How Important Are Thomas Jefferson's Actions?

“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.” He should believe so, as Thomas Jefferson’s actions clearly characterize his individual self, while also inducing the question, Does Thomas Jefferson deserve the honor he possesses, through these eminent actions? Many people believe that Thomas Jefferson is a powerful individual who helped form our country, and was a great leader through his presidential career. He made the best out of difficult situations, when he knew the complete situation had to remain unsolved, and he also wrote the Declaration of Independence for the help of our country. On the other hand, it can also be debated that Thomas Jefferson is a hypocritic man that nearly destroyed our military,

Thomas Jefferson worked around this and made sure that his slaves had the best environment possible. First of all, even though Jefferson did own slaves, he did not believe in enslavement, which was an act that he attempted to abolish. “But Jefferson always maintained that the decision to emancipate slaves would have to be part of a democratic process; abolition would be stymied until slaveowners consented to free their human property together in a large - scale act of emancipation.” (Monticello.org) Jefferson did in fact take charge in this conflict and attempt to abolish the use of slaves, but because this decision would have to be debated and thought on through a long process, no action was taken in this problem. Next, although Jefferson did own slaves, he treated them in an incredibly admirable way - not acting cruel, like many other men, towards them. “My first wish is that the labourers may be well treated,” he wrote to his overseer Manoah Clarkson in 1792. Rather than force a slave to work under the threat of the whip, Jefferson attempted to motivate slaves to perform tasks with incentives such as “gratuities” (tips) or

“ It has been censured for its substance, it has been censured for its form, for its misstatements of fact, for its fallacies in reasoning, for its audacious novelties and paradoxes, for its total lack of all novelty, for its repetition of old and threadbare statements, even for its downright plagiarisms ; finally, for its grandiose and vaporing style.” (oldandsold.com). The Declaration of Independence has been criticized, in which the criticism is towards Jefferson. Because the Declaration affects so many different things, which can also be blamed on Jefferson, the people forget that our life today is because of him. If he didn’t write the Declaration of Independence, then our country wouldn’t be the way that it is. First of all, as Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration, he also took into perspective the affects of the future.“The Declaration of Independence gave birth to many other freedoms in the United States of America that may never have even been intended”, (surfnetkids.com). Thomas Jefferson didn’t only affect now, but affected our future as well, in an intelligent way. Many people need to take this into consideration, for he deserves more honor in his decision. Second of all, Thomas Jefferson put his life at risk for our country, by