6.3

The Age of Jefferson

Understand why some saw Jefferson’s election as a “republican revolution.”

Explain the impact of John Marshall’s tenure as Chief Justice of the United States.

Identify the importance of the Louisiana Purchase.

Analyze Jefferson’s foreign policies.

Objectives

Pursuing Republican PrinciplesJohn Marshall’s Supreme CourtThe Nation ExpandsJefferson’s Foreign Troubles

Key Parts

Read Section 6.3Create a concept web with main ideas and

details about Jefferson’s presidency.

Introductory

When the Democratic Republicans won the election of 1800 the Federalists would never reclaim national power.

This election was viewed as a revolution in the principles of government.

They no longer wanted to copy the style of the British monarchy.

Pursing Republican Principles

Jefferson encouraged Congress to abandon the Alien and Sedition Acts as well as the hated taxes on stamps, and alcohol.

His goal was to pay down the national debt.He did this by cutting a lot of the army and

navy and streamlined the government.He took the debt from 80 million down to 57

million.

New Government Policies

When Jefferson became president in 1801 John Marshall became the Chief Justice.

John was Thomas’s cousin, though Thomas could not stand him because he was a federalist.

Marshall was known for creating judicial review via Marbury v. Madison (the power to review the acts of Congress and of the President to determine if they were constitutional.)

John Marshall’s Supreme Court

Jefferson began to see this new and growing agricultural nation was going to run out of land quickly if they planned on continuing to farm.

He began to look at the Spanish land west of the Mississippi and felt confident that he could take it.

However, France came into the picture when they won it over from Spain.

The Nation Expands

Jefferson reasoned that he could avoid war by offering to buy New Orleans from the French.

Napoleon was surprisingly receptive and sold the entire territory from the Mississippi to the Rockies for 15 million.

This was called the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 for 828,000 acres of land.

Jefferson bought this outside of the boundaries of the constitution.

Louisiana Purchase

Jefferson acknowledged that he had done something outside the limits of the Constitution.

In 1804 Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to go and search the new land.

They were guided much of the way by a Shoshone woman, named Sacajawea and her husband.

Cont.

For the next three years Jefferson was relying on British and French Imports to supply it's national growth.

Jefferson asks for an Embargo to end this.This meant that we would suspend trade by

ordering Americans ships to stay in port and hope to close down British factories.

However the British Ships found buyers in South America, and this bankrupted American merchants and hurt farmers.

Even Jefferson had to admit failure but he was still able to win his re-election in 1804.

Jefferson’s Foreign Troubles