Thomas Jefferson—
“Rebellion to Tyrants Is Obedience to God!”

homas Jefferson, author of our Declaration of Independence, was raised in a Presbyterian household inundated with the doctrines of covenants and the biblical value placed on checks and balances. By the time war between Britain and the Colonies was declared, the principle of a broken covenant between the two nations was a matter of easy conviction for the young Jefferson. After studying law under esteemed figures such as George Mason and Peyton Randolph, he embarked on a career in Virginia’s House of Burgesses. Considered a genius by his teachers and peers, he was sent as a Virginian delegate to the fledgling Continental Congress.

A reserved and mild-mannered man, Jefferson might have remained a background figure in our nation’s founding if not for his friend John Adams, who called upon Jefferson’s command of the written word to draft our Declaration of Independence. He would go on to pen many such documents, including Virginia’s state constitution and her Statute for Religious Freedom, as well as strongly influencing revolutionary France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man.

He rendered remarkable service as a wartime Governor of Virginia and flourished in his capacity as ambassador to France, despite suffering severely during this time from the death of his beloved wife and multiple children.

Upon his return home he served as our first Secretary of State and became notorious for his political feud with the Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton. Forever wary of our executive branch collecting undue power and influence, Jefferson became a ferocious champion of states’ sovereignty and as Vice President he loudly decried the federal government’s obstructing of the press by the Alien and Sedition Acts.

In his own two terms as President, Jefferson devoted much of his time to undoing what he perceived to be his predecessors’ overreach. He was also responsible for the Louisiana Purchase, the commissioning of the Louis and Clarke expedition, the defeat of the Barbary Pirates and the abolition of the slave trade in America.

Caption inscribed on the frieze of the Jefferson Memorial:
“For I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

Despite having such a glittering political career, he was most admired as a loyal encourager to his friends, a magnanimous foe to his opponents, and a lover of learning and invention. He retained to the end of his life an unwavering faith in the potential of the common man and respected their capability to retain and steward the freedoms they had bled to secure.

Join us this fall at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, just one of the great stops on our Resist Tyranny Tour, October 18-22!

Image Credits: 1 Young Jefferson (Wikipedia.org) 2 Drafting of the Declaration (Wikipedia.org) 3 Jefferson’s Seal (Wikipedia.org) 4 USS Thomas Jefferson (Wikipedia.org)