Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday is a national legal observance in the United States of America celebrated each year on the 13th of April, Jefferson being the third President of the country, and also the mastermind behind penning the Declaration of Independence of the country.
Jefferson always voiced out in favor of rights of men. He also is the founding father of the University of Virginia. As such he is much revered and it is no wonder that his birthday is observed in a grand manner.
Observances on Jefferson’s Birthday:
Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday celebrations are mostly organized by different communities or groups. The date was recognized to be a part of the Presidential Proclamation 2276 on the 21st of March in the year 1938. The venues of the celebrations are mostly the organizations and other sites that the dedicated to the President or the Presidents in general of the country.
Special celebrations are hosted at the Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center located at Monticello, a place near the city of Charlottesville in the State of Virginia. Observances include public ceremonies, awards for leaderships, academics and performances, educational programs for kids etc. On 11th of April 2007, the then President of the United States George W. Bush issued a proclamation stating that Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday should be commemorated to honor the history of the Nation since Jefferson is one of the most monumental figures of the country.
Brief life sketch of Jefferson:
Thomas Jefferson is considered to be a man with various interests and also a bundle of contradictions. But no one can deny that he was an incredible man. He is known to the world as the third President of the United States of America and also the one to have written the Declaration of Independence for his country. But the ones who have seen him up close and personal know him to be an avid gardener, loving husband, skilled horseman, doting father, music lover and a great thinker.
Jefferson was born on the 13th of April in the year 1743 at Shadwell, central Virginia. Shadwell was a slave plantation where his father Peter Jefferson was a planter and surveyor. His mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson too belonged to one of the well known families of Virginia. After finishing his schooling in his native place Jefferson joined the College of William and Mary in 1760. He studied law and also practiced the same for many years. Jefferson lost his father at a tender age of fourteen and inherited from him a huge plot of land along with many slaves. At the age of twenty six Jefferson started to build his dream home on that land where hundreds of skilled workers as well as slaves toiled to give life to his dreams. He called the house Monticello, which is an Italian term for “little mountain. Jefferson had a habit of writing daily anecdotes in a diary and this gives historians valuable insight about his life at Monticello.
On January 1, 1772 Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow. The marriage was celebrated at a grand scale. The ten years of married life are in Jefferson’s own words the best phase of his life. The ten years of wedlock bore the couple six children, among whom only two daughters, Martha and Mary, lived to adulthood.
Jefferson was elected to the Continental Congress in the year 1775 and was chosen to pen the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson served as the Governor of Virginia from the year 1779 to the year 1781. During that time America was involved in the Revolutionary War. As a Governor of Virginia Jefferson could return to Virginia to live in his home Monticello so that he could tend to his plantation. It is there that he lost his wife in the year 1782. He made a promise to his wife that he shall never remarry and he stuck to it till the last day.
In 1785 Jefferson left for France representing the Government of United States. The life and people of France reinstated his faith in the ideal “freedom for all”. In 1789 Jefferson came back again to the United States where he was selected to be the first Secretary of the State by the then President George Washington. Jefferson first ran for President in 1796 but he lost to John Adams, but with the second highest number of votes he chaired as the Vice President. However after four years Jefferson became the President of US on the basis of his campaign that all men were equal. Under his tenure USA purchased the territory of Louisiana from France.
After his tenure as a President, Jefferson again returned to his most loved Monticello where his daughter Martha joined him with her family. There he had the luxury to pursue his hobbies and it is then that he founded the University of Virginia. He even designed the buildings of the University and chaired as the University’s first President. On 4th of July 1826, on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson left for the heavenly abode aged eighty three.