Why Do I Admire Thomas Jefferson

There are many great men and women in history. But the one that I admire the most is Thomas Jefferson.

The main reason I admire Jefferson is he was a major influence on this budding nation, the United States. Jefferson wrote the "Declaration of Independance" and helped in the writing of the "Constitution". He was an idealist that knew reality. This is brought out in the issue of slavery. Slavery to Jefferson was wrong, but he did have slaves. The idea of abolishing slavery appealed to him. At that day in time, however, slavery was widely eccepted and was an inexpensive form of labor. Jefferson was a large landholder and even though it was against his deals, for practical purposes he owned slaves.

Another example is in the words he wrote "All men are created equal". This is very idealistic. Jefferson did see that all men, …show more content…
Building a beautiful home, Monticello, writing the Declaration of Independance, being a foriegn ambassitor, becoming President, and his most important contribution to the United States of America, the Louisiana purchase. The United States did not want to become an empire. In fact the people did not want the government to expend the land size at all. That would mean there was more land to protect and the army would have to go and do this protecting. If there was an army then the government would be more powerful and the government was not sappose to be powerful. The people had to have power over the government, therefore there would be no expansion of the country. Even with all of this against him and going against his own anti-colonial beliefs, Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase which doubled the present size of the United States. This land is now the most aggriculturally productive land in the world today. Also there are vital resources for the economy and industry found in this area. We gained all of this for less than half its value all because of Jeffersons wise insight of the