The Triumphs and Travails of
Jeffersonian Democracy
1800-1812
Timid men…prefer the calm of despotism to the
boisterous sea of liberty-Thomas Jefferson, 1796
Federalist and Republican
Mudslingers
• The presidential election
of 1800 would prove to be
a decisive mark in
American history.
• The Hamiltonian wing of
the Federalists party,
robbed of its glorious war
with France, split openly
with President Adams.
Their feverish war
preparations had
enlarged the public debt,
enlarged taxes, in order
to prepare for a navy that
did not fight.
Hamilton
• Adams has been called
ironically, as the “Father of the
American Navy,” though it was
Hamilton’s radical wing of the
Federalists that pushed it
through.
• The Federalists accused
Jefferson of having fathered
numerous mulatto children by
his own slave women.
• Many religious communities
throughout New England, and
the Congregational church
feared Jefferson to turn his
back on America’s religious
foundations. Though Jefferson
believed in God, he was very
much in favor of a separation
of church and state.
The Jeffersonian “Revolution of
1800”
Aaron Burr
• Jefferson won the election of 1800
thus empowering his Republicans.
• Jefferson’s vice president, Aaron
Burr almost won the election by
way of a technicality. Receiving the
same amount of electoral votes, he
was technically tied with Jefferson.
According to the Constitution, a tie
throws the vote into the House of
Representatives. The house,
holding many Federalists, voted for
Burr. Enough votes were given to
Jefferson, that he won. Today, the
12th Amendment forbids this to
happen.
• Jefferson referred to this
election as a “revolution”
comparable to that of
1776 in that there was a
peaceful transfer of
powers between two
opposing political parties.
This set the groundwork
that a true republic could
work.
The Federalist Finale
• John Adams was the only
Federalist president. His
party disappeared by the
time of Andrew Jackson.
• Though the Federalists
lost power, they left a
strong and glowing legacy:
treaties were made with
England, Spain, and
France, peace was kept
during the early years of
the nation.
• Henry Adams, greatgrandson of John Adams
stated of the Federalists that
they were the, ‘“half-way”
house between the
European past and the
American future.” The
federalists strengthened the
roll of the central
government, promoted
business, established a
strong currency, and
launched the new nation into
a lasting republic.
• But by 1800, the Federalists
were unable or unwilling to
unbend and appeal to the
common people.
Henry Adams
Responsibility Breeds Moderation
• Jefferson was inaugurated as
president on March 4, 1801 in the
newly established capital of
Washington D.C.
• Jefferson did not believe that the
pomp and ceremony of the
inauguration fit in with his
democratic ideals. He chose to
walk to the Capitol instead of a
horse-drawn coach.
• Jefferson stated in his inaugural
address, “The will of the majority
is in all cases to prevail. That will
to be rightful must be reasonable;
the minority possess their equal
rights, which equal law must
protect, and to violate would be
oppression.”
Washington D.C. in 1801
• Seeking to ally the Federalists
he also stated, “We are all
Republicans, we are all
Federalists.”
• As for foreign affairs, he
pledged “honest friendship
with all nations, entangling
alliances with none.”
• Jefferson started the tradition,
until Woodrow Wilson 112
years later, of sending
messages to Congress as
opposed to personal
appearances. This suggested
a monarchial speech from the
throne.
• Jefferson dismissed few public
servants for political reasons.
continued
• The Republicans were to later
recharter a bigger bank and
boosted the tariffs to a higher
level.
• Jefferson’s moderation further
cemented the gains of the
“Revolution of 1800.”
• By absorbing the major
Federalist programs, Jefferson
showed that a change of
regime need not be disastrous
for the defeated group. This
pointed the way to the twoparty system that was later to
become a characteristic
feature of American Politics.
The Two-Party System
Jeffersonian Restraint Helps to
Further a “Revolution”
• Jefferson almost immediately tried
to undo the Federalist abuses of the
Alien and Sedition Acts. He
pardoned those who were serving
sentences under the Sedition Act
and had Congress reduce the
residency requirements from 14 to 5
years in order to become a citizen.
