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Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826)^[2] was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776). Jefferson was one of the most influential Founding Fathers, known for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States. Jefferson envisioned America as the force behind a great “Empire of Liberty“^[3] that would promote republicanism and counter the imperialism of the British Empire.

Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806), as well as escalating tensions with both Britain and France that led to war with Britain in 1812, after he left office.

As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment and knew many intellectual leaders in Britain and France. He idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of republican virtues, distrusted cities and financiers, and favored states’ rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state^[4] and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786). He was the eponym of Jeffersonian democracy and the cofounder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics for 25 years. Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781), first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793), and second Vice President of the United States (1797–1801).

A polymath, Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a horticulturist, political leader, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, musician, inventor, and founder of the University of Virginia. When President John F. Kennedy welcomed 49 Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962 he said, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”^[5] To date, Jefferson is the only president to serve two full terms in office without vetoing a single bill of Congress. Jefferson has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest of U.S. presidents.

Early life and education

Childhood

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743^[2] into a family closely related to some of the most prominent individuals in Virginia, the third of ten children. Two died in childhood.^[6] His mother was Jane Randolph, daughter of Isham Randolph, a ship’s captain and sometime planter, first cousin to Peyton Randolph, and granddaughter of wealthy English and Scottish gentry. Jefferson’s father was Peter Jefferson, a planter and surveyor in Albemarle County (Shadwell, then Edge Hill, Virginia.) He was of possible Welsh descent, although this remains unclear.^[7] When Colonel William Randolph, an old friend of Peter Jefferson, died in 1745, Peter assumed executorship and personal charge of William Randolph’s estate in Tuckahoe as well as his infant son, Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. That year the Jeffersons relocated to Tuckahoe where they would remain for the next seven years before returning to their home in Albemarle. Peter Jefferson was then appointed to the Colonelcy of the county, an important position at the time.^[8]

Education

In 1752, Jefferson began attending a local school run by William Douglas, a Scottish minister. At the age of nine, Jefferson began studying Latin, Greek, and French. In 1757, when he was 14 years old, his father died. Jefferson inherited about 5,000 acres (20 km²) of land and dozens of slaves. He built his home there, which eventually became known as Monticello.^{[citation needed]}

After his father’s death, he was taught at the school of the learned minister James Maury from 1758 to 1760. The school was in Fredericksville Parish near Gordonsville, Virginia, twelve miles (19 km) from Shadwell, and Jefferson boarded with Maury’s family. There he received a classical education and studied history and science.^{[citation needed]}

In 1760 Jefferson entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg at the age of 16; he studied there for two years, graduating with highest honors in 1762. At William & Mary, he enrolled in the philosophy school and studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy under Professor William Small, who introduced the enthusiastic Jefferson to the writings of the British Empiricists, including John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton (Jefferson called them the “three greatest men the world had ever produced”).^[9] He also perfected his French, carried his Greek grammar book wherever he went, practiced the violin, and read Tacitus and Homer. A keen and diligent student, Jefferson displayed an avid curiosity in all fields and, according to the family tradition, frequently studied fifteen hours a day. His closest college friend, John Page of Rosewell, reported that Jefferson “could tear himself away from his dearest friends to fly to his studies.”^{[citation needed]}

While in college, Jefferson was a member of a secret organization called the F.H.C. Society. He lodged and boarded at the College in the building known today as the Sir Christopher Wren Building, attending communal meals in the Great Hall, and morning and evening prayers in the Wren Chapel. Jefferson often attended the lavish parties of royal governor Francis Fauquier, where he played his violin and developed an early love for wines.^[10] After graduating in 1762 with highest honors, he read law with William & Mary law professor George Wythe and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1767.^{[citation needed]}

After college

On October 1, 1765, Jefferson’s oldest sister Jane died at the age of 25.^[11] Jefferson fell into a period of deep mourning, as he was already saddened by the absence of his sisters Mary, who had been married several years to Thomas Bolling, and Martha, who had wed earlier in July to Dabney Carr.^[11] Both had moved to their husbands’ residences, leaving younger siblings Elizabeth, Lucy, and the two toddlers as his companions. Jefferson was not comforted by the presence of Elizabeth or Lucy as they did not provide him with the same intellectual stimulation as his older siblings had.^[11]

Jefferson would go on to handle many cases as a lawyer in colonial Virginia, managing more than a hundred cases each year between 1768 and 1773 in General Court alone, while acting as counsel in hundreds of cases.^[12] Jefferson’s client list included members of the Virginia’s elite families, including members of his mother’s family, the Randolphs.^[12]

Monticello

Montecello depicted on 1956 regular issue

In 1768 Thomas Jefferson started the construction of Monticello, a neoclassical mansion. Starting in childhood, Jefferson had always wanted to build a beautiful mountaintop home within sight of Shadwell.^[13][14] Jefferson went greatly in debt on Monticello by spending lavishly to create a neoclassical environment, based on his study of the architect Andrea Palladio and The Orders. ^[15]

Monticello was also Thomas Jefferson’s slave plantation. Throughout a period lasting seventy years, Thomas Jefferson owned over 600 slaves. Many of the slaves at the Monticello plantation intermarried amongst each other and produced children. Jefferson only paid a few of his trusted slaves in important positions for work done or for performing difficult tasks like cleaning chimneys or privies. Although there are no direct workday references, Jefferson’s slaves probably worked from dawn to dusk, with shorter or longer days according to the season. Fragmentary records indicate a rich spiritual life at Monticello slave quarters, incorporating both Christian and African traditions. Although there is no record that Jefferson instructed slaves in grammar education, several enslaved men at Monticello could read and write.^[16]

Towards revolution

Besides practicing law, Jefferson represented Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Burgesses beginning in 1769. Following the passage of the Coercive Acts by the British Parliament in 1774, he wrote a set of resolutions against the acts, which were expanded into A Summary View of the Rights of British America, his first published work. Previous criticism of the Coercive Acts had focused on legal and constitutional issues, but Jefferson offered the radical notion that the colonists had the natural right to govern themselves.^[17] Jefferson also argued that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and had no legislative authority in the colonies.^[17] The paper was intended to serve as instructions for the Virginia delegation of the First Continental Congress, but Jefferson’s ideas proved to be too radical for that body.^[17] Nevertheless, the pamphlet helped provide the theoretical framework for American independence, and marked Jefferson as one of the most thoughtful patriot spokesmen.^{[citation needed]}

Drafting a declaration

Jefferson served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress beginning in June 1775, soon after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. When Congress began considering a resolution of independence in June 1776, Jefferson was appointed to a five-man committee to prepare a declaration to accompany the resolution. The committee selected Jefferson to write the first draft probably because of his reputation as a writer. The assignment was considered routine; no one at the time thought that it was a major responsibility.^[18] Jefferson completed a draft in consultation with other committee members, drawing on his own proposed draft of the Virginia Constitution, George Mason‘s draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and other sources.^[19]

Political career from 1774 to 1800

Rudolph Evans’ statue of Jefferson with excerpts from the Declaration of Independence to the right

Jefferson showed his draft to the committee, which made some final revisions, and then presented it to Congress on June 28, 1776. After voting in favor of the resolution of independence on July 2, Congress turned its attention to the declaration. Over several days of debate, Congress made a few changes in wording and deleted nearly a fourth of the text, most notably a passage critical of the slave trade, changes that Jefferson resented.^[20] On July 4, 1776, the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved. The Declaration would eventually become Jefferson’s major claim to fame, and his eloquent preamble became an enduring statement of human rights.^[20]

State legislator

In John Trumbull‘s painting Declaration of Independence, the five-man drafting committee is presenting its work to the Continental Congress. Jefferson is the tall figure in the center laying the Declaration on the desk.

In September 1776, Jefferson returned to Virginia and was elected to the new Virginia House of Delegates. During his term in the House, Jefferson set out to reform and update Virginia’s system of laws to reflect its new status as a democratic state. He drafted 126 bills in three years, including laws to abolish primogeniture, establish freedom of religion, and streamline the judicial system. In 1778, Jefferson’s “Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge” led to several academic reforms at his alma mater, including an elective system of study—the first in an American university.^{[citation needed]}

While in the state legislature Jefferson proposed a bill to eliminate capital punishment for all crimes except murder and treason. His effort to reform the death penalty law was defeated by just one vote,^[21] and such crimes as rape remained punishable by death in Virginia until the 1960s.^[22] He succeeded in passing an act prohibiting the importation of slaves but not slavery itself.^{[citation needed]}

Governor of Virginia

Jefferson served as governor of Virginia from 1779–1781. As governor, he oversaw the transfer of the state capital from Williamsburg to the more central location of Richmond in 1780. He continued to advocate educational reforms at the College of William and Mary, including the nation’s first student-policed honor code. In 1779, at Jefferson’s behest, William and Mary appointed George Wythe to be the first professor of law in an American university. Dissatisfied with the rate of changes he wanted to push through, he later became the founder of the University of Virginia, which was the first university in the United States at which higher education was completely separate from religious doctrine.

Virginia was invaded twice by the British led first by Benedict Arnold and then by Lord Cornwallis during Jefferson’s term as governor. He, along with Patrick Henry and other leaders of Virginia, were but ten minutes away from being captured by Banastre Tarleton, a British colonel leading a cavalry column that was raiding the area in June 1781.^[23] Public disapproval of his performance delayed his future political prospects, and he was never again elected to office in Virginia.^[24] He was, however, appointed by the state legislature to Congress in 1783.

Member of Congress

The Virginia state legislature appointed Jefferson to the Congress of the Confederation on 6 June 1783, his term beginning on 1 November. He was a member of the committee set up to set foreign exchange rates, and in that capacity he recommended that the American currency should be based on the decimal system.

Jefferson also recommended setting up the Committee of the States, to function as the executive arm of Congress when Congress was not in session.

He left Congress when he was elected a minister plenipotentiary on 7 May 1784. He became Minister to France in 1785.

Minister to France

Memorial plaque on the Champs-Élysées, Paris, France, marking where Jefferson lived while he was Minister to France. The plaque was erected after World War I to commemorate the centenary of Jefferson’s founding of the University of Virginia.

Because Jefferson served as minister to France from 1785 to 1789, he was not able to attend the Philadelphia Convention. He generally supported the new constitution despite the lack of a bill of rights and was kept informed by his correspondence with James Madison.

While in Paris, he lived in a home on the Champs-Élysées. He spent much of his time exploring the architectural sites of the city, as well as enjoying the fine arts that Paris had to offer. He became a favorite in the salon culture and was a frequent dinner guest of many of the city’s most prominent people. In addition, he frequently entertained others from French and European society. He and his daughters were accompanied by two slaves of the Hemings family from Monticello. Jefferson paid for James Hemings to be trained as a French chef (Hemings later accompanied Jefferson as chef when he was in Philadelphia). Sally Hemings, James’ sister, had accompanied Jefferson’s younger daughter overseas. Jefferson is believed to have begun his long-term relationship with Sally Hemings in Paris. Both the Hemings learned French during their time in the city.^[25]

From 1784 to 1785, Jefferson was one of the architects of trade relations between the United States and Prussia. The Prussian ambassador Friedrich Wilhelm von Thulemeyer and John Adams, both living in the Hague, and Benjamin Franklin in Paris, were also involved.^[26]

Despite his numerous friendships with the social and noble elite, when the French Revolution began in 1789, Jefferson sided with the revolutionaries.

