人物介绍--托马斯杰斐逊.docVIP

Thomas Jefferson In the thick of（在最激烈的时刻）party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private letter, I have sworn upon（=swear on,发誓）the altar（祭坛，圣坛）of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny（暴政）over the mind of man. This powerful advocate（提倡者）of liberty was born in 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law. In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello.（蒙蒂赛洛，美国地名） Freckled（有雀斑的）and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson was eloquent（口才好的） as a correspondent,（通讯记者）but he was no public speaker. In the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, he contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause. As the silent member of the Congress, Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. In years following he labored to make its words a reality in Virginia. Most notably（尤其），he wrote a bill（法案）establishing religious freedom, enacted（制定，颁布）in 1786. Jefferson succeeded(继承)Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. His sympathy for the French Revolution led him into conflict with Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson was Secretary of State in President Washingtons Cabinet.（内阁）He resigned in 1793. Sharp political conflict developed, and two separate parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, began to form. Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. Attacking Federalist policies, he opposed a strong centralized Government and championed（支持）the rights of states. As a reluctant（勉强的，不情愿的）candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came within three votes of election. Through a flaw（瑕疵，缺陷）in the Constitution, he became Vice President, although an opponent（对手，反对者）of