Jeffersonian Era
Age of Jefferson
Only a few American presidents have had historical periods named for them with Thomas Jefferson being the first because of how his words and deeds impacted the country. Jefferson is still most remembered for his primary authorship of the Declaration of Independence but he was also the first Secretary of State, the second Vice President, third President, and a critical early benefactor of both the Library of Congress and the University of Virginia. Jefferson articulated critical and enduring views of liberty and American governance while simultaneously managing a Virginia plantation worked by over 100 hundred enslaved persons at most points in his adult life, with Jefferson owning 600 enslaved persons over the course of his lifetime. By the end of his presidency in March 1809, and his life on July 4, 1826, the early republic that he helped shape was much larger in terms of territory and population, and was being profoundly transformed economically, politically, and socially both by Jefferson and by those who opposed his government and policies.
Peaceful transfer of power
The bitterly contested election of 1800 between President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson remains unique in American history. This was the first true rematch where the respective presidential nominees faced each other a second time and this remains the only presidential election in which the sitting president ran against his sitting vice president. This was also the last presidential election in which the candidates for president and vice president were not clearly delineated; in the election of 1800, Jefferson and Aaron Burr both received 73 electoral votes, forcing the House of Representatives to settle this tie. To forestall recurrences of this potentially destructive outcome, the 12th amendment to the Constitution was ratified, requiring the specification of candidates for the respective offices of president and vice president.
Once the House of Representatives selected Jefferson as president, due in no small part to the urging of his rival Alexander Hamilton, the country waited for signs of how Jefferson would govern. Federalists feared the imposition of a vengeful Republican regime intent on removing all Federalists from national administrative posts. Jefferson sought to allay the country’s fears of prospective political violence in his first inaugural address, emphasizing unity and respect for legal and constitutional processes.
Thomas Jefferson, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
While Jefferson’s pledge to respect political differences and conduct his presidency without seeking revenge against political opponents assuaged some concerns, this was the first peaceful transition of power between political parties in the United States; indeed, there were few relevant, much less recent, international examples from which the American government could take guidance.
Republican governing principles
During Jefferson’s first term, he largely adhered to the Republican governing principles that he had proclaimed in the 1790s. Concerned with what he considered to be excessive growth of the federal government during the later 1790s, Jefferson and Congress reduced federal spending during the first years of his presidency, but in 1803, Jefferson seemingly reversed course from his previous strict constructionism of the early 1790s, most prevalent in his opposition to the First National Bank of the United States. During the course of negotiations with representatives of Napoleon Bonaparte’s government in France over New Orleans, the United States was presented with the tantalizing prospect of acquiring France’s territory west of the Mississippi River. While the Constitution does not expressly authorize Congress purchasing additional lands from foreign countries, Jefferson concluded that his treaty-making authority in the Constitution would conceivably permit the United States to buy the Louisiana Territory from France if the Senate ratified the appropriate treaty. In October 1803, the Senate ratified the treaty by a vote of 24-7, authorizing the Louisiana Purchase which essentially doubled the territorial expanse of the United States.
Jefferson confronted significant foreign policy challenges during his presidency, including the prospect of renewed conflict with France and Great Britain and demonstration of American resolve with the Barbary pirates of North Africa. With the successful conclusion of the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson dispatched explorers Merriwether Lewis and William Clark to survey the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, to develop detailed maps of the territory, to send back plant and animal specimens for scientific research, and to report on the indigenous peoples who lived in these areas and to direct their respective leaders to come to Washington DC to demonstrate their goodwill towards the United States.
The prospective confrontations with the British and the French were the most immediately concerning for the United States, particularly in the wake of the humiliating Leopard incident in which the British ship the HMS Leopard attacked the USS Chesapeake off the coast of Virginia in June 1807. British naval commanders insisted that several crew members of the Chesapeake were deserters from the British navy and after a brief battle that killed 3 Americans and wounded nearly 20 more, the British boarded the Chesapeake and seized the suspected deserters and impressed them back into British military service. Jefferson was incensed by this brazen British attack but concluded that the United States could not afford war with either Britain or France, particularly at a time when the US navy was fighting North African mercenary forces, the aforementioned Barbary pirates, demanding increased tribute for safe passage in the Mediterranean Sea. The Jefferson administration and Congress sought to end British and French attempts at coercing the United States into supporting them in their war by imposing a strict embargo on all US international trade, both exports and imports. The embargo, intended to protect American neutrality and shipping rights, unfortunately hurt US merchants and shippers, especially in New England, led to significant criticism of the Jefferson administration, and did not fully end the British and French policies of impressment. Furthermore, in a seeming reversal of his previous opposition to the Sedition Act of 1798, President Jefferson urged sympathetic state legislatures and governments to prosecute newspaper editors and publishers who openly criticized enforcement of the embargo. Jefferson and his supporters relied upon the argument that the First Amendment prohibits Congress from outlawing free speech but does not apply to state governments; in recent decades, the courts have consistently held that all levels of government are bound by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.