• Jefferson had Congress repeal the
Federalist excise tax (whisky).
• Jefferson’s secretary of the
treasury, Albert Gallatin, believed
as did Jefferson that a national debt
was not an asset but a liability.
Except for the excise tax and the
Alien and Sedition Acts, the
Jeffersonians left the Hamiltonian
framework essentially intact.
Bank of the United States
• Jefferson did not tamper
with the Federalist programs
for funding the national debt
at par and assuming the
Revolutionary war debts of
the states.
• Jefferson did not get rid of
the Bank of the United
States, in which he fought,
nor did he repeal the mildly
protective Federalist tariff.
The “Dead Clutch” of the Judiciary
• The Judiciary Act of 1801 was
one of the last important laws
passed by the Federalist
Congress. It created sixteen new
federal judgeships and other
judicial offices. The “midnight
judges” were those Federalists
(actually three) who were
assigned to judgeships the night
ending Adams last day.
• this “packing” of the court was
the Federalists last attempt of
choosing anti-Jeffersonian lifetime
justices.
• The newly elected Republican
congress began to repeal the
Judiciary Act of 1801, thus ending
sixteen judgeships.
Marshall-one of the “Midnight
Judges”
• John Marshall, one of the
Federalists appointees, became the
Chief Justice of the United States.
Marshall shaped the American legal
tradition more profoundly than any
other single figure. He established
the concept of national supremacy
and judicial review (the right of the
court to declare an act of Congress
to be unconstitutional).
• In the case of Marbury v. Madison,
Chief Justice John Marshall declared
the Judiciary Act of 1789 to be
unconstitutional, thus establishing
Judicial Review. This act also
overruled Jefferson’s Kentucky
resolutions of 1798 (state
supremacy).
continued
• Jefferson urged the impeachment of
Supreme Court justice, Samuel
Chase. Impeachment charges were
voted on by the House of
Representatives, which then passed
the decision of guilt or innocence on
to the Senate. The indictment by the
House had to be based upon “high
crimes and misdemeanors,” as
specified in the Constitution.”
• The Senate failed to get enough
votes to be removed.
• This victory for the judiciary set the
precedence of an independent
judiciary and for the separation of
powers among the three branches
of the federal government.
Samuel Chase
•
The Pacifist Jefferson Turns
Jefferson distrusted large Warrior
Barbary Pirates
standing armies since they had
the tendency to lead to
dictatorship.
• The Republicans were still
primarily agrarians and
Jefferson saw little point in
protecting a few Federalist
shippers with a costly fleet.
• The Barbary Pirates of North
Africa were demanding
protection payments for
American shipping in the
Mediterranean Sea. Jefferson
dispatched his infant navy to the
“shores of Tripoli,” as sung in the
song of the U.S. Marine Corps.
• After four years of fighting a
peace treaty from Tripoli was
made in 1805.
• Jefferson, who had pledged tax
reduction, created a fleet of
small-sized gunboats. Known
as the “Jeff” or “mosquito fleet,”
they proved of little value in the
up coming war of 1812.
Gunboats
The Louisiana Godsend
• In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte pressured
Spain to cede to France the immense
trans-Mississippi region of Louisiana,
including the New Orleans area.
• This was confirmed when Spain in 1802
withdrew the right of deposit guaranteed
America by the Pinckney Treaty of 1795.
• Jefferson sent James Monroe to meet
with Robert R. Livingston, already an
American Ambassador to France, to
offer $10 million for New Orleans. If
these negotiations failed, they were to
negotiate an alliance with England.
• Jefferson stated, “The day that France
takes possession of New Orleans, we
must marry ourselves to the British
fleet and nation.” Jefferson was
proposing to make an alliance with his
old foe England against his old friend
France.
Monroe
Livingston
• Napoleon failed to reconquer the sugarrich island of Santo Domingo for which
Louisiana was to serve as a source of
food. Ex-slaves led by Toussaint
L’Ouverture and a serious mosquito
problem carrying yellow fever, caused
Napoleon to sell Louisiana to America.
