The Triumphs and Travails of Jeffersonian Democracy

1800-1812Timid men…prefer the calm of despotism to the

boisterous sea of liberty-Thomas Jefferson, 1796

Federalist and Republican Mudslingers

• The presidential election of 1800 would prove to be a decisive mark in American history.

• The Hamiltonian wing of the Federalists party, robbed of its glorious war with France, split openly with President Adams. Their feverish war preparations had enlarged the public debt, enlarged taxes, in order to prepare for a navy that did not fight.

Hamilton

• Adams has been called ironically, as the “Father of the American Navy,” though it was Hamilton’s radical wing of the Federalists that pushed it through.

• The Federalists accused Jefferson of having fathered numerous mulatto children by his own slave women.

• Many religious communities throughout New England, and the Congregational church feared Jefferson to turn his back on America’s religious foundations. Though Jefferson believed in God, he was very much in favor of a separation of church and state.

The Jeffersonian “Revolution of 1800”

• Jefferson won the election of 1800 thus empowering his Republicans.

• Jefferson’s vice president, Aaron Burr almost won the election by way of a technicality. Receiving the same amount of electoral votes, he was technically tied with Jefferson. According to the Constitution, a tie throws the vote into the House of Representatives. The house, holding many Federalists, voted for Burr. Enough votes were given to Jefferson, that he won. Today, the 12th Amendment forbids this to happen.

Aaron Burr

• Jefferson referred to this election as a “revolution” comparable to that of 1776 in that there was a peaceful transfer of powers between two opposing political parties. This set the groundwork that a true republic could work.

The Federalist Finale

• John Adams was the only Federalist president. His party disappeared by the time of Andrew Jackson.

• Though the Federalists lost power, they left a strong and glowing legacy: treaties were made with England, Spain, and France, peace was kept during the early years of the nation.

• Henry Adams, great-grandson of John Adams stated of the Federalists that they were the, ‘“half-way” house between the European past and the American future.” The federalists strengthened the roll of the central government, promoted business, established a strong currency, and launched the new nation into a lasting republic.

• But by 1800, the Federalists were unable or unwilling to unbend and appeal to the common people.

Henry Adams

Responsibility Breeds Moderation

• Jefferson was inaugurated as president on March 4, 1801 in the newly established capital of Washington D.C.

• Jefferson did not believe that the pomp and ceremony of the inauguration fit in with his democratic ideals. He chose to walk to the Capitol instead of a horse-drawn coach.

• Jefferson stated in his inaugural address, “The will of the majority is in all cases to prevail. That will to be rightful must be reasonable; the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

Washington D.C. in 1801

• Seeking to ally the Federalists he also stated, “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”

• As for foreign affairs, he pledged “honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.”

• Jefferson started the tradition, until Woodrow Wilson 112 years later, of sending messages to Congress as opposed to personal appearances. This suggested a monarchial speech from the throne.

• Jefferson dismissed few public servants for political reasons.

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• The Republicans were to later recharter a bigger bank and boosted the tariffs to a higher level.

• Jefferson’s moderation further cemented the gains of the “Revolution of 1800.”

• By absorbing the major Federalist programs, Jefferson showed that a change of regime need not be disastrous for the defeated group. This pointed the way to the two-party system that was later to become a characteristic feature of American Politics.

The Two-Party System

Jeffersonian Restraint Helps to Further a “Revolution”

• Jefferson almost immediately tried to undo the Federalist abuses of the Alien and Sedition Acts. He pardoned those who were serving sentences under the Sedition Act and had Congress reduce the residency requirements from 14 to 5 years in order to become a citizen.

• Jefferson had Congress repeal the Federalist excise tax (whisky).

• Jefferson’s secretary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin, believed as did Jefferson that a national debt was not an asset but a liability. Except for the excise tax and the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Jeffersonians left the Hamiltonian framework essentially intact.

• Jefferson did not tamper with the Federalist programs for funding the national debt at par and assuming the Revolutionary war debts of the states.

• Jefferson did not get rid of the Bank of the United States, in which he fought, nor did he repeal the mildly protective Federalist tariff.

Bank of the United States

The “Dead Clutch” of the Judiciary• The Judiciary Act of 1801 was

one of the last important laws passed by the Federalist Congress. It created sixteen new federal judgeships and other judicial offices. The “midnight judges” were those Federalists (actually three) who were assigned to judgeships the night ending Adams last day.

• this “packing” of the court was the Federalists last attempt of choosing anti-Jeffersonian lifetime justices.

• The newly elected Republican congress began to repeal the Judiciary Act of 1801, thus ending sixteen judgeships.

Marshall-one of the “Midnight Judges”

• John Marshall, one of the Federalists appointees, became the Chief Justice of the United States. Marshall shaped the American legal tradition more profoundly than any other single figure. He established the concept of national supremacy and judicial review (the right of the court to declare an act of Congress to be unconstitutional).

