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Report by: Jarin
5th Grade
Bennion Elementary
Taylorsville, Utah
Mrs. Hansen
Jarin
Jarin
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I am going to tell you about information
on Thomas Jefferson. He was the third President of the United
States of America.
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, but the calendar
then was different than it is today. To some people it was April
2 and to others April 13. When he was two years old he went to
a place called Dover Church. He learned Latin, some Greek and
French. He was there until he was five years old. He got to see
his parents only once every week. When he was nine, he went to
a town called Shadwell. He had relatives there.
He went to Shadwell because he could communicate with them. He
loved education a lot. He learned beyond the simple reading,
writing, and arithmetic. He learned all this stuff at Tuckahoe.
When he was 13 in 1757, his dad had died. His name was Peter
Jefferson. In 1760 when he was seventeen years old, he went to
college. He studied vigorously for two years. He wanted to be
a professor in Mathematics, History, and Philosophy. Then he
got out of college in Spring of 1762.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence when he
was thirty three years old. It took two to three years to write
it. His rough draft was done June 28th. He showed it to Benjamin
Franklin. Benjamin Franklin was interested in it so he told the
President, government, and everyone. So he wrote it and fixed
it up. It was done July 1st. On July 4th he told the cabinet.
He read it to them and so they agreed on it. They had everybody
sign it. John Adams was President at the time. That is what made
America a free country.
He met Martha after his house burned down. He met her at a court...she
was part of the jury. Martha was already widowed. She was only
nineteen when her husband died. Thomas Jefferson and Martha got
married on New Years Day, 1772. There was three feet of snow
on the ground when they got married. Thomas Jefferson was a lawyer
and that is where he met Martha.
He went straight for President. He wasn't in government, Vice
President, or the Senate. He was straight for President. He was
lucky to win. Thomas Jefferson was running against Patrick Henry.
Thomas Jefferson won the election by 2-3 votes. Some people insisted
Thomas Jefferson should be a governor instead of President so
he could have better experience for President. The people thought
he would get into lots of battles. He was President when he was
fifty-seven .
When the eighteenth century started, the USA was badly divided.
The poor were on one side and the wealthy were on the other side.
So he made a long speech about it, and he asked "Why are
you doing this?" No one knew why so he insisted they let
people live anywhere they wanted to.
Then he realized that Presidents needed a place to stay in. So
he made a design of Washington D.C. So then Washington D.C. turned
into the capital of America. Still he thought about making the
White House. The White House was only small then.
He wanted to buy a big land named Louisiana from the Lion Fund
Business, so they did sell it but they wanted sixty million dollars
for it. He said "No, how about 3 cents an acre?": and
they said "OK". It cost $5,000,000 for the whole thing.
The Louisiana Purchase was the largest estate deal in history.
On May 2, 1803 the size of the United States doubled and he got
the states Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, South
Dakota, and Wyoming. Overnight the United States was one of the
biggest countries in the world. It was even bigger than all the
nations of Western Europe combined.
Ever since Thomas Jefferson had been President, he wanted the
Northwest America territory explored. He believed that there
was a route that could be found between North America and Pacific
Ocean. Since he bought Louisiana, he could explore now, but he
knew about the Indians. So he sent Lewis and Clark to gather
information on plants and animals. Then one year later in 1804
Lewis and Clark set off to their journey.
Then it was another election in 1804. He was very popular and
had a good chance to win. But he found out that Aaron Burr had
challenged someone to a duel and killed him on July 11, 1804.
He didn't want Aaron to be his Vice President anymore. They were
going to try him for murder.
Thomas Jefferson went to the governor of New York. His name was
George Clinton. George Clinton ran for Vice President. They both
won the election. When he won he was 61 years old.
His 26 year old daughter fell seriously ill. So the President
went to Monticello, Virginia immediately. He was right beside
her when she died. On the next election, Thomas Jefferson was
retiring from being President. So when he ran, he supported James
Madison to be President. Of course James Madison did win. And
James Madison wanted to thank him by letting him ride with him
to the Capitol. He declined though and said "I'd rather
ride my horse there. Thanks anyway." So after Madison was
sworn into President, Thomas Jefferson was riding back to Monticello,
Virginia. He was starting a new life there.
Every morning he would wake up at 5:00 a.m. and read and write
until breakfast. Then he would ride miles on his horse back and
forth. Then he would come home and rest until dinner. Then after
dinner he would spend the remainder of the day answering letters.
Ever since he retired he got a letter from ex-president John
Adams. They had been friends for a long time. John Adams and
Thomas Jefferson kept sending letters to each other.
In 1817 when Thomas Jefferson was seventy-four years old, he
did one of the greatest projects. It had free elementary schools,
junior high and high schools. And he helped the poor elementary
schools by donating $45,000 and he also donated $15,000 for building
the University of Virginia.
Year after year he went from capital to capital to gather money
for his project and so he had enough money for the rest of the
states. He spent about $3,000,000 to help the schools.
When it was one year later he said "he was growing too weak
to help more" so he wrote a long letter telling that was
how he thanked the people. That day on July 4, 1826, he got a
letter from someone that said that John Adams had died. That
was his best friend. Later that day he had fallen asleep and
never woke up. In that letter he wrote stuff to put on his tombstone
and so they did.
And that was the story about Thomas Jefferson's life.
The end.
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