Thomas Jefferson

I

4

Election of 1800

The Republicans again nominated Jefferson for president in 1800. For vice president they nominated Aaron Burr, who had built up a strong Republican following in New York state. President Adams and Charles C. Pinckney of South Carolina were the Federalist candidates.

The Federalists campaigned against Jefferson as an infidel who would destroy religion and set up the Goddess of Reason in its place, as extremists in the French Revolution had attempted to do. However, the political tide in the United States was swinging away from the aristocratic Federalists to those advocating a more democratic form of government, and the Republicans won a clear victory. Jefferson and Burr each polled 73 electoral votes. Adams, hampered by the opposition of Hamilton, came next with 65 votes.

The tie in the electoral vote caused one of the gravest crises in American constitutional history. The electors, in voting for Jefferson or Burr, had not specified whether their vote was for president or vice president. Therefore, despite his being his party's vice presidential candidate, Burr had as many votes for the office of president as Jefferson had.

The Constitution provides that in case no candidate in a presidential election wins a majority of the electoral votes, the election must go to the House of Representatives, where each state has one vote. To win, Jefferson or Burr had to have the support of a majority of the 16 states. To further complicate matters, this was a lame-duck Congress, meaning that many of its members had been defeated in the recent election and were in office only because their terms had not expired. Congress was dominated by Federalists who had to choose between two Republican candidates. From February 11, when the voting began, to February 16, neither Jefferson nor Burr could win the required nine states. Because he disliked Burr even more than he did Jefferson, Hamilton favored Jefferson, but most Federalists abhorred Jefferson. The crisis was resolved when a group of Federalists, led by James A. Bayard of Delaware, came to the realization that if an orderly transfer of government power was to be achieved, the majority party must have its choice as president. Therefore, on February 17 the deadlock was broken. On the 36th ballot, Jefferson won the support of ten states and was elected president. Burr, who had the support of only four states, became vice president.

---

---

As a result of this election, the 12th Amendment was added to the Constitution. This amendment specified that electors were to “name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as vice president.”

IV

President of the United States

Jefferson was inaugurated on March 4, 1801, the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. Dressed in plain, dark clothes, he walked from his boarding house to the chambers of the Senate of the United States in the still-uncompleted Capitol building, where he was to give his inaugural address. Jefferson was accompanied by a small crowd of people and a company of artillery. The outgoing president, John Adams, considered Jefferson a dangerous radical and did not attend the inauguration.

Jefferson's inaugural address, one of a small number of truly memorable addresses by presidents of the United States, attempted to dispel the notion held by many conservatives that democracy would lead to mob rule and anarchy. “The will of the majority in all cases is to prevail,” Jefferson said. However, “the minority possess their equal rights which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.” Jefferson sought also to unite the country. “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists,” he proclaimed. Furthermore, his program was moderate enough to win the support of both parties.

A

New Domestic Policies

Nevertheless, President Jefferson did reverse some Federalist programs. Both he and his secretary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin, felt that a national debt was undesirable. By cutting certain appropriations, especially for the army and navy, they balanced the budget and reduced the debt. Jefferson also made good a Republican campaign promise to repeal internal duties. This was greeted with approval in the West, where in 1794, Washington had had to use force to collect a hated excise tax on whiskey.

B

Marbury v. Madison

During his last days in office President John Adams was determined to ensure Federalist control of the judiciary. The lame-duck Congress had obliged by creating 16 new circuit courts and permitting Adams to appoint as many justices of the peace for the District of Columbia as he felt necessary. In all, about 200 offices were created and filled by loyal Federalists. In addition, Adams appointed his secretary of state, John Marshall, a Federalist from Virginia, to be chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Jefferson, terming these “midnight appointments” an “outrage in decency,” succeeded in having the circuit judgeships abolished. He also reduced the number of justices of the peace from 42 to 30. Furthermore, Jefferson ordered his secretary of state, James Madison, to withhold those commissions that had not yet been delivered. One of Adams's appointees, William Marbury, brought a suit in the Supreme Court for a writ to compel Madison to deliver his commission. In 1803 Chief Justice Marshall ruled that the section of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that authorized the Court to issue such a writ was unconstitutional and that, although Marbury was entitled to his commission, the Supreme Court could not force Madison to give it to him. Thus Marshall established the doctrine of judicial review, whereby the Supreme Court has the power to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.

C

Assault on Judiciary

During his first term as president, Jefferson attempted to replace Federalist officeholders with Republicans. He especially wanted to end the Federalists' control of the judiciary. In 1804 John Pickering, a district judge from New Hampshire, was impeached and removed from office because of insanity. A more formidable opponent was Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase. An outspoken Federalist, Chase often made scathing attacks from the bench on Jefferson and the Republican Party. In 1805 he was impeached and tried before the Senate. Just before Jefferson began his second term, Chase was acquitted. Thereafter, Jefferson resigned himself to an unelected and independent judiciary controlled by the Federalists.

	More from Encarta
	•  7 tips for funding an online degree •  How to succeed in the fashion industry without being a top designer •  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain