U.S. statesman; secretary of state (1790-93); third president (1801-09); He was the chief drafter of the Declaration of Independence (1776), the chief opponent of the centralising policies of the Federalists under Hamilton and effected the Louisiana purchase (1803).

There is no suggestion that Jefferson was vegetarian, but the following quote is of interest:

"SIR,--Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and the request of the history of my physical habits would have puzzled me not a little, had it not been for the model with which you accompanied it, of Doctor Rush's answer to a similar inquiry. I live so much like other people, that I might refer to ordinary life as a history of my own. Like my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principle diet."

The above quote was taken from a letter written on March 21, 1819 to Dr. Vine Utley when Jefferson was 1 month away from his 76th birthday. The source is Jefferson Writings published by the Library of America, 1984