Presidents' Highs and Lows: Thomas Jefferson
In an average of rankings of Presidents by scholars, Thomas Jefferson is ranked 5th (behind Lincoln, Washington and the two Roosevelts), though as time passes his ranking has lowered (a 2017 ranking by CSPAN put Eisenhower and Truman ahead of Jefferson). Many blame Jefferson for political polarization by his creation of political parties, something George Washington desperately wanted to avoid. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party. With Madison, he anonymously wrote the controversial Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1798–1799, which sought to embolden states' rights in opposition to the national government by nullifying the Alien and Sedition Acts. This was something that Washington most certainly did not agree with. Washington worried that if states' rights prevailed over a strong central government, his nation would become a collection of warring fiefdoms like those he witnessed in Europe at the time. The debate over the extent of states' rights continues to this day.
Jefferson was sworn in by Chief Justice John Marshall at the new Capitol in Washington, D.C. on March 4, 1801. Jefferson rejected the pomp and circumstance exhibited by his predecessors. He arrived alone to the ceremony on horseback without escort, plainly dressed, and even stabled his own horse. In his inaugural address, he called for "equal and exact justice to all men", and for freedom of speech, religion, and the press, some of which had been curtailed under the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Upon assuming office, his first challenge was an $83 million national debt. He began dismantling his old enemy Alexander Hamilton's Federalist fiscal system with help from Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin. He eliminated the whiskey excise and other taxes and closed a number of government offices that he termed useless. He wanted to disassemble the national bank, but was dissuaded to do so by Gallatin. He reduced the size of the Navy, deeming it unnecessary in peacetime and replaced it with a fleet of inexpensive gunboats used only for defense, hoping that this not provoke foreign hostilities. After two terms in office, he had lowered the national debt from $83 million to $57 million.
Jefferson pardoned several of those imprisoned under the Alien and Sedition Acts. Congressional Republicans repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801, which cut the positions nearly all of the "midnight judges" that John Adams had appointed as a lame duck president. This decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Marbury v. Madison, which established the principle of judicial review over executive branch actions and strengthened the notion of an independent judiciary.
Jefferson was a man of science and logic. He believed in the need for a national military university which would produce an officer engineering corps for a national defense, rather than having to rely on foreign sources for this service. He signed the Military Peace Establishment Act on March 16, 1802, thus founding the United States Military Academy at West Point.
His first military confrontation involved the protection of American merchant ships from Barbary Coast pirates. These ships had been protected by the Royal Navy when the states were British colonies, but after independence, pirates often captured U.S. merchant ships, pillaged cargoes, and enslaved crew or held them for ransom. In 1801, he authorized a U.S. Navy fleet under Commodore Richard Dale to make a show of force in the Mediterranean, the first American naval squadron to cross the Atlantic and he successfully asked Congress for a declaration of war. The "First Barbary War" was the first foreign war fought by the United States military. When Pasha of Tripoli Yusuf Karamanli captured the USS Philadelphia, Jefferson authorized William Eaton, the U.S. Consul to Tunis, to lead a force to restore the pasha's older brother to the throne. The American navy forced Tunis and Algiers into breaking their alliance with Tripoli. Jefferson ordered five separate naval bombardments of Tripoli, leading the pasha to sign a treaty that restored peace in the Mediterranean. This victory proved only temporary protection for US ships, but it was seen as a great victory for liberty over tyranny in the United States.
Jefferson is best remembered for the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, a purchase of 827,987 square miles of land which doubled the size of the United States. Spain had ceded ownership of the Louisiana territory in 1800 to France. Jefferson was concerned that Napoleon's desire for empire would threaten the security of the continent and Americans' rights to travel the Mississippi River for shipping and transportation. In 1802, he instructed James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to negotiate with Napoleon to purchase New Orleans and adjacent coastal areas from France. In early 1803, Jefferson offered Napoleon nearly $10 million for 40,000 square miles of land in the region. Napoleon realized that French military control was impractical over such a vast remote territory, and he needed funds to fight his wars on the home front. In early April 1803, he made a surprising counter-offer to sell 827,987 square miles of French territory for $15 million. U.S. negotiators accepted the offer and signed the treaty on April 30, 1803, although word of the unexpected purchase didn't reach Jefferson until July 3, 1803.