Secretary of State

After returning from France, Jefferson served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington (1790–1793). Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton began sparring over national fiscal policy, especially the funding of the debts of the war, with Hamilton believing that the debts should be equally shared, and Jefferson believing that each state should be responsible for its own debt (Virginia had not accumulated much debt during the Revolution). In further sparring with the Federalists, Jefferson came to equate Hamilton and the rest of the Federalists with Tories and monarchists who threatened to undermine republicanism. He equated Federalism with “Royalism,” and made a point to state that “Hamiltonians were panting after…and itching for crowns, coronets and mitres.”^[27] Jefferson and James Madison founded and led the Democratic-Republican Party. He worked with Madison and his campaign manager John J. Beckley to build a nationwide network of Republican allies to combat Federalists across the country.

Jefferson strongly supported France against Britain when war broke out between those nations in 1793. Historian Lawrence S. Kaplan notes Jefferson’s “visceral support for the French cause,” while agreeing with Washington that the nation should not get involved in the fighting.^[28] The arrival in 1793 of an aggressive new French minister, Edmond-Charles Genêt, caused a crisis for the Secretary of State, as he watched Genêt try to violate American neutrality, manipulate public opinion, and even go over Washington’s head in appealing to the people; projects that Jefferson helped to thwart. According to Schachner, Jefferson believed that political success at home depended on the success of the French army in Europe:^[29]

Thomas Jefferson, aquatint by Tadeusz Kościuszko

Jefferson still clung to his sympathies with France and hoped for the success of her arms abroad and a cordial compact with her at home. He was afraid that any French reverses on the European battlefields would give “wonderful vigor to our monocrats, and unquestionably affect the tone of administering our government. Indeed, I fear that if this summer should prove disastrous to the French, it will damp that energy of republicanism in our new Congress, from which I had hoped so much reformation.”

Break from office

Jefferson at the end of 1793 retired to Monticello where he continued to orchestrate opposition to Hamilton and Washington. However, the Jay Treaty of 1794, orchestrated by Hamilton, brought peace and trade with Britain – while Madison, with strong support from Jefferson, wanted, Miller says, “to strangle the former mother country” without going to war. “It became an article of faith among Republicans that ‘commercial weapons’ would suffice to bring Great Britain to any terms the United States chose to dictate.” Jefferson, in retirement, strongly encouraged Madison.^[30]

Election of 1796 and Vice Presidency

As the Democratic-Republican candidate in 1796 he lost to John Adams, but had enough electoral votes to become Vice President (1797–1801). He wrote a manual of parliamentary procedure, but otherwise avoided the Senate.

With the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war with France, underway, the Federalists under John Adams started a navy, built up the army, levied new taxes, readied for war, and enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. Jefferson interpreted the Alien and Sedition Acts as an attack on his party more than on dangerous enemy aliens; they were used to attack his party, with the most notable attacks coming from Matthew Lyon, a representative from Vermont. Jefferson and Madison rallied support by anonymously writing the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which declared that the federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically delegated to it by the states. The Resolutions meant that, should the federal government assume such powers, its acts under them could be voided by a state. The Resolutions presented the first statements of the states’ rights theory, that later led to the concepts of nullification and interposition.

Election of 1800

Main article: United States presidential election, 1800

Working closely with Aaron Burr of New York, Jefferson rallied his party, attacking the new taxes especially, and ran for the Presidency in 1800. Consistent with the traditions of the times, he did not formally campaign for the position. Before the passage of the Twelfth Amendment, a problem with the new union’s electoral system arose. He tied with Burr for first place in the electoral college, leaving the House of Representatives (where the Federalists still had some power) to decide the election.

After lengthy debate within the Federalist-controlled House, Hamilton convinced his party that Jefferson would be a lesser political evil than Burr and that such scandal within the electoral process would undermine the still-young regime. The issue was resolved by the House, on February 17, 1801, after thirty-six ballots, when Jefferson was elected President and Burr Vice President. Burr’s refusal to remove himself from consideration created ill will with Jefferson, who dropped Burr from the ticket in 1804 after Burr killed Hamilton in a duel.

However, Jefferson’s win over the Federalist John Adams in the general election was derided in its time for how the electoral college was set up under the three-fifths compromise at the Constitutional convention. Jefferson owed part of his election to the South’s inflated number of Electors due to slave-holdings, which meant that twelve of Jefferson’s electoral votes—his margin of victory—were derived from citizenry who were denied the vote and their full humanity.^[31][32] After his election in 1800, Jefferson was derided as the “Negro President”, with critics like the Mercury and New-England Palladium of Boston writing on January 20, 1801, that Jefferson had the gall to celebrate his election as a victory for democracy when he won “the temple of Liberty on the shoulders of slaves.”^[32][33]

Presidency 1801–1809

Main article: Presidency of Thomas Jefferson

During Jefferson’s presidency many federal taxes were repealed, and he sought to rely mainly on customs revenue. He pardoned people who had been imprisoned under the Alien and Sedition Acts, passed in John Adams’ term, which Jefferson believed to be unconstitutional. He repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801 and removed many of Adams’ “midnight judges” from office, which led to the Supreme Court deciding the important case of Marbury v. Madison. He began and won the First Barbary War (1801–1805), America’s first significant overseas war, and established the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1802.

Jefferson bust at Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport commemorates the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1803, despite his misgivings about the constitutionality of Congress’s power to buy land, Jefferson bought Louisiana from France, doubling the size of the United States. The land thus acquired amounts to 23 percent of the United States today.^[34]

In 1807, his former vice president, Aaron Burr, was tried for treason on Jefferson’s order, but was acquitted. During the trial Chief Justice John Marshall subpoenaed Jefferson, who invoked executive privilege and claimed that as president he did not need to comply. When Marshall held that the Constitution did not provide the president with any exception to the duty to obey a court order, Jefferson backed down.

Jefferson’s reputation was damaged by the Embargo Act of 1807, which was ineffective and was repealed at the end of his second term.

In 1803, President Jefferson signed into law a bill that excluded blacks from carrying the U.S. mail. Historian John Hope Franklin called the signing “a gratuitous expression of distrust of free Negroes who had done nothing to merit it.” ^[35]

On March 3, 1807, Jefferson signed a bill making slave importation illegal in the United States.^[36][37]

Administration, Cabinet and Supreme Court appointments 1801–1809

The Jefferson Cabinet
Office	Name	Term
















Secretary of the Navy	Benjamin Stoddert	1801
	Robert Smith	1801–1809

Associate Justice

States admitted to the Union:

Ohio – March 1, 1803

Painting of Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale (1805)

Father of a university

Also see: History of the University of Virginia

The Lawn, University of Virginia

After leaving the Presidency, Jefferson continued to be active in public affairs. He also became increasingly concerned with founding a new institution of higher learning, specifically one free of church influences where students could specialize in many new areas not offered at other universities. Jefferson believed educating people was a good way to establish an organized society, and felt schools should be paid for by the general public, so less wealthy people could obtain student membership as well.^[38] A letter to Joseph Priestley, in January 1800, indicated that he had been planning the University for decades before its establishment.

His dream was realized in 1819 with the founding of the University of Virginia. Upon its opening in 1825, it was then the first university to offer a full slate of elective courses to its students. One of the largest construction projects to that time in North America, it was notable for being centered about a library rather than a church. No campus chapel was included in his original plans. Until his death, Jefferson invited students and faculty of the school to his home.

Jefferson is widely recognized for his architectural planning of the University of Virginia grounds, an innovative design that is a powerful representation of his aspirations for both state sponsored education and an agrarian democracy in the new Republic. His educational idea of creating specialized units of learning is physically expressed in the configuration of his campus plan, which he called the “Academical Village.” Individual academic units are expressed visually as distinct structures, represented by Pavilions, facing a grassy quadrangle, with each Pavilion housing classroom, faculty office, and homes. Though unique, each is visually equal in importance, and they are linked with a series of open air arcades that are the front facades of student accommodations. Gardens and vegetable plots are placed behind and surrounded by serpentine walls, affirming the importance of the agrarian lifestyle.

His highly ordered site plan establishes an ensemble of buildings surrounding a central rectangular quadrangle, named The Lawn, which is lined on either side with the academic teaching units and their linking arcades. The quad is enclosed at one end with the library, the repository of knowledge, at the head of the table. The remaining side opposite the library remained open-ended for future growth. The lawn rises gradually as a series of stepped terraces, each a few feet higher than the last, rising up to the library set in the most prominent position at the top, while also suggesting that the Academical Village facilitates easier movement to the future.

Stylistically, Jefferson was a proponent of the Greek and Roman styles, which he believed to be most representative of American democracy by historical association. Each academic unit is designed with a two story temple front facing the quadrangle, while the library is modeled on the Roman Pantheon. The ensemble of buildings surrounding the quad is an unmistakable architectural statement of the importance of secular public education, while the exclusion of religious structures reinforces the principle of separation of church and state. The campus planning and architectural treatment remains today as a paradigm of building of structures to express intellectual ideas and aspirations. A survey of members of the American Institute of Architects identified Jefferson’s campus as the most significant work of architecture in America.

The University was designed as the capstone of the educational system of Virginia. In his vision, any citizen of the state could attend school with the sole criterion being ability.

Death

Jefferson’s gravesite

Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. He died a few hours before John Adams, his compatriot in their quest for independence, then great political rival, and later friend and correspondent. Adams is often rumored to have referenced Jefferson in his last words, unaware of his passing.^[39] Jefferson is considered to have died from a number of conditions in his old age: toxins in his blood and uremia from nephropathy, severe diarrhea, and pneumonia. Problems urinating from a urinary tract infection, while a symptom of kidney disease, have made some consider that Jefferson died from undiagnosed prostate cancer.^{[40][unreliable source?]}

Although he was born into one of the wealthiest families in North America, Thomas Jefferson was deeply in debt when he died. Jefferson’s trouble began when his father-in-law died, and he and his brothers-in-law quickly divided the estate before its debts were settled. It made each of them liable for the whole amount due – which turned out to be more than they expected.

Jefferson sold land before the American Revolution to pay off the debts, but by the time he received payment, the paper money was worthless amid the skyrocketing inflation of the war years. Cornwallis ravaged Jefferson’s plantation during the war, and British creditors resumed their collection efforts when the conflict ended. Jefferson suffered another financial setback when he cosigned notes for a relative who reneged on debts in the financial Panic of 1819. Only Jefferson’s public stature prevented creditors from seizing Monticello and selling it out from under him during his lifetime.

After his death, his possessions were sold at auction. In 1831, Jefferson’s 552 acres (223 hectares) were sold to James T. Barclay for $7,000, equivalent to $143 thousand today.^[41] Thomas Jefferson is buried on his Monticello estate, in Charlottesville, Virginia. In his will, he left Monticello to the United States to be used as a school for orphans of navy officers. His epitaph, written by him with an insistence that only his words and “not a word more” be inscribed (notably omitting his service as Governor of Virginia, Vice-President and President), reads:

“HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSONAUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCEOF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.”

Below the epitaph, on a separate panel, is written

BORN APRIL 2. 1743. O.S.DIED JULY 4. 1826.

