In 1962, when President John F. Kennedy hosted a dinner for 49 Nobel Prize winners at the White House, he said, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
That statement sums up the exceptional abilities of an icon of United States history. Jefferson could have held his own in any room full of similar geniuses. He was an author, statesman, world traveler, farmer, surveyor, philosopher, architect and musician.
Thomas Jefferson was an enormous influence on the founding of the United States, as well as an inspiring leader during the four critical decades following the birth of the new nation. Early on, he was a 33-year-old representative from Virginia to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia during the summer of 1776.
It was there he wrote the original draft of the Declaration of Independence. Along with John Adams, he fought to keep his stirring words intact, but was willing to consult and compromise with other representatives to get the document ratified on July 4. That task alone as a Founding Father of the nation would have made him an important figure in American history, but he went on to considerably more distinguished services throughout the rest of his life.
During the Revolutionary War, Jefferson served as Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781, and it was at Yorktown there on October 19, when he had the great honor to be with General Washington when the British surrendered, marking the end of the war.
As governor, Jefferson wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1779, establishing the then radical concept of separation of church and state. No other nation in the world at that time had such a law, and even today, there are many areas of the world where the church controls or is actually the government.
After serving as Ambassador to France from 1784 to 1789, Jefferson was appointed by President Washington as the first Secretary of State from 1789 to 1793, and then was elected second Vice President to John Adams from 17971801. Then, in 1801, he was elected to serve two distinguished terms as the third President of the United States.
A skilled negotiator, as President he managed to bring the many political factors together to enact important legislation. As a tribute to his powers of persuasion, Jefferson is the only President in history who never believed it necessary to veto a Congressional bill. He negotiated a huge aquisition from France with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. This brought more than 800,000 square miles of new land, more than doubling United States territory, at the cost of $15 million.
President Jefferson also sponsored the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The two-year journey starting in 1804 involved the exploration of mountains, passes and rivers in the Northwest Territory. It eventually became part of the United States, and sparked the 19th Century's great westward movement of settlers.
After his Presidency, Jefferson retired to his Virginia estate of Monticello. Not content to be idle, he founded the University of Virginia in Charlotte, and designed and supervised the construction of the main hall there, built in 1819. Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, exactly 75 years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, and on the same day as the Declaration's co-author, John Adams.
He is buried at Monticello under a gravestone he designed. Jefferson wrote his own epitaph, and in his instructions, demanded not a word more. It reads: Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence and of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia.