Question

Was Thomas Jefferson a "copycat" or Revolutionary Thinker?

Answer 1

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

Thomas Jefferson was a Revolutionary Thinker. He indeed received the influence of European philosophers and thinkers from the European Enlightenment such as Voltaire, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jaques Rosseau, and Baron de Montesquiou. But he was not the only founding father that was influenced by them. Other prominent Americans and delegates of the Constitutional Convention of Philadelphia, were influenced by the Enlightenment.

Thomas Jefferson was a thinker that had high ideals. He was an Antifederalists who opposed Federalists such as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, in that he considered that a strong central government was no good for the United States. That is why he opposed the idea of a strong federal government and supported rights for the citizens.