Presidency of Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson
3rd President of the United States
In office March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1809
Vice President	Aaron Burr (1801–1805), George Clinton (1805–1809)
Preceded by	John Adams
Succeeded by	James Madison
2nd Vice President of the United States
In office March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801
President	John Adams
Preceded by	John Adams
Succeeded by	Aaron Burr
1st United States Secretary of State
In office September 26, 1789 – December 31, 1793
President	George Washington
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Edmund Randolph
Personal details
Born	April 13, 1743 Shadwell, Virginia
Died	July 4, 1826(1826-07-04) (aged 83) Charlottesville, Virginia
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Spouse	Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
Occupation	Lawyer, Farmer (Planter)
Signature

Thomas Jefferson's Presidency of the United States, from March 4, 1801 to March 4, 1809, carried out what Jefferson called the "Revolution of 1800", as he attempted to put into action the principles of his Democratic-Republican Party. In domestic affairs Jefferson tried to weaken Federalist influences, especially in the judiciary, and succeded in limiting the size of government by reducing taxes and the national debt. In foreign affairs the major developments were the acquisition of the gigantic Louisiana Purchase, an embargo against trade with either England or France, and worsening relations with Britain as the nation tried to remain neutral in the midst of a great war that engulfed Europe.

Inauguration and beliefs

See also: Thomas Jefferson 1801 presidential inauguration

The tumultuous nature of the election of 1800 cost Jefferson a great deal of political capital. He was now indebted to Hamilton and the High Federalists and left with a vice president who had no place in his administration. With George Washington dead and John Adams returning to Braintree after his defeat, Jefferson was free to try to implement his Republican vision for the republic. In what historians later call Jeffersonian democracy, the new president set out an agenda that was marked by his belief in agrarianism and limited government. In order to carry out his agenda, Jefferson turned to his loyal supporters James Madison whom he named as Secretary of State and Swiss-born Albert Gallatin who became Secretary of the Treasury. Jefferson also wielded significant power over the Republican leaders of Congress despite their independent nature. The split in the Federalist Party between the Hamilton and Adams factions also helped Jefferson secure the support of Congress. In his entire administration, Jefferson never once had to use his veto power.

Jefferson's domestic policies

Continuation of Federalist policies

In order to end the deadlock in the House of Representatives following the 1800 election, Jefferson was forced to make important concessions to Hamilton in order to gain his endorsement. As part of these concessions, Jefferson continued the basic Hamiltonian programs of the national bank and tariffs. While the Sedition Act expired on schedule in 1801, and one of the Alien acts was repealed, those who were imprisoned under the Sedition Act were released. The Federalists also allowed Jefferson to select his own cabinet members and other high level appointees.

Addressing the national debt

Jefferson attempted to eliminate the national debt because of his wish for small government. Jefferson believed that the nation did not need to carry a line of debt in order to build foreign credit, a policy that Hamilton vigorously advocated while in the Washington cabinet. Jefferson repealed many Federalist taxes including the tax that prompted the Whiskey Rebellion which was made up of many Republican supporters. Jefferson believed that the federal government was able to operate exclusively on customs revenue and need no direct taxation. While initially successful, this policy would later prove disastrous when trade to the United States was interrupted by the Napoleonic Wars between Great Britain and France.

Jefferson also decreased the size of the military, which he believed was an unnecessary drain on the resources of the republic. Much of the federalist navy that was created under the Adams administration was scrapped. When Federalists criticized this policy as leaving the nation vulnerable to foreign attack, Jefferson responded that he believed citizen soldiers would arise to defend the country in case of attack, much as they did during the American Revolution. Recognizing that military leadership would be more crucial when taking civilians into battle, Jefferson did create the Army Corps of Engineers and established the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1802.