Some in Jefferson's party had reservations about the Constitutional authority of the federal government to acquire land. Jefferson himself initially thought that a Constitutional amendment was necessary to purchase and govern the new territory, but he later changed his mind, fearing that this would give cause this opportunity to be lost. He urged a speedy debate and ratification and on October 20, 1803, the Senate ratified the purchase treaty by a vote of 24–7. After the purchase, Jefferson called for a gradual approach for integrating settlers into his nation.
Jefferson was not done with expansion of his nation. He sought to establish a U.S. claim ahead of competing European interests and in 1804 he persuaded Congress to fund an expedition to explore and map the newly acquired territory to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson appointed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to be leaders of the Corps of Discovery. Jefferson personally tutored Lewis in the sciences of mapping, botany, natural history, mineralogy, and astronomy and navigation, giving him unlimited access to his library at Monticello, where he possessed what was believed to be the largest collection of books on the subject of the geography and natural history of the North American continent, along with a large collection of maps. The expedition lasted from May 1804 to September 1806 and returned with a wealth of scientific and geographic knowledge, including knowledge of many indiginous tribes.
In addition to the Corps of Discovery, Jefferson organized three other western expeditions: the William Dunbar and George Hunter expedition on the Ouachita River (1804–1805), the Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis expedition (1806) on the Red River, and the Zebulon Pike expedition (1806–1807) into the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest. All three produced valuable information about the uncharted frontier.
As President, Jefferson wanted to avert conflict with the indigenous people known as Indian tribes. He adopted an assimilation policy known as his "civilization program". This included securing peaceful treaty alliances and encouraging agriculture. A number of tribes accepted Jefferson's policies, but some members of the Shawnee nation, led by Tecumseh, and opposed Jefferson's assimilation policies. Jefferson told Secretary of War General Henry Dearborn: "If we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down until that tribe is exterminated or driven beyond the Mississippi."
Jefferson's first term was considered successful by his supporters and it led to his re-nomination for president by the Republican party, with George Clinton replacing Aaron Burr as his running mate. The Federalist party ran Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, John Adams' vice presidential candidate in the 1800 election. The Jefferson-Clinton ticket won overwhelmingly in the electoral college vote, by 162 to 14, campaigning on the popularity of a strong economy, lower taxes, and the Louisiana Purchase.
In 1808, Jefferson was the first president to propose a broad Federal plan to build roads and canals across several states, asking for $20 million. This led to a split within his own party, led by fellow Virginian John Randolph. This faction believed in limited government. Jefferson's popularity further suffered in his second term due to his response to wars in Europe. Under Jefferson, relations with Great Britain had suffered due in part to the antipathy between Jefferson and British diplomat Anthony Merry. After Napoleon's decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, Napoleon became more aggressive in his negotiations over trading rights. In response, Jefferson called for the enactment of the Embargo Act of 1807, directed at both France and Great Britain. This turned into an economic disaster in the U.S. Jefferson abandoned the policy a year later.
Another contention issue was the international slave trade, which had been abolished during the revolution. South Carolina had reopened it and in his annual message of December 1806, Jefferson criticized the "violations of human rights" that were a part of the international slave trade. He asked the newly elected Congress to criminalize it immediately. In 1807, Congress passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which Jefferson signed. The act established severe punishment against the international slave trade. The buying and selling of those considered as slaves within the nation continued however.
In his second term, Jefferson sought to annex Florida from Spain. This drew criticism from Randolph, who believed that the purchase money would wind up in the coffers of Napoleon. A bill permitting the purchase was signed into law. However, negotiations for the purchase failed.
In 1804, Aaron Burr was soundly defeated in his bid to be elected New York governor. During the campaign, Alexander Hamilton publicly made remarks critical of Burr's moral character. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, mortally wounding and killing Hamilton on July 11, 1804. Burr was indicted for Hamilton's murder in New York and New Jersey, causing him to flee to Georgia. After the duel, Burr had lost the election and his reputation was ruined. After leaving office in April 1805, Burr traveled west and conspired with Louisiana Territory governor James Wilkinson, to recruit men for a military expedition. Burr and Wilkinson discussed a number of plots, including seizing control of Mexico or Spanish Florida, or forming a secessionist state in New Orleans.
