V.

Second Term as President

On March 4, 1805, Jefferson again walked to the yet unfinished Capitol building for his second inaugural address, which was to be far different from his first. As he himself noted in the margin of the text:

A.

Randolph's Rebellion

The accomplishments of Jefferson's first term in office and the resounding Republican victory in the election of 1804 greatly weakened the Federalist Party. During his second term, opposition within his own party, led by Congressman John Randolph of Roanoke, proved to be Jefferson's major problem.

Randolph first split with the administration over its handling of the Yazoo fraud. In 1795 a group of land speculators, many of them from the North, bribed the Georgia legislature into selling them the greater part of its western land claims, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi, for only $500,000. The area was called the Yazoo tract because the Yazoo River runs through it. The next year the citizens of Georgia elected a new legislature, which promptly invalidated the sale. In 1802 Georgia relinquished its western land claims to the federal government. In 1804 and again in 1805 Jefferson recommended that Congress pass a law to reimburse the original speculators out of receipts from land sales on the Yazoo tract. Both times, Randolph, who felt Jefferson was unduly considerate of the corrupt land speculators, successfully led the opposition against the bill.

Randolph's complete break with the administration came in the winter of 1805 and 1806, when Jefferson asked Congress to appropriate $2 million for an unspecified diplomatic purpose. This purpose, as Randolph construed it from a private conversation with Jefferson, was to bribe Napoleon into forcing Spain to sell Florida to the United States. Randolph did not approve of secret diplomacy and denounced these “backstairs” negotiations to acquire Florida. Randolph was unable to block the appropriation, although nothing ever came of the proposed deal with Napoleon. However, Randolph gathered around him a group of Federalists and dissident Republicans, called Quids. This group was able to prevent Jefferson from accomplishing much of his legislative program during his second term.

B.

Burr Conspiracy

In 1804 Aaron Burr was defeated for the governorship of New York. His failure was due primarily to the opposition of Alexander Hamilton. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, killed him, and was forced to flee to the frontier. His political career was ruined.

Burr next became involved in a plot, the purpose of which is still unclear. He seems to have intended either to separate the Louisiana Territory from the United States or to seize Mexico from Spain. Indeed, his story seems to have varied with his audience. However, his plan was betrayed by his accomplice, General James Wilkinson. In a letter to Jefferson, Wilkinson revealed Burr's “deep, dark, wicked” plot to seize Louisiana. Burr was captured and brought to Richmond for trial in 1807. Jefferson, who had long distrusted his former vice president, was anxious to see him convicted of treason. However, he was again thwarted by Chief Justice Marshall, who presided at the trial. Marshall, intent on establishing the independence of the judiciary, excluded much of the evidence that did not meet the constitutional definition of treason, and to Jefferson's disgust Burr was acquitted.

C.

Chesapeake Affair

As the European war continued, the United States found it increasingly difficult to maintain its neutrality. Napoleon blockaded Britain, trying to stop its sea trade, and Britain issued orders that prohibited trade with the rest of Europe. Also, the British, badly in need of sailors, stopped American vessels and removed sailors they claimed were British deserters. Often the sailors were British, but occasionally Americans were also forcibly enlisted, or impressed, into the British service (see Impressment and Search).

In June 1807 the United States frigate Chesapeake was stopped by the British ship Leopard. When the Chesapeake refused to permit a search, the Leopard fired upon it. The helpless American ship was thereupon forced to surrender four of its men. One was a British deserter, but three were Americans. Many Americans wanted to go to war against Britain over this incident. However, Jefferson was determined to avoid war, feeling he could bring Britain to terms by applying economic pressure.

D.

Embargo

In December 1807 the Embargo Act was put into effect. American ships were forbidden to sail from American ports to any European port. Jefferson believed that England and France could not survive without American trade. However, he had greatly underestimated the effect of the embargo on the United States itself. All parts of the country were affected, especially the industrial and commercial North. Shipbuilders, sailors, manufacturers, and merchants denounced the embargo. The Southern planters also suffered financially. Exports stopped, and produce prices fell. U.S. revenue at the time was derived almost entirely from customs duties. With the stoppage of international trade the national income dropped from $16 million in 1807 to a little more than $7 million in 1809. Indeed, the embargo did more damage to the American economy than to England's or France's.

Americans did their best to evade the embargo. Smuggling flourished along the Atlantic coast and over the Canadian border in the Northeast. The harassed president wrote to Secretary of the Treasury Gallatin:

The Federalists assailed the Embargo Act as not only ruinous, but unconstitutional as well. According to Jefferson's own strict interpretation of the Constitution, the federal government did not have the power to impose such a restriction on commerce during peacetime. However, Jefferson ignored the constitutional aspects of the embargo and sought, instead, means to enforce it. Opposition continued to grow, even in his own Cabinet. Therefore, in March 1809, a few days before he left office, Jefferson had the Embargo Act repealed. The less stringent Non-Intercourse Act, pertaining only to England and France, was adopted in its place.

E.

Election of 1808

Jefferson was again offered the Republican presidential nomination in 1808. Unwilling to see the presidency become “an inheritance,” he declined. He wanted, he said, to follow “the sound precedent set by an illustrious predecessor,” George Washington. The Republicans thereupon chose Jefferson's political protégé James Madison, who went on to win the presidential election of 1808. As Jefferson's term drew near its end, he wrote his old friend, French economist Pierre du Pont de Nemours: