Thomas Jefferson
“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal
hostility against every form of tyranny
over the mind of men”
Thomas Jefferson, 1800.
Biography
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Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in Albermarle County,
Virginia.
Jefferson was the eldest son of Peter and Jane Jefferson
Thomas had seven other siblings (6 sisters [one of which was mentally
handicapped] and 1 brother)
Peter Jefferson was a prominent planter and surveyor who owned a 5,000
acre plantation called Shadwell
Peter died in August of 1757 (he was 49), Thomas was only 14. Leaving
Jefferson with a substantial inheritance including 2,500 acres and nearly
200 slaves. Jefferson was not able to officially take control of his inheritance
until he was 21.
•Thomas Jefferson was privately educated by a series of
clergymen
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For five years from the age of 9-14 Jefferson boarded with Rev. William
Douglas of Dover Church, learning Latin, Greek, and French. Thomas
stayed with Rev. Douglas for 8 sometimes 9 months of the year, for an
annual cost of £16.
After his father’s death, Jefferson came under the tutelage of an Anglican
minister by the name of James Maury, who according to Jefferson, was a
“correct classical scholar”. Jefferson spent the next two years with Rev.
Maury in his Fredericksville Parish.
From 1760-1762 Thomas Jefferson attended William & Mary College.
Jefferson began his time at William & Mary studying mathematics and
natural philosophy with Professor William Small.
In 1762 Jefferson continued his education by studying law with George
Wythe, until 1767 when he was able to practice law before the General
Court of Virginia, (retires from practicing law in 1774).
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In 1768 Jefferson is elected to his first political post in the Virginia House of
Burgesses
1772: Thomas Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton, a prominent
member of Virginia society, as a consequence Jefferson in 1774, inherits
11,000 acres and 135 slaves from his new father-in-law.
Martha Jefferson dies giving birth to her sixth child in 1782. Thomas
Jefferson never remarries, but is suspected of fathering another six children
with his slave Sally Hemings. (In 1998, Dr. Eugene Foster a geneticist,
confirmed that the Hemings children were the offspring of Thomas
Jefferson. Also in 2000 the Thomas Jefferson Foundation after pouring over
the evidence also came to the same conclusion.
From 1775-1776, at the age of 32, Jefferson is elected to the Continental
Congress, where he is known for his writing, rather than his oratory skill.
During the American Revolution Jefferson draft’s the Declaration of
Independence, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (enacted 1786), and
began the Notes on the State of Virginia (published 1787).
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In 1779, Thomas Jefferson is elected Governor of Virginia. In 1780 the
British, under the command of General Charles Cornwallis, occupy his
Virginia estate of Monticello. Jefferson, after barley escaping the British net,
serves as Virginia’s Governor until 1781.
After the war, Jefferson became a serving member of the 2nd Continental
Congress: 1783-1785.
Jefferson again entered public service, this time in France, first as Trade
Commissioner (1785) and then as Benjamin Franklin’s successor, filling the
vacant post of American Foreign Minister to France until 1789.
After a brief reprieve from public life Jefferson in 1790, accepted the post of
Secretary of State in the Washington Administration, serving the President
until 1793, when he resigned due to irreconcilable differences concerning
how the United States of America should be governed (States Rights vs.
Federalism)
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By 1797 a Jeffersonian Party had been established to combat the rising tide
of Federalism, led by his political rivals Alexander Hamilton and John
Adams. During the 1797 Presidential election Jefferson and his DemocraticRepublican Party finished second to Adams and his Federalist allies by 3
electoral votes. Jefferson defeated, accepted the post of Vice President until
1801.
Jefferson in the next Presidential election defeated the incumbent (John
Adams) marking the first peaceful transfer of authority from one party to
another in the history of the United States.
Jefferson’s Presidency (1801-1809): Most notable achievements for
Jefferson during his first term was the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 (6 million
acres for 15 million dollars, $2.50 an acre). More than doubled the size of
the United States. Largest peaceful acquisition of land in the history of any
modern nation. Employed the Lewis & Clark expedition to explore the new
territory in the hopes of finding the Northwest Passage, valuable minerals
and identifying indigenous population’s, possibly even locating the lost tribe
of Israel.
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After serving his second term as President, Thomas Jefferson retired from
public service for the remainder of his life.
After retiring (Monticello: Charlottesville, Virginia), Jefferson threw himself
into plantation management and amassing one of the greatest libraries in
America (part of which he sold to the Library of Congress to replace the
books burned when the British sacked Washington during the War of 1812.
Literary donation comprised 6,700 volumes)
1817-1825 worked on successfully establishing the University of Virginia
Thomas Jefferson Died on July 4, 1826, at the age of 83. Jefferson died in
poverty, owing various creditors nearly $100,000. The majority of this debt
was incurred purchasing books, building Monticello (25 yr. undertaking), and
establishing the University of Virginia.
Crowning Achievements: Epitaph: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson
author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute of
Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia.
Jefferson’s Educational Philosophy
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Education was considered by Jefferson as the foundation for any well
ordered Republic.
Jefferson’s academic system is the antithesis of prior educational thought.
For example John Locke, in Of the Conduct of the Understanding,
encapsulates the norms view of who should be educated.
Locke states: “Those methinks, who by the industry and parts of their
ancestors have been set free from a constant drudgery to their backs and
bellies, should bestow some of their spare time on their heads and open
their minds by some trials and essays in all sorts of reasoning.”
