<P> Martha later suffered from ill health, including diabetes, and frequent childbirth further weakened her . Her mother had died young, and Martha lived with two stepmothers as a girl . A few months after the birth of her last child, she died on September 6, 1782, at the age of 33 with Jefferson at her bedside . Shortly before her death, Martha made Jefferson promise never to marry again, telling him that she could not bear to have another mother raise her children . Jefferson was grief - stricken by her death, relentlessly pacing back and forth, nearly to the point of exhaustion . He emerged after three weeks, taking long rambling rides on secluded roads with his daughter Martha, by her description "a solitary witness to many a violent burst of grief". </P> <P> After working as Secretary of State (1790--93), he returned to Monticello and initiated a remodeling based on the architectural concepts which he had acquired in Europe . The work continued throughout most of his presidency, being finished in 1809 . </P> <P> Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence . At age 33, he was one of the youngest delegates to the Second Continental Congress beginning in 1775 at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, where a formal declaration of independence from Britain was overwhelmingly favored . Jefferson chose his words for the Declaration in June 1775, shortly after the war had begun, where the idea of Independence from Britain had long since become popular among the colonies . He was inspired by the Enlightenment ideals of the sanctity of the individual, as well as by the writings of Locke and Montesquieu . </P> <P> He sought out John Adams, an emerging leader of the Congress . They became close friends and Adams supported Jefferson's appointment to the Committee of Five formed to draft a declaration of independence in furtherance of the Lee Resolution passed by the Congress, which declared the United Colonies independent . The committee initially thought that Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded the committee to choose Jefferson . </P>

Did thomas jefferson wrote the declaration of independence when he was president