Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

so that you may be able to prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12.

This is resistance and reformation on the Fight Laugh Feast network.

Thomas Jefferson was a complex and brilliant man who was practically born into America's ruling elite.

He had served in the Virginia House of Burgesses in the Continental Congress

as Ambassador to the French Court as Governor of Virginia

as Secretary of State under George Washington, Vice President, under John Adams,

and finally as President in his own right. He was the author of the

Declaration of Independence. He was the founder of the University of Virginia.

He established the Library of Congress, but despite all these

credentials he was hardly considered a member of the establishment. Indeed he was

best known as a revolutionary populist. When he won the presidential

election of 1800, it was dubbed a kind of bloodless revolution.

He brought to the presidency his philosophy of representative government firmly rooted

in the rights and liberties of individuals.

As a result, he helped to dramatically change the character of the nation.

Jefferson's story, his life of stunning accomplishment, his radical Republican ideas, and his impact on the

young nation that he helped to found was the perfect centerpiece for the American Statesman series, a library of biographies first

published on the threshold of the 20th century in an effort to restore the very ideals Jefferson

stood for and fought for all his life. John Tori Morse was the author of the volume on Jefferson as well as the editor of the whole series.

He was born into a prominent family of Boston Brahmins and graduated from Harvard in 1860.

...