Good-to-Know Facts about Thomas Jefferson

This anonymous piece below provides good-to-know facts about Thomas Jefferson who was one of the key founding fathers of our nation.  Thomas Jefferson is one of my role models.

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Do you value what the Founding Fathers accomplished when they set America apart from the rest of the world over 200 years ago?  Do you have an appreciation for their sacrifice, their intelligence, their audacity?  Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, was an American.  What do you know about him?  He was a remarkable man who started his education very early in life, and he never stopped.  Learning is a lifelong process.  Are you still learning?

• At the age of 5, Jefferson began studying under his cousins’ tutor.
• At 9, he studied the languages Latin, Greek, and French.  
• At the age of 14, he studied classical literature and additional languages.
• At 16, he entered the College of William and Mary.
• At the age of 19, he began the study of Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.
• At 23, he started his own law practice.
• At the age of 25, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
• At 31, he wrote the widely circulated “Summary View of the Rights of British America” and retired from his law practice.
• At the age of 32, he was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
• At 33, he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
• Also, at the age of 33, he took three years to revise Virginia’s legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.
• At the age of 36, he was elected the second Governor of Virginiasucceeding Patrick Henry.
• At the age of 40, he served in Congress for two years.
• At 41, he was named the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.
• At the age of 46, he served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.
• At the age of 53, he served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.
• At the age of 55, he drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of the Republican Party.
• At the age of 57, he was elected the third president of the United States.
• At 60, he obtained the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the nation’s size.
• At the age of 61, he was elected to a second term as President.
• At 65, he retired to Monticello.
• At the age of 80, he helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.
• At 81, he almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.
• Finally, at the age of 83, he died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams who died that same year.

Thomas Jefferson studied the current and many previously failed attempts at the government of Mankind.  He understood history, the nature of God, His laws, and the nature of man.  He was schooled and experienced and knew far more than what most understand then and today.  Maybe he knew more than most mortal men know about mankind.  In the 1960s, John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the White House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time.  Kennedy said, “This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House, with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined here alone.”  I hope a voice from the past can lead us now.  Let’s look.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe. … Thomas Jefferson

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The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. … Thomas Jefferson

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It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.  A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. …  Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. … Thomas Jefferson

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My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. … Thomas Jefferson

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No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. …  Thomas Jefferson

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort, to protect themselves against the tyranny in government. … Thomas Jefferson

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The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. … Thomas Jefferson

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To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. … Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson said in 1802: “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies.  If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property—until their children wake up homeless on the continent that their fathers conquered.”