【SAT写作素材】人物经典事例：托马斯杰弗逊

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In the thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private

letter, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form

of tyranny over the mind of man."

This powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743 in Albemarle County,

Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres

of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at

the College of William and Mary, then read law.

In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in

his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello.

Freckled and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson was eloquent as

a correspondent, but he was no public speaker. In the Virginia House of

Burgesses and the Continental Congress, he contributed his pen rather than his

voice to the patriot cause. As the "silent member" of the Congress, Jefferson,

at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. In years following he labored to

make its words a reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill establishing

religious freedom, enacted in 1786.

Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. His

sympathy for the French Revolution led him into conflict with Alexander Hamilton

when Jefferson was Secretary of State in President Washington's Cabinet. He

resigned in 1793.

Sharp political conflict developed, and two separate parties, the Federalists

and the Democratic-Republicans, began to form. Jefferson gradually assumed

leadership of the Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in

France. Attacking Federalist policies, he opposed a strong centralized

Government and championed the rights of states.

As a reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came within three

votes of election. Through a flaw in the Constitution, he became Vice President,

although an opponent of President Adams. In 1800 the defect caused a more

serious problem. Republican electors, attempting to name both a President and a

Vice President from their own party, cast a tie vote between Jefferson and Aaron

Burr. The House of Representatives settled the tie. Hamilton, disliking both

Jefferson and Burr, nevertheless urged Jefferson's election.

When Jefferson assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France had passed. He

slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on

whiskey so unpopular in the West, yet reduced the national debt by a third. He

also sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were harassing

American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further, although the Constitution made

no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms

over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana

Territory from Napoleon in 1803.

During Jefferson's second term, he was increasingly preoccupied with keeping

the Nation from involvement in the Napoleonic wars, though both England and

France interfered with the neutral rights of American merchantmen. Jefferson's

attempted solution, an embargo upon American shipping, worked badly and was

unpopular.

Jefferson retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as his grand designs

for the University of Virginia. A French nobleman observed that he had placed

his house and his mind "on an elevated situation, from which he might

contemplate the universe."

He died on July 4, 1826.