Three Individuals Who Had a Significant Impact on U.S. History

When tasked with the sizable challenge of only picking three individuals to write about who had a significant impact on U.S. history the selection of those individuals is no small task. Given the amazing roots from which this country came through many of the different trials, tribulations, and successes in the early days there are countless well known individuals who played major roles in enabling and shaping that growth. To narrow down such a broad search to only a select three proves to be more difficult than one may think. However, even given the difficulty of this task I have in the end chosen three men, that without, this country may very well have shaped up much differently than the country that we have come to know to this day. The three men of my choice are John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. The reason for my decision on these three individuals is because they all played crucial roles in the formation of our great country and without their key insight and the driving force that they brought it could have turned out much differently. Each holds a very important place during this time in history which will be more fully understood and unveiled in the coming pages. To better understand these roles, and these men as a whole I believe it best to look at each individually to see what brought them to be such important figures in history and how it was that their fates intertwined. John Adams was born on October 30, 1735 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony of Braintree which is now known as Quincy (Bio, 2013). John was a direct descendent of Puritan colonists whose father was John Adams Sr. His father wore many hats which included being a farmer, a Congregationalist deacon, and a town councilman. Coming from these roots John Jr.’s studies started out of very humble means by first attending a common school in Braintree. However, by the age of 16 he was able to secure a scholarship to Harvard and graduated at the age of 20 (Independence Hall Association, 2014). John became quite interested in law despite his father’s wishes for him to enter the ministry. John ended up studying law in the offices of John Putnman who was a prominent lawyer and later earned his master’s degree from Harvard and was admitted to the bar in 1758 (Bio, 2013). After becoming admitted to the bar John quickly identified himself with the patriot cause. This initially took place as a result to his opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765. Adams argued hardily that the Stamp Act deprived what he deemed to be basic rights of the American colonists to be taxed by consent and tried by a jury of peers. (Bio, 2013). However, even though he identified as being part of the patriot cause John did elect to represent British soldiers in 1770 who were on trial for killing five civilians in what became known as the Boston Massacre. John defended that it was the right thing to do in defending the soldiers due to the grounds that the facts of cause were more important to him than those passionate inclinations of the people. While convinced of his convictions others did not feel the same way and his law practice suffered greatly. However, this later proved to be quite beneficial for John and he gained the reputation of being a generous, courageous, and fair gentleman. (Independence Hall Association, 2014). In the same year that of that of the trial John was also elected to the Massachusetts Assembly and one was one of the first representatives in the First Continental Congress. He later was the one who nominated George Washington to be the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. Additionally, John proposed the resolution that the colonies should have independent governments of which was approved by Congress in May of 1776. He then wrote the preamble to this resolution that was approved paving the way for the passage of the Declaration of Independence. John also seconded Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence that he passionately supported until its official passing by Congress in July of 1776. Thereafter, John was appointed to draft the declaration along with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman. The final draft of which was of approved on July 4, 1776 (Bio, 2013). After the official passage of the declaration John became even busier than before by serving on more than 90 committees in the new government. He was also one of the diplomats that was elected to go negotiate the Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War. Thereafter, John remained in Europe becoming the first U.S. minister to England in 1785. After 10 years in London, John returned home in 1788 to seek the vice presidency with George Washington. John however became very frustrated in the vice presidential position alongside George Washington due to his inability to sway him on many issues. This led to John running for president as the federalist nominee against his friend Thomas Jefferson who was the democratic nominee. John won by a narrow margin and became the 2nd president of the United States. John served one term as president and lost his reelection bid to Thomas Jefferson. John then largely retired to his farm in Quincy where he lived with his wife Abigail but continued writing regularly and corresponding with his friend Thomas Jefferson (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2013). Thomas Jefferson, good friend to John Adams, political philosopher, author of the Declaration of Independence, and third president was born on April 13, 1743 at Shadwell in Albemarle Co. VA. He had the good fortune of being born into one of the most prominent plantation families in Virginia. His father was primarily a successful farmer, but also offering to his attributes was that he was a skilled cartographer and surveyor. Additionally, his mother was a member of the Randolph can. The Randolph’s were a family descending from English and Scottish royalty (Bio, 2013). Thomas attended the college of William and Mary later in his youth and was able to study under the direction of William Small. William had in depth knowledge of the Scottish Enlightenment which provided for a highly integrated approach to philosophy, history, science and law. Thomas later was tutored under the direction of lawyer George Wythe and was subsequently admitted to the bar in 1767. Thomas’ tutelage under the direction of George Wythe was compiled of a rigorous five years that was almost double the normal time to took one to be studied as a lawyer in the 1700’s. Having been tutored at such length Thomas become one of the best lawyers in America at the time. Between the years of 1767 and 1774 he practiced law in Virginia trying many a case and coming out victorious in the majority of them (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 2013). After the Stamp Act of 1765 Thomas quickly became one of the most fervent supporters of the cause for America to gain its independence from Great Britain. In 1774 Thomas wrote “A Summary View of the Rights of British America”. This work quickly gained him mass recognition as one of the most eloquent supporters of American independence. A year after writing “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” Thomas attended the Second Continental Congress where he soon became tasked with the