At a stroke the country was transformed from an emerging power confined to the east coast to a huge territory controlling vast natural resources. With Louisiana now technically in American hands – ignoring the claims of Native Americans to the land – harnessing the so-called wild west became possible.

An unstable history

The vast territory of Louisiana had already changed hands frequently throughout its relatively short history. Extending from what is now parts of Canada to the city of New Orleans, this vast territory had originally ‘belonged’ to France, having been claimed by King Louis’ nation in 1699. The rights of native people and their claim to the land were not acknowledged. Such a vast wilderness was still sparsely populated in 1803, but some small settlements had sprung up along its main rivers.

These hardy frontier people would unwittingly become part of the chessboard of 18th century international relations in 1762, when they were handed over to Spain following a French defeat in the Seven Years War. American relations with their new neighbour quickly became tetchy, particularly after they were barred from using the important port of New Orleans.

However, this slight tension was nothing compared with the panic provoked by Napoleon’s reclaiming of the territory for France in 1800.

The Little Corporal had big American ambitions…

Though Louisiana nominally remained in Spanish hands almost right up to its transfer to America, the ambitious Napoleon -at this point First Consul of France – had won it back with a treaty secured from the Spanish.

Aware that this man was aggressive and contemplating trying to restore French hegemony in America, American fears were further fed by a large transferal of French troops to New Orleans in 1801.

Some Americans, including President Thomas Jefferson, considered siding with their old enemy Britain in order to combat this threat. However, subsequent events radically changed the situation.

Napoleon’s first act to regain control in the western hemisphere was to send an army to put down the infamous slave rebellion on the island of Sainte-Domingue (now Haiti.) Lead by charismatic ex-slave Toussaint L’Ouverture, the rebellion had been exceptionally bloody and had already resisted British and Spanish attempts to put it down. The loss of such a lucrative possession was costing France dearly, and in January 1802 General Leclerc set sail for the Caribbean.

Louverture, as depicted in an 1802 French engraving.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

…but it was not to be

This expedition was a disaster. In the early 19th century tropical diseases meant that the Caribbean was a graveyard for Europeans (this is why African slaves were used in the first place) and many Frenchmen died without ever seeing a rebel slave. This, combined with the fanatical rebel resistance, meant that by November 1803 only a third of the French army dispatched there were still alive, and the remainder had to be evacuated.

Haiti, incidentally, was declared one of the world’s only republics after victory in this war, though the United States refused to recognise it for fear that this would give their own slaves dangerous ideas.

Meanwhile, this disaster convinced Napoleon that Europe, not the Americas, was the route to greatness. With this in mind, and wary of having to fight the British in North America, he began to consider selling his vast new territory of Louisiana to raise funds for his plans in Europe.

France’s failure was the States’ opportunity

Jefferson’s government were keen to get their hands on New Orleans and the surrounding area, but were astonished when French Treasury Minister Barbé-Marbois offered his American counterpart Livingstone the whole Louisiana territory for just $15 million.

To put this in perspective, Livingstone’s delegation had been preparing to haggle hard in order to bring the price of New Orleans alone down to $10 million. Even if the value of the dollar is inflated to its current level, that is only 42 cents paid per acre of land.

Terrified that this extraordinary offer might be withdrawn at any time, the Americans wasted no time in signing the deal – and signed it on 30 April 1803 – just a few weeks after the idea of buying New Orleans had first been raised. The size of the United States of America doubled overnight.

On 20 October 1803 the Senate finally ratified the Treaty by 27 votes to 4, and the following day Jefferson was authorised to take military possession of the Louisiana Territory. Subsequently, plans were formulated to explore the territory’s wilderness – most famously that of Lewis and Clark.

A mosaic of Lewis & Clark on their famous expedition in Missouri.

Image Credit: Pete unseth / CC

The best deal in history?

With the centre of the modern United States now in American hands, the opportunities to expand into the unexplored west now seemed limitless. The century which followed the acquisition of Louisiana was pivotal in the development of this young nation, which quickly grew, both territorially and industrially, into one of the world’s great powers.

Today, this is still the case, and one can walk all the way across the continent and be immersed in the United States of America. Thus, the importance of the Louisiana Purchase should not be underplayed or forgotten.

