“Author of the Declaration of American Independence[,] of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia”: when Thomas Jefferson composed the epitaph for his tombstone, these were the three achievements which he listed, as he put it, “as testimonials that I have lived” (Jefferson,
Writings706). Instead of enumerating, for instance, his various political offices – secretary of state, vice president, and president of the United States among them – Jefferson chose to present himself to posterity as a man of the Enlightenment committed to the ideas of political and religious liberty, member of a generation who had given, as he claimed in his last political statement, “the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish…
3012 words
Citation: Spahn, Hannah. "Thomas Jefferson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 May 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2354, accessed 26 November 2024.]
