Thomas Jefferson

Videos

The Duality of Thomas Jefferson

A Lively Dialogue Between Thomas Jefferson & Alexander Hamilton

Conversations on Democracy: Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry

Conversations with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison

Annette Gordon-Reed: The Contradictions of Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Letters to his daughter

The Thomas Jefferson Papers

George Will once said, “Americans like to quote Jefferson but we live in Hamilton’s country.”

The 1800 election where the election had to go to the House of Representatives and it had 34 votes before a president was selected, which happened to be Thomas Jefferson and as soon as that happened the New England states threatened to secede. The machinations that took place behind closed doors that gave the election to Jefferson, because the tie wasn’t between Jefferson and John Adams, it was between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. At that time the person with the most votes became president and second most became vice president.

There had been the election of 1796 where John Adams prevails and Jefferson was vice president.

Then you end up with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 where Adams and the Federalist dominated Congress decided to pass a law which says you can’t say anything negative about the government, unless its Thomas Jefferson, who was vice president.

The Supreme Court said that it doesn’t make any difference if what you say or print criticizing the government, even if its true, you’ll be prosecuted.

A member of Congress from Vermont, Mathew Lyon, says something anti-John Adams and the government on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and is charged under the Alien and Sedition Act, is tried and convicted and put into prison - and he’s re-elected while in prison.