Jefferson called this group who were set free by the privileges of wealth and
birth the “Artificial Aristocracy” (Kings, Priests, and Nobles i.e. Feudalism)
Instead Jefferson believed in what he called the natural equality of the
human race. In other words, education was not just for the wealthy segment
of society it was for every element of the Republic. Consequently,
Republican leadership should be founded on virtue and talents not birth and
financial standing. Jefferson called this group the “Natural Aristocracy.”
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Even though Jefferson concluded that an elite group, or the cream of the
Natural Aristocracy, were destined to become leaders, he also thought that
the education of the masses was crucial to preventing tyranny and
preserving democracy.
Jefferson in a letter to William C. Jarvis wrote “I know of no safe depository
of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we
think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a
wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform
their discretion by education.”
Therefore, Jefferson concluded, that the entire polity should be educated.
Jefferson proposed doing this by creating a three tiered system of education
because Knowledge was power. “No other sure foundation (Education), can
be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness; Jefferson wrote
George Wythe, a common school was the keystone of the arch of our
government.
Diagram outlines the Bill for the More General Diffusion of
Knowledge: outlines the selection and education of the Natural
Aristocracy.
University
Academy or
Grammar School
Divided into districts
Primary School: Divided into what Jefferson
called Hundreds
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Primary Schools (Hundreds: Local): In 1779, Jefferson proposed a
system of public education to the legislators of Virginia. The plan called for 3
years of instruction in reading, writing, simple arithmetic, and indirectly
history since the pupils were to be taught to read using books of Greek,
Latin, English, and American History (History was a guide to the perfectible
future through the errors of the blemished past). School would be made
available to all “free” boys and girls regardless of class or financial standing.
The Primary School system would be financially supported by the public
through taxes on property and exports.
Grammar School: (Academy: District): Jefferson at this next level was
more selective, choosing only the most intellectually promising students to
attend; supported at public expense if their parents were to poor to pay. In
each of the first two years at this second level there was to be a further
winnowing of genius and talents among the young scholars. Eventually,
after 4 more years, the remaining students would emerge prepared for the
rigors of a college education. (Curriculum: Higher part of classical
languages including English, geography, and numerical arithmetic).
University: (Initially William & Mary College, Virginia University after 1825): At this level only the
most accomplished scholars would be admitted. Again, scholarships would be provided for those who
could not afford to attend. Sacred duty of the University was to produce “future guardians of the rights
and liberties of their country.” Academic study according to Jefferson would not be restricted by
government whether ecclesiastical or civil.
Mathematics:
Arithmetic
Geometry
Mechanics
(Navigation,
Measurement of
land)
Optics
Astronomy
Natural
Philosophy:
Chemistry
Static's
Hydrostatics
Pneumatics (air
pressure)
Natural History:
Agriculture
Zoology
Botany
Mineralogy
Anthropology
(Native American)
Geography
Geology
Rhetoric:
Oriental
Hebrew
Northern
Anglo Saxon
Old Icelandic
French
Italian
German
Spanish
Fine Arts:
Sculpture
Painting
Gardening
Music
Architecture
Oratory
Criticism
Law:
Common
Equity
Merchant
Maritime
Ecclesiastical
Ideology
Commerce
History:
Civil
Ecclesiastical
No
Professorship of
Divinity: ” We
have thought it
proper to leave every
sect to provide, as
they think fittest, the
means of further
instruction in their
own peculiar tenets.”
Ethics:
Moral
Philosophy
Law of Nature
Law of Nations
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Not only did Jefferson’s educational system provided instruction for the
masses in their natural rights, interests, and duties as citizens; but it
provided a workable process of sifting though the population, regardless
of class, for leaders or what Jefferson termed the Natural Aristocracy.
Finally, what segments of the population, if any, were left out of
Jefferson’s educational system:
Africans: “I advance it therefore as a suspicion only that the blacks,
whether originally a distinct race, or made by time and circumstances,
are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.”
Jefferson wrote further, stating, that African’s smelled, did not possess
the ability to reason, and refused to look at any evidence to the contrary
because it was “beneath the dignity of reason.”
However, Jefferson did believe that Africans should be educated. In his
Bill Pertaining to Slaves (1784) Jefferson stated that slaves should be
suitably educated and then forcibly shipped to either Liberia or Santo
Domingo, for he could not envision both races living side by side.
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Native Americans: Jefferson viewed them as “savages” and
“barbarians” consequently these people could not be included in a
universal education system. Jefferson believed that missionaries should
be sent into the tribes to civilize them, instructing them in Western
morals, and conduct, including a “civilized” governing system modeled
along Republican ideals.
Bibliography:
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Jefferson, Thomas, A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge
(1778).
Levy’s Leonard, Jefferson and Civil Liberties: The Darker Side, pp. 8-15.
James H. Hutson, Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists: A
Controversy Rejoined, The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 56,
No.4 (Oct., 1999), 775-790.
Post M. David, Jeffersonian Revisions of Locke: Education, Property
Rights, and Liberty, Journal of History of Ideas, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar.,
1986), 147-157.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents
Jefferson, Thomas, A Bill for Establishing A System of Public Education
24 October 1817.
Cohen, William, Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Slavery, The
Journal of American History, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Dec., 1969), 503-526.
Bibliography:
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Cooke, J.W., Jefferson and Liberty, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol.
34, No. 4 (Oct.-Dec., 1973), 563-576.
Jefferson, Thomas, A Bill for Amending the Constitution of the College of
William and Mary, and Substantiating More Certain Revenues for Its
Support (1779).
Colbourn H. Trevor, Thomas Jefferson’s Use of the Past, The William and
Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan., 1958), 56-70.
Brodie M. Fawn, Thomas Jefferson an Intimate History, W.W. Norton &
Co., 1974.