He was chosen to represent Albermarle County at the First Virginia Convention, where delegates were elected to the First Continental Congress. He became ill and was unable to attend the meeting, but forwarded a message arguing that the British Parliament had no control over the colonies. He also mentioned the Saxons who
had settled in England hundred of years before from Germany and how Parliament had no more right to govern the colonies than the Germans had to govern the English. Most Virginians saw this as too extreme, though. His views were printed in a pamphlet called A Summary of the Rights of British America (1774). Jefferson attended the Second Virginia Convention in 1775 and was chosen as one of the delegates to the Second Continental Congress, but before he left for Philadelphia, he was asked by the Virginia Assembly to reply to Lord North’s message of peace, proposing that Parliament would not try to tax the settlers if they would tax themselves. Jefferson’s "Reply to Lord North" was more moderate that the Summary View. Instead of agreeing with Lord North, Jefferson insisted that a government had been set up for the Americans and not for the British. The Declaration of Independence was primarily written by Jefferson in June 1776. Congress felt that the Declaration was too strong and gave Dickinson the responsibility of redrafting the document, but the new version included much of Jefferson’s original text and ideas. In 1779, Jefferson became governor of Virginia, guiding Virginians through the final years of the Revolutionary War. As a member of the Second Continental Congress, he drafted a plan for decimal coinage and composed an ordinance for the Northwest Territory that formed the foundation for the Ordinance of 1787. In 1785, he became minister to France. Appointed secretary of state in President Washington’s Cabinet in 1790, Jefferson defended local interests against Alexander Hamilton’s policies and led a group called the Republicans. He was elected vice-president in 1796 and protested the enactment of the Alien and Sedition Acts by writing The Kentucky Resolutions. In 1800, the Republicans nominated Jefferson for president and Aaron Burr (A Buh. hahaha) for vice-president. Federalists had nominated John Adams for president and Charles Pinckney for vice-president. Federalists claimed that Jefferson was a revolutionary, an anarchist, and an unbeliever. Jefferson won the presidency by receiving 73 electoral votes (Adams received 65).