Good ol’ Tommy J. Where would we be without him? Well if you live in central United States, you’d probably be in some other part of the country that existed before the Louisiana Purchase. That’s right, I’m looking at you Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, and parts of Louisiana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas. You all have Jefferson to thank for your existence as a state! The Louisiana Purchase was an incredibly important deal for our nation, not only because it doubled our geographical size, but the deal also kept us out of a potential war with France.
The Louisiana Purchase is considered Thomas Jefferson’s greatest achievement as a president, but even before he was president the man was achieving things us common citizens can only dream of. For example, writing the Declaration of Independence. Yes, the document that declared our independence from Britain in 1776. Tommy wrote that. This document not only announced our freedom as a country, but it also laid the foundation for our government as we know it. A government by the people, for the people is what Jefferson stood for, and the premise that he wrote the Declaration of Independence around.
Free public education in the United States is easy to take for granted, but it hasn’t been around forever. Thomas Jefferson was an early advocate for free public education, and he even wrote a bill that outlined a plan for three years of free education for “all the free children, male and female.” The bill didn’t go through, but Jefferson’s ideas influenced and laid the groundwork for our education system today. Thanks Tommy J!
I love macaroni and cheese. That may seem like an unrelated statement, but it is completely related because I may have never even gotten the chance to try mac and cheese had Thomas Jefferson not popularized it in the United States. He was said to have served mac and cheese at dinner parties at the White House before it was a popular dish in the USA. I must have eaten mac and cheese about 4 times this week, so again, thanks Tommy J.
From purchasing half of our nation’s land to making mac and cheese a popular dish, it’s pretty clear to me that Thomas Jefferson is one of the best presidents we have ever had!