• In the case of Marbury v. Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall declared the Judiciary Act of 1789 to be unconstitutional, thus establishing Judicial Review. This act also overruled Jefferson’s Kentucky resolutions of 1798 (state supremacy).

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• Jefferson urged the impeachment of Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase. Impeachment charges were voted on by the House of Representatives, which then passed the decision of guilt or innocence on to the Senate. The indictment by the House had to be based upon “high crimes and misdemeanors,” as specified in the Constitution.”

• The Senate failed to get enough votes to be removed.

• This victory for the judiciary set the precedence of an independent judiciary and for the separation of powers among the three branches of the federal government.

Samuel Chase

The Pacifist Jefferson Turns Warrior• Jefferson distrusted large

standing armies since they had the tendency to lead to dictatorship.

• The Republicans were still primarily agrarians and Jefferson saw little point in protecting a few Federalist shippers with a costly fleet.

• The Barbary Pirates of North Africa were demanding protection payments for American shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. Jefferson dispatched his infant navy to the “shores of Tripoli,” as sung in the song of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Barbary Pirates

• After four years of fighting a peace treaty from Tripoli was made in 1805.

• Jefferson, who had pledged tax reduction, created a fleet of small-sized gunboats. Known as the “Jeff” or “mosquito fleet,” they proved of little value in the up coming war of 1812.

Gunboats

The Louisiana Godsend• In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte pressured

Spain to cede to France the immense trans-Mississippi region of Louisiana, including the New Orleans area.

• This was confirmed when Spain in 1802 withdrew the right of deposit guaranteed America by the Pinckney Treaty of 1795.

• Jefferson sent James Monroe to meet with Robert R. Livingston, already an American Ambassador to France, to offer $10 million for New Orleans. If these negotiations failed, they were to negotiate an alliance with England.

• Jefferson stated, “The day that France takes possession of New Orleans, we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.” Jefferson was proposing to make an alliance with his old foe England against his old friend France.

Monroe

Livingston

• Napoleon failed to reconquer the sugar-rich island of Santo Domingo for which Louisiana was to serve as a source of food. Ex-slaves led by Toussaint L’Ouverture and a serious mosquito problem carrying yellow fever, caused Napoleon to sell Louisiana to America.

• Napoleon hoped that America would become strong enough to repel Britain in word dominance

• April 30, 1803, the United States bought Louisiana for about $15 million. This doubled the size of the United States.

• Jefferson wrestled with the Constitutionality of purchasing this land.

• In 1804, Jefferson sent his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and a young army officer named William Clark to explore the Louisiana Purchase. Signing the Louisiana

Purchase

Louisiana in the Long View• Purchasing Louisiana, allowed the great

agrarian republic to have elbowroom in the vast “Valley of Democracy.” This also began a tradition of acquiring foreign territory and peoples by purchase.

• Other explorers such as Zebulon M. Pike trekked to the headwaters of the Mississippi River in 1805-1806. In 1807, he ventured into the southern portion of the Louisiana territory and sighted the Colorado peak that bears his name (Pike’s Peak).

• The Louisiana purchase boosted national unity. The Federalists sank lower in public esteem.

Zebulon M. Pike

• A few Federalists plotted with Aaron Burr for the secession of New England and New York. The plan failed due to the resistance of Alexander Hamilton. Being provoked to a duel, Burr killed Hamilton.

• Burr then plotted secession strategy for the trans-Mississippi West and was arrested in 1806. He apparently was planning to unite this land with the to-be-conquered Spanish territory west of the Louisiana Purchase. The plan failed showing the growing unity of the West to the federal government.

• A new spirit of nationalism emerged throughout the West.

America: A Nutcrackered Neutral• Jefferson was overwhelmingly re-elected

in 1804. • For a time, America enjoyed a neutrality

of the seas. A setback came at the Battle of Trafalgar. British Horatio Lord Nelson smashed both the French and Spanish fleets off the coast of Spain. This gave Britain dominance of the seas. Napoleon became the victor by land.

• Britain issued a series of Orders in Council. These edicts closed the ports to foreign shipping, including American ships, unless they first stopped at a British port. Napoleon struck back ordering the seizure of all merchant ships, including American ships that entered British ports. Britain and France were using these rules to get back at the other. America was caught in the middle.

Start of the Battle

End of the Battle

• Britain was using a long standing procedure of conscription (draft into a war) by impressing United States Sailors. These “piratical man-stealers” from England impressed some 6,000 American sailors.

• When the British frigate (war ship) captured the Chesapeake (American war ship), a war cry went up among infuriated Americans.

Jefferson” Backfiring Embargo• Due to Jefferson’s antinavalism,

the navy was weak and the army was even weaker. Warring nations of Europe depended upon the United States for raw materials and foodstuffs.