In the fall of 1806, Burr, along with 60 men, traveled down the Ohio River. Wilkinson changed teams and renounced the plot. He reported Burr's expedition to Jefferson, who immediately ordered Burr's arrest.On February 13, 1807, Burr was captured in Louisiana's Bayou Pierre wilderness and sent to Virginia to be tried for treason. Burr's 1807 conspiracy trial attracted national attention. The case was tried before Jefferson's longtime political foe John Marshall, who dismissed the treason charge. Burr's legal team had subpoenaed Jefferson, but Jefferson refused to testify, making the first argument for executive privilege. After a three-month trial, the jury found Burr not guilty. Jefferson publicly denounced the acquittal. Jefferson subsequently removed Wilkinson as territorial governor but retained him in the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, the British conducted raids on American shipping. They kidnapped American sailors in 1806–07 and impressed them into the British naval service. In 1806, Jefferson issued a call for a boycott of British goods; on April 18, Congress passed the Non-Importation Acts, but they were never enforced. Later that year, Jefferson asked James Monroe and William Pinkney to negotiate with Great Britain to end the harassment of American shipping. These negotiations were unsuccessful. The Monroe–Pinkney Treaty was signed, but did not contain any provisions to end impressment, and Jefferson refused to submit it to the Senate for ratification.
When the British ship HMS Leopard fired upon the USS Chesapeake off the Virginia coast in June 1807, Jefferson prepared for war. He issued a proclamation banning armed British ships from U.S. waters. Without congressional approval, he called on the states to prepare 100,000 militia and ordered the purchase of arms, ammunition, and supplies. Jefferson called for a special session of Congress in October to enact an embargo or alternatively to consider war. In December, it was learned that Napoleon had extended the Berlin Decree, globally banning British imports. In Britain, King George III ordered an increase in the impressment practices, including American sailors.
However Congress had no appetite to prepare the U.S. for war. Jefferson asked for and received the Embargo Act, in order to allow the U.S. more time to build up defensive works, militias, and naval forces. Secretary of State James Madison supported the embargo while Treasury Secretary Gallatin opposed it. The U.S. economy suffered because it had no market for its goods. Opponents began evading the embargo. Jefferson sent federal agents to secretly track down smugglers and violators. Congress passed Enforcement acts, but the government could not prevent American vessels from trading with the European belligerents once they had left American ports. Jefferson's embargo was ultimately ineffective and more harmful to American interests. Jefferson saw it as an innovative, nonviolent measure which preserved American neutrality in the European conflict. Jefferson believed that if the embargo had been widely observed, it would have avoided war in 1812.
In December 1807, Jefferson announced his intention not to seek a third term. He turned his attention to his home of Monticello during the last year of his presidency, giving Madison and Gallatin almost total control of the government. Shortly before leaving office in March 1809, Jefferson signed the repeal of the Embargo. The day before Madison was inaugurated as his successor, Jefferson said that he felt like "a prisoner, released from his chains".
Jefferson was sworn in by Chief Justice John Marshall at the new Capitol in Washington, D.C. on March 4, 1801. Jefferson rejected the pomp and circumstance exhibited by his predecessors. He arrived alone to the ceremony on horseback without escort, plainly dressed, and even stabled his own horse. In his inaugural address, he called for "equal and exact justice to all men", and for freedom of speech, religion, and the press, some of which had been curtailed under the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Upon assuming office, his first challenge was an $83 million national debt. He began dismantling his old enemy Alexander Hamilton's Federalist fiscal system with help from Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin. He eliminated the whiskey excise and other taxes and closed a number of government offices that he termed useless. He wanted to disassemble the national bank, but was dissuaded to do so by Gallatin. He reduced the size of the Navy, deeming it unnecessary in peacetime and replaced it with a fleet of inexpensive gunboats used only for defense, hoping that this not provoke foreign hostilities. After two terms in office, he had lowered the national debt from $83 million to $57 million.
Jefferson pardoned several of those imprisoned under the Alien and Sedition Acts. Congressional Republicans repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801, which cut the positions nearly all of the "midnight judges" that John Adams had appointed as a lame duck president. This decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Marbury v. Madison, which established the principle of judicial review over executive branch actions and strengthened the notion of an independent judiciary.
Jefferson was a man of science and logic. He believed in the need for a national military university which would produce an officer engineering corps for a national defense, rather than having to rely on foreign sources for this service. He signed the Military Peace Establishment Act on March 16, 1802, thus founding the United States Military Academy at West Point.