Patronage and the Federalists

When John Adams took office in 1796, he carried many of Washington's supporters over into his new administration. As a result, there was little change in the federal government when the first national transition of power occurred. With Jefferson's election in 1800, there was a transfer of power between parties, not simply a transition. As president, Jefferson had the power of appointment to fill many government positions that had long been held by Federalists. It was widely anticipated that this use of patronage was the privilege of a new party when it assumed power. Jefferson resisted the call of his fellow Republicans to remove all Federalists from their appointed positions. Instead he felt that it was his right to replace the top government officials, such as the cabinet and the politically motivated midnight judges appointed by Adams. Feeling that most Adams Federalists, who were more moderate in outlook than the High Federalists who followed Hamilton, could be turned to the Republican Party, Jefferson kept most in their existing positions. Jefferson's refusal to call for a complete replacement of federal appointees under the spoils system was followed by U.S. Presidents until the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828.

While Jefferson preferred to practice political moderation towards the Federalists, the party itself was torn apart by political in-fighting. Keeping with their high-minded roots, the Federalists refused to accept the political campaigning practiced by the Republicans and were aghast at populist appeals made by that party. Federalist leaders John Adams and John Jay retired from public life and Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel with Vice-President Aaron Burr leaving the party without strong leadership. As the nation began to expand (Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee entered the Union under the Federalists and Ohio joined in 1803), the ideas of Jeffersonian democracy appealed more to the voters than the Federalist calls for stronger central government and higher taxation. By 1805, the Federalists remained strong only in the New England states and Delaware while moderate Federalists joined the Republican Party. Possibly the most damaging defection was John Quincy Adams, son of Federalist President John Adams.

Judiciary

Jefferson was highly suspicious of the judges appointed by his predecessors; his opinion of good judges was much higher: one of his arguments for a bill of rights would be the power they would give the judiciary. At his urging, Congress repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801, abolishing the numerous district courts created at the end of the Adams presidency. The battle to abolish the Judiciary Act was not an easy one. Federalists argued that once the courts were created and judges were appointed, the Constitution directs that they serve for life unless impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors". The Republican leadership, prompted by Jefferson, chose not to argue the political manipulation of the courts but instead chose to attack them based on the cost to the nation. Since many of the courts were created to pack the judiciary with lifetime Federalist judges, there were many circumstances in which there was no need for a court at all. The Republicans argued that the unwarranted nature of the courts combined with their excessive cost justified repeal for the Judiciary Act. Despite the fact that this argument required a "loose" interpretation of the Constitution, which Jefferson rallied against when he fought the creation of Hamilton's First Bank of the United States, the Congress was successful in reversing the law.

This also left numerous Federalist "midnight judges" without positions. Since the creation of these "midnight judge" positions was done to protect the courts from Republican appointees, Jefferson felt justified in not awarding the commissions creating the new federal judges. One commission that he was unable to prevent was the appointment of former Secretary of State John Marshall to the position of Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Although Marshall was a cousin of Jefferson, he was a strong Federalist in the tradition of John Adams. Marshall's influence on the Court would help to firmly entrench the supremacy of the federal government. One of the first cases Marshall was asked to decide was that of William Marbury, one of the "midnight judges" who was requesting that the Court issue a writ of mandamus to Secretary of State James Madison ordering the delivery of the judicial commissions. The resulting case, Marbury v. Madison set the landmark precedent of judicial review for the Supreme Court.

The Republicans were not content with simply overturning the Judiciary Act of 1801 and removing the "midnight judges." They next planned to impeach existing federal judges to remove them from office. The first case was John Pickering, a Federalist judge who exhibited signs of insanity and public drunkenness. At Jefferson's instigation, the House of Representatives impeached Pickering in 1804 and the Senate removed him from the bench later that year. Jefferson next set his sights on the Supreme Court. Reading that Federalist Justice Samuel Chase told a grand jury that the Republicans threatened, "peace and order, freedom and property.", Jefferson urged Congressional leaders to begin impeachment hearings. Many Republicans felt that this accusation of sedition was too reminiscent of the Federalist Sedition Act that had been repealed early in Jefferson's presidency. Unwilling to remove a Supreme Court justice on purely political accusations, the Senate acquitted Chase of all charges in 1804. The case of Samuel Chase has been the only impeachment trial of a Supreme Court justice in United States history. By rebelling against Jefferson's wishes, the Republican Senators sent a message that the independence of the judiciary was not open to political manipulation.