• Napoleon hoped that America would
become strong enough to repel Britain
in word dominance
• April 30, 1803, the United States bought
Louisiana for about $15 million. This
doubled the size of the United States.
• Jefferson wrestled with the
Constitutionality of purchasing this land.
• In 1804, Jefferson sent his personal
secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and a
young army officer named William Clark
to explore the Louisiana Purchase.
Signing the Louisiana
Purchase
Louisiana in the Long View
• Purchasing Louisiana, allowed the great
agrarian republic to have elbowroom
in the vast “Valley of Democracy.” This
also began a tradition of acquiring
foreign territory and peoples by
purchase.
• Other explorers such as Zebulon M.
Pike trekked to the headwaters of the
Mississippi River in 1805-1806. In 1807,
he ventured into the southern portion of
the Louisiana territory and sighted the
Colorado peak that bears his name
(Pike’s Peak).
• The Louisiana purchase boosted
national unity. The Federalists sank
lower in public esteem.
Zebulon M. Pike
• A few Federalists plotted with
Aaron Burr for the secession of
New England and New York.
The plan failed due to the
resistance of Alexander
Hamilton. Being provoked to a
duel, Burr killed Hamilton.
• Burr then plotted secession
strategy for the transMississippi West and was
arrested in 1806. He apparently
was planning to unite this land
with the to-be-conquered
Spanish territory west of the
Louisiana Purchase. The plan
failed showing the growing
unity of the West to the federal
government.
• A new spirit of nationalism
emerged throughout the West.
America: A Nutcrackered Neutral
• Jefferson was overwhelmingly re-elected
in 1804.
• For a time, America enjoyed a neutrality
of the seas. A setback came at the Battle
of Trafalgar. British Horatio Lord Nelson
smashed both the French and Spanish
fleets off the coast of Spain. This gave
Britain dominance of the seas. Napoleon
became the victor by land.
• Britain issued a series of Orders in
Council. These edicts closed the ports
to foreign shipping, including American
ships, unless they first stopped at a
British port. Napoleon struck back
ordering the seizure of all merchant
ships, including American ships that
entered British ports. Britain and France
were using these rules to get back at the
other. America was caught in the middle.
Start of the Battle
End of the Battle
• Britain was using a long standing
procedure of conscription (draft
into a war) by impressing United
States Sailors. These “piratical
man-stealers” from England
impressed some 6,000 American
sailors.
• When the British frigate (war
ship) captured the Chesapeake
(American war ship), a war cry
went up among infuriated
Americans.
Jefferson” Backfiring Embargo
• Due to Jefferson’s antinavalism,
the navy was weak and the army
was even weaker. Warring
nations of Europe depended upon
the United States for raw
materials and foodstuffs.
• With Jefferson’s encouragement,
Congress passed the Embargo
Act in 1807.This law forbade the
export of all goods from the
United States.
• The Embargo Act backfired as it
hurt New England trade as well as
the economy of the South and
West. An enormous illegal trade
exploded in 1808 along the
Canadian border.
• New England began talk of succession.
Congress repealed the embargo and
substituted the Non-Intercourse Act.
This reopened trade with all nations of the
world except England and France. This
again, hurt America more than the French
or British. Overabundance of grain crops
were harvested in Britain and the
revolutionary Latin American republics
opened their ports for trade. Jefferson
could have built a navy for the cost of the
Embargo and Non-Intercourse acts, thus
possibly preventing the War of 1812.
• The Federalist Party was revived!
• Interesting enough, with shipping tied up
and imported goods scarce, the
resourceful Yankees (New Englanders)
reopened old factories and erected new
ones. This began Americas foundations of
modern industrialization.
• British merchants pressured Britain to end
the Orders in Council
Jefferson’s Legacy
• Jefferson retained much of his
popularity in spite of the embargo acts.
• He refused to run for a third term
feeling that it would set a precedent for
dictatorship. Jefferson was the true
father of the two-term presidential
tradition. (the Twenty-Second
Amendment to the Constitution would
make a two-term presidency
mandatory. This was enacted after
World War II).
