Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776, served as Secretary of State under Washington, Vice President under John Adams and President from 1801 to 1809. He led the Democratic-Republicans against Hamilton's Federalists, arguing for a frugal federal government, a strict reading of the Constitution and a republic of independent farmers. As president he cut the national debt and the army, repealed the 1798 direct tax and doubled the country's size with the Louisiana Purchase. He also wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and founded the University of Virginia.

Jefferson's words in the Declaration became a reference point for later movements, from abolitionists to civil rights activists, and admirers credit him with advancing religious freedom, public education and a democratic vision of politics. Advocates of limited government and states' rights also claim him as an intellectual ancestor. Critics point to the gap between his principles and his life: he enslaved more than 600 people over his lifetime, freed very few, and presided over the expansion of slavery to the South and West. The Miller Center notes continuing debate over his relationship with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at Monticello. His Notes on Virginia also contain racial views that historians widely cite as evidence of the limits of his egalitarianism. Others question the consistency of his strict-construction principles given the Louisiana Purchase and the Embargo.