... career in public office and made his greatest contribution to his country in the field of politics. The tall, red-haired Virginian believed that "those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God." His ideal society was a nation of landowning farmers living ... under as little government as possible. The term Jeffersonian democracy refers to such an ideal and was based on Jefferson's faith in self-government. He trusted the majority of people to govern themselves and wanted to keep the ... this profession and resigned his pulpit in 1832. After one year's travel in Europe, Emerso...

• Word Count: 3135
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... had owned at his departure. By 1815, he had a collection of 6,700 volumes. But it was not so much on the size of his library that Jefferson prided himself as on the fact that the books it contained had been chosen with great care. He realized that the combination of his intense love of books, his extensive travels, his keen knowledge of bibliography, and his ample means ... that he might donate it to a univer- sity. But when the congressional library in Washington was burned by the in- vading British army in 1814, the former president promptly offered his own. Though he was then in seri...

• Word Count: 4278
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School