Similarities Between Jefferson And John Adams

Deists valued brain over heart, and were more logical thinkers. They did believe in God, but they would analyze and look over the Bible, God, and Jesus with more of a logic and reasoning point of view. Some of their fundamental beliefs were people were born with goodness, separation of church and state, the revolution, and skepticism. In the autobiography, Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, Deism is expressed through his perspective. Throughout his autobiography, he includes deistic views on religion. “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights” (Jefferson, 141). Jefferson believes that all men have rights that God gave them, that no man can take away. Deists disagreed with the compilation of church and state, because they knew that not only that there are many religions and beliefs, but the church and state would have different opinions on political issues. “...a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation,” (Jefferson, 141). In which the church and state shall be separate yet strong. Although Deists believed in God, they chose logic over heart. The religious standpoints did gradually changed from the 1500s to the 1800s because old religions and ways of life start to

The relationship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson was one of the most iconic and symbolic relationships in American history not only for its many ups and downs, but also for its great effects on the founding and governing of America.

In 1776, Adams devoted himself completely into the issues about American independence. A resolution, namely the Declaration of Independence, claimed that actions should be taken to make sure that every citizen of the United States should live in the "happiness and safety", was passed by Congress. Adams, as the writer of the introduction of the Declaration as well as one of the editors of the draft, spelled out the principle of independence. While because of his belief that the cause of independence was more important than some phenomena at that time, he did not protest when Congress cut the denouncement of slavery from the Declaration, although he was a lifelong opponent of it. Even though he was considered to have made little contributions to the details of the Declaration of Independence, according to Thomas Jefferson, he served as "the pillar of its support on the floor Congress." (John Adams)

Although born into very distinct eras in American history, both presidents Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln found themselves faced with very similar issues while they were in office. Two primary issues they faced while in office regarded the subjects of slavery and educating the American people. How they felt about these issues and how they responded to them was mostly similar, except for two notable distinctions regarding slavery. In colonial America, one of the first issues Thomas Jefferson faced while in office was how to deal with the rising debate regarding slavery in colonial America.

Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were key Founding Fathers of America who contributed to its freedom and independence. Both men were influential leaders of their time whose visions for the future of the country were clearly contrasting. Hamilton believed for a strong federal government and an economy based on banking. While Jefferson desired for a nation to be controlled by the states and its people. Their competing visions for the United States are still in debate until this day. Although Jefferson’s ideas were significant to America, many of Hamilton’s philosophy still holds in today’s government.

Both Thomas Jefferson and John Locke share a lot the same ideal in their writings. They both believe in the rights of people that are natural and should be given to all. The Declaration of Independence focuses on the rights of people that should be to everyone. These rights are emphasized through the belief that a government shouldn’t be allowed to violate these rights. Locke focused a lot on equality as stated here “A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another” (Locke 31). Jefferson used this as a part of his writing to inspire freedom to the American people. Jefferson and Locke believed equality to be a unalienable right of all people.

There have been forty four presidents in the United States of America. Of them, President George Washington and President John Adams were the first two. They are widely considered as honored men who set a pace in history for what America is today. Although both are founding fathers of America, they were quite different in their life and in politics.

Every individual has their own definition of freedom.  Depending on time, place, religion, or race, this definition varies, but essentially comes back to one point: all men, regardless of anything, are created equally, and therefore have a right to be free.  "The Declaration of Independence," by Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" are two works addressing this concern.  Although Jefferson and King led extremely different lives over 150 years apart, both faced issues of human equality that drove them to write two of the most influential works in American history.

Our country’s founders didn’t come up with the ideas of our government’s structure and beliefs by themselves; they all were greatly influenced by many different people, including some of the philosophers of the Enlightenment period. However, one of these philosophers in particular shaped a founder’s ideas more directly than the rest. Ultimately, John Locke directly and greatly influenced Thomas Jefferson’s political philosophy and agreed with the majority of his beliefs, which can be seen especially in the Declaration of Independence and the fundamental ideas each man emphasizes in his works. While there are a few small differences in their philosophies, they are still so similar that Jefferson has even been accused of plagiarizing parts of Locke’s compositions.

Thomas Jefferson represents the common man. He believes in strict adherence to the constitution. Jefferson wants the rights of an individual state to trump federal government regulations. The reason Jefferson believes in states’ rights is that he believes the government can better relate to the people in this form. He envisions the United States as a primarily agrarian society. Hamilton in favor of strong government and believes consolidation equates to efficiency and order. He envisions the United States as a primarily manufacturing society.

Jefferson was so passionate towards his beliefs on religion, pushing him to later drafting A Bill for Religious Freedom, where he aspired to strip the state of all remains of a traditional church. As claimed by Daniel L. Dreisbach, “James Madison grandly proclaimed that the bill’s passage extinguished for ever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind” (Dreisbach 172). This viewpoint was very radical for Jefferson’s time, since it was largely the norm that religion and law be joined together.

Thomas Jefferson believed that all Americans should have the "freedom of language and sentiment…as derived from the laws of nature" . In his most famous document, the Declaration of Independence, he stated "that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain [inherent and] inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" . Jefferson was a strong advocate of a bill of rights within the Constitution. In a letter to James Madison, he says that he "did not like…the omission of a bill of rights providing…for freedom of religion [and for] freedom of the press" . Jefferson was in favor of religious freedom because it did him "no injury for [his] neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god" . Jefferson wrote the Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom which essentially stated "that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion" . He summarizes his feelings in letters to both Elbridge Gerry and Edward Carrington, where he writes that he is "against all violations of the constitution" because "the basis of our governments should be the opinion of the people, [and] the very first object should be to keep that right" .

The political philosopher, John Locke is known best for his ideas that influenced Thomas Jefferson while writing the Declaration of Independence. Locke’s views on government were very respected by our founding fathers, even though they were very different from the government styles of his time.

In 1776, the American people declared themselves an independent nation. The American people were traumatized by the Revolution and feared a strong central government. This led to their first attempt at a government, the Articles of Confederation, which ultimately failed. After this let down of a government, the founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence, which would become the law of the American land. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were two influential individuals, who were originally involved in the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Both were involved in the political side of the Revolutionary war, but when speaking of it, told alternate versions of the war. As they approached the end of their lives, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams dedicated themselves to telling extremely differentiating versions of the Revolutionary War; Jefferson focusing on the glory and Adams focusing on the hardships, while Jefferson’s version is the only one recorded in the textbooks students use today.

Thomas Jefferson was an agrarian soul who favored popular rule. He placed his trust in the land and the people who farmed it and desired that America would remain a nation of farmers. He emphasized liberty, democracy, and social welfare and believed that