HOW “JEFFERSONIAN” WAS
JEFFERSON AS PRESIDENT?
“The revolution of 1800…was as real a revolution
in the principles of our government as that of
1776 was in it’s form; not effected indeed by the
sword, as that, but by the rational and peaceable
instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people.”
- Thomas Jefferson
Jeffersonian Republicanism
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Believed government is a necessary evil; supported a limited central
government (strict interpreter of the Constitution)
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Distrusted wealth and power – opposed to favoring wealthy citizens
-rejected elitism and embraced republican simplicity
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Idealized the small farmer and a local subsistence agricultural economy (best to
uphold pure democracy)
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Valued meritocracy and the common man (“all men are created equal”)
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson’s Presidency
IN LINE WITH PRINCIPLES
Reduced powers of central government
--size of army
--Eliminated internal taxes (ie.
Whiskey tax)
(HOWEVER, he was often
thwarted by the Supreme Court)
Focus on education, fostering a wellinformed public
Removed sense of aristocracy from the
office of the president
OUTSIDE OF PRINCIPLES
Ultimate support of slavery
--did not free his slaves
-- after Gabriel’s Rebellion,
VA laws made harsher
Used excessive power (loose
construction) in the purchase of the LA
Territory
Embargo Act at first wrecked the US
economy; then ultimately strengthened
American manufacturing
“There is on the globe one single spot, the
possessor of which is our natural and habitual
enemy. It is New Orleans.”
⬜
Louisiana
Purchase
→ Pinckney’s Treaty (with Spain, 1796) gave US rights to navigate Mississippi River
and store goods at New Orleans port
⬜
→ France signed secret treaty w/ Spain buying LA Territory 1800
→ US found out
about it, 1803, and
tried to buy New Orleans
from Napoleon
→ After the Haitian
Revolution, Napoleon
offered the entire
land mass for $15 mil
Embargo Act, 1807
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Britain and France harassing
and impressing American
soldiers at sea during the
Napoleonic wars
Viewed as a violation of US
sovereignty and neutrality of
the seas
Jefferson cuts off ALL trade
Long term consequence:
stimulated US
manufacturing
The Paradoxes of Jefferson
→ Claimed to champion small government but enlarged federal
powers more than Washington or Adams (Louisiana Purchase)
→ Imagined agrarian republicanism and small local economic
relationships, but passed policies that ended up strengthening
manufacturing (Embargo Act)
→ Wanted to foster freedom and equality but owned slaves,
never freed them, and took a great deal of land from Native
Americans