I am struck by how much the life and mysteries of Thomas Jefferson have animated, have confounded, and may ultimately reconcile our national life. He is a kind of Rosetta Stone of the American experience, a massive, tectonic intelligence that has formed and rattled the fault lines of our history...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” The words are so familiar, so potent, so important, so grand and fine, it’s hard to believe that a person, any single person, actually wrote them, picked up a pen, dipped it in ink, and, on a blank white sheet, made appear...

The principles that Thomas Jefferson enshrined in the Declaration became the guiding principles of the new nation. And at every generation, Americans have rededicated themselves to the belief that all men are created equal, with the God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness....

As one of our Founding Fathers, the person who drafted our Declaration of Independence, somebody who not only was an extraordinary political leader but also one of our great scientific and cultural leaders, Thomas Jefferson represents what’s best in America.

Together, Lafayette and Jefferson imagined something that seemed impossible—mainly American independence and the rights of—human rights and the rights of the citizen. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, and Lafayette was also involved in drafting the Rights of the Citizen,...

My cousin Mrs Harrison, begs me to add some of my “memories” of what I have heard, from my mother & aunts on the subject of their child life at “Monticello”

“As Jefferson’s daughters were both married before his 1st Presidential term, it is his grandchildren who appear on the roll of the “Children of the White House”; and in the roll of “children of his old age” we find the children of “Dear Patsey” Mrs T. M. Randolph and her chivalerous lover like...