- The text describes the election of 1800 as a "revolution", was it or not and why?
Chapter 6 of the text on “Jeffersonian Democracy” describes the election of 1800 as the “Revolution of 1800”, and so it was called at the time, although the term “revolution” is exaggerated in this case. What really happened was that the Federalist Party lost the election and the Jeffersonian Democrats won. There was no armed uprising as in the 1776 Revolution or the French Revolution in 1789, no battles and no Reign of Terror against defeated enemies, so even by contemporary standards it was not really a revolution. No one was killed in this transition of power, which was quite peaceful by the standards of other elections. Certainly no one tried to secede from the Union or start a civil war, which did happen after the election of 1860. It was noteworthy, nevertheless, because even though the two parties had come to hate each other bitterly in the 1790s, there was no bloodshed and those in power agreed to step down without using violent methods against their enemies.
- Describe the transition from the Federalist to the Republicans.
This did not mean that the transition from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson was a friendly one or that the Federalists were pleased at losing. Their first political trick was to throw the election into the House of Representatives, because Jefferson and his very ambitious vice presidential candidate Aaron Burr had received the same number of electoral votes. This meant that each had an equal right to claim the presidency, as Burr attempted to do with Federalist support. Only the intervention of Alexander Hamilton finally threw the election to Jefferson, who he decided was a far less dangerous and dishonest man than Burr. Three years later, Burr obtained revenge against Hamilton by killing him in a duel, and later led an expedition to the western territories that Jefferson thought was designed to break up the United States and ally the West with Spain and other foreign powers, which is why Jefferson had him tried for treason. Just before he left office, Adams also signed a number of last minute commissions for Federalist officeholders, which Jefferson regarded as illegal. He went to court to block these appointments and won a favorable decision in the case Marbury v. Madison. Despite all this, Jefferson gave a conciliatory speech once he was inaugurated, proclaiming that “we are all Federalists, we are all Republicans”, which was completely untrue but was successful in calming the situation.
- Summarize the ideas and values of the Jefferson democracy; evaluate to what extent Jefferson's actions as president were both consistent and inconsistent with those views.
J efferson was hostile to banking, commerce and industry, and his definition of democracy meant that the political and economic power of the country should be in the hands of small, white farmers, and that land must be distributed as widely as possible. He opposed Hamilton’s plans to industrialize the country and did not have subsidies and protective tariffs during his administration, while he also allowed the Charter of the Bank of the United States to expire. Jefferson believed in low taxes, low debts, minimal government and state’s rights, and these were the policies he pursued. While the Federalists were hoping for a war with France, Jefferson did not permit this when he was president, and also allowed the unpopular Alien and Sedition Acts to expire. Jefferson was not a believer in a string military establishment, although he was willing to use force in foreign affairs, with the undeclared war against the Barbary Pirates in North Africa, for example. He was also very interested in expanding the country to the West, which is one he sent expeditions like Lewis and Clark’s to the Pacific and moved decisively to purchase the Louisiana Territory in 1803.
- Summarize how and why the US acquired the Louisiana Purchase.
- Summarize how Jefferson was caught between the French and British governments during his second term, and how he responded to these dilemmas?
Jefferson was more sympathetic to the earlier phase of the French Revolution than to the dictatorship of Napoleon, but was generally more hostile to Britain than France. He had declared the U.S. neutral in the Napoleonic Wars and American merchants traded with both sides. This was no longer possible after 1807, when Napoleon announced a Continental System that embargoed all trade with Great Britain and the British government retaliated by ordering a blockade against all shipping to France and other nations in its sphere of influence. Very soon, U.S. merchant ships were being stopped on the high seas, their cargoes confiscated and their sailors impressed into the British Navy. Rather than go to war with Britain—which did not happen until James Madison’s presidency in 1812—Jefferson ordered a total trade embargo, which affected the post cities of the Northeast very severely. This led to a revival of federalism and even threats of secession in New England, given that its merchants and ship owners were being driven into bankruptcy.
WORKS CITED
Carnes, Mark C. and John A. Garraty. The American Nation: A History of the United States, 14th Edition, Pearson, 2012. Chapter 6 Jeffersonian Democracy.
