Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, may be less famous than George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but most people remember at last one fact about him: he wrote
the Declaration of Independence. Although Jefferson lived more than 200 years ago, there is much
that we learn from him today. Many of his ideas are especially interesting to modern youth. Here
are some of the things he said and wrote:
Go and see. Jefferson believed that a free man obtains knowledge from many sources besides books
and that personal investigation is important. When still a young man, he was appointed to a
committee to find out whether the South Branch of the James River was deep enough to be used by
large boats. While the other members of the committee sat in the state capitol and studied papers
on the subject, Jefferson got into a canoe and made on-the-spot-observations. You can learn from
everyone. By birth and by education Jefferson belonged to the highest social class. Yet, in a day
when few noble persons ever spoke to those of humble origins except to give an order, Jefferson
went out of his way to talk with gardeners, servants, and waiters. Jefferson once said to the
French nobleman, Lafayette, "You must go into the people's homes as I have done, look into their
cooking pots and eat their bread. If you will only do this, you may find out why people are
dissatisfied and understand the revolution that is threatening France." Judge for yourself.
Jefferson refused to accept other people's opinions without careful thought." Neither believe nor
reject anything," he wrote to his nephew, "because any other person has rejected or believed it.
Heaven has given you a mind for judging truth and error. Use it." Jefferson felt that the people
may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false, and to form a correct judgment. Were it
left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a
government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Do what you believe is right. In a
free country there will always be conflicting ideas, and this is a source of strength. It is
conflict and not unquestioning agreement that keeps freedom alive. Though Jefferson was for many
years the object of strong criticism, he never answered his critics. He expressed his philosophy in
letters to a friend, "There are two sides to every question. If you take one side with decision and
worked on it with effect, those who take the other side will of course resent your actions."
Trust the future, trust the young. Jefferson felt that the present should never be chained to
customs which have lost their usefulness. "No society," he said, "can make a perpetual
constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs to the living generation." He did not fear
new ideas, nor did he fear the future. "How much pain," he remarked," has been caused by evils
which have never happened! I expect the best, not the worst. I steer my ship with hope, leaving
fear behind." Jefferson's courage and idealism were based on knowledge. He probably knew more than
any other man of his age. He was an expert in agriculture, archeology, and medicine. He practiced
crop rotation and soil conservation a century before these became standard practice, and he
invented a plow superior to any other in existence. He influenced architecture throughout America,
and he was constantly producing devices for making the tasks of ordinary life easier to perform.
Of all Jefferson's many talents, one is central. He was above all a good and tireless writer. His
complete works, now being published for the first time, will fill more than fifty volumes. His
talent as an author was soon discovered, and when the time came to write the Declaration of
Independence at Philadelphia in 1776, the task of writing it was his. Millions have thrilled to
his words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." When
Jefferson died on July 4,1826,the 50th anniversary of American independence, he left his
countrymen a rich legacy of ideas and examples. American education owes a great debt to
Thomas Jefferson, Who believed that only a nation of educated people could remain free.