Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was one of the leaders of the War of Independence, and a tireless proponent of American Unity to his dying day, once famously declaring that he was an American first, and a Virginian second. He was the 2nd and 10th governor of independent Virginia, and the first Consul. A slave-owner, he nevertheless promoted abolition. Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. His last words are said to have been "America lives on"