the other hand, Hamilton and Adams stood at the lead of a faction which called itself the 'Federalists' which favoured a strong central government. The Republicans vilified Hamilton and the Federalists attacked Jefferson. Each side had newspapers working for their side, and Jefferson actually put a friendly newspaper publisher on the State Department payroll. The attacks on each side ranged from calling one side a monarchist to accusing the other of faking yellow fever to implying one engaged in improper relations with livestock. It was really quite indecent and can be very entertaining to read if you ever have a free afternoon.

Despite the fact that almost none of the argument concerned policy, the two factions did have genuine policy disputes. President Washington was fair-minded, and seems to have valued to Jefferson's counsel on all matters. However, despite transcending the rancor of the day's politics, he was ideologically more aligned with Hamilton than anyone else. Jefferson got tired of being on the losing side of every political question, and repeatedly resigned, only to be dissuaded by Washington. Eventually, Jefferson and Madison convinced each other that Hamilton was preying on the senile old President's decaying mind, manipulating Washington for his monarchist schemes as a sort of early American Rasputin. This was all paranoid drivel of course, as Washington was perfectly capable of using his own judgment. Nevertheless, Jefferson and Madison traded letters for years (written in a secret code) which bemoaned the mental fall of the Virginian titan. Jefferson resigned for good at the end of 1793 and went home to Monticello.

There is one story that says that shortly after his resignation, Hamilton and Washington sat together in a room as Jefferson passed by a window outside. Washington told Hamilton that he regretted Jefferson's departure, and that he expected him to devote the rest of his life to his farm and books. Hamilton looked at Washington with disbelief and explained that he had been holding his tongue, but he felt free to unburden himself now that Jefferson was no longer a colleague. Hamilton believed Jefferson was retiring because he would have otherwise found it necessary to have made decisions that would have run contrary to his Republican ideology, which would have been politically inconvenient for him in the future. He thought Jefferson was extremely ambitious and had decided to wait out certain events before reentering public life. Hamilton claimed that if he wasn't proven right by history, he would 'forfeit all title to a knowledge of mankind'. Washington would later tell Hamilton,

[N]ot a day has elapsed since my retirement from public life in which I have not thought of that conversation. Every event has proved the truth of your view of his character. You foretold what has happened with the spirit of prophecy.

In fact, it is entirely likely that Jefferson had greater ambitions, and believed it would be advantageous to stay away from public life for a few years while events took shape. If this was his intention, he had made a very good decision. While he spent his time in Monticello, overseeing farm work and occasionally exchanging letters of Republican strategy with James Madison, the Federalists began to collapse as an organization. The rancor between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton split the Federalists into two wings - the more moderate wing being led by Adams and the 'High Federalist' wing being led by Hamilton.

The election of 1796 was contested by the Republican forces (led by James Madison), who put Jefferson forward as their candidate and campaigned heavily for him. Feigning disinterest from his perch in Monticello, Jefferson did nothing to dissuade the members of the Electoral College from voting for him, and finished a close second to Adams. By the quirky rules of the day, this made him Vice President of the United States. The previous occupant to the Vice Presidential office (Adams) having recently declared, 'I am Vice President, in this I am nothing', Jefferson could comfortably remain in semi-retirement. He was happy again to stay out of active public service for a while yet, for the same reasons he left his post as Secretary of State. In fact, with a Machivellian tone, he wrote Madison, The President [Washington] is fortunate to get off just as the bubble is bursting, leaving others to hold the bag. Yet, as his departure will mark the moment when difficulties begin to work, you will see, that they will be ascribed to the new administration [of John Adams].. So a cycle developed. For four years, as Vice President to an ideologically unfriendly administration⁵, he performed his Constitutionally prescribed duty of having a pulse.

A New Century

The close of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century came with some great changes to America. George Washington died at his home in Mount Vernon weeks before the close of the century. Napoleon Bonaparte took singular control of France. The capital of the country moved from Philadelphia to a site on the Potomac River that would later be called Washington, DC. The change of century also came with what was sure to be an important and hotly contested Presidential election. The election of 1800 was a grudge match from four years earlier, pitting Adams against Jefferson once more. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

With George Washington and his enormous prestige gone, the Federalists under Adams, with their generally unpopular policies and actions (such as the Alien and Sedition Acts, which curtailed personal freedoms, and his anti-war approach to France during the so-called Quasi-War) were outmatched. Jefferson was touted as a 'man of the people', and even Adams expected to lose reelection.

