Thomas Jefferson was truly a champion of the people. He helped set up our government so that our people had a voice. He believed that our country would be better with strong individuals who were educated and owned their own land. They would be able to independently govern themselves. They would have more control over their own lives, and they would care more about what’s happening in the whole nation because they would feel like they have a part in it. He tried to improve the quality of life for all Americans.
Jefferson believed that people were capable of ruling themselves. In the Declaration of Independence, he wrote that all men are created equal, which was a new concept at the time. He did not believe in the class system or that some people are born superior to others as was commonly accepted at the time. He believed that the people had a right to vote for their leaders and that they had the capacity as human beings to make wise decisions for the nation. One of his primary concerns was the promotion of education for all people so that they would be able to responsibly govern themselves.
Jefferson championed individual rights and state sovereignty. He insisted that a Bill of Rights be added to the Constitution so that the government would protect freedom of religion, speech, and the press and the right to privacy – all protected in the Bill of Rights. He considered the 10th Amendment the foundational amendment for the protection of the rights of the states and the individual by preventing the Federal government from taking any power over matters that were not specifically allocated to it. The Federal government would have to get permission from the states and the individuals to add an amendment giving that authority to the Federal government.
Jefferson favored a small central government that would not interfere in people’s lives. He believed that people should be able to live as they choose. He believed that everyone has the right to worship as they please. He valued creativity and a good work ethic. He was very creative and inventive himself and always did his best in serving his family and his country. He believed that the key to success would be having people who were creative and diligent working to establish our country and make it great. This could only be accomplished under a government that was not overly controlling. The documents he authored such as the Constitution of Virginia set up general laws that allowed people to govern their own lives without government regulation limiting their freedom.
Without Jefferson’s influence we may not have gained the rights that we have in our country. In consideration of all he did in his life in public service and his role in shaping our government so that it would preserve the rights of the individual, the verdict must be that Thomas Jefferson was a champion of the people.
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My six oldest children and I wrote this essay together after studying Thomas Jefferson for about a month. I wanted them to go through the process of writing an essay in a non-threatening, enjoyable way, so I got the inspiration to write an essay together, with me as the leader and scribe and them as the contributors of ideas.
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
