To celebrate the historical presidency this year, Raab is posting a series of articles on the qualities that led these men to the highest echelons of power and leadership, illustrated by letters and documents from our collection. We started with George Washington, and now, prompted by the History Channel’s comprehensive new docuseries, “Thomas Jefferson,” we’re turning our attention to our third president, assessing his leadership qualities and looking at some of the real historical documents signed by Jefferson that inform this history.
Thomas Jefferson: A Philosopher and a Public Servant
Jefferson had many attributes that made him a great leader, including:
- Strength of Character: Jefferson was selfless, honest, patient, and willing to listen to others
- Curious: Jefferson was a man of relentless curiosity—fascinated by the world around him, always learning from what he encountered and ready to impart that knowledge
- Intellectual: Jefferson was a gifted writer, scientist, and philosopher, as well as a voracious reader
- Diplomatic: Jefferson was a talented diplomat, statesman, politician, and public speaker
- Champion of freedom: Jefferson was a champion of the rights of man, democracy, and republicanism
- Valued farming and land management: His estate, Monticello, was a living laboratory for innovative farming practices
Jefferson was a great philosopher and scientist, always interested in political philosophy and advances in scientific knowledge (like the discovery of dinosaur bones). He is best known for writing the Declaration of Independence, whose ringing phrases have thrilled Americans through the centuries, and inspired people all around the world. His fame is secure on that basis alone. He composed his own epitaph, listing what he considered to be his greatest contributions: authorship of the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, and the founding of the University of Virginia. His service as Secretary of State and as President didn’t make that list. However, we will consider those contributions as well.
Thomas Jefferson Signed Documents
As Governor of Virginia and champion of the cause of American independence, Jefferson was very active during the Revolutionary War. A remarkable example of that is a letter from Jefferson to “Gen. Washington’s Head-quarters” as Virginia faced invasion in 1781.
In this letter, long in a private collection, Jefferson works to appoint a new deputy quartermaster in Virginia who could handle the logistics of resupplying the Southern army and organizing Virginia’s response to the raid on Richmond. Jefferson’s letter also mentions two other Revolutionary-era heroes: Baron von Steuben and Nathanael Greene.
As the first Secretary of State, Jefferson served from 1790 to 1793. He brought a talent for diplomacy to a long career guiding U.S. foreign affairs. The documents he signed during this time include the Non-Intercourse Act, setting out for the first time the government’s official policy to “civilize” the Native Americans, as well as the three examples below.
In this printed document signed by Jefferson in 1792, he is acting in his capacity as Secretary of State to officially notify each state about funding for matters of importance to the new Republic, including, in this case: the creation of the 2nd regiment of US infantry, as well as for the Federal Judiciary, the State and Treasury departments. He also completes payment for the first U.S. Census. A search of public sale records going back 40 years fails to turn up any others like it.
In the Washington administration, copies of new laws – passed by Congress and signed by the President – were sent as official notifications by the Secretary of State to the state governors. This is one such letter. Jefferson sends the official word relating to important provisions of the Constitution, the organization of the House of Representatives, and the first census.
For generations in a private collection, this document signed by Jefferson is rare and important. The Act extended a foundational law of the United States government, funded the Foreign Service, and enabled the Department of State to negotiate treaties and represent American interests abroad. Jefferson signed and sent it out to put states on notice; this particular copy was sent to Connecticut Governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence Samuel Huntington. We are unaware of another signed copy of this act having reached the market.
As President, Jefferson managed both personal concerns–mounting debt–and foreign policy concerns, including attempting to remain neutral during the Napoleonic Wars. His curiosity and bold vision for the country also led to what is perhaps his greatest achievement, the Louisiana Purchase.
In this unpublished and newly discovered letter, Jefferson writes of his need to stretch his funds, even while President, in order to pay his many expenses. Written in 1802, the letter shows Jefferson juggling finances to pay household expenses, such as groceries and servants’ wages, for his Monticello estate while he lived and worked at the Executive Mansion (White House).
Thomas Jefferson On the Legacy of George Washington’s Farewell Message of Neutrality
This letter shows Jefferson’s attempt to maintain American neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars, following the legacy of George Washington’s Farewell Message of Neutrality: “For years we have been looking as Spectators on our brethren of Europe, afflicted by all those evils which necessarily follow an abandonment of the moral rules which bind men and nations together.”
Jefferson’s Vision for America
In the years following Jefferson’s two terms as president, however, wars were waged both in the U.S. and abroad. By 1816, there was a stretch of sustained peace. Back home at Monticello, Jefferson kept up a robust correspondence on many subjects and shared his honest thoughts on national and international affairs.
Thomas Jefferson Proclaims the Rise of America and the Decline of the Old World
In a letter to William Lee, a consul for the U.S. based in Bordeaux, Jefferson makes an important statement on American life and society, indicating that it was beginning to soar, as Europe was declining. This unique and important letter offers Jefferson’s extraordinary comparison of life and intellectualism in Europe versus the United States.
“The mass of their people, within which term I include from the king to the beggar, is returning to Gothic darkness while the mass of ours is advancing in the regions of light.”
Jefferson’s Legacy
Jefferson believed in the ability of the people to govern themselves well, and opposed what he saw as the “big government” approach of his predecessors, who had exercised powers not specifically granted in the Constitution. He considered his victory in the 1800 election as one for republican principles, principles which he would promote by decentralizing power from the Federal government, and exercising less of it. In his first Inaugural Address, he explained his minimalist government, low taxation philosophy, saying he favored “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.”
It is therefore supremely ironic that Jefferson’s greatest achievement as President was an act not authorized by the Constitution: his expansion of the nation by purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France. He was criticized at the time by some of his own supporters as having no authority to make the purchase, but he saw it as too crucial an opportunity to be missed for any reason, philosophy or no. He said, “The less that is said about my Constitutional difficulty, the better.” He then sent Lewis and Clark to explore the new property (and beyond, to the Pacific), aware that this could lead to peopling of the entire continent. He also got Congress to authorize the President to appoint territorial governors, enabling him to control through appointment lands almost as large as the United States as it then stood. His greatness in this episode lies not in a willingness to sidestep the Constitution, but in the precedent that the President must lead, and that the silence of the Constitution on a question need not dictate inaction by the government. This required growth on his part, but as he put it, “To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written laws would be to lose the law itself.”
For setting the precedent for territorial expansion and seizing the opportunity to lead the United States to become a nation that stretched from ocean to ocean, he must be rated very highly.
Jefferson Letters and Autographs
To learn more about our Jefferson signed documents and autographs, visit our dedicated Thomas Jefferson page. Raab has also posted a helpful collecting guide, “What to Know about Buying Thomas Jefferson Autographs & Documents.”
