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Thomas Jefferson Born: April 13, 1743 Died: July 4, 1826 Political Party: Republican Term 1: 1800-1804 Term 2: 1805-1809 Vice President for Term 1: Aaron Burr Vice President for Term 2: George Clinton

Thomas Jefferson being one of the most active men in our country’s history was a guaranteed candidate for president. Well known for his stanch adherence to the Constitution of our country and for his election being the downfall of the Federalist Party, Thomas Jefferson knew what his people needed. He clearly showed this when he wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He used the ideals that our country was built upon and his own virtues to guide him in his presidency. For the expansion of our country both physically and politically, I would give Thomas Jefferson a B+ for his efforts.

One common theme throughout Jefferson's presidency was //moderation//. He wished to put all people from varying backgrounds on an equal playing field by keeping the democratic principles close at hand. As stated in his inaugural address, he says, "...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." He wished for the Federalist's fall to not cause a big uproar and did everything he could to make it a peaceful transition. Later on in his inaugural speech, he also stated, "We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists." A smaller scale way that Jefferson showed this moderation was through his establishment of the rule of pell-mell during important dinners. Nobody had to sit with regards to their rank. They were all free to sit whereever. Although this was offensive to some, Jefferson stood by his morals. Jefferson also dismissed very few public servants for political reasons and allowed many Federalists to stay.

During his presidency, Jefferson also wanted to correct the things that he deemed as unconstitutional and unjust. In other words, he wanted to clean up the mess that he felt the Federalists had left. After the Alien and Sedition Acts has expired, Jefferson pardoned all that were imprisoned under these acts and withdrew many of the fines. In response to the alien portion of the acts, Congress passed the naturalization law which lowered the residence requirement from fourteen years to five years. In sticking to democratic principles, Jefferson also did away with the excise taxes because he believed that these favored the wealthy too much and were too hard on the farmers. Although this cost the government almost one million dollars a year in profit, it was another step taken towards moderation.

In continuing to "clean up " the mess that John Adams and the Federalists made, Thomas Jefferson took away nearly sixteen benches from the newly seated judges known as "midnight judges". The Jeffersonians wished to repeal the newly instated Judiciary Act of 1801 (one of the last acts passed by the Federalists). One of the judges in particular was very upset about not recieving his commission. His name was William Marbury and he decided to sue for his commission's delivery. Chief Justice John Marshall dismissed the suit and declared it unconstitutional according to the Judiciary Act of 1789. This was an important event that took place during Jefferson's presidency because it promoted the idea of "judicial review", where the Supreme Court had the final say on whether or not something was deemed "unconstitutional".

Jefferson was known to have a fairly good relationship with his Congress. With the overturn of the Federalist party, the seats of Congress were filled primarily with Jeffersonians or people who shared the same democratic views. Although most of the members of Congress were those of the Jeffersonian/Republican party, there were still Federalists that Jefferson allowed to remain in order to keep up his plan for moderation. The support that Jefferson recieved from his Congress was crucial to all of the changes that he made in the time of his presidency. Congress was behind his with full force the majority of the time, which allowed him to accomplish all of the plans that he had set out. This unconditional support was not a good thing all of the time however, as was shown in the passing of the Embargo Act.

Perhaps one of the most memorable accomplishments of the Jefferson presidency is the Louisiana Purchase. Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from the famed and powerful Napoleon Bonaparte for fifteen million dollars. The Louisiana Purchase was an expanse of land that stretched from the Mississippi River all the way to the Rocky Mountains, an expanse of about eight hundred thousand square miles. This enormous tract of land nearly doubled the area of the United States and left it open to settlement and exploration. Perhaps the most memorable expedition was that of Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery. Sent by Thomas Jefferson, they trekked through the entire expanse of the purchase and then some, until they reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean on the west coast. The explorers brought back many detailed maps of the land and useful waterways that could be used for trade and travel. They also made peaceful relations with the Native Americans that they encountered and brought many plant and animal drawings and specimens. This may be one of the biggest impacts in the whole history of the United States and not just the presidency of Thomas Jefferson.

Although the Louisiana Purchase was a notable accomplishment of Jefferson, one act that he passed proved to be not as beneficial. Once Napoleon Bonaparte began rising to power in Europe, war once again broke out between France and Britain. America found itself constantly caught in between, despite its relatively neutral position. Britain and France were constantly seizing American ships that were destined for the other’s ports. Fed up by these acts, Jefferson signed the Embargo Act in 1807. Under this act, American ships were not permitted to sail to foreign ports and foreign vessels were not allowed into American ports under any circumstances. Jefferson passed this act in hopes that it would greatly affect the trade of both France and Britain, but he was wrong. He only wanted to win neutral rights at sea, but this new act proved to be detrimental. It had no effect on Britain and France and caused the American economy to suffer immensely. With nothing coming in and out of U.S. ports, many workers who had sea jobs such as dockworkers, sailors and sea traders found themselves jobless. Merchants who thrived off of foreign trade no longer had a way to make a profit. It also caused all of the farm surpluses to spoil while it sat for extended periods in storage. Although it allowed American domestic manufacturers to flourish because they no longer had to compete with foreign products, the act was widely disliked. Many even began to ignore the boundares of the act and started trading on the Canadian border. Most of the nation was upset by this new and oppressing act and this gave the Federalists room to gain some of their power back. In response to the unpopular reactions of the people, Congress repealed the act in 1809 and replaced it with the less strict Non-Intercourse Act.

It is safe to say that almost all of Jefferson’s acts changed history but some acts stand out more than others. One of the smaller precedents that Jefferson set was that of sending messages to a clerk to be read, instead of making an appearance to read the message himself. Jefferson believed that reading his own messages alluded too much to monarchial power. This tactic was used widely until the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Perhaps a more common decision that Jefferson made that impacted the United States for years to come was the ratifying of the twelfth amendment. Under this amendment, separate ballots are used for the president and the vice president. As in a normal republican government, the majority wins for president unless there is a tie, in which case it is turned over to the House of Representatives and they vote on the top three candidates. The same protocol is used for the vice president if there is a tie, except it goes to the Senate and the top two candidates are voted on. This amendment came about when there was a tie between Jefferson and Burr in the election of 1800, which caused obvious problems. One other very important precedent that Thomas Jefferson set was the handling of the black slaves in the country. In 1807, he signed a bill that abolished any slave trade in the United States. Although slaves were still smuggled in, the numbers were still reduced greatly. Even though he passed this bill, some find it ironic that he himself owned slaves and even had children with one of his female slaves, Sally Hemings.  The country was clearly much better off after Jefferson’s presidency in all aspects except for possibly trade. He doubled the area of the land that the country sat on, providing more room for our country to grow and prosper. Without this land, the United States would still be confined to the area east of the Appalachian Mountains (for the most part). He also built upon the political system that George Washington and John Adams had worked so hard to build. He added to it and made it stronger with such things as judiciary review which helped strengthen the checks and balances system. One of the things that he did that would affect history more at a later date was abolish the slave trade in the United States, which set the ball rolling for the rights for blacks. Overall, Thomas Jefferson deserves a B+ for strengthening and expanding the United States of America.

//Bibliography// [] [] [] [] [] [] [] DeGregorio, William A.. __The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents__. Fort Lee: Barricade Books Inc., 2009. Kennedy, David M., Cohen, Lizabeth, Bailey, Thomas A.. __The American Pageant__. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.