Reelection and a Republican split

Jefferson easily defeated Federalist Charles Pinckney by an electoral vote of 162-14 and was re-elected in the 1804 election. With little strength outside of New England, the Federalists had ceased to be a major source of opposition for the Jefferson administration. Seizing the opportunity to rail against the moderate Republicanism of Jefferson, Congressmen John Randolph of Roanoke and John Taylor of Caroline broke with the president and called for a return to the "principles of '98," and a small weak national government. Known as the "Old Republicans" (or sometimes called Quids), the men targeted Madison and Gallatin as the primary sources of Republican weakness. When Jefferson became embroiled in the Yazoo Land Fraud controversy, Randolph began to attack the president from the floor of the House. Randolph's actions had little effect other than to alienate the Quids from the rest of the Republican Party. In the end, the Marshall Court was forced to resolve the Yazoo issue in the case of Fletcher v. Peck. While Marshall reluctantly agreed to support Jefferson's interpretation of the controversy, he was also able to increase the power of the Court by giving it the right to review the constitutionality of state laws.

Native American relations

When Jefferson assumed power, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa were leading raids against the United States in the Ohio Valley. Attempting to form a confederation of Indian people in the Northwest Territory, the two brothers would be a continual source of irritation to westward settlers. Jefferson, while not adverse to native people, felt that they should be assimilated into a more "civilized" culture or be removed to the west. Under Jefferson the first Indian relocation began from the southern states. Only the Five Civilized Tribes were allowed to retain their ancestral territory and this was because they adapted to white culture. When the Creek nation refused to relocate out of Alabama, Tennessee militia under the direction of Andrew Jackson launched a bloody campaign culminating at the battle of Horseshoe Bend to move them west.

Banning the slave trade

It was during Jefferson's second term that the constitutional ban on discussion of the slave trade in Congress expired. The ban, which was created by the slave trade compromise at the Philadelphia Convention, prohibited Congress from considering a ban on the slave trade until 1808. In 1807, northern representatives in Congress submitted a bill calling for the end of the slave trade. The bill, submitted with Jefferson's approval, divided the Congress along sectional lines. While Northern congressmen opposed the slave trade, there was no desire to release free black men and women into northern cities if they were captured being smuggled in to the country. Southern congressmen argued that the ban would largely be ignored and that it was up to the states, not Congress, to regulate slavery. The compromise bill ended the trade in 1808 but ordered the federal government to turn any smuggled slaves over to the states to deal with according to local custom. Many of these slaves were then auctioned by the state governments to the highest bidder. In reality, the ban on the slave trade only reduced the trade and did not eliminate it altogether.

Jefferson's foreign policies

The Louisiana Purchase

In his first Inaugural Address Jefferson outlined a vision of the United States eventually expanding out into the Louisiana Territory At the time that he assumed the presidency, the territory was the property of Spain which had acquired it from the Treaty of Paris (1783). However, when Napoleon Bonaparte annexed Spain into his French Empire in 1801, the territory secretly reverted back to French ownership. When the port of New Orleans was closed to U.S. commercial trade in 1802, Jefferson realized that he must take action in order to protect the economy of the western states and territories. The president sent James Monroe and Robert Livingston to Paris to inquire about purchasing New Orleans from the French. At the same time, Napoleon was fighting a brutal war in Haiti against General Touissant L'Overture that was depleting the French treasury. Desperate for money, Napoleon made Monroe and Livingston an offer through his representative Talleyrand to purchase the territory for $15 million. Jefferson was pleased at the offer but felt that he lacked the constitutional power to purchase the land. Following his doctrine for "strict" interpretation of the Constitution, Jefferson prepared to draft an amendment to the Constitution giving Congress the express power to purchase land. Hearing of the delay in the United States and rapidly running out of money, Napoleon ordered Talleyrand to leak information that hinted he would offer the territory to Great Britain if the U.S. did not act quickly. At the urging of Monroe and Livingston, Jefferson relented and sent the annexation treaty to the Senate for approval without the benefit of an amendment. With only a small group of Federalists resisting, the territory of Louisiana was annexed to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase. Suddenly faced with the prospect of not only doubling the size of the United States, Jefferson also had to decide how to govern the new French, Spanish, Mexican, and Native Americans who lived in the territory. To this end Jefferson proposed the Louisiana Government Bill which created an appointed government for the territory and established a system for collection of taxes. In effect, Jefferson had authorized taxation without representation, the very thing that he had opposed in the American Revolution.

