Thomas Jefferson

U.S. political philosopher was in his country one of the most brilliant exponents of the Enlightenment, the eighteenth-century movement that emphasized the possibilities of human reason. Aristocrat of Virginia, Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia (USA). From childhood he showed a great active interest in botany, geology, cartography, Greek and Latin. During his training at the College of William and Mary, in the early 1760's, he acquired extensive knowledge about law, history, philosophy, architecture and science (Profiles of U.S. Presidents 2007 pg 7). As a diplomat and friend of British and French intellectuals had direct access to culture and European thought, which was later applied in their nation. Jefferson began practicing in 1767, was elected in 1762, first for the Virginia Assembly. Leveraging its deep expertise in 1774 drafted a set of instructions for the delegates of Virginia in the first Continental Congress (Smith2003 369). In the letter, whose original title is in English Summary view of the rights of British America, Jefferson was talking about the quality of individuals, rather than as agents of the British government, which were the first settlers. Accordingly, had the right to choose own governments and ways of driving. He claimed that the colonial institutions and the British Parliament shared power, and that both were responsible for protecting "the rights and freedoms" of the people (Looney 2004 178). Clearly, President Jefferson's 1801 letter articulated the United States' expansionistic desires, but it also laid the foundation for the Monroe Doctrine, which continues to dominate the American continent today. Jefferson was also bound by previous treaties that recognl2ed Indian tribes' right of occupancy of their traditional lands. His assimilation plan was twofold: one, to reduce the size of traditional tribal hinds and, two, to have the tribes adopt the Euro-American lifestyle so as to dilute their savage image. Tribes felt that they would be able to remain on their traditional lands if they adopted the white Euro-American lifestyle. The five major tribes to subscribe to the Euro-American social and political lifestyle were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. They became known a the “Five Civilized Tribes.' Assimilation was a failed concept from the outset owing to a number of factors—mainly the fact that American Indians did not hold equal status before the U.S. legal system. The Declaration of Independence, drafted principally by Jefferson in late June 1776 to the Second Continental Congress, proclaims that the tyrannical acts of the British government gave the settlers the right to "dissolve the political bands" that were linked to the country. It is impossible to study the development of Thomas Jefferson's reputation since 'World War II without reference to the two institutions that have shaped and continue to dominate our understanding of Jefferson; The Papers of Thomas Jefferson and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Under the direction of Julian P. Boyd and his successors, the Princeton edition of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson has evolved into a sizeable, long-lived and immensely important entity. The Papers, along ...