BHS READING PROGRAM
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
By Don Miller
Born in 1743, Thomas Jefferson was one of the youngest of the Founding Fathers. Jefferson was the son of a Virginia planter who depended on slave labor. His father, Peter, died in 1757, and his estate was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph. Thomas was 14 when he inherited the approximately 5,000 acres and he assumed full legal authority over the property at age 21.
Jefferson entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1760, at the age of sixteen. At William & Mary, he encountered the ideas of the great British thinkers of the time: John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton.
When he was only 32, Jefferson served in the Second Continental Congress that was called in 1775. At age 36, he became the Governor of Virginia (during the Revolutionary War).
At age 42, Jefferson was named Minister to France from 1785 to 1789 under the authority of the Articles of Confederation. When George Washington became the first President under the U.S. Constitution, Jefferson became the first Secretary of State.
In the early 1790s, Jefferson and fellow Virginian James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican party to counter John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, who formed the Federalist Party. Washington discouraged the formation of political parties, most famously in his farewell address.
Thomas Jefferson as a Virginian and John Adams from Massachusetts were naturally political rivals, representing the interests of the South and the North, respectively. But over a 40 year period, each learned to work together for the good of the whole.
In the 1796 election for President, John Adams was elected to succeed Washington, a Virginian. Jefferson was second in the vote for President. Under the electoral laws of the time, Jefferson became Vice President under John Adams.
Four years later, in the presidential campaign of 1800, Jefferson and Adams faced off again. This time Jefferson won the Presidency. In 1804, Jefferson was reelected to a second term.
The campaigns between Jefferson against Adams had been bitter. But over time, the two mended fences, engaging in a life-long correspondence, each dying on July 4, 1826.
Jefferson was one of the most productive presidents of the era. He engineered the Louisiana Purchase, sponsored the Lewis and Clark expedition, managed a working plantation, and created the University of Virginia.
As an advocate of individual liberty, Jefferson was one of the fathers of the American Dream. Jon Meacham’s The Art of Power enables the reader to contemplate the blueprint of the American Dream.