political background and beliefs of Thomas Jefferson?
101012
Jefferson was the author of the Declaration (1776), Governor of Virginia (1779-81), US Secretary of State (1789-1795), Vice President (1797-1801) and President (1801-1809).\nHe was a strong beleiver in individualism and individual autonomy, free markets, and limited government.   \n\nJohn Locke is consider the origin of the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as a fundamental ("unalienable") right of humanity.  Locke wrote of the rights ot "life, liberty and estate (or property)."  Jefferson thought the right to "estate" was too closely tied to the concept of "feudalism."  The idea of phrasing it "life, liberty and the pursuit of wealth" was considered, but eventually the current phraseology won out.  In any event, the idea that life and liberty were fundamental rights had previously been expressed by Locke and others.\n\nYour question is really too broad to be covered in a brief answer here.  I suggest looking up James Madison, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights on Wikipedia or some other encyclopedic site.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/
1077439
The United states was NOT founded on christian principles. George Washington, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson , to name a few, were Deists. " As the Government of the United States, is not, in any sense, founded on the christian religion" Treaty of Tripoli 1796. Read before and passed unanimously by the US  Senate. The founders wanted the wall between church and state  because of religious persecution.  They thought no one religion should be able to use the government to force their views on we the people. John Adams wanted it because he didn't want the government to corrupt religion and Thomas Jefferson didn't want religion to corrupt government. It seems they where both right. But alas this debate will go on forever.
1069109
2, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
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Washington had basic issues involved in creating a new country.  He had to establish relations with other countries, retire war debt and complete the creation of the new federal government.  \n\nJefferson, on the other hand, took over a government that was largely legitimate (through the British would challenge that assumption in the War of 1812, after Jefferson left office).  He was able to focus on further developing the American government and its territory, which included the Lewis and Clark expedition across North America and the Louisiana Purchase.  \n\nDifferent times, different leaders, different priorities.
397393
Try perusing the Federalist Papers for an argument for it or finding his notes from the Constitutional Convention (probably at a college library). Good luck!
811840
Not that exact phrase, if that's what you are asking.  There was a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists in 1802. In that letter, quoting the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, he writes: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." You might also want to note the Treaty of Tripoli (1796), in which it is stated that "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;..."\n\nObviously, if the founders wished to create a government in which religion would hold sway, or have a formal say in civil law or liberties, they could have easily done so. They did not create a theocracy, but a democratic republic. All of the above has been primarily interpreted to support separation of church and state, and the Supreme Court has upheld this "notion" time and time again. It never fails to amaze me how some people persist in believing the founders intended this country to be based on religious (Christian) tenets. They weren't idiots - if they wished that to be the case they could have clearly laid it out as such. Their personal writings and letters reflect controversy of feeling over the matter, and quotes can be found to reflect both positions. The proof in the pudding is that they chose to erect that wall, and did not choose to install a government run by religious leaders, and made sure those would be leaders had no power to do so. Considering that the founders had widely differing religious leanings and knew the pitfalls of a government led by the "church," it probably wasn't a hard decision to reach. The difficulty most likely lay in the language to be used. There were religious leaders of that day who wished for nothing more than a theocracy to be created. The founders had to reach a consensus on how to word the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to please everybody, and that included the theocratists. They did such a good job that we are still arguing over it today. We trust our Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution, and they have done so time and time again, in favor of the wall. It's an integral part of our government, this wall, and if it weren't the Pat Robertsons and Fred Phelps of our nation would be dictating our laws and civil rights. A scary thought, that.
1096702
I wouldn't normally do this, but it's a complicated question with no easy answer. It's a basic combination of a devolpment of already existing philosphy and personal experience. I'd suggest reading the following Wikipedia entries, and going from there:\nThomas Paine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine\nJohn Locke: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke\n\nThe question brings up a complicated debate about the Enlightenment and the American War of Indepedence, intertwined with philosphy, sociology and history. How much information you need depends on what level you're currently studying at. The articles above are a good starting point for any investigation.
714986
Thomas Jefferson was one.
741445
THOMAS JEFFERSON! it's basic US HISTORY!
122302
Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia.
503770
There is genetic proof that a Jefferson had sex with Sally Heming and had offspring. It is inconclusive whether it was Thomas or one of his close male relatives. Probably was Thomas.\n\nWashington, probably not. From all evidence, he was probably the most thoroughly devout, sincere, and honest person we've ever had as president, and it would be very out of character for him to have had sex with a slave.
