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.

Jefferson's intellectual prowess led some political opponents to dismiss him as a visionary, but he was remarkably successful in politics. As leader of the opposition to the Federalist policies of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, Jefferson was put forward by his supporters to run against Adams in the election of 1796 to succeed George Washington as president. He lost that contest but four years later defeated Adams to preside over the first transfer of political power from one party to another in the history of the young Republic. In his inaugural address in 1801, he set the ship of state on a republican course based on faith in majority rule, simplicity and frugality in government, limited central authority, and protection of civil liberties and minority rights. Alexis de Tocqueville, visiting America five years after Jefferson's death, declared Jefferson to be "the greatest democrat whom the democracy of America has as yet produced."