• Jefferson and Adams died on the same
day-the Fourth of July, 1826. Jefferson
died first and then Adams. Adams last
words were, “Thomas Jefferson still
survives.”
Madison: Dupe of Napoleon
• James Madison took the oath of
presidency on March 4, 1809.
• Congress attempting to uphold
American rights, adopted in 1810
Macon’s Bill No. 2. While permitting
American trade with all the world, it
bargained with England and France.
If either one would repeal it
commercial restrictions, America
would restore nonimportation against
the nonrepealing nation. America
would bribe the nations.
• Napoleon made the move first. He
removed French restrictions.
Madison was now bound to make a
tie to France. Napoleon had no
intention of repealing the restrictions.
War Whoops Arouse the War
Hawks
• The Twelfth Congress of 1810, was
composed of youthful newcomers-”the
boys” primarily from the South and
West. Their generation had not seen
war and they were eager for one.
• Henry Clay of Kentucky won control of
the House of Representatives. He
represented the “war hawks” who
wanted war “Free Trade and Sailors’
Rights,” as well as free land. This new
group of war hawks were outraged by
the impressment of American sailors
and by the British Orders in Council
which halted their agricultural products
from shipment to Europe.
• The war hawks were also eager to wipe
out a dangerously renewed Indian
threat to the pioneer settlers.
Henry Clay
• Two Shawnee brothers,
Tecumseh and the Prophet
formed a powerful
confederacy of all the tribes
east of the Mississippi. They
also urged their followers to
give up textile clothing in
exchange for traditional
buckskin garments.
• Tecumseh argued that
Indians should not recognize
whites’ concept of
“ownership” of land. No
Indian should cede control of
land to whites unless all
Indians agreed.
Tecumseh
Prophet
continued
• The war-haws in Congress were
convinced that the British were aiding the
Indians. American general William Henry
Harrison attacked Tecumseh’s
headquarters at Tippecanoe (Indiana) on
November 7, 1811. He burned it to the
ground. He would be remembered as “Old
Tippecanoe.”
• Tecumseh was killed in 1813 at the Battle
of the Thames. This ended the Indian
confederacy.
• In the South, Andrew Jackson inflicted a
similar defeat on the Creek Indians at the
Battle of Horseshoe Bend (Alabama) on
March 27, 1814.
• These victories effectively stopped Indian
resistance to white expansion east of the
Mississippi. Settlers could now go into the
Ohio country and the southwestern
frontier.
Harrison
Jackson
• War Hawks in Congress felt it necessary
to wipe out the Indians Canadian base.
“On to Canada” was the war cry.
• The Southern expansionists, less vocal,
however was looking at Florida which
was weakly held by Spain.
• The militant war hawks, with some
support from other sections, declared
war in June 1812, thus The War of
1812.
• Representatives from the pro-British
maritime and commercial centers, as
well as from the middle Atlantic states,
almost solidly opposed hostilities.
Ironically, the West and Southwest,
launched a war primarily upon the seafronting East-a war for a free sea that
the East did not want.
• The New England and Middle Atlantic
states felt that war would hurt trade even
further.
Some War Hawks
“Mr. Madison’s War”
• Why did the new Congress want war
with Britain and not France?
– The traditional Republican
attachment to France
– The British impressments
– British arming of Indians
– Canada was a tempting prize for
those in the frontier
• England repealed the Orders in
Council two days before Congress
voted for war. Because
communication was slow, the
message did not arrive in time.
• New Englanders did not want war:
– Impressment was exaggerated
– New England shippers and
manufacturers were still making
money
– Pro-British Federalists were still
strong in the Northeast
– They opposed the acquisition of
Canada which would add more
agrarian states from the wild
Northwest. This would increase the
voting strength of the Jeffersonian
Republicans.
– New England lent money, supplies,
and foodstuffs to Canada enabling
British armies to invade New York
– New England governors refused to
permit their militia to serve outside
their own states.