Thomas Jefferson - Welsh American President and Leader of the United States - Part 2

#wales #welsh #welshandproud #welshness #history #thomasjefferson #americanheroes #welshdescent #americanhistory #welshhistory #thomasjeffersonquotes #foundingfathers #foundingfather #president #presidents #americanrevolution #americana

This video is entitled: Thomas Jefferson - Welsh American President and Leader of the United States - Part 2

Part 1:    • Thomas Jefferson -  Welsh American Re...   Thomas Jefferson - Welsh American Revolutionary Leader of the United States - Part 1

This is Greg Thomas and welcome to the Welsh American Channel. Today we present part 2 of our examination of a significant revolutionary and American of Welsh descent, Thomas Jefferson. We have already presented videos on many different revolutionaries of Welsh heritage who made the founding of the new Republic possible. Some of these include flag maker Betsy Ross, Martha Washington… wife of General George Washington. Signers of the Declaration of Independence like Lewis Morris, William Floyd, Francis Lewis, and Button Gwinnett and others. Military generals like Danel Morgan, John Cadwalader, and the designer of the first six frigates of the United States… Joshua Humphreys. In this video we continue to survey the life of Thomas Jefferson as the first United States Secretary of State, Vice President of the United States, President of the United States, and his retirement years. Be sure to see our video on his early life and career. It is entitled… “Thomas Jefferson - Welsh American Revolutionary Leader of the United States - Part 1.”

First, let’s have a quick review of his ancestry. Jefferson’s father… Peter Jefferson… named his two plantations after the birthplaces of his treasured family! The one named “Shadwell” was named after the birth location of his beloved wife Jane in Shadwell, England. His second plantation was named “Snowdon” after the birthplace of his Welsh Jefferson ancestors who lived near Mt Snowdon.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in his unfinished autobiography, "The tradition in my father’s family was that their ancestor came to this country from Wales, and from near the mountain of Snowden, the highest in Gr. Br. I noted once a case from Wales in the law reports where a person of our name was either pl. or def. [plaintiff or defendant] and one of the same name [Jefferson] was Secretary to the Virginia company. These are the only instances in which I have met with the name in that country. I have found it in our early records but the first particular information I have of any ancestor was my grandfather…” He then went on to discuss his grandfather's lands in Virginia.

As early as 1809, mutual friend Benjamin Rush began to prod the two through correspondence to re-establish contact. In 1812, Adams wrote a short New Year's greeting to Jefferson, prompted earlier by Rush, to which Jefferson warmly responded. This initial correspondence began what historian David McCullough calls "one of the most extraordinary correspondences in American history". Over the next 14 years, Jefferson and Adams exchanged 158 letters discussing their political differences, justifying their respective roles in events, and debating the revolution's impact on the world.

So what is the legacy of this exceptional American of Welsh descent? A short video like this one can’t do justice to his many accomplishments. Jefferson is an icon of individual liberty, democracy, and republicanism. He is hailed as the author of the Declaration of Independence, an architect of the American Revolution, and a renaissance man who promoted science and scholarship.

Jefferson has been memorialized with buildings, sculptures, postage, and currency. In the 1920s, Jefferson, together with George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, was chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum and approved by President Calvin Coolidge to be depicted in a stone national memorial at Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., in 1943, on the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth. The interior of the memorial includes a 19-foot (6 m) statue of Jefferson by renowned sculptor Rudulph Evans. Evans himself, was the Welsh-American descendant of Thomas Evans Sr, born in Montgomeryshire, Wales in 1662 who emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Jefferson Memorial includes engravings of passages from Jefferson's writings. Most prominent among these passages are the words inscribed around the Jefferson Memorial. It is a quote from Jefferson's September 23, 1800, letter to Benjamin Rush. "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
In the upcoming year of 2026, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s original Declaration of Independence. All freedom-loving people will rejoice at the inspiring words written by this bold and independent descendent of Cymru.