The initials O.S. are a notation for Old Style and that is a reference to the change of dating that occurred during Jefferson’s lifetime from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar under the British Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.^[42]

Appearance and temperament

Jefferson was a thin, tall man, who stood at approximately six feet and remarkably straight.^[43]

“The Sage of Monticello” cultivated an image that earned him the other nickname, “Man of the People.” He affected a popular air by greeting White House guests in homespun attire like a robe and slippers. Dolley Madison, wife of James Madison (Jefferson’s secretary of state), and Jefferson’s daughters relaxed White House protocol and turned formal state dinners into more casual and entertaining social events.^[44] Although a foremost defender of a free press, Jefferson at times sparred with partisan newspapers and appealed to the people.^[45]

Jefferson’s writings were utilitarian and evidenced great intellect, and he had an affinity with languages. He learned Gaelic to translate Ossian, and sent to James Macpherson for the originals.

As President, he discontinued the practice of delivering the State of the Union address in person, instead sending the address to Congress in writing (the practice was eventually revived by Woodrow Wilson); he gave only two public speeches during his Presidency. Jefferson had a lisp^[46] and preferred writing to public speaking partly because of this. He burned all of his letters between himself and his wife at her death, creating the portrait of a man who at times could be very private. Indeed, he preferred working in the privacy of his office than the public eye.^[47]

Interests and activities

Jefferson was an accomplished architect who was extremely influential in bringing the Neo-Palladian style—popular among the Whig aristocracy of Britain—to the United States. The style was associated with Enlightenment ideas of republican civic virtue and political liberty. Jefferson designed his home Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia. Nearby is the University of Virginia, the only university ever to have been founded by a U.S. president. Jefferson designed the architecture of the first buildings as well as the original curriculum and residential style. Monticello and the University of Virginia are together one of only four man-made World Heritage Sites in the United States of America.

Jefferson also designed Poplar Forest, near Lynchburg, in Bedford County, Virginia, as a private retreat from his very public life. Jefferson contributed to the design of the Virginia State Capitol, which was modeled after the Maison Carrée, an ancient Roman temple at Nîmes in southern France. Jefferson’s buildings helped initiate the ensuing American fashion for Federal architecture.

Jefferson invented many small practical devices, such as a rotating book stand and (in collaboration with Charles Wilson Peale) a number of improvements to the polygraph, a device that made a copy of a letter as he wrote the original.^[48] Monticello included automatic doors, the first swivel chair, and other convenient devices invented by Jefferson. His interest in mechanical drawing devices included the use of the physiognotrace. In 1802, Charles Willson Peale sent a watercolor sketch of this instrument to Thomas Jefferson,^[49] along with a detailed explanation. The drawing now sits with the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress. In 1804, Charles Fevret de Saint-Memin created an oval silhouette likeness of Jefferson using the physiognotrace, which became one of the best known likenesses of Jefferson in his day.^[50]

Jefferson’s interests included archeology, a discipline then in its infancy. He has sometimes been called the “father of archeology” in recognition of his role in developing excavation techniques. When exploring an Indian burial mound on his Virginia estate in 1784, Jefferson avoided the common practice of simply digging downwards until something turned up. Instead, he cut a wedge out of the mound so that he could walk into it, look at the layers of occupation, and draw conclusions from them.

Thomas Jefferson enjoyed his fish pond at Monticello. It was about three feet (1 m) deep and mortar lined. He used the pond to keep fish which were recently caught as well as to keep eels fresh. Recently restored, the pond can be seen from the west side of Monticello.

In 1780, he joined Benjamin Franklin’s American Philosophical Society. He served as president of the society from 1797 to 1815.

Jefferson was interested in birds. His Notes on Virginia contains a list of the birds found in his home state, though there are “doubtless many others which have not yet been described and classed.” He also comments that the drawings of Virginia birds by the English naturalist Mark Catesby “are better as to form and attitude, than colouring, which is generally too high.”

Letter from Jefferson to General George Rogers Clark asking Clark to crate fossils he discovered at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, for shipment to a New Orleans collector. The following year Jefferson offered the archaeological finds to the National Institute of Paris, France

Jefferson was an avid wine lover and collector, and a noted gourmet. During his years in France (1784–1789), he took extensive trips through French and other European wine regions, and bought wine to send back to the United States. He is noted for the bold pronouncement: “We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good.” While there were extensive vineyards planted at Monticello, a significant portion were of the European wine grape Vitis vinifera and did not survive the many vine diseases native to the Americas.

In 1801, he published A Manual of Parliamentary Practice that is still in use. In 1812, Jefferson published a second edition.

After the British burned Washington, D.C. and the Library of Congress in August 1814, Jefferson offered his own collection of books to the nation. In January 1815, Congress accepted his offer, appropriating $23,950 for his 6,487 books. The foundation was laid for a great national library. Today, the Library of Congress‘ website for federal legislative information is named THOMAS, in honor of Jefferson.^[51] In 2007, Jefferson’s two-volume 1764 edition of the Qur’an was used by Rep. Keith Ellison for his swearing in to the House of Representatives.^[52]

Political philosophy and views

In his May 28, 1818, letter to Mordecai Manuel Noah, Jefferson expressed his faith in humanity and his views on the nature of democracy.

Jefferson was a leader in developing republicanism in the United States. He insisted that the British aristocratic system was inherently corrupt and that Americans’ devotion to civic virtue required independence. In the 1790s he repeatedly warned that Hamilton and Adams were trying to impose a British-like monarchical system that threatened republicanism. He supported the War of 1812, hoping it would drive away the British military and ideological threat from Canada.

Jefferson’s vision for American virtue was that of an agricultural nation of yeoman farmers minding their own affairs. His agrarianism stood in contrast to the vision of Alexander Hamilton of a nation of commerce and manufacturing, which Jefferson said offered too many temptations to corruption. Jefferson’s deep belief in the uniqueness and the potential of America made him the father of American exceptionalism. In particular, he was confident that an underpopulated America could avoid what he considered the horrors of class-divided, industrialized Europe.

Jefferson’s republican political principles were heavily influenced by the Country Party of 18th century British opposition writers. He was influenced by John Locke (particularly relating to the principle of inalienable rights). Historians find few traces of any influence by his French contemporary, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.^[53]

Banks and bankers

His opposition to the Bank of the United States was fierce: “I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”^[54] Nevertheless Madison and Congress, seeing the financial chaos caused by the War of 1812, disregarded his advice and created the Second Bank of the United States in 1816.

Jefferson wrote many letters to colleagues where he often defined his views about the banking cartel of the day. Among the most definitive is his letter of May 28, 1816, to John Tyler

The system of banking we have both equally and ever reprobated . I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens. ^[55]

– Thomas Jefferson, 1816

Individual rights

Jefferson believed that each individual has “certain inalienable rights”. That is, these rights exist with or without government; man cannot create, take, or give them away. It is the right of “liberty” on which Jefferson is most notable for expounding. He defines it by saying, “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law,’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”^[56] Hence, for Jefferson, though government cannot create a right to liberty, it can indeed violate it. The limit of an individual’s rightful liberty is not what law says it is but is simply a matter of stopping short of prohibiting other individuals from having the same liberty. A proper government, for Jefferson, is one that not only prohibits individuals in society from infringing on the liberty of other individuals, but also restrains itself from diminishing individual liberty.

Jefferson’s commitment to equality was expressed in his successful efforts to abolish primogeniture in Virginia, the rule by which the first born son inherited all the land.^[57]

Jefferson believed that individuals have an innate sense of morality that prescribes right from wrong when dealing with other individuals—that whether they choose to restrain themselves or not, they have an innate sense of the natural rights of others. He even believed that moral sense to be reliable enough that an anarchist society could function well, provided that it was reasonably small. On several occasions, he expressed admiration for the tribal, communal way of living of Native Americans:^[58] Jefferson is sometimes seen as a philosophical anarchist.^[59]

He said in a letter to Colonel Carrington: “I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government, enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments.” However, Jefferson believed anarchism to be “inconsistent with any great degree of population”.^[60] Hence, he did advocate government for the American expanse provided that it exists by “consent of the governed”.

In the Preamble to his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote:

We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles & organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.^[61]

Jefferson’s dedication to “consent of the governed” was so thorough that he believed that individuals could not be morally bound by the actions of preceding generations. This included debts as well as law. He said that “no society can make a perpetual constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation.” He even calculated what he believed to be the proper cycle of legal revolution: “Every constitution then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of nineteen years. If it is to be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.” He arrived at 19 years through calculations with expectancy of life tables, taking into account what he believed to be the age of “maturity”—when an individual is able to reason for himself.^[62] He also advocated that the national debt should be eliminated. He did not believe that living individuals had a moral obligation to repay the debts of previous generations. He said that repaying such debts was “a question of generosity and not of right.”^[63]

States’ rights

Jefferson’s very strong defense of States’ rights, especially in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, set the tone for hostility to expansion of federal powers. However, some of his foreign policies did strengthen the government. Most important was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, when he used the implied powers to annex a huge foreign territory and all its French and Indian inhabitants. The population was estimated to be 97,000 as of the 1810 census.^[64] His enforcement of the Embargo Act of 1807, while it failed in terms of foreign policy, demonstrated that the federal government could intervene with great force at the local level in controlling trade that might lead to war.

Carrying of arms

Jefferson copied many excerpts from the various books he read into his “Legal Commonplace Book.”^[65] One passage he copied which touches on gun control was from Cesare Beccaria‘s Essay on Crimes and Punishments. The passage, which is written in Italian, discusses the “false idea of utility” (false idee di utilità) which Beccaria saw as underlying some laws. It can be translated, in part, as:

A principal source of errors and injustice are false ideas of utility. For example: that legislator has false ideas of utility … who would deprive men of the use of fire for fear of their being burnt, and of water for fear of their being drowned; and who knows of no means of preventing evil but by destroying it.

The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. … It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack unarmed than armed persons.^[66]

Jefferson’s only notation was, “False idee di utilità.”^[66] It isn’t known whether Jefferson agreed with the example Beccaria used, or with the general idea, or if he had some other reason for copying the passage.

Corporations

Jefferson in 1816 wrote to George Logan,

In this respect England exhibits the most remarkable phenomenon in the universe in the contrast between the profligacy of it’s government and the probity of it’s citizens. And accordingly it is now exhibiting an example of the truth of the maxim that virtue & interest are inseparable. It ends, as might have been expected, in the ruin of it’s people, but this ruin will fall heaviest, as it ought to fall on that hereditary aristocracy which has for generations been preparing the catastrophe. I hope we shall take warning from the example and crush in it’s birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.^[67]

Judiciary

Trained as a lawyer, Jefferson was a gifted writer but never a good speaker or advocate and was never comfortable in court. He believed that judges should be technical specialists but should not set policy. He privately felt the 1803 Supreme Court ruling in Marbury v. Madison was a violation of democracy, for it made the Supreme Court the final decision-maker on the Constitution. He lacked enough support in Congress to propose a Constitutional amendment to overturn it.^[68] Jefferson continued to oppose the doctrine of judicial review:

To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men and not more so. They have with others the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. Their maxim is boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem [good justice is broad jurisdiction], and their power the more dangerous as they are in office for life and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves.^[69]

Rebellion to restrain government and retain individual rights

After the Revolutionary War, Jefferson advocated restraining government via rebellion and violence when necessary, in order to protect individual freedoms. In a letter to James Madison on January 30, 1787, Jefferson wrote, “A little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical…It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.”^[70] Similarly, in a letter to Abigail Adams on February 22, 1787 he wrote, “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all.”^[70] Concerning Shays’ Rebellion after he had heard of the bloodshed, on November 13, 1787 Jefferson wrote to William S. Smith, John Adams’ son-in-law, “What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”^[71] In another letter to William S. Smith during 1787, Jefferson wrote: And what country can preserve its liberties, if the rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.^[70]

Self-esteem

In a letter to Francis Hopkinson of March 13, 1789, Jefferson wrote: “I never had an opinion in politics or religion which I was afraid to own. A costive reserve on these subjects might have procured me more esteem from some people, but less from myself.”^[72]

Women in politics

Jefferson was not an advocate of women’s suffrage; author Richard Morris wrote, “Abigail Adams excepted, Jefferson detested intellectual women. Annoyed by the political chatter of women in Parisian salons, he wrote home expressing the hope that ‘our good ladies … are contented to soothe and calm the minds of their husbands returning ruffled from political debate.’” While President, Jefferson wrote that “The appointment of a woman to office is an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor am I.”^[73]

Religion

Further information: Thomas Jefferson and religion

The religious views of Thomas Jefferson diverged widely from the orthodox Christianity of his day. Throughout his life Jefferson was intensely interested in theology, biblical study, and morality. He is most closely connected with the religious philosophy of Deism, and Unitarianism. He is reported to have said, “Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”^[74][75]

Native American policy

Jefferson was the first President to propose the idea of a formal Indian Removal plan.^[76][77]

Andrew Jackson is often erroneously credited with initiating Indian Removal, because Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, during his presidency, and also because of his personal involvement in the forceful extermination and removal of many Eastern tribes.^[76] But Jackson was merely legalizing and implementing a plan laid out by Jefferson in a series of private letters that began in 1803 (for example, see letter to William Henry Harrison below).^[76]

Jefferson’s first promotions of Indian Removal were between 1776 and 1779, when he recommended forcing the Cherokee and Shawnee tribes to be driven out of their ancestral homelands to lands west of the Mississippi River.^[76]

His first such act as president, was to make a deal with the state of Georgia that if Georgia were to release its legal claims to discovery in lands to the west, then the U.S. military would help forcefully expel the Cherokee people from Georgia. At the time, the Cherokee had a treaty with the United States government which guaranteed them the right to their lands, which was violated in Jefferson’s deal with Georgia.^[76]

Acculturation and assimilation

Jefferson’s original plan was for Natives to give up their own cultures, religions, and lifestyles in favor of western European culture, Christian religion, and a sedentary agricultural lifestyle.^[76][77]

Jefferson’s expectation was that by assimilating them into an agricultural lifestyle and stripping them of self-sufficiency, they would become economically dependent on trade with white Americans, and would thereby be willing to give up land that they would otherwise not part with, in exchange for trade goods or to resolve unpaid debts.^[78] In an 1803 letter to William Henry Harrison, Jefferson wrote:

To promote this disposition to exchange lands, which they have to spare and we want, for necessaries, which we have to spare and they want, we shall push our trading uses, and be glad to see the good and influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands…. In this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us a citizens or the United States, or remove beyond the Mississippi. The former is certainly the termination of their history most happy for themselves; but, in the whole course of this, it is essential to cultivate their love. As to their fear, we presume that our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be foolhardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation.^[78]

Forced removal and extermination

In cases where Native tribes resisted assimilation, Jefferson believed that they should be forcefully removed from their land and sent west.^[76] Tribes that joined the British in the War of 1812 and massacred American settlements had to be fought against. As Jefferson put it in a letter to Alexander von Humboldt in 1813:

You know, my friend, the benevolent plan we were pursuing here for the happiness of the aboriginal inhabitants in our vicinities. We spared nothing to keep them at peace with one another. To teach them agriculture and the rudiments of the most necessary arts, and to encourage industry by establishing among them separate property. In this way they would have been enabled to subsist and multiply on a moderate scale of landed possession. They would have mixed their blood with ours, and been amalgamated and identified with us within no distant period of time. On the commencement of our present war, we pressed on them the observance of peace and neutrality, but the interested and unprincipled policy of England has defeated all our labors for the salvation of these unfortunate people. They have seduced the greater part of the tribes within our neighborhood, to take up the hatchet against us, and the cruel massacres they have committed on the women and children of our frontiers taken by surprise, will oblige us now to pursue them to extermination, or drive them to new seats beyond our reach.^[79]

Jefferson believed assimilation was best for Indians; second best was removal to the west. The worst possible outcome would happen if Indians attacked the whites.^[80] He told his Secretary of War, General Henry Dearborn (who was the primary government official responsible for Indian affairs): “if we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down until that tribe is exterminated, or driven beyond the Mississipi.”^[81]

On slavery

2006–present

Main article: Thomas Jefferson and slavery

Jefferson was not an abolitionist, and he owned many slaves over his lifetime. Biographers point out that Jefferson was deeply in debt and had encumbered his slaves by notes and mortgages; he could not free them until he was free of debt, which never happened.^[82] As a result, Jefferson seems to have suffered pangs and trials of conscience. His claimed ambivalence was also reflected in his treatment of those slaves who worked most closely with him and his family at Monticello and in other locations. He invested in having them trained and schooled in high quality skills.^[83] He wrote about slavery, “We have the wolf by the ears; and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”^[84]

He sponsored and encouraged Free-State advocates like James Lemen.^[85] According to a biographer, Jefferson “believed that it was the responsibility of the state and society to free all slaves.”^[86] In 1769, as a member of the House of Burgesses, Jefferson proposed for that body to emancipate slaves in Virginia, but he was unsuccessful.^[87] In his first draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson condemned the British crown for sponsoring the importation of slavery to the colonies, charging that the crown “has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere.” However, this language was dropped from the Declaration at the request of delegates from South Carolina and Georgia because it was obvious that these slave owners did not oppose slavery; neither did Jefferson, Washington or the dozens of other slave owners.

In 1778 the legislature passed a bill he proposed to ban further importation of slaves into Virginia, and he said it “stopped the increase of the evil by importation, leaving to future efforts its final eradication.” Many slave owners opposed the slave trade, while supporting slavery. The two were distinct institutions. ^[88]

Though Jefferson supported the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, it was not an anti-slavery law; it was supported by slave owners because it contained a fugitive slave clause (they could recover runaway slaves), and it would not affect the number of slave to free state House Representatives in the Congress because they knew that the Southwest Ordinance of 1790 would guarantee slavery south of the river Ohio.^[89]

In 1807, as President, he signed a bill abolishing the slave trade. This was not a form of abolition. The slave trade was an embarassment and other nations like Great Britian were doing the same, whilst maintaing slave plantations and slavery.

Jefferson seems to attack the institution of slavery in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1784):

There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other.^[90]

In this same work, Jefferson advanced his suspicion that black people were inferior to white people “in the endowments both of body and mind.”^[91] However, he also wrote in the same work that black people could have the right to live free in any country where people judge them by their nature, and not as just being good for labor.^[92] He also wrote, “Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. [But] the two races…cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.”^[44] According to historian Stephen Ambrose: “Jefferson, like all slaveholders and many other white members of American society, regarded Negroes as inferior, childlike, untrustworthy and, of course, as property. Jefferson, the genius of politics, could see no way for African Americans to live in society as free people.” At the same time he trusted them with his children, with preparation of his food and entertainment of high-ranking guests. So clearly he believed that some were trustworthy.^[93] For a long-term solution Jefferson believed that slaves should be freed then deported peacefully to African colonies. Otherwise, he feared war and that in his words, “human nature must shudder at the prospect held up. We should in vain look for an example in the Spanish deportation or deletion of the Moors. This precedent would fall far short of our case.”^[94]

But on February 25, 1809, Jefferson repudiated his earlier view, writing in a letter to Abbé Grégoire:

Sir,—I have received the favor of your letter of August 17th, and with it the volume you were so kind to send me on the “Literature of Negroes.” Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to them by nature, and to find that in this respect they are on a par with ourselves. My doubts were the result of personal observation on the limited sphere of my own State, where the opportunity for the development of their genius were not favorable and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed them therefore with great hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and hopeful advances are making toward their re-establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family. I pray you therefore to accept my thanks for the many instances you have enabled me to observe of respectable intelligence in that race of men, which cannot fail to have effect in hastening the day of their relief; and to be assured of the sentiments of high and just esteem and consideration which I tender to yourself with all sincerity.^[95]

In August 1814 Edward Coles and Jefferson corresponded about Coles’ ideas on emancipation: “Your solitary but welcome voice is the first which has brought this to my ear, and I have considered the general silence which prevails on this subject as indicating an apathy unfavorable to every hope.^[96]

In 1817, as Polish general and American war of independence rebel Tadeusz Kościuszko died, Jefferson was named by Kościuszko as the executor of his will, in which the Pole asked that the proceeds from the sale of his assets be used to free, among others, Jefferson’s slaves. Jefferson, 75 at the time, did not free his slaves and pleaded that he was too old to take on the duties of executor; at the same time energetically throwing himself into the creation of the University of Virginia.^[97] Some historians have speculated that he had qualms about freeing slaves.^[98]

The downturn in land prices after 1819 pushed Jefferson further into debt. Jefferson finally emancipated his five most trusted slaves (two, his mixed-race sons through Sally Hemings confirmed 1998 DNA tests) and petitioned the legislature to allow them to stay in Virginia. After his death, his family sold the remainder of the slaves by auction on the lawn of his estate^[97] to settle his high debts.^[99]

Monuments and memorials

Further information: List of places named for Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson has been memorialized in many ways, including buildings, sculptures, and currency. The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. on April 13, 1943, the 200th anniversary of Jefferson’s birth. The interior of the memorial includes a 19-foot (6 m) statue of Jefferson and engravings of passages from his writings. Most prominent are the words which are inscribed around the monument near the roof: “I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man”.^[100]

His original tombstone, now a cenotaph, is now located on the campus in the University of Missouri‘s Quadrangle.

Jefferson, together with George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, was chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum and approved by President Calvin Coolidge to be depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial.^[101]

Jefferson’s portrait appears on the U.S. $2 bill, nickel, and the $100 Series EE Savings Bond.

Recent memorials to Jefferson include the commissioning of the NOAA ship Thomas Jefferson in Norfolk, Virginia on July 8, 2003, in commemoration of his establishment of a Survey of the Coast, the predecessor to NOAA’s National Ocean Service; and the placement of a bronze monument in Jefferson Park, Chicago at the entrance to the Jefferson Park Transit Center along Milwaukee Avenue in 2005.

Marriage and Family

Acknowledged Wife and Children

In 1772, at age 29 Jefferson married the 23-year-old widow Martha Wayles Skelton. They had six children: Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772–1836), Jane Randolph (1774–1775), a stillborn or unnamed son (1777), Mary Jefferson Eppes (1778–1804), Lucy Elizabeth (1780–1781), and another Lucy Elizabeth (1782–1785). Martha died on September 6, 1782, after the birth of her last child. Jefferson never remarried.

