Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia, the third of ten children. By age 9, he was already studying Latin, Greek and French. At age 16, Thomas enrolled at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy and where he encountered the ideas of John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton. His discussions with colleagues and mentors during these years piqued his interest in political science and broadened his views on government and its role in society. By the time he graduated with a degree in law, he had acquired a highly sophisticated view of the kinds of rights an individual must have to live in a free democratic society.
In 1775, the Thirteen Colonies in America convened the Second Continental Congress to declare their independence from Britain. Thomas Jefferson, one of its youngest delegates, at age 33, was designated to write a draft of the American Declaration of Independence. With some minor modifications from Ben Franklin, it became one of the most important documents in the history of human thought. In the election of 1800, Jefferson became the third President of the United States.
In the centuries that followed, Jefferson’s visionary intelligence became evident, prompting John F. Kennedy to announce at a White House gala honoring American Nobel laureates, “I think that this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
In a prescient anticipation of the inherent flaws we see in some of today’s socialist countries, Jefferson, opined, “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.”
