Thomas Jefferson
History.com Staff. "Thomas Jefferson." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/thomas-jefferson>
Although Jefferson promoted individual liberty, he was also a slaveowner.
"Thomas Jefferson Facts." Thomas Jefferson Facts. The Gale Group, 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.<http://biography.yourdictionary.com/thomas-jefferson>
He argued that Americans, as sons of expatriate Englishmen, possessed the same natural rights to govern themselves as their Saxon ancestors had exercised when they migrated to England from Germany.
History.com Staff. "Thomas Jefferson." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/thomas-jefferson>
He served as U.S. minister to France.
"Thomas Jefferson Facts." Thomas Jefferson Facts. The Gale Group, 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.<http://biography.yourdictionary.com/thomas-jefferson>
He sought to achieve liberal reforms by ordinary legislation. Most of these were contained in his comprehensive Revision of the Laws.
"Thomas Jefferson Facts." Thomas Jefferson Facts. The Gale Group, 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.<http://biography.yourdictionary.com/thomas-jefferson>
Jefferson also took a leading part in formulating foreign policy. The American economy rested on foreign commerce and navigation.
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Jefferson opposed the Alien and Sedition Acts on the grounds that they stifled free speech and political opposition.
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Jefferson resigned from the congress in September 1776 to serve in the Virginia House of Delegates and to be closer to his family.
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Jefferson returned to the Continental Congress in 1783 and served there until he was appointed a special commissioner to France in 1784 and then minister to France in 1785.
History.com Staff. "Thomas Jefferson." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/thomas-jefferson>
Jefferson served in the Virginia legislature and the Continental Congress and was governor of Virginia.
History.com Staff. "Thomas Jefferson." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/thomas-jefferson>
Jefferson thought the national government should have a limited role in citzens' lives.
"Thomas Jefferson Facts." Thomas Jefferson Facts. The Gale Group, 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.<http://biography.yourdictionary.com/thomas-jefferson>
Jefferson used the libertarian elements of the English legal tradition for ideological combat with the mother country
"Thomas Jefferson Facts." Thomas Jefferson Facts. The Gale Group, 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <http://biography.yourdictionary.com/thomas-jefferson>
Thomas Jefferson believed in a beneficent natural order in the moral as in the physical world, freedom of inquiry in all things, and man's inherent capacity for justice and happiness, and he had faith in reason, improvement, and progress.
History.com Staff. "Thomas Jefferson." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/thomas-jefferson>
Thomas Jefferson retired to his Virginia plantation, Monticello, and helped found the University of Virginia
"Thomas Jefferson." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-jefferson-9353715#synopsis>
Thomas Jefferson was a draftsman of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
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Thomas Jefferson was the nation's first secretary of state.
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Thomas Jefferson was the second vice president of the United States.
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Thomas Jefferson was the statesman responsible for the Louisiana Purchase.
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Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States.
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Thomas Jefferson wrote the lines inscribed on his tombstone, listing the three accomplishments of which he was most proud: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, and the father of the University of Virginia."
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Until the outbreak of the American Revolution, Jefferson lived the life of a wealthy Virginia aristocrat. He practiced law, married Martha Wayles Skelton on January 1, 1772, began the construction of his mansion at Monticello.