Thomas Jefferson's Greatest Achievement

When reflecting upon the many achievements of Thomas Jefferson, it is difficult to single out one achievement as being greater than the others. Thomas Jefferson accomplished many great feats in both the private and public sectors in his eighty-three years on this Earth. Before his death, he would ask that only three of his mortal accomplishments be inscribed upon a simple gravestone. He wanted to be remembered as the “author of the Declaration of American Independence” and “of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom.”¹ Lastly, he wanted to be known as the “Father of the University of Virginia.” I would consider his top listed achievement as his greatest. 

Without Jefferson’s writing of the Declaration of Independence and capturing the “expression of the American mind,”² it is difficult to say if the colonies would have been successful in gaining their independence from Great Britain. The arguments put forth by his pen would justify their cause. His proclamation would give a singular voice to the patriots and inspire others to join the war effort. A “spirit” came over the people in the colonies after hearing the words of the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Rush would note that “the militia of Pennsylvania seem to be actuated with a spirit more than Roman. Near 2,000 citizens of Philadelphia have lately marched to New York.”³

The Declaration of Independence would unify the colonies and settle the fears of John Hancock, who declared that “we must be unanimous…we must all hang together.”⁴ So confident was Hancock with the spirit of the Declaration and its unifying effects that he signed his name so large that King George would be able to read his name without the aid of his spectacles. By hanging together, bound by the principles laid out by Jefferson, the Founding Fathers avoided hanging separately from the gallows.   

The independence gained from a tyrannical government and the precedent that a people had a right to “throw off such governments, and to provide new guards for their future security,”⁵ was historic. This would—and still does—give hope and inspire other people throughout the world to fight for their rights and liberties.

Surely without this one great achievement, Thomas Jefferson would not have been able to become America’s first Secretary of State, the second vice president, and the third president. Without it, he would not have been able to purchase the Louisiana territory from France, which would later be considered the greatest achievement of his presidency. Jefferson would have been hard pressed to write Bill No. 82—the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom—or become the Father of the University of Virginia. It is hard to imagine what the world would be like today had he not written the Declaration of Independence.

Notes

1.       Monticello.org. Jefferson's Gravestone. March 21, 2011. http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jeffersons-gravestone (accessed November 4, 2013).

2.       Maxfield, M. Richard. "The Real Thomas Jefferson." 71. Washington D.C.: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1983.

3.       McCullough, David. "John Adams." 139. New York: Touchstone, 2001.

4.       Maxfield, Allison Skousen. "The Real Benjamin Franklin." 202. Washington D.C.: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1987.

5.       Skousen, W. Cleon. "The Five Thousand Year Leap: 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World." 109. Franklin: American Documuent Publishing, LLC, 1981.