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**Thomas Jefferson ** // April 13, 1743 - July 4, 1826 // // 1st Term of Office: March 1801- March 1805 // // 2nd Term of Office: March 1805-March 1809 // // Vice President 1: Aaron Burr (1801-1805) // // Vice President 2: George Clinton (1805-1809) // Political Party: Democratic Republican Overall Thomas Jefferson deserves an A- for his successes and his failures as a president. He deserves this grade because he had many successful ventures including doubling the size of the United States, which was a major accomplishment but he also had some negative decisions including the embargo he passed from 1807-1809. Because his successes were more numerous and better than his failures or unsuccessful decisions, Thomas Jefferson deserves an A-. After the American Revolution there was a strong need for unity. After the first two presidents, the unity was still not extremely strong and that’s why in Jefferson’s inaugural speech he mainly called for unity among the colonists. This was evident when he said that, “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists”. This was really important at the time because the political powers had just changed from the Federalists to the Republicans and by saying that there was no real separation and everybody was both Federalists and Republicans he calmed the Federalists and created more unity among the colonists by saying that everybody was one. During his first inaugural speech he said that the Federal government had begun to become strong again when government really needs to be run by the majority vote of the people. Not only did he unify people of different political mindsets but he believed that he needed to unify people of different religions. He said that everybody came to America for their religious freedom from Britain and that all religions were tolerated. In his second inaugural speech Jefferson’s main points were about the newly received Louisiana area. Many of the people were worried that by almost doubling the United States, it would space the colonists out too much and this would cause disunity as the distance would cause people to think differently about issues and things of this nature. Jefferson eased these worries by saying that moving west would not cause disunity and that it would relieve much of the worry about attacks from unknown foreign nations. He said that the west should be settled by American brethren and not people from different countries with different beliefs, plus moving west and spacing out he said would relieve some local tensions. Jefferson did overall accomplish his goal by taking away some of the restrictions put on the colonists by Adams, and by allowing the people to move west. He didn’t do much to anger the people and overall he unified the colonists in the now larger country of the United States. Thomas Jefferson and Congress had a very good relationship and a very different relationship than other presidents before and after him. Jefferson wanted to make the role of president almost invisible so to do this he let Congress do their thing while watching and listening. His most obvious skill being his ability to write, Jefferson always gave his annual messages to Congress in paper and did the rest of his dealings the same way. The only two recorded times that Jefferson spoke were when he gave his two inauguration speeches. Jefferson’s good relations with Congress were helped by the fact that both houses of Congress had numerous Anti Federalists and were by far the larger political party. Jefferson worked effectively with Congress. Together they accomplished many things including returning the freedom of the press to the people, downscaled the army and navy, ended internal taxes, and finally he began repaying the national debt. Jefferson in fact worked so well with Congress that he never even vetoed a bill. He was the only two- term president to do this which is incredible. Jefferson accomplished much during his presidency but the Louisiana Purchase was probably the most famous and most positive. In 1803 Jefferson doubled the size of America by buying the entire Louisiana area from Napolean. This area consisted of the present day states Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. He bought this enormous expanse of land for a cheap bargain of three cents and acre. By greatly expanding the United States as well as getting France out of a huge portion of North America, this purchase was the most positive outcome of Jefferson’s administration. The most negative outcome of Jefferson’s administration was by far the Embargo between 1807 and 1809. As the United States began trading with Britain, France would attack and loot the ships to keep them from getting to Britain. The British also did the same to American trading ships going to France. Jefferson had to figure out how to get the countries to stop attacking America’s ships. Because the embargo had worked so well against the British, he decided to use it again and didn’t allow any foreign trade. Unfortunately for the United States, the European nations were able to do well under this lack of trade from America. America, on the other hand didn’t fare so well. The embargo cost the jobs of many people who had been employed as dockhands and other jobs solely related to the trading industry. The embargo was extremely unpopular among the colonists because it “crippled the economy without accomplishing its original goal.” This was easily the worst decision during the Jefferson administration and was the main reason for discontent of the colonists under his presidency. Jefferson made many decisions that ultimately affected future presidents, future governments, and future Americans. One of the biggest things that affected future generations was when he established the precedent of executive privilege. Executive privilege is the right of the president to withhold information from Congress or the courts. Jefferson established this when he was subpoenaed to testify at the Aaron Burr trial and bring papers that had to do with the case. By electing not to appear and by only releasing information that he wanted released he established the executive president. This was a huge step and impacted many future generations because just about all the presidents since then have used it to withhold certain information that they didn’t want to be know by the courts, by the press or by the Congress. By not attending the trial and not releasing the papers, Jefferson set the tone and showed how executive precedent can be used. The United States of America were definitely better off after the presidency of Thomas Jefferson because of the important things that he accomplished during his administration. Because of the Louisiana Purchase, the banning of importation of slaves, the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the Tripoli War Jefferson made the lives of Americans better and impacted the future America for the better. He deserves an A- for his presidency because he helped America take big leaps of growth and prosperity, but at the same time he hurt the economy by passing the embargo. His accomplishments greatly outweigh his failures which is why he deserves the A-. Works Cited:


 * Degregorio, William A.. //The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Seventh Edition (Complete Book of Us Presidents)//. 7 ed. Fort Lee: Barricade Books, 2009. Print.
 * "executive privilege legal definition of executive privilege. executive privilege synonyms by the Free Online Law Dictionary.." //Legal Dictionary//. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2010. .
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 * "Thomas Jefferson Biography - life, family, death, history, wife, young, son, old, information, born, college, house, time." //Encyclopedia of World Biography//. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2010. .