While today Thomas Jefferson is remembered for writing the Declaration of Independence, he only later gained renown as its author. In fact, the Declaration went through an involved drafting process and was edited first by a committee, and then by Congress.

American Revolutionary War begins (19 April 1775)

The American War of Independence had begun in 1775. The writing and promotion of the Declaration one year later was an important step towards the founding of the United States of America.

In this document, the delegates that made up the Second Continental Congress announced that they recognised themselves as independence sovereign states, free from British rule.

The Colonies of North America at the time of the declaration of independence in 1776.

Image Credit: Alamy

Second Continental Congress formed (10 May 1775)

The Continental Congress was the group of delegates who acted on behalf of the people in the 13 British colonies that would later become the United States. The first assembly that met in 1774 became known as the First Continental Congress. It gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania following the British Parliament’s passage of the punitive Intolerable Acts.

Warfare between Britain and its North American colonies had already broken out by the time the Second Continental Congress formed on 10 May 1775. Meeting again in Philadelphia, it took responsibility for formally declaring independence from Britain.

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Drafting the Declaration of American Independence, 1776.

Image Credit: Alamy

The Committee of Five appointed (5 June 1776)

On 5 June 1776, Congress appointed a committee to draft a persuasive statement that would proclaim the reasons for the Thirteen Colonies to secede from the British Empire. There were five people in this committee: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston.

The committee didn’t leave any minutes, so there is uncertainty about how the drafting process took place. However this committee was responsible for the overall drafting and presenting of what would become the Declaration of Independence to the assembled congress of delegates. So who was mostly responsible for writing the Declaration of Independence?

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? (June, 1776)

The committee decided that Thomas Jefferson should compose the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, and it is usually agreed that it was Jefferson who wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson was a statesman who had previously articulated his political philosophy in A Summary of the Rights of British America (1774). He had limited time to write the first draft of the Declaration which he organised into three parts: a preamble, grievances, and a resolution. The other members of the committee slightly amended what Jefferson had written and added to the list of charges against the king.

Portrait by Rembrandt Peale of US President Thomas Jefferson, 1800.

Image Credit: Alamy

Congress edits the Declaration (28 June 1776)

After the Committee of Five edited the first draft, it was then edited again by Congress to produce the final version of the Declaration. These changes included deleting a condemnation of the British people and a reference to Scottish mercenaries.

Despite himself owning hundreds of enslaved Africans on his Monticello plantation, Jefferson had energetically condemned the trade in enslaved people in his version. Congress removed this. This was considered to be offensive to slaveholding delegates from New England and the Southern states.

An 1823 Stone facsimile of the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence.

Image Credit: Alamy

Congress debates the Lee resolution (1 July 1776)

While completing their edits on the Declaration, Congress resumed debating the Lee resolution. Proposed by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, this had formally asserted the independence of the Thirteen States when it had passed by Congress on 2 July 1776.

The final paragraph of the large “broadside” paper on which the Declaration was printed repeated the text of the Lee resolution. It arguably constitutes an early version of the Declaration, from which the Declaration uses the language of “free and independent States” separate from the British Empire.

Approval of the Declaration (4 July 1776)

The wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved on 4 July 1776. It was then sent to the printer for publication. There are differences in the wording of the original printing and the final official copy. As a result of a resolution passed on 19 July 1776, the word “unanimous” was inserted. During the war for independence, and for some time afterwards, it was central to the political utility of the Declaration for it to be thought of as a collective statement.

The authorship of the Declaration of Independence is usually attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but Jefferson only later gained renown as its author. At the time, he credited the political philosophers John Locke, Montesquieu and a wider struggle for English liberties.

John Trumbull’s depiction of the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress.

Image Credit: Alamy

Who signed the Declaration of Independence? (2 August 1776)

56 members of Congress began signing the Declaration of Independence on 2 August 1776. The large list of delegates who signed the Declaration gave the impression of mutual support and conviction.

Some of these signatories were not delegates to Congress at the time of the vote for independence, while others who did vote did not sign the Declaration. Most, however, had voted in favour of independence on 2 July 1776.

What is the legacy of the Declaration of Independence?

