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.

D.

War with Tripoli

Jefferson had long opposed paying tribute to protect American shipping from the pirates who operated from the Barbary states on the coast of northern Africa. As diplomatic representative to France he had tried but failed to persuade European countries to join with the United States in an attack on the pirate bases.

In 1801 the pasha (ruler) of Tripoli, one of the Barbary states (in what is now Libya), demanded tribute money beyond the amount fixed by treaty. When Jefferson refused the demand, war ensued. Jefferson sent warships to blockade Tripoli, and Stephen Decatur, a young naval officer, distinguished himself in several daring actions. However, the war with Tripoli did not end until 1805, when Captain William Eaton captured the Tripolitan town of Darnah and the pasha agreed to make peace. The payment of tribute to Tripoli came to an end. However, the United States continued to have trouble with pirates from other Barbary states.

E.

Louisiana Purchase

Jefferson's chief accomplishment as president was the Louisiana Purchase. The huge territory of Louisiane (in English, Louisiana), stretching from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, was claimed as a possession by France in 1682. Because Louisiana was so large, its resources—although as yet mostly undiscovered—were thought to be of great value.

In the early years of the United States, Louisiana was of concern chiefly because it bordered the Mississippi River, which was vital to U.S. trade. In 1762 France had ceded Louisiana to Spain, which was too weak to offer a serious threat to American commerce. In 1800, however, rumors spread that Spain was about to cede Louisiana back to France. Jefferson was alarmed. Relations between the United States and France were still unfriendly, and France had the power to cut off American shipping at Louisiana's capital, New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi. There was, said Jefferson, “one single spot” on the globe, “the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans through which the produce of three-eighths of our territory must pass to market.”

In 1802 the rumored cession was confirmed. Jefferson called the resulting crisis “the most important the United States have ever met since independence.” He sent James Monroe to help Robert R. Livingston, the American diplomatic representative to France, negotiate the purchase of New Orleans. Congress appropriated $2 million for the purchase.

In April 1803, one day before Monroe arrived in Paris, Talleyrand made Livingston a startling offer. The French emperor, Napoleon I, was willing to sell not only New Orleans, he said, but the whole of Louisiana as well. A treaty dated April 30, 1803, set the terms of the purchase: $15 million, which included $3.75 million to pay for American claims against France.

At the end of June, news of the treaty reached the United States. Jefferson was very eager to acquire the entire territory, but, viewing it from his strict-construction point of view, he questioned whether the Constitution permitted such a purchase. He wanted to amend the Constitution to make the transaction clearly legal.

Very soon, however, Jefferson changed his mind about waiting for an amendment. His envoys in France wrote that Napoleon already regretted his offer and might back out if given time. Furthermore, many Federalists opposed the purchase and were ready to seize on Jefferson's own doubts about its constitutionality to prevent its ratification. Jefferson therefore asked the Senate to ratify the treaty at once. The Senate did so on October 20, although every Federalist voted against it.

It then appeared that Spain, which had not yet actually turned over Louisiana to France, might challenge the purchase. Jefferson proceeded swiftly and firmly to establish American rights. He ordered out troops from the Mississippi Territory, Tennessee, and Kentucky. This show of force discouraged Spanish resistance, and Spain formally ceded Louisiana to France. On December 20, 1803, the flag of the United States flew over New Orleans.

F.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

Jefferson had dreamed of the exploration of the West from the time he was secretary of state. As a scientist he wanted to know about the land and its inhabitants. He realized the importance of such exploration for the future expansion of the United States.

In January 1803, half a year before the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson proposed his idea to Congress. In order to conceal its expansionist aims from England, France, and Spain, he suggested that the journey be presented as a “literary pursuit.” Congress gave its approval. Jefferson chose his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead the expedition, and Lewis selected William Clark, a frontiersman, as his coleader. Jefferson instructed them to observe and note down the physical features, topography, soil, climate, and wildlife of the land and the language and customs of its inhabitants. In 1806 Lewis and Clark returned with their valuable journals. They had successfully breached the mountain barrier of the West, built a fort on the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River, and mapped and explored much of the American Northwest. Moreover, they had secured the friendship of a number of Native American peoples and given the United States a claim to the Oregon country.

Jefferson's interest in the new Western territory did not end with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In 1804 and 1806 he sent out expeditions to explore the Red River to its source. When these met with Spanish resistance, he shifted his interest to the north. In 1805 he sent Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike to discover the source of the Mississippi River, and in 1806, Pike was sent out to explore the Arkansas River to its source.

G.

Merry Affair

Jefferson believed that the president's dress and manners should reflect the republican simplicity and informality of the country. Pomp and show reminded him too much of the European courts. In fact, Jefferson worked so hard to avoid ostentation that he began to dress not merely plainly, but sloppily. As for manners, he refused to observe the rules of protocol in seating his dinner guests. First come, first served was the rule in the presidential mansion, the White House. Jefferson explained:

The new British diplomatic representative to the United States, Anthony Merry, and his wife were shocked and insulted when the president received them in worn clothing and slippers. In December 1803 at a formal dinner in the White House, no one offered to escort Mrs. Merry to dinner. In the dining room, Merry and his wife had to scramble for places at the table in competition with the other guests. The Marquis d'Yrujo, the Spanish diplomat, had the same experience. He and Merry agreed that this treatment was an insult to them and to their countries. The two diplomats and their wives sought to retaliate. At their parties, for instance, no one escorted the wives of the Cabinet members to the dinner table. This social war greatly enlivened the atmosphere of Washington, D.C. The president refused to retreat from his pell mell rule, and Merry and Yrujo became increasingly angry and receptive to the plottings of Jefferson's opponents, the Federalists and Aaron Burr.

H.

Native American Policy

Jefferson's policy toward Native Americans reflected less his humanitarian instincts than it did his understanding of the needs of the settlers on the expanding western frontier. When, in 1803, the Choctaw nation was persuaded to sell its lands on the Mississippi, Jefferson wrote to General Henry Dearborn, his secretary of war, that the Choctaw “are poor and will probably sell ... so as to be entitled to an annual pension, which is one of the best holds we can have on them.” Through Jefferson's efforts, 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of land were bought from the Native Americans for $142,000. As a result of this land grabbing, the Native Americans who remained east of the Mississippi River began to rally behind the Shawnee chief Tecumseh. Tecumseh, with his brother Tenskwatawa, who was known as the Shawnee Prophet, promised to rid the Native Americans of the white people forever.

I.

Election of 1804

Jefferson was renominated for the presidency by a caucus (political meeting) of Republican senators and congressmen. However, Vice President Burr was dropped from the ticket in favor of George Clinton, who had served a record six terms as governor of New York. The Federalists chose Charles C. Pinckney to oppose Jefferson. This election was very different from the election of 1800, when many Federalists were convinced that Jefferson was the candidate of anarchy, atheism, and revolution. In the landslide of 1804, Jefferson polled 162 electoral votes to Pinckney's 14 and won every state but Connecticut and Delaware.