Thomas Jefferson was born on a plantation in Albemarle County, Virginia. He studied for two years at the College of William and Mary then studied law for five years. He became a lawyer in 1767. Jefferson served in the Virginia House of Burgesses between 1769 and 1775 and was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1775. He was also the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was elected governor of Virginia in 1779, served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1783, and was U.S. minister to France between 1785 and 1789. While in France, Jefferson supported the work of the Constitutional Convention, but he criticized its lack of a bill of rights. In 1790 he became the first U.S. secretary of state. He resigned in 1793 in protest over the financial policies of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. In 1796 Jefferson became a leader of the Democratic-Republican Party and ran as its presidential candidate. He was elected vice president in 1796 and president in 1800. In 1803 President Jefferson added the Louisiana Purchase to the United States. In 1804 he was re-elected. After his second term, Jefferson retired to his Virginia plantation. In 1819 he founded the University of Virginia.