The Declaration has become a lasting statement of human rights, especially its claim that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

This line has come to represent a moral standard to which Americans should strive, even if this claim contradicted with the existence of slavery in the United States at the time.

This was noted by contemporary African-American writers. In 1852, Frederick Douglass proposed in a speech the question: ‘What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?’ The Declaration took on a significance for the abolitionist movement in the United States, as well as for struggles beyond the United States such as the French Revolution.

There was significant debate over the Louisiana Purchase in the Union itself. The purchase of Louisiana fit into the construction of a new American republic, a topic of significant debate among American leaders.

It is worth remembering that America developed across the continent of North America in fits and starts. In the late 1700s, there was still a strong French and Spanish presence in Florida and Louisiana.

The British were still a threat in forts in the north and in Canada, and the Royal Navy would not recognise American sailors as American, impressing them into service of the British Empire. Britain had cut America out of the imperial trading system, and American finances were suffering as a result.

Louisiana Purchase, 1803, doubling the size of the United States. Credit: Commons.

America remained weak and exposed to European influence. The Ohio river led to the Mississippi river, whose mouth was controlled by the French and Spanish in the south.

There is an argument that had the French retained Louisiana, America would have been forced to develop a much stronger government to raise taxes and secure its borders, and consequently would have had to tighten control over state independence.

The version of federalised America that we know today, where the states can act freely of federal action in a lot of areas, would not exist.

Jefferson’s vision

Thomas Jefferson’s famous vision for the United States was that it should be an “Empire of Liberty”, despite the seeming contradiction in terms.

Jefferson’s vision required territory. As the lands were being gradually settled by a few American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that the territory would be acquired “piece by piece.”

The risk of another power taking it from a weakened Spain made a profound reconsideration of this policy necessary.

Jefferson believed that small farmers, who owned the land they worked, constituted an ideal form of society. He saw factories as nightmarish places, where people lost their freedoms and where tyranny was constructed.

He believed that these places trapped poorer people within the orbit of manufacturing, and given no route to independence.

Wage labour was anathema to Jefferson, and he saw the factory towns of Manchester and Birmingham in England as ominous examples of what could lie in store for America.

The massive expansion of U.S. territory would allow the Jeffersonian vision of a society of small farmers to flourish.

There was a significant set of concerns that caused problems for Jefferson however. Jefferson disapproved of the idea of buying Louisiana from France, as that implied that the French had a right to the territory in the first place.

He also held concerns about whether he had the authority as president to purchase the territory, as it represented an extension of constitutional power to the executive branch of U.S. government. However, he recognised that France posed a greater threat to American sovereignty and was prepared to go to war to prevent a strong French presence in the region.

Another concern lingered that the expansion of American territory would require a form of autocratic government to keep it together, which was anathema to many senators. David Ramsey wrote: “…that this immense population will divide into separate independent governments; or can only be kept together by the strong arm of the monarchy, or despotism, to the destruction of elective principles, which pervade our present constitution.”

The purchase

Nonetheless, James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston were dispatched to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans in January 1803. They were instructed to purchase New Orleans and its environs, and did not anticipate the vast territory they would later acquire.

The purchase of Louisiana was prompted by the Haitian Revolution, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture. The Haitian Revolution began in 1791 as a slave rebellion and saw the French continually attempted to re-assert their control over the colony, before eventually conceding its independence in 1804.

Attack and take of the Crête-à-Pierrot. Credit: Original illustration by Auguste Raffet, engraving by Hébert / Commons.

Without Haiti, Napoleon felt the French New World Empire lacked support, and without revenue from the Caribbean sugar colony, Louisiana held little importance for him.

His foreign minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand opposed the idea of selling the territory, but Napoleon pressed ahead, and ordered François Barbé-Marbois, the French Treasury Minister, to offer the entire territory for $15 million.

The American delegation had been willing to pay up to $10 million for New Orleans, but were dumbstruck when the vast territory was offered for $15 million.

The territory of the Louisiana Purchase placed over a modern map. Credit: Natural Earth and Portland State University / Commons.

Livingston did not think that Americans back home would reject the offer, and seeing that the French might change their minds at any point, which would lead to the loss of New Orleans, purchased the territory.

