JEFFERSON, THOMAS, an American statesman, 3d President of the United States; born in Shadwell, Va., April 2, 1743. He received a liberal education for that time, graduating at William and Mary College in 1764. He was admitted to the bar in 1767. In 1769 he was sent to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he gained local fame by a speech supporting the emancipation of slaves. In 1774 the Burgesses were dissolved by Lord Dunmore, the governor, but met on their own responsibility, and sent dele gates to the Colonial CongTess. Jeffer son being elected but unable to go, sent a "Summary View of the Rights of British North America," for which he was near ly attainted of treason in Parliament.
Jefferson was a member of the 2d Con gress, in 1775, and of the 3d, in 1776. He was appointed chairman of a special committee of five, to prepare a declara tion of independence. Jefferson wrote the draft, and it was adopted by the com mittee, with very few changes, to become one of the immortal documents of his tory. He resigned his seat in Congress to assist in framing the Virginia consti. tution. In 1779 he was elected governor of Virginia. In 1783 he was returned to Congress, where he secured the adop tion of the decimal system of coinage, and assisted in other important meas ures. In 1784, with Franklin and Adams, he was instrumental in making important treaties with Prussia and Morocco. In 1785 he was mado minister to France, where he served during the stormiest period of the French Revolu tion. The liberal and destructive spirit of that revolution had great influence upon him, and his subsequent views and acts were more or less shaped by it. He
floated the French tricolor at his home at Monticello, and greeted his neighbors with the title "citizen." In 1789 he was made Secretary of State by Washington. Here he was recognized as the leader of the Republican party, the other members of the Cabinet and Washington himself being Federalists. In 1794 he retired to his estate, and passed three years in study and leisure. In 1797 he was chosen Vice-President with Adams, and in 1801 was elected President by the House of Representatives. In 1805 he was re-elected. His administrations were marked by the war with Tripoli, the admission of Ohio to the Union, the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, the naval episode between the " Chesapeake " and the " Leopard," the Embargo act, the trial of Aaron Burr for treason, and the prohibition of the slave trade. In 1809 he retired finally to private life, where he devoted himself to study and to philanthropic enterprises, his chief un dertaking being the establishment of the University of Virginia. He was stead ily democratic in his views, and a cham pion of the rights of the States, as against centralization in government. He died in Monticello, Va., July 4, 1826, on the same day of John Adams's death, and the 50th anniversary of the famous Declaration that he had penned.