AMERICAN HISTORY

The Third President of The United States-Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States. He was the first President to be inaugurated in Washington DC, a city that he helped plan. The foremost spokesperson for Democracy of his time, he was the author of the Declaration of Independence. Although he kept slaves, Jefferson is famed as a champion of political and religious freedom. Jefferson loved liberty in every form and he worked for freedom of speech, press, religion, and civil liberties. Jefferson swore "eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind's of man." "Jeffersonian Democracy" refers to the ideal that the majority of people must govern themselves. He wanted to keep the government simple and free of waste. Background Jefferson was born in Virginia in 1743. His family was wealthy and gave him a classical education. He graduated from William and Mary C...

The Second President of The United States John Adams, a remarkable political philosopher, served as the second President of the United States (1797-1801), after serving as the first Vice President under President George Washington. Learned and thoughtful, John Adams was more remarkable as a political philosopher than as a politician. “People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity,” he said, doubtless thinking of his own as well as the American experience. Adams was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735. A Harvard-educated lawyer, he early became identified with the patriot cause; a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, he led in the movement for independence. During the Revolutionary War he served in France and Holland in diplomatic roles, and helped negotiate the treaty of peace. From 1785 to 1788 he was minister to the Court of St. James’s, returning to be elected Vice President under George Washington. Adams’ two terms as Vice Presid...