The Louisiana Purchase was by far the largest territorial gain in U.S. history, and was one of Jefferson’s greatest contributions to the nascent Union. Stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, the purchase doubled the size of the United States.

The territory itself was gargantuan, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert’s Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west, and the French had sold it to the Americans at a price of less than 3 cents an acre.

On the one hand Jefferson is a founding father who admonished King George III for the crimes of slavery. On the other hand, Jefferson was a man who owned many slaves. So the question is, did Jefferson support slavery?

What were Thomas Jefferson’s views on slavery?

In the 19th Century the abolitionists (a movement to stop slavery) proclaimed Jefferson the father of their movement. It is easy to see why this was.

Jefferson wrote eloquently on the need to abolish slavery, most notably in a draft of the Declaration of Independence (although not included in the final version) that blamed King George III for crimes against humanity for his complicit part in the slave trade.

However, despite these eloquent writings, Jefferson was a slave owner who only ever freed the slaves who were related to him (Jefferson had 6 children with Sally Hemmings who he owned as a slave). In contrast, George Washington not only freed all his slaves but made provisions for their well-being, including things such as training and pensions.

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson while in London in 1786 at 44 by Mather Brown.

On the question of whether Jefferson supported slavery, some defenders claim that we cannot judge him by today’s standards. Vitally important, therefore, is the fact that many of Jefferson’s contemporaries including Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush were members of abolitionist societies and were publicly opposed to slavery and the slave trade.

We can also learn from Jefferson’s many letters and writings that he believed that blacks were inferior intellectually and morally to whites. In a letter to Benjamin Banneker, August 30th, 1791, Jefferson claims that he wishes more than anyone that it is proven that blacks have “equal talents” to white men but goes on to claim that the evidence does not exist for this.

Jefferson’s Monticello home which was situated on an extensive slave plantation.

Why did Thomas Jefferson not free his slaves?

However, a common theme from Jefferson’s writings on slavery is that of what happens to the slaves if and when they are freed. In a letter to John Holmes in 1820 he said “we have the wolf by the ears, we cannot keep hold of him yet we cannot let him go”.

Jefferson was aware of slave rebellions occurring, most notably in Haiti and Jamaica and feared a similar occurrence in the United States. He came up with several solutions, but they involved freeing slaves and removing them from the United States. It is partly for this reason he insisted that it was for future generations to free slaves and abolish the slave trade.

Did Jefferson support slavery?

Despite Jefferson’s greatness in many areas, the hard truth is that Jefferson was a defender of slavery. He needed slaves for his own labour needs; he believed slaves were intellectually and morally inferior to white men and did not believe that freed slaves could exist peacefully in the United States.

Furthermore, the examples of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush and George Washington show that Jefferson had the opportunity to oppose slavery, and free his saves in his lifetime but chose not to.

“If we mean to support the liberty and independence which has cost us so much blood and treasure to establish, we must drive far away the daemon of party spirit and local reproach” – George Washington

The political parties of the 1790s emerged because of disagreements over three main issues: the nature of government, the economy and foreign policy. By understanding these disagreements we can begin to understand the conditions that allowed for the origin of the two-party system in the United States.

Federalists & Democratic Republicans

Disagreements about how the United States should be governed emerged immediately after the revolution. However, these disagreements escalated considerably in the 1790s and can be best understood by examining the arguments between Alexander Hamilton (leader of the Federalists) and Thomas Jefferson (leader of the Anti-Federalists- also known as the Democratic Republicans).

Jefferson and Hamilton’s first major disagreement emerged over the nature of Government. Alexander Hamilton believed that for the United States to be successful it would have to be formed in a similar way to the British imperial model that had been so successful.

It would need a strong central Government, treasury and financial sector, a national army and a strong political executive representing the interests of all the states.

Jefferson’s preferences

Jefferson, a Southern Plantation owner from Virginia, saw himself as a Virginian first and an American second. He believed that a central treasury and national army would endow the central government with too much power that an economy driven by finance would lead to reckless gambling.

He also thought a strong President would be no better than “a Polish King”, a reference to the Polish tradition of aristocrats electing their monarch from among their number. Furthermore, Jefferson was deeply mistrustful of the British and saw Hamilton’s preference for a British style system as being dangerous to the hard won freedoms of the American Revolution.

