The 3rd U.S President "Thomas Jefferson", President of The United States

Thomas Jefferson: In the thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private letter, "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny existing in the mind of man." This powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743 in Albermarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a farmer and surveyor, about 5,000 acres of land, and his mother inherited a Randolph, high social status. He studied at the College of William and Mary, then dedicated himself to read laws. In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his home in partially built on top of the mountain, Monticello. Sandy hair, something tall and awkward, Jefferson was eloquent as a correspondent, but he was not very good to express themselves in public. In the House of burgeses of Virginia and the Continental Congress, he contributed more with his pen with his voice to the patriotic cause. As the "silent member" of Congress, Jefferson, at age 33, he wrote the Declaration of Independence. In the coming years he worked to make his words a reality in Virginia. Notably, he wrote a law establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786. Jefferson preceded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. His sympathy with the French Revolution led to a conflict with Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson was Secretary of State in the cabinet of President Washington. He resigned in 1793.

A sharp political conflict developed, and two separate parties, the Federalists and the Republican-Democrats, began to form. Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. I attacking the federalist policies, he opposed a strong centralized government defended the rights of states. As a shining candidate for president in 1796, Jefferson came within three votes of election. Through a flaw in the Constitution, he became Vice President, although an opponent of President Adams. In 1800 the failure caused a more serious problem. Republican electors, attempting to name the president and the vice president of his own party, cast a vote of a tie between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of Representatives settled the tie. Hamilton, who did not like or Jefferson or Burr, however I urge the election of Jefferson. When Jefferson became president, the crisis in France had passed. He slashed expenses of the army and navy, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey so unpopular in the West, thus reducing the national debt by a third.

He also sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Later, although the constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his calm sobrela constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803. During the second term of Jefferson, his concern was growing again, keep out the nation to engage in the Napoleonic wars, although England and France interfered with the neutral rights of American merchantmen. Jefferson tried the solution, an embargo on American shipping, no work was unpopular. Jefferson retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as his grand designs for the University of Virginia. A French nobleman observed that he had rested his house and his mind "on an elevated situation, from which he could contemplate the universe." He died July 4, 1826.