Thomas Jefferson

1801-1809The Election of 1800

The two political parties in this election were the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists. On election day, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr won 73 of the electoral votes, and John Adams won 65.

Aaron BurrThomas Jefferson Democratic-Republicans

tie with 73 votes

Federalist

65 votes

John Adams

Jefferson Burr Adams

According to the Constitution, when there is a tie, the vote goes to the House of Representatives. They had to choose between Burr and Jefferson to be president. They voted 35 times and always ended up in a tie.

Alexander Hamilton, a Federalist, did not like Jefferson, (remember their differences?) Hamilton said of Jefferson, “If there be a man in the world I ought to hate, it is Jefferson…But the public good must be [more important than] every private consideration.”

Hamilton believed Jefferson would do more for the good of the nation than Burr.

Jefferson Hamilton

Limit the power of the federal government!

The national government should be strong!

Hamilton helped convince other Federalists to vote for Jefferson, and on the 36th vote…

Jefferson wins!(Burr doesn’t forget this)

President Thomas Jefferson

Vice- President Aaron Burr

In 1804, after years of throwing insults back and forth at each other, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2EpGGMx_1w

Alexander Hamilton was mortally wounded and died the next day.

Domestic (national) Affairs Jefferson believed that the federal government should have less power than it had had under the Federalists He ended the Alien and Sedition Acts and released prisoners convicted under the Acts.He also ended the whisky tax.

An Important Judicial Event

Before John Adams left office, he appointed several people to be judges. One of the men he appointed was William Marbury. After Thomas Jefferson became president, Marbury went to collect his letter that gave him the job. Secretary of State James Madison refused to give him the job. Marbury sued, and the case went to the Supreme Court. The case was called

MARBURY v MADISON

The Supreme Court said that Marbury did deserve to get his commission (job), but that Marbury should have taken his case to a lower court, instead of the Supreme Court, at the beginning.

Chief Justice Marshall said the Judiciary Act of 1789 which gave Marbury the right to take his case to the Supreme Court first was unconstitutional.

SUPREME COURT

Lower Courts

Chief Justice John Marshall said, “It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department [the judicial branch] to say what the law is.”

This established the principle of Judicial Review which said the Supreme Court could determine whether a law violated the Constitution or not. If it did, then that law could no be put into effect. Marbury did not get his job, but the Supreme Court became supreme. http://www.texasbar.com/civics/cases/marbury-v-madison.html (save for later)

The Louisiana Purchase In 1800, when Americans talked about the “West” they meant the area between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River had economic importance because farmers and merchants could use it to move their products down the river to the port of New Orleans, but France controlled it.

President Jefferson offered to buy New Orleans from France, but Emperor Napoleon offered to sell 830,000 square miles for $15 million. So in 1803, Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory and doubled the size of the United States.

The land purchased contained all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, parts of Minnesota, most of North Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado ,and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River.

In 1804, Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the newly acquired territory along with their guide Sacagawea and her French husband.

http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/famoushistoricalfigures/lewisandclark/

Jefferson’s Foreign (external) Issues France and England continued to be at war in 1805, and the British began to block American ships that might take supplies to France. Some British ship captains began impressments, or kidnapping, of American sailors to work on British ships.

Rather than declare war, Congress passed the Embargo Act of 1807. Now American ships were no longer allowed to sail to foreign ports and British and French ships were not allowed to sail to American ports. Jefferson’s policy was a disaster because it hurt the U.S. more then the British or French. American farmers and merchants lost markets for their products, shippers lost income.

Apart from his political importance, Jefferson had many talents. He was an

Architect

Monticello “Little Mountain”

University of Virginia

He designed both of these buildings.

He designed his bed to fit in the wall so as not to take up space.

He was an

Inventor

Rotating bookstand

Dumb waiter

Polygraph

He was an

Intellectual

Jefferson said, “ I cannot live without books.”He had an extensive library which he donated to the U.S. Government. His library began what is now the….

Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

He was an

Author

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Declaration of Independence

The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Scandal Thomas Jefferson’s wife died ten years after they married. It was rumored that he had an ongoing affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings and fathered her six children. Inconclusive proof of this was found in a 1998 DNA analysis of his descendants and her descendants. Some historians believe it was a nephew that may have fathered her children. We may never know…

Jefferson and Adams both died on July 4, 1826 the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

On his death bed on Independence Day, 1826 John Adams uttered his last words.  They were "Thomas Jefferson survives."  But Jefferson had passed away seven hours earlier.

HERE WAS BURIEDTHOMAS JEFFERSON

AUTHOR OF THEDECLARATIONOF AMERICAN

INDEPENDENCEOF THE

STATUTE OF VIRGINIAFOR

RELIGIOUS FREEDOMAND FATHER OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIABORN APRIL 13. 1743.

O.S.DIED JULY 4. 1826

What was left off of his epitaph?

http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/famoushistoricalfigures/thomasjefferson/