Jefferson’s preference was for political power to reside with individual states and their legislatures, not in a central government

Arguments on the economy

The building which housed the First Bank of the United States in Philiadelphia, completed 1795.

As well as the nature of government (a more abstract idea) Hamilton and Jefferson (and their allies) argued about more pressing economic matters. Hamilton was in charge of the Treasury under George Washington and had a very difficult job.

Under the previous Articles of Confederacy, the Government could request money from states but had no formal tax raising powers. This meant that it was very difficult for the newly formed United States to pay its international loans or raise an army.

Under Hamilton’s financial plans, the central Government would have tax raising powers, form a national bank and would print paper money to be used across all the states.

However Jefferson and his anti-federalist allies believed this was just another way of the federalists to centralise power, reduce states rights and work in the interests of the financial sector (primarily based in the north) at the expense of the agricultural sector (primarily in the South).

Disagreement on foreign policy

As well as the nature of Government and the economy, the federalist and anti-federalists divisions further emerged because of profound disagreements about foreign policy.

Jefferson, who had spent much time in France, and saw the French revolution as an extension of the American Revolution, was dismayed by the ambivalence shown by Hamilton and George Washington to France.

He believed, as did his Federalists allies, that this was further evidence of Hamilton’s desire to drive the United States back into the arms of Britain.

Hamilton however saw the French Revolution as unstable and was convinced that only improved relationships with Britain would lead to economic prosperity in the United States.

The defeat of the Federalists

2nd President John Adams a long time friend and rival of Jefferson and his Democratic Republicans.

By 1800 the Federalist Party effectively disappeared when Thomas Jefferson’s Anti-Federalist Party, the Democratic Republicans, beat his old friend John Adams and the Federalists to the Presidency. But this very difficult decade, marked by mistrust, the rise of factional newspapers and profound arguments about the future of the United States provide the origins of the two-party system in the United States today.

In temperament, in politics and in faith these men were very different, but in important ways they were similar, notably both men suffering the loss of family members, particularly wives and children. But by charting this friendship, and rivalry, we do not just come to understand the men, but come to understand the founding of the United States.

A painting showing the a meeting of the Continental Congress.

Jefferson and Adams first meet

The friendship of Mr Jefferson and Mr Adams began when they met at the Continental Congress in support of the Revolution against England and as members of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. It was during this time the men wrote the first of their 380 letters to each other.

When Jefferson’s wife, Martha, died in 1782, Jefferson became a frequent guest at the home of John and Abigail Adams. Abigail said of Jefferson that he was “the only person with whom my companion could associate with perfect freedom and reserve”.

A portrait of Thomas Jefferson’s wife, Martha.

After the Revolution

After the Revolution both men were sent to Europe (Jefferson in Paris and Adams in London) as diplomats where their friendship continued. It was upon their return to the United States that their friendship deteriorated. Adams, a Federalist suspicious of the French Revolution, and Jefferson, the Democratic Republican who did not want to leave France because of the French revolution, competed for office for the first time in 1788 for the position of George Washington’s Vice President.

Adams was victorious but the political differences of the two men, once contained in cordial letters, became pronounced and public. Very few letters were written during this time.

The Presidential rivalry

In 1796, Adam’s narrowly defeated Jefferson as Washington’s presidential successor. Jefferson’s Democratic Republicans greatly pressured Adams during this period, particularly over the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1799.  Then, in 1800, Jefferson defeated Adams who, in an act that greatly annoyed Jefferson, appointed a number of Jefferson’s political opponents to high office just before leaving office. It was during Jefferson’s two term Presidency that relationships between the two men were at their lowest.

Finally, in 1812, Dr Benjamin Rush convinced them to begin writing again. From here their friendship was rekindled, as they wrote movingly to one another about the death of loved ones, their advancing years, and the Revolution they both helped win.#

During Jefferson’s two-term presidency, Europe was in a state of total war.  50 years after the declaration, on 4 July 1826, John Adams, before he drew his last breath said, “Thomas Jefferson Lives”. What he could not have known is that Jefferson had died five hours earlier.

