Thomas Jefferson

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'''Thomas Jefferson''' was an important founder of the [[United States]] of America.  He was a legislator, an architect, an inventor, and the country's third President. As author of the Declaration of Independence, he was one of the first [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] thinkers to try and put some of the radical new ideas regarding government into practice. Although prevailing social attitudes kept the ideas expressed in the document from becoming government policy and social standard for several generations, it was nevertheless a revolutionary move. It has often been said that, despite his own slave-<s>lovings</s>holdings, an early version of the Declaration also would have called for the [[abolition]] of [[slavery]] in the United States.
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'''Thomas Jefferson''' was an important [[Founding Fathers|founder]] of the [[United States]] of America.  He was a legislator, an architect, an inventor, and the country's third President. As author of the Declaration of Independence, he was one of the first [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] thinkers to try and put some of the radical new ideas regarding government into practice. Although prevailing social attitudes kept the ideas expressed in the document from becoming government policy and social standard for several generations, it was nevertheless a revolutionary move. It has often been said that, despite his own slave-<s>lovings</s>holdings, an early version of the Declaration also would have called for the [[abolition]] of [[slavery]] in the United States.
  
 
==Post revolution==
 
==Post revolution==

Revision as of 00:24, 9 October 2009

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There is a broader, perhaps slightly less biased, article on Wikipedia about Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was an important founder of the United States of America. He was a legislator, an architect, an inventor, and the country's third President. As author of the Declaration of Independence, he was one of the first Enlightenment thinkers to try and put some of the radical new ideas regarding government into practice. Although prevailing social attitudes kept the ideas expressed in the document from becoming government policy and social standard for several generations, it was nevertheless a revolutionary move. It has often been said that, despite his own slave-lovingsholdings, an early version of the Declaration also would have called for the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Post revolution

After the Revolution, he served as ambassador to France, Secretary of State, Vice-President, and from 1800-1808, President.

Religion

Jefferson was also an acknowledged Deist. He cut the superstitious parts from the Bible, reducing it to roughly 200 pages, known as the Jefferson Bible. (Most of this was taken up with the sayings of Jesus.) Moreover, soon after being sworn is as President, he was presented with a giant cheese wheel by a Massachusetts Baptist group, thanking him for his support of the separation of church and state.

His Epitaph

Jefferson wrote his own epitaph before his death, and demanded that it be put on his grave without anything added to it. It listed what he considered his three greatest achievements:

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

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