Jefferson's Legacy
1776 AD
1776 1776
78.28W38.05N
MISC

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
	On the Fourth of July, 1826, 50 years to the day after the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson died. The same day, just a few hours later, John Adams spoke his last words and died: "Thomas Jefferson," he said, "still survives."
	Jefferson and Adams had long been acquainted. In 1776 they were appointed to write the Declaration of Independence. Adams recalls that they argued about it, with Jefferson suggesting Adams write it and Adams saying Jefferson should. But Adams won the argument. A Virginian should write such an influential document, he said, and besides, "I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise." And finally, Adams said: "You can write ten times better than I can."
	So Jefferson wrote one of the most important documents in United States history, a justification for the colonies to end their political ties to Great Britain.
	After the American Revolution the United States was governed by the Articles of Confederation. But it was a failure, so a delegation sat down to write out a new governing document, the US Constitution. Though Jefferson approved of the Constitution, he was disturbed that it contained no Bill of Rights. Later Congress created a Bill of Rights, including many of Jefferson's ideas, such as freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and trial by jury.
	In 1801 Jefferson was elected president by the House of Representatives, becoming the third US president.
	During his presidency, he bought the 828,000-square-mile Louisiana Territory from France, doubling size of the United States at less than three cents an acre.
	In 1814, toward the end of his life, he was invited to become a member of the Board of Trustees of Albemarle Academy in Charlottesville, near his hilltop home of Monticello, later to become the University of Virginia.
	Jefferson designed the college's buildings and landscaping, wrote curriculum and recruited faculty. Though there were other universities at this time, it was the first in the United States with no religious affiliation.