His first military confrontation involved the protection of American merchant ships from Barbary Coast pirates. These ships had been protected by the Royal Navy when the states were British colonies, but after independence, pirates often captured U.S. merchant ships, pillaged cargoes, and enslaved crew or held them for ransom. In 1801, he authorized a U.S. Navy fleet under Commodore Richard Dale to make a show of force in the Mediterranean, the first American naval squadron to cross the Atlantic and he successfully asked Congress for a declaration of war. The "First Barbary War" was the first foreign war fought by the United States military. When Pasha of Tripoli Yusuf Karamanli captured the USS Philadelphia, Jefferson authorized William Eaton, the U.S. Consul to Tunis, to lead a force to restore the pasha's older brother to the throne. The American navy forced Tunis and Algiers into breaking their alliance with Tripoli. Jefferson ordered five separate naval bombardments of Tripoli, leading the pasha to sign a treaty that restored peace in the Mediterranean. This victory proved only temporary protection for US ships, but it was seen as a great victory for liberty over tyranny in the United States.
Jefferson is best remembered for the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, a purchase of 827,987 square miles of land which doubled the size of the United States. Spain had ceded ownership of the Louisiana territory in 1800 to France. Jefferson was concerned that Napoleon's desire for empire would threaten the security of the continent and Americans' rights to travel the Mississippi River for shipping and transportation. In 1802, he instructed James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to negotiate with Napoleon to purchase New Orleans and adjacent coastal areas from France. In early 1803, Jefferson offered Napoleon nearly $10 million for 40,000 square miles of land in the region. Napoleon realized that French military control was impractical over such a vast remote territory, and he needed funds to fight his wars on the home front. In early April 1803, he made a surprising counter-offer to sell 827,987 square miles of French territory for $15 million. U.S. negotiators accepted the offer and signed the treaty on April 30, 1803, although word of the unexpected purchase didn't reach Jefferson until July 3, 1803.
Some in Jefferson's party had reservations about the Constitutional authority of the federal government to acquire land. Jefferson himself initially thought that a Constitutional amendment was necessary to purchase and govern the new territory, but he later changed his mind, fearing that this would give cause this opportunity to be lost. He urged a speedy debate and ratification and on October 20, 1803, the Senate ratified the purchase treaty by a vote of 24–7. After the purchase, Jefferson called for a gradual approach for integrating settlers into his nation.
Jefferson was not done with expansion of his nation. He sought to establish a U.S. claim ahead of competing European interests and in 1804 he persuaded Congress to fund an expedition to explore and map the newly acquired territory to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson appointed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to be leaders of the Corps of Discovery. Jefferson personally tutored Lewis in the sciences of mapping, botany, natural history, mineralogy, and astronomy and navigation, giving him unlimited access to his library at Monticello, where he possessed what was believed to be the largest collection of books on the subject of the geography and natural history of the North American continent, along with a large collection of maps. The expedition lasted from May 1804 to September 1806 and returned with a wealth of scientific and geographic knowledge, including knowledge of many indiginous tribes.
In addition to the Corps of Discovery, Jefferson organized three other western expeditions: the William Dunbar and George Hunter expedition on the Ouachita River (1804–1805), the Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis expedition (1806) on the Red River, and the Zebulon Pike expedition (1806–1807) into the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest. All three produced valuable information about the uncharted frontier.
As President, Jefferson wanted to avert conflict with the indigenous people known as Indian tribes. He adopted an assimilation policy known as his "civilization program". This included securing peaceful treaty alliances and encouraging agriculture. A number of tribes accepted Jefferson's policies, but some members of the Shawnee nation, led by Tecumseh, and opposed Jefferson's assimilation policies. Jefferson told Secretary of War General Henry Dearborn: "If we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down until that tribe is exterminated or driven beyond the Mississippi."
Jefferson's first term was considered successful by his supporters and it led to his re-nomination for president by the Republican party, with George Clinton replacing Aaron Burr as his running mate. The Federalist party ran Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, John Adams' vice presidential candidate in the 1800 election. The Jefferson-Clinton ticket won overwhelmingly in the electoral college vote, by 162 to 14, campaigning on the popularity of a strong economy, lower taxes, and the Louisiana Purchase.
In 1808, Jefferson was the first president to propose a broad Federal plan to build roads and canals across several states, asking for $20 million. This led to a split within his own party, led by fellow Virginian John Randolph. This faction believed in limited government. Jefferson's popularity further suffered in his second term due to his response to wars in Europe. Under Jefferson, relations with Great Britain had suffered due in part to the antipathy between Jefferson and British diplomat Anthony Merry. After Napoleon's decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, Napoleon became more aggressive in his negotiations over trading rights. In response, Jefferson called for the enactment of the Embargo Act of 1807, directed at both France and Great Britain. This turned into an economic disaster in the U.S. Jefferson abandoned the policy a year later.
