A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents

A Compilation of the Messages
and Papers of the Presidents

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Title: A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
Section 3 (of 4) of Volume 1: Thomas Jefferson
Author: Edited by James D. Richardson
Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10893]
Language: English
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A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE
PRESIDENTS.
BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON
Thomas Jefferson
March 4, 1801, to March 4, 1809

Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Va., on
April 2 (old style), 1743. He was the oldest son of Peter Jefferson, who
died in 1757. After attending private schools, he entered William and
Mary College in 1760. In 1767 began the practice of the law. In 1769
was chosen to represent his county in the Virginia house of burgesses, a
station he continued to fill up to the period of the Revolution. He
married Mrs. Martha Skelton in 1772, she being a daughter of John
Wayles, an eminent lawyer of Virginia. On March 12, 1773, was
chosen a member of the first committee of correspondence established
by the Colonial legislature. Was elected a delegate to the Continental
Congress in 1775; was placed on the Committee of Five to prepare the
Declaration of Independence, and at the request of that committee he
drafted the Declaration, which, with slight amendments, was adopted
July 4, 1776. Resigned his seat in Congress and occupied one in the
Virginia legislature in October, 1776. Was elected governor of Virginia
by the legislature on June 1, 1779, to succeed Patrick Henry. Retired to
private life at the end of his term as governor, but was the same year
elected again to the legislature. Was appointed commissioner with
others to negotiate treaties with France in 1776, but declined. In 1782
he was appointed by Congress minister plenipotentiary to act with
others in Europe in negotiating a treaty of peace with Great Britain.
Was again elected a Delegate to Congress in 1783, and as a member of
that body he advocated and had adopted the dollar as the unit and the
present system of coins and decimals. In May, 1784, was appointed
minister plenipotentiary to Europe to assist John Adams and Benjamin

Franklin in negotiating treaties of commerce. In March, 1785, was
appointed by Congress minister at the French Court to succeed Dr.
Franklin, and remained in France until September, 1789. On his arrival
at Norfolk, November 23, 1789, received a letter from Washington
offering him the appointment of Secretary of State in his Cabinet.
Accepted and became the first Secretary of State under the Constitution.
December 31, 1793, resigned his place in the Cabinet and retired to
private life at his home. In 1796 was brought forward by his friends as
a candidate for President, but Mr. Adams, receiving the highest number
of votes, was elected President, and Jefferson became Vice-President
for four years from March 4, 1797. In 1800 was again voted for by his
party for President. He and Mr. Burr received an equal number of
electoral votes, and under the Constitution the House of
Representatives was called upon to elect. Mr. Jefferson was chosen on
the thirty-sixth ballot. Was reelected in 1804, and retired finally from
public life March 4, 1809. He died on the 4th day of July, 1826, and
was buried at Monticello, Va.

NOTIFICATION OF ELECTION.
Mr. Pinckney, from the committee instructed on the 18th instant to wait
on the President elect to notify him of his election, reported that the
committee had, according to order, performed that service, and
addressed the President elect in the following words, to wit:
The committee beg leave to express their wishes for the prosperity of
your Administration and their sincere desire that it may promote your
own happiness and the welfare of our country.
To which the President elect was pleased to make the following reply:
I receive, gentlemen, with profound thankfulness this testimony of
confidence from the great representative council of our nation. It fills
up the measure of that grateful satisfaction which had already been
derived from the suffrages of my fellow-citizens themselves,
designating me as one of those to whom they were willing to commit

this charge, the most important of all others to them. In deciding
between