Thomas Jefferson Research Paper

Thomas Jefferson
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This article is about the United States president. For other uses, see Thomas Jefferson (disambiguation).
Thomas Jefferson
Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale
3rd President of the United States
In office
March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1809
Vice President Aaron Burr (1801–1805)
George Clinton (1805–1809)
Preceded by John Adams
Succeeded by James Madison
2nd Vice President of the United States
In office
March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801
President John Adams
Preceded by John Adams
Succeeded by Aaron Burr
1st United States Secretary of State
In office
March 22, 1790 – December 31, 1793
President George Washington
Preceded by John Jay (Foreign Affairs)
Succeeded by Edmund Randolph
United States
April 2] 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American lawyer and Founding Father, and principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776). He was elected the second Vice President of the United States (1797–1801) and the third President (1801–1809). Primarily of English ancestry, he was born and educated in Virginia, where he graduated from the College of William & Mary, practiced law and married Martha Wayles Skelton.

Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism and individual rights, which motivated American colonists to break from Great Britain and form a new nation. He produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national level. During the American Revolution, he represented Virginia in the Continental Congress that adopted the Declaration, drafted the law for religious freedom as a Virginia legislator, and served as a wartime governor (1779–1781). He became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, and subsequently the nation's first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System. In 1796 he was elected Vice President under President John Adams. Jefferson and Madison in 1798–1799 anonymously wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which sought to embolden states'
His foremost book, Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), is among the nation's momentous publications prior to 1800. He was a proven architect in the classical tradition, whose designs include his home Monticello, the Virginia State Capitol and others. Jefferson's keen interest in religion and philosophy earned him the presidency of the American Philosophical Society. He shunned organized religion, but was influenced by both Christianity and deism. Besides English, he was well versed in Latin, Greek, French, Italian and Spanish. He founded the University of Virginia in his retirement from public office. Historians believe that after the death of his wife Martha in 1782, Jefferson, a major slaveholder, had a long-term relationship with his slave Sally Hemings, and fathered at least some of her children. Although unexceptional as an orator, he was a skilled writer and corresponded with many influential people in America and Europe. Jefferson died at his home on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of