Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States, the principle author of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the most influential of the United States' Founding Fathers. His portrait graces the US $5 bill and nickel.
As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man of enlightenment and knew many intellectual leaders in Britain and France.
Jefferson supported states rights, limited federal government power, and separation of church and state.
He believed that every American was entitled to an education adequate enough to give a person the skills and abilities needed to vote. Beyond that, he believed , should be determined on a person by person basis. Not everyone is suited to a college education.
Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781), first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793) and second Vice President (1797–1801).
Thomas was a man who wore many hats including horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor, and founder of the University of Virginia.
Jefferson died on the Fourth of July, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. He died a few hours before John Adams. There are stories that while Adams lay dying, he spoke of Thomas, unaware that Jefferson had all ready passed away.
John F. Kennedy is reported to have stated, while addressing Nobel Prize winners in 1962, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
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