64009
I have an answer of a scholar that thinks that O'Brien is wrong (Oct 1996):\n\nCounter Points:\nJefferson scholar Douglas L. Wilson responds to Conor Cruise O'Brien\n\n\n\nConor Cruise O'Brien, in "Thomas Jefferson: Radical and Racist" (October, 1996, Atlantic), apparently believes that Jefferson deserves to be demonized and disavowed by the American people because of "two major factors": "challenges to the authority of the federal government and the race issue."\n\nSee "Thomas Jefferson and the Character Issue" by Douglas L. Wilson, from the November, 1992, Atlantic.\nMr. O'Brien seems to believe that Jefferson is the inspiration for, and therefore somehow ultimately responsible for, contemporary acts of lawlessness and terrorism, a perception that was apparently confirmed for him when the news media reported last winter that a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing wore, at the time of his arrest, a T-shirt emblazoned with a Jefferson quotation: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." But it also seems clear that Mr. O'Brien's grievance against Jefferson is much deeper and of longer standing.\n\nJefferson's besetting sin, by Mr. O'Brien's lights, is that he was not a "Burkean." Mr. O'Brien is said to have been deeply affected by the life and example of the eighteenth-century statesman Edmund Burke, whose biography he regards as his crowning achievement. He quotes admiringly Burke's cautionary words on the early phase of the French Revolution: "the wild gas, the fixed air is plainly broke loose: but we ought to suspend our judgement until the first effervescence is a little subsided, till the liquor is cleared, and until we see something deeper than the agitation of a troubled and frothy surface." In other words, the proof will be in the pudding, and unless the Revolution produces order and good government, it will not be a blessing. Mr. O'Brien assures us that George Washington, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton, the other great American founders, "were all spiritually Burkeans; so was Madison, while he worked with Hamilton on the Federalist papers and before he fell under the Jeffersonian spell." Jefferson, he says, is different, because "the liberty that Jefferson adored is not a liberty 'combined' with all those tedious Burkean things, as in the Constitution, but a wild liberty, absolute, untrammeled, universal. . . ." "The other Founders saw the Declaration as embodying generalities that would at a later stage need to be combined with and confined by practical considerations. But Jefferson saw the principles of the Declaration as transcendent truths of which he himself, as author of the Declaration, was also the destined and authoritative interpreter." He was, in Mr. O'Brien's view, intoxicated with the wild gas of liberty.\n\nBut what is the evidence for this view of Jefferson? Mr. O'Brien would have us conclude that because Jefferson defended a band of farmers in western Massachusetts -- who, a few years after the Revolution, armed themselves and defied the state government -- he therefore sanctioned armed rebellion against the federal government. But of course he did not. In the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 he secretly tried to promote the idea of defeating unconstitutional laws, such as the Alien and Sedition acts, by having the individual states nullify and refuse to enforce them. If he believed that the answer to unconstitutional laws and other betrayals of the Constitution was armed rebellion, he missed a perfect occasion for saying so.\n\n\nThe "Tree of Liberty" Letter\n\nThe key text for Mr. O'Brien's case is the provocative "tree of liberty" letter, but he offers no analysis or extensive look at it -- for good reason. Mr. O'Brien knows that, particularly wher
1002757
When elected President George Washington did not belong to a political party.  However, towards the end of his life and administration, it became clear that he favored the Federalist position (John Adams, Alexander Hamilton) as opposed to that of Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, etc.
837808
Jefferson spent a lot of time in Paris, loved France and felt they should be courted as our closest ally.\n\nHamilton felt that we should align ourselves with Great Britian.  I think he felt their values were more in line with what he saw as our future, with a stronger centralized government than what Jefferson envisioned.\n\nThey sparred about this, quite a bit.\n\nAre we doing the groundwork for your social studies report, or what?
739458
A vote for Jefferson is American as Cherry pie.\n\nCoach
85339
Jefferson changed the face of the presidency.  In the study of how our government started he was a key factor.  Jefferson thought the government was too powerful at the time he took office.  Jefferson worked to change it with new economic policies.  He reduced government spending through budget management. (a lesson we should take from him now)  He also decreased the size of the government by having government take less of a role in the lives of everyday people like us.  \n\nThis is important for 8th graders to know because there are many things you can learn from Jefferson.  In only four or five years you will be voting in the same elections adults are voting in.   We want you to be informed voters.  We want you to know how to listen for what candidates stand for, decide if you agree with them and make your own choices.  That is why we study any past presidents,  it is to make you consider, is this someone you would have voted for?  If not what would you vote for?  Jefferson and Adams differed in many ways.  Jefferson and Hamilton probably differed even more.  Who would you have voted for?  Look at candidates we have now.  They too have different opinions.  Can you take a position and stand for it?  Can you make an informed decision and vote for the person that will help our country the most?  Start thinking about it now because you will be standing in that voting booth all alone some day and you will have to make the decisions.
793210
Thomas Jefferson, who also happened to be the second Vice President.  If memory serves, he served between 1801-1809.