Alleged mixed-race children

Jefferson is alleged to have had a long-term, intimate relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, a quadroon, who was believed to have been a half-sister to Jefferson’s late wife. She had six children, four of whom survived to adulthood and were freed or allowed to escape by Jefferson. They were presumably seven-eights white by ancestry.^[103]

During the administration of President Jefferson allegations were initiated by former employee James T. Callender after being denied an appointment that Jefferson had fathered several children with Hemings after his wife’s death. Late twentieth-century DNA testing (see Jefferson DNA data) indicated that a male in Jefferson’s line was the father of at least one of Sally Hemings’s children but do not specifically identify Thomas Jefferson and the allegations remain unproven. Jefferson commented on the matter in a private letter in 1816:^[104]

I should have fancied myself half guilty had I condescended to put pen to paper in refutation of their falsehoods, or drawn to them respect by any notice from myself.

Information regarding DNA results and historians’ assessments is covered at length in the Sally Hemings page.

Writings

See also

	*Book:Presidents of the United States (1789–1860)*
Books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Notes

^ “The Thomas Jefferson Papers Timeline: 1743 -1827″. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjtime1.html. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
^ ^a ^b The birth and death of Thomas Jefferson are given using the Gregorian calendar. However, he was born when Britain and her colonies still used the Julian calendar, so contemporary records record his birth (and on his tombstone) as April 2, 1743. The provisions of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, implemented in 1752, altered the official British dating method to the Gregorian calendar with the start of the year on January 1 – see the article on Old Style and New Style dates for more details.
^ Robert W. Tucker, and David C. Hendrickson, Empire of Liberty: The Statecraft of Thomas Jefferson (1990)
^ Jefferson, Thomas (January 1, 1802). “Jefferson’s Wall of Separation Letter”. U.S. Constitution Online. http://www.usconstitution.net/jeffwall.html. Retrieved April 13, 2008.
^ April 29, 1962 dinner honoring 49 Nobel Laureates (Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, 1988, from Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962, p. 347).
^ “Facts on Thomas Jefferson”. Revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com. 1943-04-13. http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/facts-on-thomas-jefferson.html. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
^ Thomas Jefferson Encylopedia – Welsh Ancestry. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
^ Henry Stephens Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson
^ Merrill D. Peterson, Thomas Jefferson: Writings, p. 1236
^ Thomas Jefferson on Wine by John Hailman, 2006
^ ^a ^b ^c Henry Stephens Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson. p 41
^ ^a ^b Henry Stephens Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson. p 47
^ Thomas Jefferson p.214
^ TJ to John Minor August 30, 1814 Lipscomb and Bergh, WTJ 2:420-21
^ ArchitectureWeek. “The Orders – 01″. http://www.architectureweek.com/topics/orders-01.html. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
^ “nMonticello”. Plantationdb.monticello.org. http://plantationdb.monticello.org/. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ ^a ^b ^c Merrill D. Peterson, “Jefferson, Thomas”; American National Biography Online, February 2000.
^ Ellis, American Sphinx, 47–49.
^ Maier, American Scripture. Other standard works on Jefferson and the Declaration include Garry Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (1978) and Carl L. Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas (1922).
^ ^a ^b Ellis, American Sphinx, 50.
^ “Part I: History of the Death Penalty”. Deathpenaltyinfo.org. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=15&did=410. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ “Virgina Executions”. Rob Gallagher. http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution/VIRGINIA.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ Bennett, William J. (2006). “The Greatest Revolution”. America: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at War. Nelson Current. p. 99. ISBN 1-59555-055-0.
^ Ferling 2004, p. 26
^ Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008
^ The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America. Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=dmgUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA218&lpg=PA218&dq=Thulemeier+Magdeburg&source=bl&ots=88_moQefOS&sig=78Uawff9ApALaQjVjOix13xjBug&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA307,M1. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ Ferling 2004, p. 59
^ “Foreign Affairs,” in Peterson, ed. Thomas Jefferson: A Reference Encyclopedia (1986) p 325
^ Schachner 1951, p. 495
^ Miller (1960), 143–4, 148–9.
^ An American History Lesson For Pat Buchana, Kenneth C. Davis, Huffington Post, July 18, 2009.
^ ^a ^b Thomas Jefferson, the ‘Negro President’, Gary Willis on The Tavis Smiley Show, February 16, 2004.
^ Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power, Review of Garry Willis’s book on WNYC, February 16, 2004.
^ “Table 1.1 Acquisition of the Public Domain 1781–1867″ (PDF). http://www.blm.gov/natacq/pls02/pls1-1_02.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ [John Hope Franklin, Race and History: Selected Essays 1938–1988 (Louisiana State University Press: 1989) p. 336] and [John Hope Franklin, Racial Equality in America (Chicago: 1976), p. 24-26]
^ Martin Kelly. “Thomas Jefferson Biography – Third President of the United States”. http://americanhistory.about.com/od/thomasjefferson/p/pjefferson.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
^ Robert MacNamara. “Importation of Slaves Outlawed by 1807 Act of Congress”. http://history1800s.about.com/od/slaveryinamerica/a/1807slaveact.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
^ “Jefferson on Politics & Government: Publicly Supported Education”. Etext.lib.virginia.edu. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1370.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ Jefferson Still Survives. Retrieved on 2006-12-26.
^ wiki.monticello.org Jefferson’s Cause of Death. Retrieved 2010-06-12.
^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
^ “Monticello Report: The Calendar and Old Style (O. S.)”. Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello.org). 2007. http://www.monticello.org/reports/life/old_style.html. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
^ Monticello Report: Physical Descriptions of Thomas Jefferson. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
^ ^a ^b “‘Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)’ at the University of Virginia”. Americanpresident.org. http://www.americanpresident.org/history/thomasjefferson/biography/FamilyLife.common.shtml. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ “Thomas Jefferson”. Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk. 1999-09-22. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWjefferson.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ “Thomas Jefferson: Silent Member”. http://www.awesomestories.com/biography/thomas_jefferson/thomas_jefferson_ch1.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
^ “‘American Sphinx’ by Joseph J. Ellis at”. Futurecasts.com. http://www.futurecasts.com/Ellis,%20Jefferson,%20American%20Sphinx.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ “”Jefferson’s Inventions”". Cti.itc.virginia.edu. http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~meg3c/classes/tcc313/200Rprojs/jefferson_invent/invent.html. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ Physiognotrace http://lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2539
^ “The Jefferson Encyclopedia”. Wiki.monticello.org. 2009-12-18. http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Jefferson_Oval_Portrait_by_Memin_(Physiognotrace). Retrieved 2010-04-23.
^ Ellis, Joseph J. (1994). “American Sphinx: The Contradictions of Thomas Jefferson”. Library of Congress. http://thomas.loc.gov/.
^ Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts (January 1, 2007). “But It’s Thomas Jefferson’s Koran!”. Washington Post: p. C03. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010300075.html. Retrieved January 3, 2007.
^ J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (1975), 533; see also Richard K. Matthews, The Radical Politics of Thomas Jefferson, (1986), p. 17, 139n.16.
^ Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor May 28, 1816, in Appleby and Ball (1999) p 209); also Bergh, ed. Writings 15:23
^ Monticello, May 28, 1816: (better source required)
^ Letter to Isaac H. Tiffany, April 4, 1819 in Appleby and Ball (1999) p 224.
^ Brown 1954, pp. 51–52
^ “Notes on Virginia”. Etext.lib.virginia.edu. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/JefVirg.html. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ Adler, Mortimer Jerome (2000). The Great Ideas. Open Court Publishing. p. 378.
^ Letter to James Madison, January 30, 1787
^ “Professor Julian Boyd’s reconstruction of Jefferson’s “original Rough draft” of the Declaration of Independence”. Loc.gov. 2005-07-06. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ Letter to James Madison, September 6, 1789
^ Letter to James Madison, September 6, 1789; Daniel Scott Smith, “Population and Political Ethics: Thomas Jefferson’s Demography of Generations,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 56, No. 3 (Jul., 1999), pp. 591–612 in jstor
^ [1]
^ “The Thomas Jefferson Papers”. Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjser5.html. Retrieved 2010-05-05.
^ ^a ^b “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…(Quotation)”. Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia. http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Laws_that_forbid_the_carrying_of_arms…(Quotation). Retrieved 2010-05-05.
^ Ford, ed, Paul Lester (1899). The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol X, 1816–1826. New York, London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. http://www.archive.org/stream/writingsofthomas10jeffiala/writingsofthomas10jeffiala_djvu.txt.
^ Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation p. 699
^ Letter to William C. Jarvis, 1820
^ ^a ^b ^c Melton, The Quotable Founding Fathers, 277.
^ Letter to William Smith, November 13, 1787
^ “Encyclopædia Britannica’s Guide to American Presidents”. Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116912. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny, p. 133, Richard B. Morris, 1973, Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.
^ Jefferson to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787
^ Charles Sanford, The Religious Life of Thomas Jefferson (1987).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Miller, Robert (July 1, 2008). Native America, Discovered and Conquered: : Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny. Bison Books. p. 90. ISBN 978-0803215986.
^ ^a ^b Drinnon, Richard (March 1997). Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire-Building. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806129280.
^ ^a ^b Jefferson, Thomas (1803). “President Thomas Jefferson to William Henry Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory,”. http://courses.missouristate.edu/ftmiller/Documents/jeffindianpolicy.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
^ “Letter From Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt December 6, 1813″. http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl224.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
^ Bernard W. Sheehan, Seeds of extinction: Jeffersonian philanthropy and the American Indian‎ (1974) pp 120–21
^ James P. Ronda, Thomas Jefferson and the changing West: from conquest to conservation (1997) p. 10; text in Moore, MariJo (2006). Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: An Anthology of the American Indian Holocaust. Running Press. ISBN 978-1560258384. http://books.google.com/books?id=3oNPH4-ovFcC&pg=PA208&lpg=PA208&dq=Thomas+Jefferson+dearborn+hatchet&source=bl&ots=H7cwLd-MIA&sig=-Yro3VMQ2KKmoaQSeOl52Ndte1Q&hl=en&ei=EpG5SdXaLpK2sAOZpNAt&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result.
^ Herbert E. Sloan, Principle and Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt (2001) pp. 14–26, 220–1.
^ Hitchens 2005, p. 48
^ Miller, John Chester (1977). The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery. New York: Free Press, p. 241. The letter, dated April 22, 1820, was written to former Senator John Holmes of Maine.
^ Macnaul, W.C. (1865). The Jefferson-Lemen Compact.
^ “Willard Sterne Randall, Thomas Jefferson: A Life. p 593.
^ The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes at the Library of Congress.
^ [Ordinance of 1787] Lalor Cyclopædia of Political Science
^ “Student’s guide to landmark … – Google Books”. Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=XbzhWvjCxc0C&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=%22fugitive+slave+act%22+1793+original&source=bl&ots=1L3n-Z1HUr&sig=PN7rLclSxqyxZbcUmzexP86iwEY&hl=en&ei=9o33SvjKAYT6kAW4xLCkAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=15&ved=0CFcQ6AEwDg#v=onepage&q=northwest%20ordinance%20tobacco%20&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
^ Notes on the State of Virginia, Ch 18.
^ Notes on the State of Virginia Query 14
^>{{cite web|url=http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefVirg.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=18&division=div1 |title=’Jefferson, Thomas, 1743–1826.
^ Flawed Founders by Stephen E. Ambrose.
^ Hitchens 2005, pp. 34–35
^ Letter of February 25, 1809 from Thomas Jefferson to French author Monsieur Gregoire, from The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (H. A. Worthington, ed.), Volume V, p. 429. Citation and quote from Morris Kominsky, The Hoaxers, pp. 110–111.
^ Twilight at Monticello, Crawford, 2008, Ch 17, p.101
^ ^a ^b Why we should all regret Jefferson’s broken promise to Kościuszko, Nash&Hodges http://hnn.us/articles/48794.html
^ For your freedom and ours, the Kościuszko squadron, Olson&Cloud, pg 22–23, Arrow books ISBN 0-09-942812-1
^ Peterson 1975, pp. 991–992, 1007
^ Office of the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER), of the National Park Service, Library of Congress (September 1994). “Documentation of the Jefferson Memorial”. http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/dc/dc0400/dc0473/sheet/00001a.tif. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
^ National Park Service. “Carving History”. Mount Rushmore National Memorial. http://www.nps.gov/archive/moru/park_history/carving_hist/carving_history.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
^ Scott Stamp Catalog, Index of Commemorative Stamps
^ “”John Wayles Paternity””. Wiki.monticello.org. 2009-05-19. http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/John_Wayles. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
^ [2]^{[dead link]}

[edit] References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

[edit] Primary sources

Thomas Jefferson: Writings: Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters (1984, ISBN 978-0-940450-16-5) Library of America edition. There are numerous one-volume collections; this is perhaps the best place to start.
Thomas Jefferson, Political Writings ed by Joyce Appleby and Terence Ball. Cambridge University Press. 1999 online
Lipscomb, Andrew A. and Albert Ellery Bergh, eds. The Writings Of Thomas Jefferson 19 vol. (1907) not as complete nor as accurate as Boyd edition, but covers TJ from birth to death. It is out of copyright, and so is online free.
Edwin Morris Betts (editor), Thomas Jefferson’s Farm Book, (Thomas Jefferson Memorial: December 1, 1953) ISBN 1-882886-10-0. Letters, notes, and drawings—a journal of plantation management recording his contributions to scientific agriculture, including an experimental farm implementing innovations such as horizontal plowing and crop-rotation, and Jefferson’s own moldboard plow. It is a window to slave life, with data on food rations, daily work tasks, and slaves’ clothing. The book portrays the industries pursued by enslaved and free workmen, including in the blacksmith’s shop and spinning and weaving house.
Boyd, Julian P. et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. The definitive multivolume edition; available at major academic libraries. 31 volumes covers TJ to 1800, with 1801 due out in 2006.
The Jefferson Cyclopedia (1900) large collection of TJ quotations arranged by 9000 topics; searchable; copyright has expired and it is online free.
The Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606–1827, 27,000 original manuscript documents at the Library of Congress online collection
Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia (1787), London: Stockdale. This was Jefferson’s only book
- Shuffelton, Frank, ed., (1998) Penguin Classics paperback: ISBN 0-14-043667-7
- Waldstreicher, David, ed., (2002) Palgrave Macmillan hardcover: ISBN 0-312-29428-X
- online edition
Cappon, Lester J., ed. The Adams-Jefferson Letters (1959)
Howell, Wilbur Samuel, ed. Jefferson’s Parliamentary Writings (1988). Jefferson’s Manual of Parliamentary Practice, written when he was vice-President, with other relevant papers
Melton, Buckner F.: The Quotable Founding Fathers, Potomac Books, Washington D.C. (2004).
Smith, James Morton, ed. The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 1776–1826, 3 vols. (1995)

[edit] Biographies

Appleby, Joyce. Thomas Jefferson (2003), short interpretive essay by leading scholar.
Bernstein, R. B. Thomas Jefferson. (2003) Well regarded short biography.
Burstein, Andrew. Jefferson’s Secrets: Death and Desire at Monticello. (2005).
Cunningham, Noble E. In Pursuit of Reason (1988) well-reviewed short biography.
Crawford, Alan Pell, Twilight at Monticello, Random House, New York, (2008)
Ellis, Joseph. “American Sphinx: The Contradictions of Thomas Jefferson”. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjessay1.html.
Ellis, Joseph. American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson (1996). Prize winning essays; assumes prior reading of a biography.
Hitchens, Christopher (2005), Thomas Jefferson: Author of America , short biography.
Malone, Dumas. Jefferson and His Time, 6 vols. (1948–82). Multi-volume biography of TJ by leading expert; A short version is online.
Onuf, Peter. “The Scholars’ Jefferson,” William and Mary Quarterly 3d Series, L:4 (October 1993), 671–699. Historiographical review or scholarship about TJ; online through JSTOR at most academic libraries.
Padover, Saul K. Jefferson: A Great American’s Life and Ideas
Pasley, Jeffrey L. “Politics and the Misadventures of Thomas Jefferson’s Modern Reputation: a Review Essay.” Journal of Southern History 2006 72(4): 871–908. Issn: 0022-4642 Fulltext in Ebsco.
Peterson, Merrill D. (1975). Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation. A standard scholarly biography.
Peterson, Merrill D. (ed.) Thomas Jefferson: A Reference Biography (1986), 24 essays by leading scholars on aspects of Jefferson’s career.
Randall, Henry Stephens (1858). The Life of Thomas Jefferson (volume 1 ed.).
Schachner, Nathan (1951). Thomas Jefferson: A Biography. 2 volumes.
Salgo, Sandor (1997). Thomas Jefferson: Musician and Violinist. Abook detailing Thomas Jefferson’s love of music.

Academic studies

Ackerman, Bruce. The Failure of the Founding Fathers: Jefferson, Marshall, and the Rise of Presidential Democracy. (2005)
Adams, Henry. History of the United States of America during the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson (1889; Library of America edition 1986) famous 4-volume history
- Wills, Garry, Henry Adams and the Making of America (2005), detailed analysis of Adams’ History
Banning, Lance. The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology (1978)
Brown, Stuart Gerry (1954). The First Republicans: Political Philosophy and Public Policy in the Party of Jefferson and Madison.
Channing; Edward. The Jeffersonian System: 1801–1811 (1906), “American Nation” survey of political history
Dunn, Susan. Jefferson’s Second Revolution: The Election Crisis of 1800 and the Triumph of Republicanism (2004)
Elkins, Stanley and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism (1995) in-depth coverage of politics of 1790s
Fatovic, Clement. “Constitutionalism and Presidential Prerogative: Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian Perspectives.” : American Journal of Political Science, 2004 48(3): 429–444. Issn: 0092-5853 Fulltext: in Swetswise, Ingenta, Jstor, and Ebsco
Ferling, John (2004). Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800.
Finkelman, Paul. Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson (2001), esp ch 6–7
Hatzenbuehler, Ronald L. “I Tremble for My Country”: Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Gentry, (University Press of Florida; 206 pages; 2007). Argues that the TJ’s critique of his fellow gentry in Virginia masked his own reluctance to change
Hitchens, Christopher (2005). Author of America: Thomas Jefferson. HarperCollins.
Horn, James P. P. Jan Ellen Lewis, and Peter S. Onuf, eds. The Revolution of 1800: Democracy, Race, and the New Republic (2002) 17 essays by scholars
Jayne, Allen. Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence: Origins, Philosophy and Theology (2000); traces TJ’s sources and emphasizes his incorporation of Deist theology into the Declaration.
Roger G. Kennedy. Mr. Jefferson’s Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase (2003).
Knudson, Jerry W. Jefferson and the Press: Crucible of Liberty. (2006)
Lewis, Jan Ellen, and Onuf, Peter S., eds. Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, Civic Culture. (1999)
McDonald, Forrest. The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson (1987) intellectual history approach to Jefferson’s Presidency
Matthews, Richard K. “The Radical Political Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson: An Essay in Retrieval,” Midwest Studies in Philosophy, XXVIII (2004)
Mayer, David N. The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson (2000)
Onuf, Peter S. Jefferson’s Empire: The Languages of American Nationhood. (2000). Online review
Onuf, Peter S., ed. Jeffersonian Legacies. (1993)
Onuf, Peter. “Thomas Jefferson, Federalist” (1993) online journal essay
Perry, Barbara A. “Jefferson’s Legacy to the Supreme Court: Freedom of Religion.” Journal of Supreme Court History 2006 31(2): 181–198. Issn: 1059-4329 Fulltext in Swetswise, Ingenta and Ebsco
Peterson, Merrill D. The Jefferson Image in the American Mind (1960), how Americans interpreted and remembered Jefferson
Rahe, Paul A. “Thomas Jefferson’s Machiavellian Political Science”. Review of Politics 1995 57(3): 449–481. ISSN 0034–6705 Fulltext online at Jstor and Ebsco.
Sears, Louis Martin. Jefferson and the Embargo (1927), state by state impact
Sloan, Herbert J. Principle and Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt (1995). Shows the burden of debt in Jefferson’s personal finances and political thought.
Smelser, Marshall. The Democratic Republic: 1801–1815 (1968). “New American Nation” survey of political and diplomatic history
Staloff, Darren. Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding. (2005)
Taylor, Jeff. Where Did the Party Go?: William Jennings Bryan, Hubert Humphrey, and the Jeffersonian Legacy (2006), on Jefferson’s role in Democratic history and ideology.
Tucker, Robert W. and David C. Hendrickson. Empire of Liberty: The Statecraft of Thomas Jefferson (1992), foreign policy
Urofsky, Melvin I. “Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall: What Kind of Constitution Shall We Have?” Journal of Supreme Court History 2006 31(2): 109–125. Issn: 1059-4329 Fulltext: in Swetswise, Ingenta and Ebsco
Valsania, Maurizio. “‘Our Original Barbarism’: Man Vs. Nature in Thomas Jefferson’s Moral Experience.” Journal of the History of Ideas 2004 65(4): 627–645. Issn: 0022-5037 Fulltext: in Project Muse and Swetswise
Wagoner, Jennings L., Jr. Jefferson and Education. (2004).
Wiltse, Charles Maurice. The Jeffersonian Tradition in American Democracy (1935), analysis of Jefferson’s political philosophy
PBS interviews with 24 historians

Religion

Gaustad, Edwin S. Sworn on the Altar of God: A Religious Biography of Thomas Jefferson (2001) Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, ISBN 0-8028-0156-0
Sanford, Charles B. The Religious Life of Thomas Jefferson (1987) University of Virginia Press, ISBN 0-8139-1131-1
Sheridan, Eugene R. Jefferson and Religion, preface by Martin Marty, (2001) University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 1-882886-08-9
Edited by Jackson, Henry E., President, College for Social Engineers, Washington, D. C. “The Thomas Jefferson Bible” (1923) Copyright Boni and Liveright, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. Arranged by Thomas Jefferson. Translated by R. F. Weymouth. Located in the National Museum, Washington, D. C.

The Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia, for information on TJ’s life and times, written and referenced by historians at Monticello
University of Virginia
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson – Digital Edition
Biography on White House website
Library of Congress
- Library of Congress: Jefferson exhibition
- Library of Congress: Jefferson timeline
- Thomas Jefferson: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
National Park Service
- Thomas Jefferson’s Plan for the University of Virginia: Lessons from the Lawn, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
- Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC
Monticello – Home of Thomas Jefferson
Poplar Forest-Thomas Jefferson’s second home
“Frontline: Jefferson’s blood: Chronology: The Sally Hemings story (1977), PBS
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson at the Avalon Project
Thomas Jefferson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Notes on the State of Virginia from American Studies at the University of Virginia.
Works by Thomas Jefferson at Project Gutenberg
Online catalog of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library, based on the catalog of books he sold to the Library of Congress in 1815



Preceded by John Adams	Political officesPresident of the United States March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1809	Succeeded by James Madison
	Vice President of the United States March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801	Succeeded by Aaron Burr
Preceded by John Jay as United States Secretary for Foreign Affairs	United States Secretary of State Served under: George Washington March 22, 1790 – December 31, 1793	Succeeded by Edmund Randolph
Preceded by Patrick Henry	Governor of Virginia 1779 – 1781	Succeeded by William Fleming (acting); Thomas Nelson, Jr. (elected)


New political party	Democratic-Republican Party presidential candidate 1796¹, 1800, 1804	Succeeded by James Madison

Preceded by Benjamin Franklin	United States Minister Plenipotentiary to France 1785 – 1789	Succeeded by William Short

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Picnic Food

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

On the Fourth of July, feasts have always been the order of the day. Early on, they were sponsored by political hopefuls or local churches. By the mid-1800s, families everywhere would pack lunches and gather at parks for community picnics. Perhaps the most sensational holiday spread on record is the Ontario, California, 1956 All States Picnic, when more than 100,000 people from across the country lunched together in the shade of the town’s peppertrees. The event even spawned a six-legged mascot: a fork-and-knife-wielding caricature named Jasper the Picnic Ant.

If your family is celebrating the holiday with friends and neighbors, the best way to feed the crowd is by organizing a potluck. Fresh produce is plentiful this time of year, and everyone’s likely to have a favorite summer salad or casserole to share. You may want to divide the guest list into three groups, assigning salads and casseroles to one, desserts to another and beverages to the third. If a grill or barbecue pit is available at the picnic site, suggest that each family bring its own chicken, hamburgers or hot dogs, as well.

You’ll also need condiments, napkins, serving spoons, disposable plates, eating utensils, trash bags and charcoal briquettes. And to keep an ample supply of beverages cold and accessible, you can provide a trash can filled with ice.

For inspiration, we offer the following menu and recipes. Many of them are classics that the original Fourth of July celebrants were apt to have packed in their picnic baskets. And we’ve added a few new twists, too: an orangey sauce to spread on barbecued chicken; a bacon topping to sprinkle on potato salad; and maple-flavored whipped cream to crown a truly red, white and blue dessert.

Fourth of July Field-Day Menu

Barbecued Chicken
Hamburgers
Hot dogs
Pickles, catsup, mustard and relish
New Potato Salad
Roasted Corn on the Cob
Fresh sliced tomatoes and cucumbers
Fruit Salad
Homemade Lemonade
Strawberry-Blueberry Shortcake
Red, White & Blueberry Freeze Pops

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Linda’s Culinary Dictionary

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Index A Dictionary and History of Cooking, Food, and Beverage Terms Lemonade – Old-Fashioned Lemonade How To Make Perfect Lemonade Home

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Menu/4thJulyPicnic.htm

So refreshing and delicious! Taste just like the lemonade Grandma used to make, but with no undissolved sugar on the bottom of the pitcher! The secret to perfect lemonade is to start by making a sugar syrup. Dissolving the sugar in hot water effectively disperses the sugar in the lemonade, instead of having the sugar sink to the bottom. Check out more of Linda’s Beverage Recipes and this Basic Simple Syrup Recipe for sweetening your favorite drinks. Old-Fashioned Lemonade – How To Make Lemonade Simple Syrup (see recipe below)

Juice of 6 freshly-squeezed lemons (approximately 1 cup)

4 cups cold water 1 sliced lemon, for garnish Ice cubes

Prepare Simple Syrup in advance and refrigerate. In a large pitcher, combine lemon juice and sugar and cold Simple Syrup. Add water, lemon slices, and ice cubes; stir until well blended. Serve in tall glasses over ice. Yields approximately 6 cups.

Basic Simple Syrup Recipe:

1 cup granulated sugar*

1 cup water *

You can reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup, if desired.

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar and water. Boil for 5 minutes, without stirring. Remove from heat and let cool before using. Store in the refrigerator.

Lemonade Variations: Lavender Lemonade

Add 1 tablespoons dried culinary lavender buds. Add lavender to the hot Simple Syrup and let steep for 10 minutes. Strain the Simple Syrup and discard the lavender buds. Refrigerate Simple Syrup until cool.

Limeade – Substitute fresh lime juice for the lemon juice.

Strawberry Lemonade – In a blender, puree 1 pint of fresh strawberries (hulled and halved); add to the pitcher with the lemon juice and Simple Syrup.

Favorite Potato Salad – How To Make Potato Salad This is my family’s favorite potato salad recipe. A family gathering would not be complete without this salad. I’ve tried many other potato salads, and as far as I am concerned, this is the best! This is one of those recipes that I have a hard time writing the exact amount of ingredients used. I always just cook up a bunch of potatoes and add the ingredients by taste. So, add or subtract ingredients to what you and your family personally like. More of Linda’s wonderful Salad and Salad Dressing Recipes and more great Potato Recipes. Don’t forget to check out my Old-Fashioned 4th of July Picnic menu which includes this wonderful Potato Salad.

Favorite Potato Salad

6 (2 pounds) medium potatoes*

3/4 cup chopped sweet pickles (or to taste)

2 tablespoons chopped onion

3/4 cup chopped celery 2 tablespoons chopped pimiento

** Salt to taste 1 1/2 teaspoons celery seeds Potato Salad Dressing (see recipe below)

6 hard-cook eggs (5 chopped and 1 sliced) Fresh parsley (optional) Paprika

* If I am in a hurry when making this potato salad, I will peel the potatoes before boiling.

** Pimientos are roasted sweet red peppers that have been preserved in oil.

TIP: After opening and using part of a jar of pimientos, to prolong life of remaining pimientos, add a teaspoon of white vinegar and refrigerate. In a large pan over medium-high heat, add potatoes and cover with cold water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, approximately 12 to 15 minutes or until just tender. Remove from heat and drain.

NOTE: I usually remove the skins when the potatoes have cooled enough to hold. As soon as you can handle the potatoes, cut the warm potatoes into bite-sized chunks and place in a large mixing bowl. Add sweet pickles, onion, celery, and pimiento to the potato chunks. Sprinkle with salt and celery seeds; stir until well blended. Prepare Potato Salad Dressing. Pour salad dressing over the potato mixture; toss gently until well mixed. Add the 5 chopped hard-cooked eggs, gently mixing into potato salad. Refrigerate salad several hours.

NOTE: If potato mixture gets too dry, add additional mayonnaise and sweet pickle juice. Place salad into a large serving bowl and garnish with remaining sliced hard-cooked egg. Sprinkle parsley around edge of bowl and sprinkle paprika over sliced eggs. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight before serving. Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Potato Salad Dressing:

3/4 cup good-quality mayonnaise

1 1/2 tablespoons prepared mustard

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons sweet pickle juice (or more to taste)

In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, prepared mustard, sugar, and sweet pickle juice; stir until well blended. Great American Hamburger The elements of the perfect hamburger are a patty of ground beef in a soft round bun, served with ketchup, pickles, and onions. You may add other condiments, whatever you like, but the meat itself must be of prime quality or it’s not worth the effort. What people prefer on their hamburger can vary from region to region in the United States. Learn about the History and Legends of Hamburgers by Linda Stradley. Check out more of Linda’s Sandwich Recipes. Great American Hamburger 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef (hamburger) Salt and pepper 4 hamburger buns or Kaiser rolls 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Accompaniments (see below)

Preheat barbecue grill; brush and oil the grates. Lightly wet your hands with cold water; gently form ground beef into 4 patties, about 1-inch thick and larger than your bun. When forming patties, handle as little as possible. Loosely packed burgers are crisper on the outside and juicier inside. Poke a hole in the center (this will stop the hamburger from rising in the center. The hole will close while cooking). Season with salt and pepper. Place patties onto hot grill. Cover barbecue with lid, open any vents, and cook 4 to 5 minutes; turn patties over and cook another 4 to 5 minutes (only turn patties once) or until cooked to desired doneness (do not press patties with spatula while cooking as juices will escape and the meat will dry out). Remove from grill and transfer onto a serving plate.

NOTE: It is recommended that you cook the Hamburger patty to 160 degrees on your meat thermometer to eliminate any chance of e-coli. This is the type of thermometer that I prefer and use in my cooking. I get many readers asking what cooking/meat thermometer that I prefer and use in my cooking and baking. I, personally, use the Thermapen 5 Thermometer (show in the photo on the right). Originally designed for professional users, this super-fast thermometer is used by chefs all over the world. To learn more about this excellent thermometer and to also purchase one (if you desire), just click on the underlined: Thermapen 5 Thermometer Brush the hamburger buns or Kaiser rolls with melted butter; toast them on the grill, cut side down for 30 to 60 seconds. remove from grill and place on individual plates. Place the cooked meat onto the bottom slice of the bun and add accompaniments of your choice (see below). Makes 4 servings.

ACCOMPANIMENTS IDEAS: 4 slices Cheddar cheese- 8 slices cooked bacon – 4 fried eggs – 1 tomato, thinly sliced 1 small onion, thinly sliced Lettuce, cut into 1/4-inch slices, Sweet pickle relish, Ketchup, Mustard, and Mayonnaise

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What The Hell Happened??

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Monday, June 21, 2010 8:11:44 PM

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

THIS IS EXCELLENT — READ IT ALL –
“When Injustice becomes law, Resistance becomes DUTY!” Thomas Jefferson

What the hell happened ? -
545 people vs. 300 million peopleThis is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be – read it!!
The article below is completely neutral …not anti republican or democrat.Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel has hit the nail directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day.It’s a short but good read. Worth the time. Worth remembering! 545 vs. 300,000,000

EVERY CITIZEN NEEDS TO READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS JOURNALIST HAS SCRIPTED IN THIS MESSAGE. READ IT AND THEN REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE.Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years.
545 PEOPLE–By Charlie ReesePoliticians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.. Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits….. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red ..

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it’s because they want them in IRAQ

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power..

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees…

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

What you do with this article now that you have read it……… Is up to you.
This might be funny if it weren’t so darned true.
Be sure to read all the way to the end:

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the hell happened? Can you spell ‘politicians?’

I hope this goes around THE USA at least 100 times!!!

YOU can help it get there!!!

GO AHEAD – - – BE AN AMERICAN!!!

This is an email I received this morning from a dear friend; This is what it is all about. We can all like it or change it.

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Protected: Food Safety

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

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1938 AUSTRIA

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

(I found this article and wanted to share it with you. It has nothing to do with food storage; but everything to do with why we may need food storage. Take a good look at what is going on right here in the good old USA. I pray that this does not happen to us. If it does I pray that we are able to survive.)

http://www.sdfamily.org/Kitty+Wetrthmann

1938 AUSTRIA

“Who in the hades is that old woman on your website?” you may be asking. Well, her name is Kitty Werthmann. And I want you to read an article she wrote. It is profound. It is about her life in Austria, where she grew up seeing Hitler come to power. Please tweet this, facebook this, e-mail this, whatever. This is utterly intriguing.

