“All honor to Jefferson – to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.”
~ Abraham Lincoln, April 6, 1859
Who was Thomas Jefferson?
Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States of America. He was one of the founding fathers of America who fought for national independence from the British.
Jefferson is considered the Political Father of America and is the best American symbol of the highest values of civilization. He was the first American leader to break with the past and to build a political philosophy based on his realization that the progress of a nation comes from the release of its diverse individual talents and energy and not by consolidating and increasing its governing power. Jefferson once wrote to a friend “Governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of the people, and execute it.” He was very critical of the exaggerated respect for the historic Constitution, and advocated regular amendment and revision of the Constitution because he believed “laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind”.
It was Jefferson - the Apostle of Liberty who proclaimed the American political ideal in 1776. He was a man-of-vision whose theories posterity received as truths. He was a political genius whose principles and ideas mastered reality for he always built on history and experience. At the same time he was also a man-of-the-people. He cherished people and mingled with them. Among men of affairs he was a rarity who sincerely and enthusiastically believed in the rights of humanity, individual freedom and human dignity. He was a political prophet and the greatest light of the political world. Jefferson was a leader who was passionate and bold in thought, word and deed. In 1775 when for the first time John Adams, the Second President of America, met Thomas Jefferson, he characterized Jefferson as: “Prompt, frank, explicit and decisive!”
No American has been able to impress himself on the nation’s future as Jefferson did. With his rich diversity of achievements Jefferson emerged as a hero of the American culture. He played a notable part in many important fields of activity and thought: government, law, religion, education, agriculture, architecture, science and philosophy.
Thomas Jefferson was the first American leader to advocate free education in schools supported by local taxation so that children not just of the aristocratic few but even those of the poor could receive education. He also advocated state aid to higher institutions of learning. Jefferson felt that education and knowledge was the source of happiness, prosperity and good government. It was Jefferson’s conviction that only an enlightened society was capable of genuine self-government and that no ignorant people could maintain their God-given freedom.
As a citizen Thomas Jefferson was exemplary. He was at his best as a family man. He was a very loving husband, a very understanding father and a perfect grandfather. Till his death he treasured locks of hair and other mementos of his deceased wife and children. Cultivation of the soil was Jefferson’s most delightful occupation. He enjoyed cultivating his garden and riding his horse over the red hill around Monticello. He was a perfect gentleman, bowing to blacks and whites alike when he met them on the road. He was very kind and benevolent towards all his workers who worked on his farms and at his residence. He disliked strong drinks, did not use tobacco and his language was always refined whether in private or in public. He did not gamble, and cards were forbidden in his house. People who knew him remarked about the sweetness of his temper which was seldom ruffled. Jefferson had a countenance that was warm and expressive. He was a tall man and radiated grace. To friends or strangers, rich or poor, young or old, his great personal attraction was his warm heart and a very sympathetic and inquisitive mind.
Thomas Jefferson was the greatest political leader America has ever produced. The secret of his success was his abiding faith in the multitude and in the fundamental goodness of humanity. The essence of his statesmanship lay in peace. Through difficulties and trials he held fast to this ideal of peace. Reflecting on the statesmanship of Thomas Jefferson the historian Henry Adams said, “Jefferson aspired beyond the ambition of a nationality and embraced in his view the whole future of man”, “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations…”. Jefferson belongs not just to America but to the whole of human race.
Thomas Jefferson the author of the Declaration of Independence died on July Fourth 1826. Fourth of July is the day every year America celebrates its independence.
Dumas Malone the biographer of Thomas Jefferson said, “Nobody can live Jefferson’s long and eventful life all over again, and nobody in our age is likely to match his universality.”