drafting of the Declaration of Independence alongside John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Thomas was elected by the committee to be the author of the document due to his “happy talent for composition and singular felicity for expression” as John Adams put it (Bio, 2013). After having written the Declaration of Independence Thomas returned back to his home state of Virginia to serve as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. While serving in the Virginia House of Delegates Thomas lobbied to revise Virginia’s law so as they might better fit the ideals he had outlined in the Declaration of Independence. He was quite successful in many of his endeavors in this effort. He was able to successfully abolish the doctrine of entail and the doctrine of primogeniture. He also wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. With these accomplishments he soon become governor of Virginia and served two terms. Thereafter, he made declaration of his desire to give up the public life and become a gentleman farmer. This life was short lived though due to the death of his wife at the age of 34. This spurred Thomas to become reengaged into the public life and he returned to Philadelphia so as to lead the Virginia delegation of the Confederation Congress. In 1785 he was appointed to replace Benjamin Franklin as the U.S. Minister to France. While Thomas found certain appreciation for many European things, he found the aristocracy’s grandeur and the masses’ poverty repellant. In one letter he wrote “I find the general fate of humanity here, most deplorable” (Bio, 2013). After serving in Paris for 5 years Thomas returned home to find that George Washington wished him to become the first secretary of state of which Thomas accepted. However, this position became wrought with conflict between Thomas and Alexander Hamilton who George Washington had appointed as the Treasury Secretary. Becoming quite frustrated with the endless conflict Thomas resigned from his position in 1794. However, even though at the time Thomas made indication that it would be the end of his political career he was soon nominated to run to be the second president of the United States. He narrowly lost out in this bid to John Adams, and as such became John’s vice president. John only served a single term though losing to Thomas in the following election year thus making Thomas the third president of the United States. He served two terms making many notable moves that continued to shape the country. After the end of his second term he returned to Virginia to live out the rest of his days by continuously remodeling, rebuilding, and improving his estate of Monticello (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 2013). There was yet one more individual who proved to be quite an integral part in the formation and growth of America and that was Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin was born in 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a soap and candle maker and had 17 children between two wives of which Benjamin was the 15th child and last son. Benjamin attended the Boston Latin School and was quite successful, however, he was soon pulled out so as to help his father with the soap and candle stick making business. Benjamin found this to be quite the unenjoyable career path however and soon turned to his brother James to be apprenticed at his print shop which he found quite enjoyable (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 2013). Benjamin enjoyed writing, however, his brother would never publish his work. This caused Benjamin to adopt a pseudonym name of Mrs. Silence Dogood and had 14 letters published that were widely delighted by the readership. However, Benjamin’s brother soon discovered that Benjamin was behind the letters and became quite angry with him. This led to Benjamin leaving the apprenticeship at the print shop and he left for Philadelphia. After several years Benjamin was able to purchase the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper from a former boss (Bio, 2013). Benjamin’s success and prominence continued to grow in the 1730’s. Particularly, after the publishing of Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1732. This success lead to his ability to amass businesses and real estate. Due to his growing prominence he was soon tapped to be a foreign diplomat to represent the Pennsylvania Assembly followed by Massachusetts, Georgia, and New Jersey in England. He was a great supporter of the repealing of the Stamp Act. In 1775 he was elected to the Second Continental Congress. As part of the Continental Congress he was requested to draft the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman (Bio, 2013). Thereafter he served as the U.S. ambassador to France for almost a decade. He returned home to represent Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention which drafted and ratified the U.S. Constitution. In addition to doing this he was also a participant in electing George Washington as the country’s first president. After this time Benjamin continued on with his voracious thirsty for knowledge. He continued to work hard at developing practical solutions for problems and always carried with him a primary focus for ‘doing good’ in the world. He continued this all the rest of his life (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 2013). So as can be seen in the brief synopses of these great men many of the founding principles of which our country is hinged, primarily when it came to the Declaration of Independence and subsequent work in reinforcing that declaration through the U.S. Constitution and other means could have been greatly different without their involvement. Their passions for freedom, human rights, and equal opportunities drove them to create a country that they could truly be proud of and one that their posterity could live in freely for many years to come.

References
Bio. (2013). Biography of Benjamin Franklin. Retrieved from: http://www.biography.com/people/benjamin-franklin-9301234 Bio. (2013). Biography of John Adams. Retrieved from: http://www.biography.com/people/john-adams-37967 Bio. (2013). Biography of Thomas Jefferson. Retrieved from: http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-jefferson-9353715 Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. (2013). John Adams, 2nd President of the United States.
Retrieved from: https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail?vid=2&sid=bd008373-a2e1-4ed7-b21e-1d4957522b75%40sessionmgr113&hid=102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=khh&AN=39041935
Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. (2013). Franklin, Benjamin. Retrieved from: https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail?vid=2&sid=46369b21-7751-499e-a5ae-596832716e08%40sessionmgr111&hid=102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=funk&AN=FR074800 Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. (2013). Jefferson, Thomas. Retrieved from: https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail?vid=4&sid=bd008373-a2e1-4ed7-b21e-1d4957522b75%40sessionmgr113&hid=102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=funk&AN=JE014100 Independence Hall Association. (2014). Signers of the Declaration of Independence: John
Adams. Retrieved from: http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/adams_j.htm