The remarkable lives, and friendships, of Jefferson and Adams tell us much more than a clichéd story of political friendship and rivalry, they tell a story, and a history, of the birth a nation, and its struggles through disagreement and rivalry, war and peace, hope and despair and friendship and civility.

By the end of 1792 hundreds of ordinary citizens had become engaged in the party movement, but most citizens were ‘unmoved’ by the political controversy. This was because times were prosperous and leaders of heroic stature occupied seats of power.

The proclamation of the French Republic, followed by the spread of European War, soon changed the national mood.

American perception of the French Revolution

Through the early years of the French Revolution most American’s had perceived events in France as a product of their own revolutionary ideals, namely, promising the benefits of liberty and a written constitution to all mankind.

But as France edged closer to war with the rest of Europe, the neutrality of the United States was becoming ever more complicated as American citizens began to take sides, urging President Washington to choose between France and Britain.

The Federalist view

The federalists saw a profound difference between the experience of the French Revolution and American Revolution. In France they saw radicalisation, social anarchy and the destruction of political and religious institutions. While in respects to Britain, they saw stable liberty that did not end in barbaric bloodshed.

The French revolution was more than just a subject of study and revile for many federalists, but a realisation of the potential problems that may one day affect the American Republic.

The continued admiration for the French Revolution and the attacks on the Washington administration raised concerns for the federalists in power that too many Americans were ready to follow in French footsteps.

The Republican counter-argument

Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix (1830) a symbolic depiction of the French revolutionary spirit.

However, Jeffersonian Republicans continued to associate the French revolution with their own cause. The Republicans had already identified the domestic conflict as an attempt to defend America against ‘corrupting English ways’.

Shortly after news had arrived of the European War, Republican writers began to connect the cause of France with the survival of liberty at home. They would claim that if the British succeeded against France, then the Federalists would, with British support, use their influence to establish a monarchy.

Neutrality declared by the Government

A portrait of president George Washington who declined to commit the USA in the French Revolutionary Wars.

On 2 April 1793, when Washington declared a policy of ‘friendly and impartial’ conduct towards the two nations, the Republican press was furious. The National Gazette argued, “the cause of France is the cause of man”- “and neutrality is desertion.”

With the proclamation of neutrality, Republicans everywhere began to link their frustration of foreign policy with earlier ‘condemnations of a domestic conspiracy against liberty’. Mass protests ensued and effigies burned as citizens rallied around the French cause in opposition to the Washington administration.

Attempts to restore stability

In 1798 when John Adams was President his administration passed the Alien and Sedition laws. These were designed by the Federalists to curb the movement and rights of immigrants entering the United States in case they would eventually “swell” a French army in the event of an invasion and the sedition laws were aimed at attacking the Republican and Anti-Federalist press.

Two years later, Jefferson would defeat his old friend John Adams in the Presidential election, effectively killing off the Federalist Party and helping restore a more stable national mood.

What cannot be denied though was the level of anger and fear that existed as two great global powers with strong links to America prepared for war, whilst the United States, a tiny power at this stage, found itself caught in the middle.

The Napoleonic Wars would start and end with confrontations between France and Britain. Watch Now

Jefferson also popularised the famous phrase that there should be “a wall of separation” between church and state. But what was behind Jefferson’s defence of Religious Freedom? This article will explore the personal and political reasons behind one of Jefferson’s most important legacies – the separation between church and state.

When it was announced that Jefferson would be seeking the Presidency there were reports that people were burying their bibles to protect them from the atheist Mr Jefferson. However, despite Jefferson’s, at best, ambivalent attitude, towards religion, he was a strong believer in the right to free religious practice and expression.

In a response letter to the Baptists of Danbury Connecticut in 1802 who had written to Jefferson about their fear of being persecuted by Congregationalists of Danbury Connecticut, Jefferson wrote:

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their “legislature” should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and State.”

St Luke’s Church in Virginia is the oldest surviving Anglican church in the USA and dates from the 17th Century.

Jefferson had first addressed this issue in his Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, which was drafted to disestablish the Church of England in Virginia. It is clear that Jefferson’s belief in a separation between church and state stems from the political oppression that arises from the establishment of a national church.

It is also clear that Jefferson’s beliefs stemmed from the great intellectual and philosophical achievements of the 18th Century Enlightenment, a period referred to by historians to denote a time when reason, science and logic began to challenge the supremacy of religion in the public square.

