(1743-1826), By G. Mercer Adam
JEFFERSON, when he penned the famous Declaration of Independence, which
broke all hope of reconciliation with the motherland and showed England
what the deeply-wronged Colonies of the New World unitedly desired
and would in the last resort fight for, had then just passed his
thirty-third birthday. Who was the man, and what were his upbringings
and status in the then young community, that inspired the writing of
this great historic document--a document that on its adoption gave
these United States an ever-memorable national birthday, and seven years
later, by the Peace of Versailles, wrung from Britain recognition of the
independence of the country and ushered it into the great sisterhood of
Nations? To his contemporaries and a later political age, Jefferson, in
spite of his culture and the aristocratic strain in his blood, is known
as the advocate of popular sovereignty and the champion of democracy in
matters governmental, as United States minister to France between the
years 1784-89, as Secretary of State under Washington, and as U. S.
President from 1801 to 1809. By education and bent of mind, he was,
however, an idealist in politics, a thinker and writer, rather than a
debater and speaker, and one who in his private letters, State papers,
and public documents did much to throw light, in his era, on the origin
and development of American political thought.
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