Thomas Jefferson Research Paper

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743. He was born on his father’s farm of Shadwell located along the Rivanna River in the Piedmont region of central Virginia at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton (Martha Jefferson), an attractive and delicate young widow whose dowry more than doubled his holdings in land and slaves. Thomas Jefferson was a foremost important figure in America’s early expansion. Thomas Jefferson was a spokesman for democracy. He was an American Founding Father, also the principal author of the Declaration of Independence which was declared in the year 1776, and the third President of the United States who served from 1801 to 1809. Thomas Jefferson, who also served in the

On January, 1803, Thomas Jefferson sent a ‘secret’ letter to Congress that was asking them for $2,500 to fund them for an expedition to the Pacific Ocean. His plan was to “establish trade with the Native American people of the West and find a water route to the Pacific. Jefferson also was fascinated by the prospect of what could be learned about the geography of the West, the lives and languages of the Native Americans, the plants and animals, the soil, the rocks, the weather, and how they differed from those in the East.” Jefferson made a choice to allow Meriwether Lewis lead the expedition. Lewis was his former secretary and a fellow native of Albemarle County, Virginia (Monticello). When Lewis was in the Army, he served in a rifle company commanded by William Clark. Clark chose to let Lewis assist him in leading the United States Army expedition. “During the cold winter at Fort Mandan, the members of the Expedition prepared a shipment that was to be sent back to President Jefferson. The shipment included maps, written reports, items made by Native Americans, the skins and skeletons of previously unknown animals, soil samples, minerals, seeds, and cages containing a live prairie dog, a sharp-tailed grouse, and magpies. The large keelboat and about a dozen men were dispatched downriver on April 7. The shipment was received at the President's House in Washington four months later.

Unfinished business from the Revolution drew his attention, such as revision of the Virginia constitution and the gradual emancipation, or freedom, of slaves. Jefferson was the master planner of the University of Virginia in all its parts, from the grounds and buildings to the university rules, teachers, and subjects taught. He died at Monticello on the fiftieth anniversary of American independence, July 4, 1826. Jefferson remains a major figure in the development of the United States. His accomplishments, both large and small, and his beliefs, both political and personal, remain inspiring to Americans, especially through his masterpiece, the Declaration of