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In addition to leadership in the achievement of democracy, 

 JeiTerson made other notable contributions to the framework of the 

 American empire. In the critical period following the recognition of 

 American independence, the question of how the new Nation was to 

 govern its public domain arose. Jefferson was chairman of the com- 

 mittee selected to draft a plan of government for this domain. His 

 report was adopted, with changes, as the Ordinance of 1784. It em- 

 braced the general principle that the regions west of the Alleghenies 

 were to have restricted rights of self-government during sparse settle- 

 ment and were ultimately to be admitted to the Union on terms of 

 equality v/ith the Thirteen Original States. Thus, the problem of 

 empire which had shaken and ultimately broken the British Empire in 

 the years immediately following 1763 was on its way toward solution. 

 The Ordinance of 1784 was an instinctive forecast of future de- 

 velopment. 



Jefferson served as chairman of the committee that outlined 

 the general principles of American land policy in the Ordinance of 

 1785. The draft of the committee report in 1784 is in his handwrit- 

 ing, but he retired from the chairmanship and went to Europe to serve 

 as minister to France before the Ordinance was adopted by Congress in 

 1785. The Ordinance embodied the fundamentals of the American land 

 system which, with modifications dictated by experience, has proved to 

 be permanently workable. 



It was Jefferson who grasped the significance of possible 

 American acquisition of the vast territory to the west of the Mis- 

 sissippi River, then known in a general way as Louisiana, and initi- 

 ated the steps that resulted in its purchase from Napoleon. As an 

 immediate result the pioneers of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio gained 

 a free outlet for their products by v/ay of the Mississippi to the 

 sea. Most important was the acquisition of the vast imperial domain 

 stretching from the great interior valley of America westward to the 

 Pacific as a region where thousands of American farm homes could be 

 developed in the future. 



The interests of Jefferson v/ere not limited to political leader- 

 ship and statesmanship. His curiosity about men and things was om- 

 nivorous and insatiable, and his writings indicate that he was cibreast 

 of the latest developments in practically every field of knowledge. 

 Possessed of the scientific spirit, he made contributions to the 

 fields of geography, botany, paleontology, ethnology, and natural 

 history, and his interest in mechanics resulted in his inventing 

 numerous ingenious as well as practical appliances. 



Jefferson was a practitioner as well as a patron of the arts. 

 Perhaps most noteworthy in this field is his work as an architect. 



