jefferson

jefferson


Thomas Jefferson is a person that everyone in America knows about. He helped make what today is the United States of America, land of the free. Today you hear about all the good things Thomas has done along with his mistakes. But which mistakes were true? Should we judge him on those mistakes? Gordon S. Wood unlike most articles and books wanted to get to the bottom of who Jefferson really was.
Thomas was born in West Virginia during the year of 1743. Growing up his father was a rich, uneducated farmer. Being so, he was the first in his family to attend a university. He went to the University of William and Mary. It was there, that he started to think about things in the world and how he believed they should be. On March 4, 1801, Jefferson gave his inaugural address to become the third president of the United States. Jefferson believed in many different things and had many different ideas but one thing that really stood out in his address was his belief that the minority should have equal rights that are protected by the constitution. Jefferson is also a big fan of the Republican party. Jefferson believed that the Republican party was the strongest government on earth. He said, a good government is one who restrains men from injuring one another, leaves men free to regulate their pursuits of industry and improvement, and does not take from those who earn what they have. Wood said that Jefferson was a symbol of what we the people are. “No figure in our past has embodied so much of our heritage and so many of our hopes.” But then again Thomas Jefferson was kind of a hypocrite. How can Jefferson stand there and say in his inaugural address that minorities should be treated as equals and protected by law when Jefferson himself owns many slaves? It has even been rumored that he took one of his slaves as his mistress and fathered many of her children. Could that have been what changed his mind about slaves? Thomas Jefferson was a sharp, brilliant man with good...

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