Chapter 11
The Trials and Travails of the
Jeffersonian Republic
Part 2
•Jefferson
pardoned
those serving
under The
Sedition Act.
Jeffersonian Restraint
•In 1802, he enacted a
new law that returned
the years needed for
an immigrant to
become a citizen from
14 to 5.
•He also immediately got rid
of the excise tax, but
otherwise left the
Hamiltonian system intact.
•Albert Gallatin, new secretary of the treasury,
reduced the national debt substantially while
balancing the budget.
•By shrewdly absorbing the major Federalist
programs and practically leaving them all
intact, T.J. showed that a change of regime need
not be disastrous for the exiting group.
The “Dead Clutch” of the Judiciary
•However, despite his principles, Jefferson quickly realized how difficult it was to
stick to them once in office, and he often found himself reversing his stand on
several political issues that he had previously championed on becoming
President.
•The Judiciary Act, passed by the Federalists in their last days of Congressional
domination in 1801, created judgeships with Federalist-backing men, to prolong
their legacy.
•Jefferson and his followers opposed John Adams’ last-minute appointment
of new federal judges mainly because it was an obvious attempt by a
defeated party to entrench itself in the government.
•In 1804, Jefferson tried to impeach the Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase,
but when the vote got to the Senate, there were not enough votes, and to this day,
no attempt to alter the Supreme Court has ever been tried through impeachment.
•The significance of that case is that judicial independence and the
separation of powers had been preserved.
John Marshall (aka MISTER Chief
Justice, Himself)
• The Chief Justice who carried out, more than
any other official, the ideas of Alexander
Hamilton concerning a powerful federal
government was John Marshall, a lifelong
Federalist.
• John Marshall, as chief justice, helped to
strengthen the judicial branch by asserting
the doctrine of judicial review – the Supreme
Court’s power to declare the constitutionality
(or lack thereof) of congressional legislation.
• The case of Marbury vs. Madison involved
the question of who had the right to declare
an act of Congress unconstitutional.
Jefferson, a Reluctant Warrior
Jefferson had a natural fear
of a large, strong, standing
military, fearing that such a
military could be turned on
the people. So, he reduced
the militia to 2,500 men, and
navies were reduced back to
peacetime footing.
The gunboats used in the
Tripolitan War fascinated
Jefferson, and he spent money
to build about 200 of them.
Since they were small, but
unable to fight against large
ships, however, it showed
building them to be a poor
decision (the “mosquito fleet”).
However, the pirates of the North
African Barbary States were still
looting U.S. ships, and in 1801, the
pasha of Tripoli indirectly declared war
when he cut down the flagstaff of the
American consulate.
Thus, Jefferson, in his first major
foreign policy decision, reluctantly
send the infant navy to the
Mediterranean Sea off the shores of
Tripoli. There fighting continued with
the North African pirates for four years
until Jefferson succeeded in obtaining
a treaty of peace from Tripoli in 1805
for $60,000.
The Louisiana Godsend
In 1800, Napoleon secretly induced
the king of Spain to cede the
Louisiana territory to France.
Then, in 1802, Spaniards at New
Orleans withdrew the right of deposit
guaranteed by the Pinckney Treaty
of 1795. Such deposit privileges
were vital to the frontier farmers who
floated their goods down the
Mississippi River to its mouth to
await oceangoing vessels. In fact,
they talked of marching on New
Orleans which would’ve plunged the
U.S. into a war with Spain and
France.
•So, in 1803, Jefferson sent James
Monroe and Robert Livingston to
France to attempt to buy New Orleans
and as much land to the east of the
river for a total of $10 million, tops.
•Instead, Napoleon offered to sell New
Orleans and the land west of it,
Louisiana, for only $15 million, thereby
abandoning his dream of a French
North American Empire. America
quickly accepted the incredible deal!
Why would Napoleon, the greatest conqueror of modern
times, acquiesce to the infant United States?
• Napoleon’s decision to
sell Louisiana was
because:
- He needed cash to renew his war
with Britain.
- The failure to quell the revolution
in Santo Domingo (Haiti) led by
Toussaint L’Ouverture - which
had failed due to the decimation
of his troops by yellow fever.
- He hoped that the territory would
one day help America to thwart
the expansionist ambitions of
the British.
- Ultimately, he did not want to drive
America into the arms of
Britain.
Touissant L’Ouverture: The Caribbean George Washington
Louisiana in the Long View
•The expedition yielded:
The purchase created a
mindset of acquisition of foreign
territory through purchase.
In the spring of 1804, Jefferson
sent William Clark and
Meriwether Lewis to explore all
the way to Oregon and the
Pacific. Along with a Shoshoni
woman named Sacajawea, the
two spent 2 1/2 years exploring
the new territory, where they
marveled at the expanses of
buffalo, elk, deer, antelope,
and the landscape.
-a rich harvest of scientific
observations.
-maps of the previously
uncharted territory.
-knowledge of the Indians of
the region.
-and hair-raising adventure
stories.
•Other explorers, like Zebulon
Pike, trekked to the
headwaters of the Mississippi
River in 1805-06 and ventured
to the southern portion of
Louisiana, Spanish land in the
Southwest, and sighted what
came to be known as Pike’s
Peak.
Lewis & Clark Expedition
Meriwether Lewis is……Coach K!
The Aaron Burr Conspiracies
•Aaron Burr, Jefferson’s firstterm vice president, had
been dropped from the
cabinet in Jefferson’s second
term. Incredibly, Burr
joined with a group of
Federalist extremists to
plot the secession of New
England and New York
from the United States!
•Alexander Hamilton, though
no friend of Jefferson,
exposed and foiled the
conspiracy. Incensed, Burr
challenged Hamilton to a
duel and killed him, blowing
out the brightest mind of the
remaining Federalist party.
In 1806, Burr was arrested for
treason, but the necessary
two witnesses were nowhere
to be found.
The Louisiana Purchase
ultimately nurtured a deep
sense of loyalty among the
West to the federal
government, and a new spirit
of nationalism surged through