As soon as the purchase was complete, Jefferson ordered the Lewis and Clark expedition to survey the new territory. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were sent out by Jefferson to collect scientific data on the new territory, write an ethnography of native people, establish a trade network between native nations and the United States, and to discover the extent of the purchased land.

Popular discontent in the Louisiana Territory later led to the Burr conspiracy in which former Vice President Aaron Burr was approached by Napoleon to make an attempt to break off the Louisiana Territory into an independent state with ties to France. Burr, chafing at his rejection from Washington and later his home state of New York, agreed and began to organize a militia force in the territory. Calling himself the "Emperor of Mexico", Burr was pursued by the army across the territory and back into the United States proper. Once Burr was arrested, Jefferson ordered a trial on the grounds of treason. When the case came before the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall found that there was not sufficient evidence to show that Burr was at the locations where the conspiracy was discussed. To the dismay of Jefferson, Marshall and the Supreme Court acquitted Burr of all charges.

The Barbary War

Under George Washington, the United States had agreed to pay tribute to the Barbary States of North Africa in order to protect American shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. Jefferson, fearing that the increased cost of tribute may financially devastate the federal treasury, decided to send in both naval and United States Marine Corps forces into Tripoli. The First Barbary War saw a victory for the U.S. Marines who "marched to the shores of Tripoli". Thomas Jefferson had previously disbanded John Adam's Navy, so when time came he used small gunboats. These were called the "jeffs" or mosquito fleet, and were not very effective. They were easily taken down by the stronger ships of the pirates. There is even a report of a jeff being blown inland, creating the saying that they were more effective on land than water. United States was considered a victor when peace was signed in 1805, by buying out the pirates for $60,000. Although paying tribute to pirates sharply contrasted with existing policy, it ended over a century of brutal tribal warfare and in turn earned Jefferson respect from the countries conducting trade in the area.

Relations with Europe

In Jefferson's second term, the Napoleonic Wars broke out in Europe as Great Britain and France battled for international supremacy. Initially following Washington's Neutrality Act, Jefferson did not commit the United States to either side and continued to trade with both nations. Needing sailors, the British Royal Navy seized hundreds of American ships and impressed 6,000 sailors from them, angering Americans. The British Parliament also passed the Orders in Council which barred any trade with the European continent. Napoleon responded with the Berlin Decree in 1806 and the Milan Decree in 1807, both of which effectively cut Europe from British trade and threaten seizure of neutral ships. Jefferson became increasingly agitated with both nations as American neutrality was ignored. Tensions flared when the Chesapeake-Leopard Incident took place off the coast of Virginia. A British warship, The Leopard ordered the American ship The Chesapeake to submit to a search. The American captain refused and shots were exchanged leaving three men dead and eighteen wounded. Public outrage demanded that Jefferson take action.

In response, Jefferson and Congress passed the Embargo Act in 1807. The act was designed to force Britain and France into respecting US neutrality by cutting off all American shipping to either nation. Almost immediately the Americans began to turn to smuggling in order to ship goods to Europe. Jefferson was forced to call out the military and expand the power of the federal government by patrolling the American coast, cutting off trade routes to Canada, seizing the ships of suspected smugglers, and ordering that no ship could be loaded without the approval of a customs officer and the military. The effects of the Embargo Act backfired on the Republicans. New England, which depended on trade for economic survival, turned again to the Federalist Party. Jefferson lost many supporters who resented the intrusion into their personal lives by the national government. Even Britain and France scoffed at the Act as neither economy was severely damaged due to smuggling. By the time Jefferson surrendered the presidency to James Madison in 1808, his reputation was severely damaged by his support of the Embargo Act.

