2. BIOGRAPHY
• 1743, Thomas Jefferson born on April 13,
1743, at Shadwell, Goochland
• 1767, Began practicing law.
• 1772, Married Martha Wayles Skelton (she
died in 1782, after giving birth to their sixth
child, Lucy Elizabeth).
• 1775, While a delegate to the Continental
Congress, Jefferson drafted the Declaration
of Independence.
3. • 1776, Entered the Virginia House of Delegates, where he fought for the
separation of church and state.
• 1779, Jefferson became the Governor of Virginia, but abdicated his second
term in 1781 after the British invaded Virginia.
• 1785, Appointed Minister to France (replacing Benjamin Franklin)
• 1796, Jefferson elected Vice-President of the USA (John Adams was the
President and his opponent in the election)
4. • 1800, Jefferson elected President of the USA. New reforms.
• 1804, Jefferson re-elected President of the USA.
• 1809, Jefferson retired from elected office and returned to Monticello (in
Virginia).
• 1819, Founded the University of Virginia.
• 1826, Jefferson and Adams died at Monticello on July 4, 1826.
5. A summary view of the Rights of British America (1774)
•This work originated in a paper by Thomas Jefferson entitled "Instructions," In it he
set out his thoughts on government and human rights.
•The book has been described by one historian as a "landmark in American history."
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up
Arms (1775)
•On July 6, 1775, the day following adoption of the Olive Branch Petition,
the Second Continental approved the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of
Taking up Arms, a statement authored jointly by Thomas Jefferson and John
Dickinson.
MAIN WORKS
6. • Congress asked Thomas
Jefferson and others to write a
declaration of independence.
• They needed a document to
declare why the colonies had to
become independent of Britain.
• Jefferson wrote that people have
the right to live, the right to be
free, and the right to seek
happiness.
DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE, 1776
7. Virginia Statue of religionus freedom, 1777
•The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was drafted in 1777 by Thomas
Jefferson in the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
•In 1786, the Assembly enacted the statute into the state's law.
Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth
(1804-1895)
•was a book constructed by Thomas Jefferson in the latter years of his life by
cutting and pasting numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of
the doctrine of Jesus.
8. • was a report submitted to the U.S.
House of Representatives on July
13, 1790 bySecretary of
State Thomas Jefferson.
• On January 2, 1790, George
Washington urged Congress to
address the need for the uniform
system of weights and measures,
and on January 15, 1790, the
House of Representatives
requested Thomas Jefferson to
draw up a plan
PLAN FOR ESTABLISHING UNIFORMITY IN THE COINAGE,
WHEIGHTS AND MEASURES OF THE UNITED STATES
A REPORT SUBMITTED TO CONGRESS (1790)
9. • Jefferson was highly influenced by Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton and John
Locke.
• The trinity of the world’s greatest men.
INFLUENCES
10. • Power of observation and advantages of
speaking from observation.
• Observation should underline
generalizations.
• Books are considered to be a necessity
of life.
• Classification of Jefferson’s library
under the heads of History (Memory),
Philosophy (Reason), and Fine Arts
(Imagination).
FRANCIS BACON
11. • Deification of nature.
• System of the world as a model
government: a natural religion that
has mathematical foundations.
• Application of mathematical
interpretation of the physical world
to the non-pshysical world.
• Ordered, predictable, law-governed
political world.
ISAAC NEWTON
12. • Locke’s influence is obviously
seen in the Declaration of
Independence
• Basic principle: men have certain
natural rights which belong to
them because they are men.
• Governments would be organized
to secure the protection of
ownership and property rights.
JOHN LOCKE
13. • Jefferson as the image of individualism
and liberty.
• Jefferson’s economic and political
philosophy has become the standard by
which American laws are measured.
• He is named the father of American
capitalism and the first American supply
side economist.
• Lover of learning and a man of the mind.
14. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
15. • A world famous political manifesto
• Jefferson’s revolutionary vision
• A political speech
• .Describes about the law of nature
Thomas Jefferson’s principles
•All men are created equal
•All have the natural rights of life
•The right of life, the right of
protecting life, the right of liberty
•Such rights that are given by nature
•Unalienable rights of the people
16. • Agreement among people to form a government
• In order to preserve their rights
• People have their right to abolish a despotic government
• First function of the government: preserve the inalienable human rights
• Secondary function of the government: establish diplomatic relationship with
other states
• Jefferson believes on the supreme power of people and on revolutions
• The revolution of the people can abolish the despotic government
CREATION OF A GOVERNMENT
17. • This government is criticized by Jefferson
• A despotic government
• Was not formed by the consent of the people
• It did not represent the people
• It did not protect or preserve the inalienable rights of the people
• The colonial government destroyed the life of the people
• It seized the happiness of the people
• It caused communal war between black and white Americans
A CRITIC OF THE COLONIAL
GOVERNMENT
18. Consequences
•Thirteen American states declared independence in
1776
•The colonial government was abolished
•Jefferson has become an independent democratic
leader
