American History I
Notes from 6/18

Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third President of the U.S. in March, 1801. Although Adams did not attend the inauguration, the Federalists did voluntarily relinquish power. The constitutional process had in fact worked.

Jefferson was a complex person, perhaps the most complex in American political history. The author of the Declaration of Independence, he was also the owner of several hundred slaves. Recently of course, there’s been renewed controversy over Jefferson’s relationship with one of those slaves, a woman named Sally Hemings. DNA testing of Hemings’ descendants tend to lend credence to the theory that Jefferson fathered at least one child with Hemings. Jefferson was from Virginia, although from the western part of that state. In many ways his orientation was more towards the frontier than to the older, more established Tidewater aristocracy. Jefferson was also unusual in that he was formally educated (College of William and Mary), at a time when most southern planters were not. He had a lifelong fascination with science and technology and helped found the University of Virginia.

Jefferson’s first priority as President was reducing the national debt. He set about cutting the federal budget, primarily by reducing the size of the military that had grown during Adams’ administration. He cut taxes, including the excise tax on distilled grain that had sparked the Whiskey Rebellion (1794) in Pennsylvania.

I also talked about the case Marbury v. Madison (1803), in which the Supreme Court declared its authority to review federal laws and overturn laws if they were unconstitutional. This is known as judicial review. For a summary of the events leading up to Marbury v. Madison, see pages 244-245 of the text.

The greatest achievement of Jefferson’s administration was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. The Louisiana Purchase more than doubled the size of the country, extending our western boundary to the Rocky Mountains.

When Jefferson sent representatives to France initially, the goal was only to obtain New Orleans. New Orleans was important because of its location at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Whoever controlled New Orleans could control the movement of boats up and down the Mississippi River, which was extremely important for getting American products to foreign markets.

But France’s Emperor Napoleon was in serious need of cash, and the French indicated their willingness to sell the entire Louisiana Territory for only $15 million. The American delegation jumped at that opportunity. When news of the proposed treaty got back home, Jefferson was euphoric, although he worried that the federal government did not have the constitutional authority to make such a purchase. However, the Senate ultimately ratified the Treaty, and the Louisiana Territory became part of the U.S.

Jefferson got Congress to fund an exploration of the new territory led by his personal secretary and protégé, a man named Meriwether Lewis. Lewis asked an old friend, William Clark, to serve as co-captain of the historic mission, and the famous Lewis and Clark expedition was born. Their party of about 3 dozen set out from St. Louis in 1804, and reached the Pacific Ocean late the following year. Although their primary mission was to find an all-water route to the Pacific (to facilitate trade with Asia) they were also responsible for cataloguing the vast array of flora and fauna in the region, and for establishing relations with the various Native American tribes. There was no all-water route (the Rocky Mountains got in the way), but the mission was otherwise successful. For many decades, all we knew about much of the region was based on the extensive journals of Lewis and Clark.

In terms of other foreign policy, Jefferson’s record was more mixed. A war against Tripoli (1801-1805) was moderately successful in protecting American merchant vessels from pirates that operated off the North African coast. 

However, as conflict among the European nations (particularly England and France) re-intensified, Jefferson’s decision to halt all trade until warring nations agreed to give safe passage to American ships resulted in tremendous domestic hardship, particularly in New England cities such as Boston and Newport that relied heavily on trade and ship building. This Embargo Act (1807) widened the gulf between the Federalists, who were strongest in New England, and Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans, whose strength was greatest in the South.  Moreover, the Embargo failed to force England and France to respect American neutrality; relations with England clearly deteriorated during Jefferson’s second term (1805-1809), so that war was becoming more and more likely by the end of Jefferson’s tenure.