Another contention issue was the international slave trade, which had been abolished during the revolution. South Carolina had reopened it and in his annual message of December 1806, Jefferson criticized the "violations of human rights" that were a part of the international slave trade. He asked the newly elected Congress to criminalize it immediately. In 1807, Congress passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which Jefferson signed. The act established severe punishment against the international slave trade. The buying and selling of those considered as slaves within the nation continued however.
In his second term, Jefferson sought to annex Florida from Spain. This drew criticism from Randolph, who believed that the purchase money would wind up in the coffers of Napoleon. A bill permitting the purchase was signed into law. However, negotiations for the purchase failed.
In 1804, Aaron Burr was soundly defeated in his bid to be elected New York governor. During the campaign, Alexander Hamilton publicly made remarks critical of Burr's moral character. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, mortally wounding and killing Hamilton on July 11, 1804. Burr was indicted for Hamilton's murder in New York and New Jersey, causing him to flee to Georgia. After the duel, Burr had lost the election and his reputation was ruined. After leaving office in April 1805, Burr traveled west and conspired with Louisiana Territory governor James Wilkinson, to recruit men for a military expedition. Burr and Wilkinson discussed a number of plots, including seizing control of Mexico or Spanish Florida, or forming a secessionist state in New Orleans.
In the fall of 1806, Burr, along with 60 men, traveled down the Ohio River. Wilkinson changed teams and renounced the plot. He reported Burr's expedition to Jefferson, who immediately ordered Burr's arrest.On February 13, 1807, Burr was captured in Louisiana's Bayou Pierre wilderness and sent to Virginia to be tried for treason. Burr's 1807 conspiracy trial attracted national attention. The case was tried before Jefferson's longtime political foe John Marshall, who dismissed the treason charge. Burr's legal team had subpoenaed Jefferson, but Jefferson refused to testify, making the first argument for executive privilege. After a three-month trial, the jury found Burr not guilty. Jefferson publicly denounced the acquittal. Jefferson subsequently removed Wilkinson as territorial governor but retained him in the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, the British conducted raids on American shipping. They kidnapped American sailors in 1806–07 and impressed them into the British naval service. In 1806, Jefferson issued a call for a boycott of British goods; on April 18, Congress passed the Non-Importation Acts, but they were never enforced. Later that year, Jefferson asked James Monroe and William Pinkney to negotiate with Great Britain to end the harassment of American shipping. These negotiations were unsuccessful. The Monroe–Pinkney Treaty was signed, but did not contain any provisions to end impressment, and Jefferson refused to submit it to the Senate for ratification.
When the British ship HMS Leopard fired upon the USS Chesapeake off the Virginia coast in June 1807, Jefferson prepared for war. He issued a proclamation banning armed British ships from U.S. waters. Without congressional approval, he called on the states to prepare 100,000 militia and ordered the purchase of arms, ammunition, and supplies. Jefferson called for a special session of Congress in October to enact an embargo or alternatively to consider war. In December, it was learned that Napoleon had extended the Berlin Decree, globally banning British imports. In Britain, King George III ordered an increase in the impressment practices, including American sailors.
However Congress had no appetite to prepare the U.S. for war. Jefferson asked for and received the Embargo Act, in order to allow the U.S. more time to build up defensive works, militias, and naval forces. Secretary of State James Madison supported the embargo while Treasury Secretary Gallatin opposed it. The U.S. economy suffered because it had no market for its goods. Opponents began evading the embargo. Jefferson sent federal agents to secretly track down smugglers and violators. Congress passed Enforcement acts, but the government could not prevent American vessels from trading with the European belligerents once they had left American ports. Jefferson's embargo was ultimately ineffective and more harmful to American interests. Jefferson saw it as an innovative, nonviolent measure which preserved American neutrality in the European conflict. Jefferson believed that if the embargo had been widely observed, it would have avoided war in 1812.
In December 1807, Jefferson announced his intention not to seek a third term. He turned his attention to his home of Monticello during the last year of his presidency, giving Madison and Gallatin almost total control of the government. Shortly before leaving office in March 1809, Jefferson signed the repeal of the Embargo. The day before Madison was inaugurated as his successor, Jefferson said that he felt like "a prisoner, released from his chains".