托馬斯·杰斐遜(1743-1826)，作為一個(gè)包括約翰·亞當(dāng)斯和本杰明·富蘭克林在內(nèi)的起草委員會的成員，起草了美國《獨(dú)立宣言》的第一稿。大陸議會對杰斐遜的草稿作了重大改動，特別是在喬治亞州和南卡羅來納州代表們的堅(jiān)持下，刪去了他對英王喬治三世允許在殖民地存在奴隸制和奴隸買賣的有力譴責(zé)。(被刪去的內(nèi)容中一部分是這樣寫的：“他向人性本身發(fā)動了殘酷的戰(zhàn)爭，侵犯了一個(gè)從未冒犯過他的遠(yuǎn)方民族的最神圣的生存權(quán)和自由權(quán)，他誘騙他們，并把他們運(yùn)往另一半球充當(dāng)奴隸，或使他們慘死在運(yùn)送途中。”) 1776年7月4日，大陸會議通過了這份宣言。
托馬斯.杰斐遜生于維吉尼亞一個(gè)富裕的家庭。他曾就讀于威廉瑪麗學(xué)院，并于1767年在維吉尼亞獲得律師資格。1769年，他當(dāng)選為維吉尼亞下院議員，并積極參加獨(dú)立運(yùn)動，而且代表維吉尼亞出席大陸議會。他兩次當(dāng)選為維吉尼亞州長，還擔(dān)任過美國駐法大使。1800年他競選總統(tǒng)時(shí)，與阿倫·伯爾所得選舉人票數(shù)相等，后由眾議院選擇杰斐遜當(dāng)總統(tǒng)。 他是一位種植員和檢查員，從他父親那里繼承了大約5，000英畝土地。母親擁有很高的社會地位。他在威廉瑪莉?qū)W院學(xué)習(xí)，然后讀法律。在1772年，他與瑪莎結(jié)婚。
1767年取得律師資格。1767年進(jìn)入殖民地議會。1775年參加第H次大陸會議。次年，參加《獨(dú)立宣言》五人起草委員會，成為宣言的主要起草人。1776年重返弗吉尼亞議會，制定宗教信仰自由法案。1779一1781年任弗吉尼亞州長。1784年出任駐法公使。1789年任國務(wù)卿。1800年當(dāng)選總統(tǒng)。
托馬斯與《獨(dú)立宣言》
托馬斯·杰斐遜是美國獨(dú)立革命運(yùn)動的一位積極領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者和組織者，著名的美國《獨(dú)立宣言》的起草人。他前后從事政治活動近六十年之久，在美國人民的心目中是一位偉大的英雄。杰斐遜是資產(chǎn)階級民主主義思想家，主張平等、言論、宗教和人身自由。他起草的《廢止限嗣繼承法規(guī)》，沉重打擊了從英國帶到美洲的封建主義殘余。他起草了《弗吉尼亞宗教自由法規(guī)》，并使這一法規(guī)在州議會獲得通過，實(shí)現(xiàn)了政教分離。杰斐遜任總統(tǒng)期間，美國從法國人手中“購買”了路易斯安那地區(qū)，使美國領(lǐng)土擴(kuò)大近一倍。他還派遣遠(yuǎn)征隊(duì)西行，使美國的西部邊界伸向太平洋海岸。他執(zhí)政期間進(jìn)行過一些民主改革，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了反對親英保守勢力、爭取保持資產(chǎn)階級民主的斗爭，起了積極和進(jìn)步作用，為美國資本主義的迅速發(fā)展創(chuàng)造了條件。
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826)[2] was the third President of the United States(1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and—for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States—one of the most influential FoundingFathers. Jefferson envisioned America as the force behind a great "Empire of Liberty"[3] that wouldpromote republicanism and counter the imperialism of the British Empire.
Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and ClarkExpedition (1804–1806), as well as escalating tensions with both Britain and France that led to warwith Britain in 1812, after he left office.
As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment and knew many intellectualleaders in Britain and France. He idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar ofrepublican virtues, distrusted cities and financiers, and favored states' rights and a strictly limitedfederal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state[4] and was theauthor of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786). He was the eponym ofJeffersonian democracy and the cofounder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, whichdominated American politics for 25 years. Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia(1779–1781),first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793), and second Vice President ofthe United States (1797–1801).
