Thea Monje 4-10-13

U.S. History I Ms. Booth

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson may be known as one of the most essential individuals in the shaping of the United States government. As the writer of the Constitution, his opinions influence every American citizen of the past, the ones of the present, and the ones of the future. Unfortunately, he wasnt as valiant as he might have wanted people to think he was. In fact, if the society of his time had been more informed about what he seemed to believe in comparison to what he actually did, they might have had very different opinions. As a result of his many contradictory actions, Thomas Jefferson was unable to uphold his beliefs. In matters involving the United States Constitution and military, Jeffersons actions contradicted what he was thought to believe in. As the author of the Constitution, he believed in strict interpretation of the Constitution and believed that all decisions made that didnt have laws specified in the Constitution should be interpreted by the citizens of the United States (b3). However, in a personal letter, he denies the belief; the purchase of the vast Louisiana Territory from the French had no Constitutional precedent, nor did it have any congressional approval or consultation with the American people. Though nowhere in the Constitution does it say that purchase of land from foreign powers is legal, Jefferson went along with the $15 million dollar exchange anyways (d6). His actions are also inconsistent in circumstances involving the military. Just as he thought about the distribution of government power, Jefferson believed that military power should be minimized as to protect United States citizens, and the majority of rule should to the people and state governments, as specified in document 7. Yet instead of upholding this by promoting state militias, he helped to found the West

Point Military Academy, a nationally run establishment that encouraged national military strength (textbook). Jefferson couldn't be more ineffective in supporting his opinions, but surprisingly enough, his falsehoods continued outside of his political work, and into his social beliefs and home life. Thomas Jefferson's inability to uphold his beliefs definitely wasn't only political; his contradictory actions proceeded into his other parts of his life. For a man who goes down in history as the individual who coined the phrase, all men are created equal (b1) his life was littered with actions that deny this statement. He believed that African Americans (slaves, at this point in time), were useless and inferior to white society (d2). He owned roughly eighty slaves and treated them as property, and realistically denied his own belief- saying that they were useless, when they assisted him whenever he needed it, however he needed it in his own home. To add to this point, he had four children with an African American woman, Sally Hemings, which he raised (as slaves) until the age of 21 at which time they were freed. Jefferson also attempted to make the point that he was a normal man-just like the people (d1)- but this is far from a valid statement. Just because he dressed similarly to other American citizens and may have done a few things more similarly to an average man, he still lived on a massive Virginia plantation where he had people waiting on his hand and foot (d4). He was most definitely not a normal man, but as a founding father, his actions make him a disappointment as an American citizen. Thomas Jefferson could not uphold his beliefs, not politically of socially. Just because he is famously known as the writer of the Constitution doesn't specifically mean he reflects it. It's one of the few documents that safely declares that all American citizens are to be created equal. It is a shame that Jefferson, the father of the Constitution, could hardly back this up this with any evidence from his own life. Had Jefferson made more of an effort to uphold what he supposedly believed, perhaps he wouldn't have left such discrepancy in his legacy.