Despite the Sedition Act, which had recently outlawed all criticism of the President (in blatant violation of the First Amendment) Republican forces distributed loads of propaganda throughout the states. Jefferson encouraged this privately, but was careful to not have his name connected with any of it. James Callender, a key Jeffersonian foot-soldier in the American press, called Adams a 'hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman'. Jefferson, who was so averse to conflict that he avoided all verbal arguments and disagreements when possible, was content to see shameless surrogates insult and degrade his opposition. Jefferson wrote to Callender, after reviewing his work, 'Such papers cannot fail to produce the best effects.' Callender was quickly thrown in jail for nine months for insulting the President⁶, which only made the Adams administration appear more tyrannical.

Naturally, Jefferson did not escape the attacks of the newspapers of the day. He was called 'godless', a Frenchman, weak, a coward, a Jacobin and an adulterer. It was during this election that the first rumours sprung up alleging Jefferson was diddling his slaves. While very little of what was said during the election of 1800 was true, later investigation and DNA testing proved that this was quite probably right on the mark. During the time he spent in Monticello, it seems that Jefferson fathered several very light-skinned slave children with a woman named Sally Hemings (though, to be fair, this was not entirely uncommon in the American south at the time).

In the waning days of the campaign, Jefferson also received political help from unexpected quarters when his archenemy Alexander Hamilton came out with a 54 page pamphlet attacking Adams, a fellow Federalist. James Madison would write to Jefferson to say that because of the pamphlet, 'I rejoice with you that Republicanism is likely to be so completely triumphant.'

The fate of the election was all but sealed when a New York Republican named Aaron Burr successfully led a campaign to flip the New York legislature to a Republican balance, which assured Jefferson the state's 12 electoral votes. In gratitude, Jefferson gave Burr the position of Vice President. In the end, Jefferson won more popular votes and more electoral votes than Adams (though it was closer than expected), and seemed poised become the next President. However, because of a bungled vote in the Electoral College, Burr and Jefferson ended up tied in electoral votes. According to the Constitution, this meant that the House of Representatives was to decide the outcome of the election.

Burr, being at least a little bit unhinged, tried to get the House of Representatives to select him, which understandably angered Jefferson. The House of Representatives was at this point still controlled by the Federalists, so this created an awkward situation where the losing party got to pick between two members of the opposing party for the highest position in the country. Alexander Hamilton, who had considerably declined in stature by this time, had just enough influence with Representatives he knew to swing the election. He convinced several Representatives to vote for his old nemesis Jefferson, who he considered to be at least 'less dangerous' than Burr, and Jefferson won⁷.

It was in this messy manner that Thomas Jefferson ascended from his Virginia mountaintop to the highest peak of American politics. He rode into Washington, DC - not terribly far from home - and gave his Inaugural address in the Senate chamber. While his soft, feminine voice did not carry well and few of the people present could hear him, later publication revealed a conciliatory tone. Jefferson declared, 'But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.'.

Don't Fool Yourself, He Was a Republican

The Revolution of 1776 is now, and for the first time, arrived at its completion.
-From a rowdy pro-Jefferson newspaper called the Aurora

Having devoted considerable time and energy to the design and location of the new Federal capital on the banks of the Potomac, it must have pleased Jefferson in 1801 to take residence in the Presidential mansion⁸ - at that time, the largest home in America. The expectations of his Republican constituency were great, but Jefferson's first actions were largely ceremonial. Not much of a public speaker, he ended the tradition of giving a speech to the Congress on the State of the Union and sent a message instead. He also cut down on the number of formal public receptions which reminded him of conceited Kings and took up too much of the president's time, anyway. He was socially more reserved than either of the previous Presidents. He frequently hosted small, informal dinners at the Presidential mansion and characteristically disallowed any talk of politics at the table. At first experimenting with a bipartisan guest list, he soon grew wary of politically tinged jokes about his French wine and began a practice of entertain Federalists on separate nights from Republicans. Jefferson chose to shun crowds, speeches and public appearances, so people could only come into contact with him if they had a dinner invitation.

The one group that was allowed regular access to Jefferson was his cabinet. He had selected a strong cast of characters. His ally James Madison was Secretary of State, a brilliant Swiss man named Albert Gallatin headed the Treasury Department and Henry Dearborn, a veteran of the Battle of Bunker Hill, was his Secretary of War. To complement his team, Jefferson decided early in his term that he needed to remove as many Federalist officeholders as possible - even the very minor ones. After 12 years of uninterrupted Federalist power, there were quite a few of these, and Jefferson's purge of them was intense. He fired Federalists at all levels of the Federal government, sometimes replacing them with Republicans, sometimes eliminating the position. If this mass weeding of Federalist sentiment was useful to him for patronage or for political purposes, well, that was a lucky upside. His explicit justification was simple, 'To appoint a monarchist [read: Federalist] to conduct the affairs of a republic is like appointing an atheist to the priesthood.' Opponents rightly pointed out that this didn't quite jibe with the stirring phrase from his Inaugural address, 'We are all Federalists'.