A polymath, Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a horticulturist, political leader,architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, inventor, and founder of the University of Virginia. WhenPresident John F. Kennedy welcomed 49 Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962 he said, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has everbeen gathered together at the White House – with the possible exception of when ThomasJefferson dined alone." To date, Jefferson is the only president to serve two full terms in officewithout vetoing a single bill of Congress. Jefferson has been consistently ranked by scholars as oneof the greatest of U.S. presidents.
Political career from 1774 to 1800
Jefferson showed his draft to the committee, which made some final revisions, and then presentedit to Congress on June 28, 1776. After voting in favor of the resolution of independence on July 2,Congress turned its attention to the declaration. Over several days of debate, Congress made afew changes in wording and deleted nearly a fourth of the text, most notably a passage critical ofthe slave trade, changes that Jefferson resented. On July 4, 1776, the wording of the Declarationof Independence was approved. The Declaration would eventually become Jefferson's major claimto fame, and his eloquent preamble became an enduring statement of human rights.
State legislator
In John Trumbull's painting Declaration of Independence, the five-man drafting committee is presenting its work to the Continental Congress. Jefferson is the tall figure in the center laying the Declaration on the desk.In September 1776, Jefferson returned to Virginia and was elected to the new Virginia House of Delegates. During his term in the House, Jefferson set out to reform and update Virginia's system of laws to reflect its new status as a democratic state. He drafted 126 bills in three years, including laws to abolish primogeniture, establish freedom of religion, and streamline the judicial system. In 1778, Jefferson's "Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge" led to several academic reforms at his alma mater, including an elective system of study—the first in an American university.
While in the state legislature Jefferson proposed a bill to eliminate capital punishment for all crimes except murder and treason. His effort to reform the death penalty law was defeated by just one vote, and such crimes as rape remained punishable by death in Virginia until the 1960s. He succeeded in passing an act prohibiting the importation of slaves but not slavery itself.
Election of 1796 and Vice Presidency
As the Democratic-Republican candidate in 1796 he lost to John Adams, but had enough electoral votes to become Vice President (1797–1801). He wrote a manual of parliamentary procedure, but otherwise avoided the Senate.
With the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war with France, underway, the Federalists under John Adams started a navy, built up the army, levied new taxes, readied for war, and enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. Jefferson interpreted the Alien and Sedition Acts as an attack on his party more than on dangerous enemy aliens; they were used to attack his party, with the most notable attacks coming from Matthew Lyon, a representative from Vermont. Jefferson and Madison rallied support by anonymously writing the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which declared that the federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically delegated to it by the states. The Resolutions meant that, should the federal government assume such powers, its acts under them could be voided by a state. The Resolutions presented the first statements of the states' rights theory, that later led to the concepts of nullification and interposition.
Presidency 1801–1809
Jefferson repealed many federal taxes, and sought to rely mainly on customs revenue. He pardoned people who had been imprisoned under the Alien and Sedition Acts, passed in John Adams' term, which Jefferson believed to be unconstitutional. He repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801 and removed many of Adams' "midnight judges" from office, which led to the Supreme Court deciding the important case of Marbury v. Madison. He began and won the First Barbary War (1801–1805), America's first significant overseas war, and established the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1802.
In 1803, despite his misgivings about the constitutionality of Congress's power to buy land, Jefferson bought Louisiana from France, doubling the size of the United States. The land thus acquired amounts to 23 percent of the United States today.[34]
In 1807, his former vice president, Aaron Burr, was tried for treason on Jefferson's order, but was acquitted. During the trial Chief Justice John Marshall subpoenaed Jefferson, who invoked executive privilege and claimed that as president he did not need to comply. When Marshall held that the Constitution did not provide the president with any exception to the duty to obey a court order, Jefferson backed down.
Jefferson's reputation was damaged by the Embargo Act of 1807, which was ineffective and was repealed at the end of his second term.In 1803, President Jefferson signed into law a bill that excluded blacks from carrying the U.S. mail. Historian John Hope Franklin called the signing "a gratuitous expression of distrust of free Negroes who had done nothing to merit it." On March 3, 1807, Jefferson signed a bill making slave importation illegal in the United States.