• With Jefferson’s encouragement, Congress passed the Embargo Act in 1807.This law forbade the export of all goods from the United States.

• The Embargo Act backfired as it hurt New England trade as well as the economy of the South and West. An enormous illegal trade exploded in 1808 along the Canadian border.

• New England began talk of succession. Congress repealed the embargo and substituted the Non-Intercourse Act. This reopened trade with all nations of the world except England and France. This again, hurt America more than the French or British. Overabundance of grain crops were harvested in Britain and the revolutionary Latin American republics opened their ports for trade. Jefferson could have built a navy for the cost of the Embargo and Non-Intercourse acts, thus possibly preventing the War of 1812.

• The Federalist Party was revived! • Interesting enough, with shipping tied up

and imported goods scarce, the resourceful Yankees (New Englanders) reopened old factories and erected new ones. This began Americas foundations of modern industrialization.

• British merchants pressured Britain to end the Orders in Council

Jefferson’s Legacy• Jefferson retained much of his

popularity in spite of the embargo acts.• He refused to run for a third term

feeling that it would set a precedent for dictatorship. Jefferson was the true father of the two-term presidential tradition. (the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution would make a two-term presidency mandatory. This was enacted after World War II).

• Jefferson and Adams died on the same day-the Fourth of July, 1826. Jefferson died first and then Adams. Adams last words were, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.”

Madison: Dupe of Napoleon• James Madison took the oath of

presidency on March 4, 1809. • Congress attempting to uphold

American rights, adopted in 1810 Macon’s Bill No. 2. While permitting American trade with all the world, it bargained with England and France. If either one would repeal it commercial restrictions, America would restore nonimportation against the nonrepealing nation. America would bribe the nations.

• Napoleon made the move first. He removed French restrictions. Madison was now bound to make a tie to France. Napoleon had no intention of repealing the restrictions.

War Whoops Arouse the War Hawks

• The Twelfth Congress of 1810, was composed of youthful newcomers-”the boys” primarily from the South and West. Their generation had not seen war and they were eager for one.

• Henry Clay of Kentucky won control of the House of Representatives. He represented the “war hawks” who wanted war “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights,” as well as free land. This new group of war hawks were outraged by the impressment of American sailors and by the British Orders in Council which halted their agricultural products from shipment to Europe.

• The war hawks were also eager to wipe out a dangerously renewed Indian threat to the pioneer settlers.

Henry Clay

• Two Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and the Prophet formed a powerful confederacy of all the tribes east of the Mississippi. They also urged their followers to give up textile clothing in exchange for traditional buckskin garments.

• Tecumseh argued that Indians should not recognize whites’ concept of “ownership” of land. No Indian should cede control of land to whites unless all Indians agreed.

Tecumseh

Prophet

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• The war-haws in Congress were convinced that the British were aiding the Indians. American general William Henry Harrison attacked Tecumseh’s headquarters at Tippecanoe (Indiana) on November 7, 1811. He burned it to the ground. He would be remembered as “Old Tippecanoe.”

• Tecumseh was killed in 1813 at the Battle of the Thames. This ended the Indian confederacy.

• In the South, Andrew Jackson inflicted a similar defeat on the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (Alabama) on March 27, 1814.

• These victories effectively stopped Indian resistance to white expansion east of the Mississippi. Settlers could now go into the Ohio country and the southwestern frontier. Jackson

Harrison

• War Hawks in Congress felt it necessary to wipe out the Indians Canadian base. “On to Canada” was the war cry.

• The Southern expansionists, less vocal, however was looking at Florida which was weakly held by Spain.

• The militant war hawks, with some support from other sections, declared war in June 1812, thus The War of 1812.

• Representatives from the pro-British maritime and commercial centers, as well as from the middle Atlantic states, almost solidly opposed hostilities. Ironically, the West and Southwest, launched a war primarily upon the sea-fronting East-a war for a free sea that the East did not want.

• The New England and Middle Atlantic states felt that war would hurt trade even further.

Some War Hawks

“Mr. Madison’s War”• Why did the new Congress want war

with Britain and not France?– The traditional Republican

attachment to France– The British impressments– British arming of Indians– Canada was a tempting prize for

those in the frontier• England repealed the Orders in

Council two days before Congress voted for war. Because communication was slow, the message did not arrive in time.

• New Englanders did not want war:– Impressment was exaggerated– New England shippers and

manufacturers were still making money

– Pro-British Federalists were still strong in the Northeast

– They opposed the acquisition of Canada which would add more agrarian states from the wild Northwest. This would increase the voting strength of the Jeffersonian Republicans.

– New England lent money, supplies, and foodstuffs to Canada enabling British armies to invade New York

– New England governors refused to permit their militia to serve outside their own states.