It is also true though that Jefferson had political motivations for his “wall of separation pronouncement”. His Federalist enemies in Connecticut were primarily Congregationalists. It is also the case that Jefferson wanted protect himself as President when he did not issue religious proclamations on religious holidays (something his predecessors had done).

By publicly emphasising the separation he not only protected religious minorities, such as Catholics and Jews, but prevented accusations that he was anti religious by simply stating it was not the Government’s role to support or establish any religion.

The separation of Church and State is a complicated issue that has personal, political, philosophical and international foundations. But, by thinking about these points, we can begin to understand one of the defining features of the US Constitution, and Mr Jefferson’s legacy.

On April 29, 1962, at a White House dinner honouring Nobel Prize winners, John F. Kennedy said: “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

Here are 10 facts about Thomas Jefferson.

1. His achievements are hard to overstate

This testament to the astounding scope and resonance of Jefferson’s achievements is not especially over-stated. To list just the public offices he held: he was a founding father, third President of the United States, Governor of Virginia, US diplomat in Paris and Minister to France, first US Secretary of State under George Washington and Vice President in 1796.

2. He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence

He also authored several iconic documents. He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. After Independence was won he returned to Virginia and authored the Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom.

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Drafting the Declaration of American Independence, 1776.

3. He created the Jefferson Bible

In an example of his intense anti-clericalism he also created the Jefferson Bible. This consisted of taking a bible in one hand, a razor blade in the other, and proceeding to cut out all the bits he considered fantastical or immoral.

4. He oversaw the Louisiana Purchase

As President he oversaw the Louisiana Purchase (1803) which ‘doubled the size of the USA at 10 cents an acre.’ Napoleon sold Louisiana to USA at a knockdown price to keep it out of British hands.

5. He was President when Lewis and Clark began their expedition

He dispatched Lewis and Clark (1804-6) on their famous cross-country expedition. He also crushed the Barbary Corsairs, a North African pirate community that had plagued American merchant shipping.

6. He spoke five languages

Jefferson spoke five languages, learning Spanish on a single 19-day voyage. He was a pioneer in the fields of zoology and botany – mainly in his role as President of American Philosophical Society – and once, when whaling became a minor political issue, composed an entire treatise on the issue.

He was a remarkable librarian; he offered to sell his collection to the Library of Congress after the British burned it down in 1814. He once said “I cannot live without books.”

7. He founded the University of Virginia

One of his proudest achievements was founding the University of Virginia. In 1768 he personally designed Monticello (his own 5,000-acre estate) and the university buildings (he was a superb architect) and in doing so enshrined his belief that educating people was a good way to establish an organised society. He believed such schools should be paid for by the general public, so less wealthy people could be educated as students

Admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1767, Jefferson could have become the greatest lawyer of his day. He took on a number of freedom suits for slaves, often without charging a fee. In the case of Sam Howell he expounded the principle of natural law for the first time, the principle that would become the basis for the Declaration of Independence.

8. He was a prolific innovator

Finally, he was a prolific innovator. He improved the mouldboard plough and the polygraph, invented the pedometer, swivel chair, and created his own enciphering device (the Wheel Cipher) after discovering that his correspondence was being monitored. Another was the ‘Great Clock’, powered by the Earth’s gravitational pull on Revolutionary War cannonballs.

9. He codified the philosophical basis for American identity

Beyond these achievements, however, was codifying the philosophical basis for the American identity. “I have sworn upon the altar of God,’ he said, “eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

Jefferson believed each man has “certain inalienable rights” and that “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others…”

10. He owned slaves

Jefferson embodied contradiction. He owned slaves and indeed fathered children with one, Sally Hemings. He spoke out against slavery but owned hundreds.

In his book, Notes on the State of Virginia he wrote extensively about slavery, miscegenation, and his belief that blacks and whites could not live together as free people in one society because of lingering resentments over slavery, fearing that it would lead to the ‘extermination of the one or the other race.’

He ordered that the Santo Domingo revolt be brutally crushed, exhibiting a counterrevolutionary streak. He also had a punitive, hard-line approach to Native Americans, enacting a policy of Indian removal.