Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 and died in 1826. At the Second Continental Congress he drafted the Declaration of Independence. In 1779 he became governor of Virginia, guiding that state through the troubled last years of the American revolution. In 1785 he became minister to France. From 1790 to 1793 he served as secretary of state in President Washington’s cabinet. He served as vice president from 1797 to 1801. In 1800 Jefferson was chosen president by the House of Representatives in order to break a tie with Aaron Burr. He served as president from 1801 to 1809. Jefferson was the first president inaugurated in Washington, a city he had helped to plan. He pushed through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. He also planned the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In the later years of his life, in retirement at his beloved home, Monticello, Jefferson worked to found the University of Virginia and continued his lifelong interests in science, architecture, philosophy, and the arts.