"The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others."
Thomas Jefferson was one of the most eminent men of an exceptionally
eminent generation. He was handsome, articulate, vigorous, and a steadfast friend.
He was also an accomplished scientist, farmer, and architect. His massive library
formed the core of the Library of Congress's new collection after the first
was lost in the burning of Washington in the War of 1812. It could perhaps be
said that when one thinks of America, one thinks of Jefferson.
Jefferson was born April 13, 1743, on a plantation on the
Rivanna River in Virginia. He attended College of William and Mary; afterwards,
he studied English common law. His political career began in 1768, when he was
twenty-five. In his public life he served as a representative in the Virginia
House of Burgesses, Virginia Convention, Continental Congress, Confederation
Congress, as well as Governor of Virginia, Minister of Finance, Secretary of
State, Vice President, and President of the United States. But of all these
accomplishments of an accomplished life, near his death Jefferson chose as his
epitaph, “Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute
of Virginia for religious freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.”
Jefferson was a deist, common for men of learning of his time.
According to one commentator, he “rejected the Trinity, scoffed at the
miracles recorded in the Bible, and commented that Jesus suffered from a delusion
if he truly thought he was the son of God.” However, men of faith of the
time could find common cause with Jefferson because he, like others of the Founding
generation, understood that there is fundamental agreement between the moral
precepts of human reason and those of revealed religion. In other words, political
life is to be founded on natural right, and this doctrine of natural right forms
the basis of Jefferson's arguments in such documents as the Declaration and
the Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty - arguments that have since ignited
the fires of freedom around the globe. In Jefferson's words: “The error
seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well
as the acts of the body, are subject to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers
can have no authority over such natural rights, only as we have submitted to
them. The rights of conscience we have never submitted, we could not submit.
We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend
to such acts only as are injurious to others.”
Sources: Public and Private Papers by Thomas Jefferson (Vintage
Books, 1990), and The Politics of Reason and Revelation by John G. West,
Jr. (University Press of Kansas, 1996).