Speeches

Inaugural addresses

Chief Justice John Marshall administered the first executive oath of office ever taken in the new federal city of Washington, DC, in the new Senate Chamber (now the Old Supreme Court Chamber) of the partially built Capitol building, on March 4, 1801. The outcome of the election of 1800 had been in doubt until late February because Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, the two leading candidates, each had received 73 electoral votes. Consequently, the House of Representatives met in a special session to resolve the impasse, pursuant to the terms spelled out in the Constitution. After 30 hours of debate and balloting, Mr. Jefferson emerged as the President and Mr. Burr the Vice President. President John Adams, who had run unsuccessfully for a second term, left Washington on the day of the inauguration without attending the ceremony.

• First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1801)
• Second Inaugural Address (March 4, 1805)

State of the Union Address

Jefferson ended the tradition of delivering a State of the Union speech and instead just had it published. Woodrow Wilson later ended this policy.

• First State of the Union Address (December 8, 1801)
• Second State of the Union Address (December 15, 1802)
• Third State of the Union Address (October 17, 1803)
• Fourth State of the Union Address (November 8, 1804)
• Fifth State of the Union Address (December 3, 1805)
• Sixth State of the Union Address (December 2, 1806)
• Seventh State of the Union Address (October 27, 1807)
• Eighth State of the Union Address (November 8, 1808)

Administration and Cabinet

OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Thomas Jefferson	1801–1809
Vice President	Aaron Burr	1801–1805
	George Clinton	1805–1809
Secretary of State	James Madison	1801–1809
Secretary of the Treasury	Samuel Dexter	1801
	Albert Gallatin	1801–1809
Secretary of War	Henry Dearborn	1801–1809
Attorney General	Levi Lincoln	1801–1804
	John Breckinridge	1805–1806
	Caesar A. Rodney	1807–1809
Postmaster General	Joseph Habersham	1801
	Gideon Granger	1801–1809
Secretary of the Navy	Benjamin Stoddert	1801
	Robert Smith	1801–1809

Supreme Court appointments

Jefferson appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

• William Johnson – 1804
• Henry Brockholst Livingston – 1807
• Thomas Todd – 1807

States admitted to the Union

• Ohio – March 1, 1803

Further reading

• Adams, Henry. History of the United States of America during the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson. Library of America edition, (1986). Classic in-depth history.
• Channing, Edward. The Jeffersonian System, 1801-1811 (1906) full text online, older scholarly survey
• Cunningham, Noble E., Jr. The Jeffersonian Republicans in Power: Party Operations 1801–1809 (1963), highly detailed party history
• Cunningham, Noble E., Jr. The Process of Government Under Jefferson (1978)
• McDonald, Forrest. The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson (1987) intellectual history approach to TJ's presidency
• Malone, Dumas. Jefferson the President: First Term 1801 - 1805; v. 5: Jefferson the President: Second term, 1805-1809; v.6: The Sage of Monticello (1948-70), the standard scholarly biography; short bio by Malone; a standard scholarly biography
• Peterson, Merrill D. Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography (1986), long, detailed biography by leading scholar; online edition; also excerpt and text search; a standard scholarly biography
• Peterson, Merrill D. ed. Thomas Jefferson: A Reference Biography. (1986), long essays by scholars
• Rodriguez, Junius, ed. The Louisiana Purchase: An Encyclopedia (2002)
• Smelser, Marshall. The Democratic Republic: 1801-1815 (1968) standard scholarly history of presidencies of Jefferson and Madison
• Tucker, Robert W. and David C. Hendrickson. Empire of Liberty: The Statecraft of Thomas Jefferson (1992) best guide to foreign policy excerpt and text search, diplomatic history
• Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. (2005), broad-scale interpretation of political history

External links

• Thomas Jefferson at Internet Public Library
• Jefferson Presidency study guide, primary sources, teaching guide