“After America , There is No Place to Go” by Kitty Werthmann

The author of this article lives in South Dakota and appears to be very active in attempting to maintain our freedom. I encourage everybody to read this article and pass it along. I see so many parallels in this country– are we going to sit by and watch it happen? Spread the word, contact your congressional reps, vote them out if they don’t do what they should. If you don’t want to be bothered, then you’re part of the problem! Google Kitty Werthmann and you will see articles and videos. Truly, America is the greatest country in the world.

“What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or will ever read in history books. I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide – 98% of the vote. I’ve never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force. In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates. Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs.My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily. The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other. Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna , Linz , and Graz were destroyed. The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted. We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany , where Hitler had been in power since 1933. We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group — Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back. Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed. After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service. Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

Hitler Targets Education – Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children

Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang “Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,” and had physical education. Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail. The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.My mother was very unhappy. When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination. I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing. Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler. It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

Equal Rights Hits Home

In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men. Soon after this, the draft was implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps. During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys. They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines. When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat. Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare

When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government. The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.

Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under Government Controls

Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna . After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries. As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families. All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing. We had another agency designed to monitor business.My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables. Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands. Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.We had consumer protection. We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

“Mercy Killing” Redefined

In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps . The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated. So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work. I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van. I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months. They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness. As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

The Final Steps – Gun Laws

Next came gun registration.. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily. No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up. Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria . Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles.The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom. After World War II, Russian troops occupied Austria . Women were raped, preteen to elderly. The press never wrote about this either. When the Soviets left in 1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the process. They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what they couldn’t destroy, they burned. We called it The Burned Earth. Most of the population barricaded themselves in their houses. Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized. Those who couldn’t, paid the price. There is a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who were massacred by the Russians.

This is an eye witness account. ”It’s true..those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. America truly is the greatest country in the world. Don’t let freedom slip away.” After America , there is no place to go.

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Ingredients

1 American teaspoon= 5 milliliters
1 ” tablespoon=15 milliliters
1 ” Cup = 1/4 litres
1 ” Pint =.4732 liters
1 ” quart .9463 liters
1 ” gallon=3.785 litters

Instructions

1 pound = 454 grams.

1 teaspoons=3grams.

1/2 cup less a 1 tablespoon= 100 grams (for butter).

3/4 cup less 1 tablespoon= 100 grams ( flour).

1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon = 100 grams ( sugar).

2 ounces=60 grams. 8 ounces = 1 cup.

1cup= 240 grams. 1 pint=.551 liters.

Butter or shorting 1 teaspoon……..5 grams

tablespoon……14 grams

1/4 cup………….56 grams 1/3 cup………….75 grams

1/2 cup………….113 grams

1 cup…………….225 grams

Sifted Flour 1 tablespoon…..8 grams

1/4 cup………….30 grams

1/3 cup………….40 grams

1/2 cup………….60 grams

1 cup…………….120 grams

Pounds 1 pound 454 grams

2.2 pounds 1 kilo Gelatin

1 envelope……..1 tablespoon 1 envelope……..7 grams

5 sheets………..8 grams

15 sheets………25 grams

Sugar 1 tablespoon …….12 grams

1/4 cup ……………50 grams 1/3 cup…………….67 grams

1/2 cup…………….100 grams 1 cup……………….200 grams

Tags: Misc. Information
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Monday, June 7th, 2010

“Clean Water

We who live in countries that have clean running water are so blessed. We just walk over to the tap and turn it on and off at our will and water is just there. ARE NOT! What if you turned on the tap one day and it wasn’t there. This could happen. Even in the big city in the USA where we have community water systems. It could happen for an hour, a day, a week or longer. What would we do? Trouble with the public utility system; plumbing problems in the system that distributes the water to us; an act of terrorism – Any number of things could stop our water supply temporarily of indefinitely. We need to prepare for this possibility, regardless of where we live.

“Clean Water

According to the World Health Organization, more than one billion people lack access to clean water. Those without clean water often suffer from water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, and typhoid.
The objective of the Church’s clean water initiative is to improve the health of communities by providing access to sustainable clean water sources. Depending on local needs and circumstances, these water sources include wells (or boreholes), spring or rain capture, and delivery systems.
Since 2002, the Church has helped five million people in over 5,000 communities obtain access to clean water sources.
Clean water projects have enjoyed long-term sustainability because:

Community representatives are trained on system maintenance prior to project completion.
Community training is done in a way that allows participants to come up with solutions to their own problems.
Participants are involved in planning and implementation, and labor is provided by community volunteers.

In 2009, clean water projects were done in 24 countries, including Armenia, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Philippines, Republic of Congo, Serbia, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.

http://www..lds.org/library/page/display/0,7098,6212-1-3216-1,00.html “

“Above message from the first Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”

In Providentliving.org I found the following advice for the emergency home storage. http://tinurl.com/2aezfva

“All Is Safely Gathered In FAMILY HOME STORAGE

MESSAGE FROM THE FIRST PRESIDENCY

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to “prepare every needful thing” (see D&C 109:8 so that, should adversity come, we may care for ourselves and our neighbors and support bishops as they care for others.

We encourage Church members worldwide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.

We ask that you be wise as you store food and water and bui9ld your savings. Do not go to extremes; it is not prudent, for example, to go into debt to establish your food storage all at once. With careful planning, you can, over time, home storage supply and a financial reserve.

We realize that some of you may not have financial resources or space for such storage. Some of you may be prohibited by law for storing large amounts of food. We encourage you to store as much as circumstances allow.

May the Lord bless you in your home storage efforts?

The First Presidency

THE BASICS OF FAMILY HOME STORAGE

THREE-MONTH SUPPLY

Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one week supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage.

DRINKING WATER

Store drinking water for circumstances in which the water supply may be polluted or disrupted.

If water comes directly from a good, pretreated source then no additional purification is needed; otherwise, pre-treat water before use. Store water in sturdy, leak-proof, breakage-resistant containers. Consider using plastic bottles commonly used for juices and soda.

Keep water containers away from heat sources and direct sunlight.

FINANCIAL RESERVE

Establish a financial reserve by saving a little money each week and gradually increasing it to a reasonable amount (see all is safely gathered in: Family Finances guide).

LONG-TERM SUPPLY

For longer-tern need, and where permitted, gradually build a supply of food that will last a long time and that you can use to stay alive, such as wheat, white rice, and beans.

These items can last 30 years or more when properly packaged and stored in a cool, dry place. A portion of these items may be rotated in your three-month supply.”

The above information is taken from www.providentliving.org for more information about home storage. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

(We purchased a house very old house. In the basement thereof we found containers of wheat. We repackaged it in better-safer container. After speaking to the decedents of the builders of our home; we determined that the wheat was approximately 80-90 years old. We have ground some of this wheat, made bread and ate it. It was wonderful. [I cannot vouch for the nutritional content, but I can vouch for the taste. It was great. I suggest that you rotate any food supplies you have for better quality of food. )

Posted in Misc. Information | 8 Comments »

“START YOUR EMERGENCY SUPPLIES WITH THE BASIC SURVIVAL PRODUCTS – CLEAN WATER AND FOOD

Monday, June 7th, 2010

We who have been lucky enough to have been born and raised on a farm (where we had to work hard to do and learned how to do everything it took for survival in hard times) are really blessed. Our parents taught us how to do all kinds of things that we did not want to know. We owe a debt of gratitude to our creator for sending us here to this earth during a time when we would need the knowledge that we possess to survive.

“Clean Water

Clean Water According to the World Health Organization, more than one billion people lack access to clean water. Those without clean water often suffer from water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, and typhoid.
The objective of the Church’s clean water initiative is to improve the health of communities by providing access to sustainable clean water sources. Depending on local needs and circumstances, these water sources include wells (or boreholes), spring or rain capture, and delivery systems.
Since 2002, the Church has helped five million people in over 5,000 communities obtain access to clean water sources.
Clean water projects have enjoyed long-term sustainability because:

Community representatives are trained on system maintenance prior to project completion.
Community training is done in a way that allows participants to come up with solutions to their own problems.
Participants are involved in planning and implementation, and labor is provided by community volunteers.

http://www..lds.org/library/page/display/0,7098,6212-1-3216-1,00.html “

“Above message from the first Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”

In Providentliving.org I found the following advice for the emergency home storage. http://tinurl.com/2aezfva

“All Is Safely Gathered In FAMILY HOME STORAGE

MESSAGE FROM THE FIRST PRESIDENCY

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

We encourage Church members worldwide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.

May the Lord bless you in your home storage efforts?

The First Presidency

THE BASICS OF FAMILY HOME STORAGE

THREE-MONTH SUPPLY

DRINKING WATER

Store drinking water for circumstances in which the water supply may be polluted or disrupted.

Keep water containers away from heat sources and direct sunlight.

FINANCIAL RESERVE

Establish a financial reserve by saving a little money each week and gradually increasing it to a reasonable amount (see all is safely gathered in: Family Finances guide).

LONG-TERM SUPPLY

For longer-tern need, and where permitted, gradually build a supply of food that will last a long time and that you can use to stay alive, such as wheat, white rice, and beans.

These items can last 30 years or more when properly packaged and stored in a cool, dry place. A portion of these items may be rotated in your three-month supply.”

The above information is taken from www.providentliving.org for more information about home storage. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”

(We purchased a house very old house. In the basement thereof we found containers of wheat. We repackaged it in better-safer container. After speaking to the decedents of the builders of our home; we determined that the wheat was approximately 80-90 years old. We have ground some of this wheat, made bread and ate it. It was wonderful.) [I cannot vouch for the nutritional content, but I can vouch for the taste. It was great. I suggest that you rotate any food supplies you have for better quality of food. ]

Tags: amazon.com, Food Storage
Posted in misc., Misc. Information | 11 Comments »

Rehydration of Freeze Dried Fruits

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Rehydration of Freeze Dried Fruits

When I first attempted to use rehydrated products in my cooking I had no problem with vegetables and meats because they could be dropped into the boiling soup broth. Exact measurements need not be so precise. However, when I tried jelled salads and jelled molds the liquid content remaining in fruits and vegetables must be exact. With too much liquid the jells will not set properly. With too much it will be tough and unpalatable.

Finally, I began to measure the proper amount of the liquid the gelatin was to set in. Heat the liquid with the fruit or vegetables in the liquid. Set the liquid and the vegetable out to soak until properly rehydrated, then add gelatin. You will be surprised how great it really does taste. The flavors are fresh and discernible.

Oh! So-very easy. Last Monday night for “Family Home Evening” I made a simple strawberry Jelled mold. Following the directions on the gelatin package, bring the proper amount of water to a boil. Pour hot liquid into mold. Place a layer of freeze dried strawberries on the hot water. With a spoon dunk the fruit under the water a few times. After the fruit is completely rehydrated, (It does not take very long.) Pour in the Jell-O powder and stir well to mix in and dissolve well. Next add proper amount of cold liquid and place in refrigerator to set.

After jelled properly, decorate with whipping cream and serve. You never tasted strawberry Jell-o that tasted this good. You can smell the strawberries, also.

So simple and yet so easy to make.

Posted in Misc. Information | 15 Comments »

SouthernUtahFoodStorage

Archive for the ‘Misc. Information’ Category

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What The Hell Happened??

Protected: Food Safety

1938 AUSTRIA

Ingredients

Instructions

“START YOUR EMERGENCY SUPPLIES WITH THE BASIC SURVIVAL PRODUCTS – CLEAN WATER AND FOOD

Rehydration of Freeze Dried Fruits

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