1743-1826, intellectual, statesman, and third president of the United States. Although Jefferson served as governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state, vice president, and president, he is remembered in history less for the offices he held than for what he stood for: his belief in the natural rights of man as he expressed them in the Declaration of Independence and his faith in the people's ability to govern themselves. He left an impact on his times equaled by few others in American history. Introduced to the ideas of the Enlightenment as a student at the College of William and Mary, Jefferson displayed throughout his life an optimistic faith in the power of reason to regulate human affairs.

As a young member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, Jefferson questioned British colonial policies and was an early advocate of American rights. His forceful pamphlet A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774) gained him the reputation that placed him on the committee of the Continental Congress charged with drafting the Declaration of Independence. As its principal author, Jefferson gave eloquent expression to the principles of the natural rights of man, among which, he affirmed, was self-government.