The Genius of Thomas Jefferson

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Script:

There’s a reason why Thomas Jefferson’s face is on our coinage; why his sculpted head is on Mount Rushmore; and why there is a magnificent memorial in his honor in Washington, DC.

As British historian Paul Johnson put it in A History of the American People, “...no one did more than [Jefferson] did to create the United States of America.”

Born on April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia, Jefferson early on displayed an intellectual curiosity that would never be quenched.

He devoured books on history, science, math, and philosophy, while learning Latin, Greek, and French. He would eventually amass a personal library of 6,500 volumes, declaring, “I cannot live without books.”

There was virtually no subject which he didn’t find fascinating and didn’t try to master. Most of the time, he succeeded.

He graduated from college in just two years with a plan to practice law. At age 25, he won a seat in Virginia’s House of Burgesses—Virginia’s colonial equivalent of a House of Representatives—entering politics just as the American colonies were beginning to challenge British rule.

Although Jefferson was not a gifted speaker, he was a genius with words.

This gift did not go unnoticed.

John Adams and Benjamin Franklin—no rhetorical slouches themselves—asked him to write the first draft of America’s Declaration of Independence.

Their confidence was richly rewarded. Jefferson’s assertions that “all men are created equal,” and that “nature’s God… The Creator” had granted them “inalienable” rights formed the cornerstones of the American experiment.

Jefferson was not yet 34.

In 1790, President Washington appointed him