Jefferson governed as a true Republican. He worked to retire the national debt. He allowed the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts to lapse, and freed the political prisoners who had been jailed under the legislation. Taxes levied under the previous administrations were cut. An ardent believer in states' rights to govern, he scaled back the Federal government wherever possible. One consequence of this reduction of government was that the military - the navy in particular - deteriorated on Jefferson's watch. To borrow the later formulation of Teddy Roosevelt, Jefferson was always able to 'talk lightly', spending cuts left him without a 'big stick' to carry (diplomatically speaking). When Jefferson had to deal with Britain's capture of American sailors at sea, and the continued pirating of American ships by Barbary Coast pirates, a strong navy would have been useful both in warfare and leverage for negotiations. When a conflict with Britain exploded four years after Jefferson left office which would become the War of 1812, America would have been well served to have had a strong navy in place. Jefferson privately conceded this years later.

News that peace had been made with France had reached America just days after Jefferson's electoral victory, and he was allowed to conduct himself affably with the government of France - a country he had lived in for years and had grown to love. Improved relations with France meant that when Napoleon decided to unburden his empire of a huge swath of the North American continent known as Louisiana, Jefferson was only too willing to take it off of his hands for a relatively inconsequential price. Despite Jefferson's Constitutional qualms as to whether the President and Federal government were empowered to purchase land, he decided to make the purchase. With a swift pen-stroke, he doubled the size of the country. This vast piece of land would eventually make up parts of 15 different states. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 (as well as setting off the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the newly acquired land) would remain his most important accomplishment as President.

In 1804, Jefferson was reelected by a landslide. Ironically, Jefferson was ideologically distrustful the Executive branch. He thought that the power in the American Republic should mostly reside in the legislative side of the Federal government, specifically in the House of Representatives. It was those monarchical Federalists who believed in a vigorous and strong Executive branch. Therefore, apparently distrusting his own judgment or susceptibility to the spirit of tyranny, he did not do much in his second term. In fact, his only real actions came in response to the events that required response. Most importantly, in his second term, he got fed up as England and France, the two great European powers of the day, refused to respect American sovereignty. He decided that the best way to achieve this respect was to shut down all American foreign trade with the Embargo Act of 1807. Enormously wrongheaded, this decision hurt Americans much more than it hurt either Britain or France, and the act backfired. It caused serious damage to American commerce, and Jefferson agreed to its repeal just before he left office.

Jefferson's Secretary of State and longtime ally James Madison assumed the mantle of the Republicans and was elected to succeed Jefferson. As was his custom after the completion of any kind of public service, Jefferson gratefully went home to Monticello.

Journey's End

Thomas Jefferson was someone who needed to be occupied at all times. He had built Monticello, then had rebuilt it, doubling its size. He then built another home on another part of his property. Once out of public life, he found two new major projects to keep himself occupied in his by now advanced age.

The first was the creation of the University of Virginia. It was his idea to create a new place of learning for Virginians, and he would be listed as the University's 'Founder'. He did much more than come up with the idea, though. Jefferson micromanaged the project from the start, and supervised the creation of curriculum, the hiring of professors, the design and the actual building. His architectural plan for the University of Virginia reflected his vision for the University. He expected it to be democratic - a place where all would be equal and all voices would be heard. To make that point, he clustered the buildings around a common lawn to create an image of a village. At the front of this lawn, he placed an imposing building called the Rotunda, somewhat reminiscent of Monticello with its classical, Palladian architecture. The Rotunda was meant to express his desire that the University be well grounded in the classics - the Latin and Greek authors he adored. This would be one of his proudest accomplishments.

His second project in his increasing age was the rebuilding of his friendship with John Adams. The famous Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush was a friend of both Adams and Jefferson. He encouraged them to resume a correspondence, and after quite a few years' consideration, Adams cautiously ventured a letter to Monticello in 1812. It would be the beginning of a remarkable correspondence which would last to their deaths. They exchanged views on just about everything under the sun - politics, shared memories, the nature of humanity, farm life, Isaac Newton, family and just about whatever crossed their minds. One has the feeling that they were both writing for the eyes of posterity, and they probably were. Most importantly, though, their friendship which had been strained for a decade or two, resumed warmly. Jefferson congratulated Adams when his son John Quincy was elected President, and mourned with his friend when Abigail Adams died. As two of the three last surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence, they most probably had each other on their minds as they grew closer to death.

As it happened, the lives of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams came to be tied together in death. Inexplicably, when Thomas Jefferson died on 4 July, 1826 - the 50th anniversary to the day of American Independence - Adams followed just five hours later. Jefferson's last words were 'Is it the Fourth?'. He was vainly hoping to poetically pass away on the 50th anniversary of his nation's birth. For Adams' last words, he deliriously whispered 'Thomas Jefferson still lives'. They couldn't have planned it better.