Thomas JEFFERSON, Congress, VA (1743-1826)
JEFFERSON, Thomas, (father-in-law of Thomas Mann Randolph and John Wayles Eppes), a Delegate from Virginia, a Vice President and 3d President of the United States; born at âShadwell,â Va., in present-day Albemarle County, Va., on April 13, 1743; attended a preparatory school; graduated from William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va., in 1762; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in 1767; member, colonial House of Burgesses, 1769-1775; Member of the Continental Congress, 1775 and 1776; chairman of the committee that drew up, primary author of, and signer of the Declaration of Independence 1776; Governor of Virginia, 1779-1781; member, State house of delegates 1782; again a Member of the Continental Congress, 1783-1784; appointed a Minister Plenipotentiary to France in 1784, and then sole Minister to the King of France in 1785, for three years; Secretary of State of the United States in the Cabinet of President George Washington, 1789-1793; elected Vice President of the United States and served under President John Adams, 1797-1801; elected President of the United States in 1801 by the House of Representatives on the thirty-sixth ballot; reelected in 1804 and served from March 4, 1801, to March 3, 1809; retired to his estate, âMonticello,â in Virginia; active in founding the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.; died at Monticello, Albemarle County, Va., July 4, 1826; interment in family cemetery at Monticello.
Bibliography
American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Jefferson, Thomas. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Julian P. Boyd, et al. 27 vols. to date. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950-. Malone, Dumas. Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty. Boston: Little, Brown, Co., 1962.Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
