The Thomas Jefferson Reader

"The aim of the present compilation, in a single volume, of the basic writings of Thomas Jefferson is to make available the heart of Jefferson's thinking on government and individual freedom. In this volume the reader meets the most notable thinker ever to become President of the United States, the most widely read American of his time, a keen student of nature and the natural sciences, and an inventor of many devices to make human existence happier... Today we pause frequently to remind ourselves of the fundamental principles set down more than two centuries ago by the great architect of our free democracy. Included in this volume: The Declaration of Independence; Bill for establishing religious freedom; Notes on Virginia; the Kentucky resolutions. Also represented are significant writings on the establishment of currency, foreign relations, education and American expansion as well as all of the Presidential Inaugural Addresses, his Autobiography and a chronology of the major events in Jefferson's life."--Jacket.