Thomas Jefferson

born April 2 1743, Shadwell, Virginia, died July 4, 1826, Monticello, Virginia, draftsman of the Declaration of Independence of the United States and the nation's first secretary of state, second vice president (1797–1801), and, as the third president, the statesman responsible for the Louisiana Purchase.In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton ( Martha Jefferson), an attractive and delicate young widow whose dowry more than doubled his holdings in land and slaves. In 1774 he wrote A Summary View of the Rights of British America, which was quickly published, though without his permission, and launch him into visibility beyond Virginia as an early advocate of American independence from Parliament's authority. Jefferson's shyness prevented him from playing a significant role in the debates within the Congress. John Adams, a leader in those debates, remembered that Jefferson was silent even in committee meetings, though consistently staunch in his firm for independence.On July 3–4 the Congress debated and edited Jefferson's declaration of independence draft, deleting and revising fully one-fifth of the text. But they made no changes in this passage, which succeeding generations became the lyrical sanction for every liberal movement in American history. At the time, Jefferson himself was disconsolate that the Congress had seen fit to make any changes in his language.He returned to Virginia in October 1776 and immediately launched an extensive project for the reform of the state's legal code to bring it in line with the principles of the American Revolution. At the end of what was probably the most creative phase of his public career, personal misfortune struck in two successive episodes. Elected governor of Virginia in 1779, he was caught off-guard by a surprise British invasion in 1780 against which the state was defenseless. His flight from approaching British troops was described in the local press,unfairly, as a cowardly act of abdication. Then, in September 1782, his wife died after a difficult delivery in May of their third daughter. These two disasters caused him to vow that he would never again desert his family for his country.