LAST WEEKEND I WAS IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA AT A FAMILY CELEBRATION…AND I TOURED MONTICELLO, JEFFERSON’S HOME- DESIGNED AND FURNISHED WITH HIS INVENTIVE AND BRILLIANT MIND-FOR THE FIRST TIME….IT IS MAGNIFICENT AND A WONDERFUL REMINDER OF THE GREAT MEN WHO FOUNDED OUR COUNTRY…..THANKS TO RICKY GREENFIELD, PUBLISHER OF THE CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER FOR THIS REMINDER…..RSK
At 5, he began studying under his cousins’ tutor.
At 9, he studied Latin, Greek and French.
At 14, he studied classical literature and additional languages.
At 16, he entered the Collegeof Williamand Mary.
At 19, he studied Law for 5 years, starting under George Wythe.
At 23, he started his own law practice.
At 25, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
At 31, he wrote the widely circulated,”Summary View of the Rights of British America,” and retired from his law practice.
At 32, he was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress, where he wrote the seminal document, “Declarationof the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms.”
At 33, he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
At 33, he took three years to revise Virginia’s legal code,wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.
At 36, he was elected the second Governor of Virginia, succeeding Patrick Henry.
At 40, he served in Congress for two years.
At 41, he was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.
At 46, he served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.
At 53, he served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.
At 55, he drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of the Republican Party.
At 57, he was elected the third president of the United States .
At 60, he obtained the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the nation’s size.
At 61, he was elected to a second term as President.
At 65, he retired to Monticello .
At 80, he helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.
At 81, he almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.
At 83, he died, on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, the same day as his lifelong friend, John Adams…100 miles apart. Adams last words were, “ Jefferson lives.”
Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself had studied the previously failed attempts at government. He understood actual history, the nature of God, God’s laws, and the nature of man.That happens to be way more than what most understand today. His is a voice from the past to lead us into the future.