*The Election of 1800 is often called the Jeffersonian Revolution or the Revolution of 1800, and it is significant because it demonstrates that, despite the bitter rivalry between the Federalists and Republicans, American governments can change hands without bloodshed or violence.

*Jefferson, the students will recall, was a strict constructionist, who did not want to permit anything not in the Constitution and wanted to limit the government’s interference in peoples’ lives.  He cut the size of the Federal bureaucracy, and also vastly reduced the size of the Army—down to 3,000 men.

*Jefferson had a lot of problems with the judiciary.  Just before leaving office, John Adams appointed a bunch of new justices to the Supreme Court and other federal courts.  These were called the ‘midnight judges.’  Jefferson and friends are annoyed at having their political enemies in such important offices.

*One of these was William Marbury, justice of the peace for DC, and Madison, Secretary of State, tried to keep him from taking office by refusing (under Jefferson’s orders) to give him the papers that would let him take office.  Marbury sued Madison in the Supreme Court, asking the Supreme Court to order Madison to let him take office.

*In Marbury v Madison, John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and another midnight judge, ruled against Marbury, saying that the Court couldn’t order the executive branch to do anything—that’d be against separation of powers.  Marbury is not an important man, but his case is, becase Marbury v Madison establishes the precedent of judicial review.  This is the idea that the courts, especially the Supreme Court, have the power to rule whether or not laws (federal, state, et cetera) are actually constitutional.  This makes the Supreme Court much more powerful.  This is partly because John Marshall, who was a Federalist, wanted to make the Federal Government, including the judiciary, more powerful.

*Jefferson, being a Virginian and a farmer, believed that the future lay in opening the west to more farmers, and making sure they could sell their produce outside their region.

*The old Articles of Confederation were not that successful, but they did do a couple of useful things.  They passed laws on land in the west:  The Land Ordinance (1785) and the Northwest Ordinance (1787), which helped organise the settlement of the Northwest by explaining how counties would be set up, land would be sold, and states would be created.  Jefferson also supported the Land Ordinance (1800) which let people buy land on credit.

*The US and Spain had disagreed over the navigation of the Mississippi (and Jay tried to sell us out there, too).  However, in Europe, Napoleon, Emperor of France, is now at war with everyone, and he bullies Spain into giving him Louisiana back.  Jefferson is afraid that Napoleon might try to take over America, or at least will keep westerners from selling their crops down the Mississippi River.  So, in 1803, he sends James Monroe to Paris, where he and Ambassador Robert Livingston offer the French $10 million for New Orleans.  However, Napoleon has a better offer.

*Napoleon had wanted to build and empire in America.  However, he’d had bad luck with a slave rebellion in Haiti led by the François-Dominique Toussaint-L’ouverture.  He also wants to put his efforts into taking over Europe.  So, Napoleon says ‘give me a little more money, and I’ll give you the whole place.’  Monroe and Livingston jump on this and offer $15 million, which is accepted.  However, they are worried.

*These folks are Republicans—strict constructionists.  The Constitution does not say anything about the President buying foreign land.  It’s also a lot of money to spend when you’re trying to cut down the costs of the Federal government.  However, this is too good a deal to pass up, and he asks Congress to approve it as a treaty, which the President can negotiate and Congress can approve.  They do, and the US get a lot bigger and a lot deeper in debt.

*To explore this vast land, because Jefferson is still hoping to find the Northwest Passage, allowing water travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific and thence to Asia, he sends Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and a few other men to explore this.

*1804-1806:  Lewis and Clark, with the guidance of a French-Canadian fur trader and his Indian wife Sacajawea, explore Louisiana and the British Oregon Country, and see the Pacific in 1805—the first known trek all the way across the American interior.  This brings the US a great deal of knowledge about the interior, which will later help people settle the area, but it does not find the Northwest Passage.  Instead, it finds the Rocky Mountains, which dash that hope forever.

*During this first term, Jefferson lowered taxes, greatly enlarged the size of the US, let the Alien and Sedition Acts expire, and kept the US at peace when the rest of the world was at war.

*The Federalists, in turn, are getting weaker.  Their base remains in the Northeast with businessmen, and the growing west, full of farmers, does not want to vote for them.  They, in turn, had tried to keep the west out of the Union for just this reason, or had reduced western votes, as in Tennessee.  Even in the Northeast, many people feel that Jefferson has been a decent leader and has not destroyed the country with anarchy as they expected.  Furthermore, in 1804, the Federalists lose their leader.

*1804:  VP Burr and President Jefferson had not gotten along, so Burr decides to run for governor of New York as a Federalist.  Hamilton, who doesn’t like or trust Burr, spreads a lot of nasty rumours about him, and he’s done so before.  Deeply insulted, Burr challenges Hamilton to a duel, and Hamilton, not wanting to be thought a coward and wanting to live up to the upper-class pretensions this poor immigrant has worked on so long, accepts.  There is some debate about what happens, but Hamilton is fatally shot while Burr survives uninjured.  Hamilton dies and the Federalists lose their leader, but Burr is disgraced and flees to the west, where he tries and fails to create a little empire of his own and is tried for treason, and later he does not succeed in his attempt to conquer Mexico.

*Last class, the question was asked ‘Why can the US be friends with both Britain and France.’  Unfortunately, it’s not that simple when they’re at war with one another.  Jay’s treaty had an expiration date:  1805.  After that, the British start attacking American ships that try to trade with France.  They also increase their impressment (or kidnapping and drafting) of American sailors for the Royal Navy.  Americans still remembered the Quasi-War of 1798-1801 when the US had fought the French Navy, and had even considered dragging poor old George Washington out of retirement and making him lead an invasion of France.

*To get us out of that nasty business, Jefferson passes the Embargo Act (1807).  It forbade trade with either Britain or France.  This was meant to hurt both countries, and maybe even get them to stop harassing us and maybe even each other.  However, France now owns most of Europe and doesn’t need the US, and Britain has a mighty empire and can live without the trade, too.  The US can’t, though, and many people come to hate Jefferson for this.  American again begin smuggling, but this time to get past American revenue cutters to sell things to the British, and Jefferson, the Republican, must use the army and navy against Americans to enforce his law.

*Jefferson chooses not to run again, thanks to both tradition and his own decreasing popularity.  Although the Federalists became a little more popular, Jefferson’s Secretary of State, James Madison, is elected president in 1808.
 

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