APUSH Chapter 11: The Triumphs and Travails of the Jeffersonian Republic

Chapter Summary
Jefferson’s election was considered a “revolution” because he represented the common people for the first time. Troubles in North Africa and between England and France emerged. Jefferson’s actions were sluggish. Trying to avoid war with England or France, Jefferson bumbled around with an embargo. His theory was that the only way to avoid war was to stop interaction between US ships and Europe. The overall effect was to kill US trade and enrage the merchants and businessmen up North. The Louisiana Purchase came as a complete surprise and quickly doubled the size of the US. James Madison picked up where Jefferson left off with the embargo in trying to avoid war. However, young western Congressmen wanted war to possibly gain new land, to squelch Indian troubles, and to defend the seas. They declared the War of 1812 with England.

Chapter Outline

 * In the election of 1800, the Federalists had many enemies from the Alien and Sedition Acts, and they had been most damaged by John Adams' not declaring war against France, since it seemed as if America had raised a bunch of taxes and built a good navy for no reason
 * Federalists also launched attacks against Jefferson, saying that that he had robbed a widow and her children of a trust fund, that he had fathered numerous children with his slaves (which was true), that he was an atheist, etc.
 * Thomas Jefferson tied with Aaron Burr in the election, so the vote would now go to the [Federalist-dominated] House of Representatives, many of which hated Jefferson and wanted Burr, but Hamilton and Adams persuaded them to change their votes to Jefferson in fear of public outcry dooming the Federalist Party, and so Jefferson was elected president
 * The Revolution of 1800 consisted of a peaceful transfer of power from which the Federalists stepped down from office when Jefferson won
 * In Jefferson's address, he implied that all Americans were a mixture and pledged to have an honest friendship with all nations, yet alliances with none
 * Jefferson soon realized that bookish theories worked out differently in practical politics
 * Jefferson dismissed few Federalist officials, angering those who wanted seats
 * Jefferson pardoned those who were serving time under the Sedition Act, and in 1802, enacted a new naturalization law that returned the years needed for an immigrant to become a citizen from fourteen back to five, and got rid of the excise tax, but other than that, he left the Hamiltonian system intact, proving that a change of regime didn't have to be disastrous
 * The new secretary of treasury, Albert Gallatin, reduced the national debt substantially while balancing the budget
 * The Judiciary Act had packed newly created judgeships with Federalists, so as to prolong their legacy
 * Cheif Justice John Marshall had become a Federalist, committed to strengthening the power of the federal government
 * In the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison, Marbury was made justice of peace by Adams, but new Secretary of State James Madison decided to shelve the position, to which Marbury sued, however Marshall dismissed the case, saying that the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional, thus the Supreme Court could determine the consitutionality of laws
 * In 1804, Jefferson tried to impeac the Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase, but the vote failed in senate, and to this day, no attempt to alter the Supreme Court has ever been tried through impeachment
 * Jefferson had a fear of a large, strong military since such a military could turn on the people, so he reduced the militia and the navies; however, the North African pirates were still looting US ships, and in 1801, the pasha of Tipoli indirectly declared war when he cut down the flagstaff of the American consulate
 * Jefferson reluctantly sent his infant navy to Tipoli, where fighting continued for four years until Jefferson succeeded in extorting a treaty of peace from Tipoli in 1805
 * Stephen Decatur's exploits in the war with the ship Intrepid made him a hero
 * The small, mobile gunboats used in the Tipolitan War fascinated Jefferson, so he spent money to build 200+ of them, which eventually turned out to be a poor decision, as these ships did little damage against large battleships
 * In 1800, Napoleon secretly induced the king of Spain to cede the Louisiana territory to France
 * In 1802, the Spaniards at New Orleans withdrew the right of deposit guaranteed by the Pinckney Treaty of 1795, which was detrimental to America because these deposit privileges were vital to farmers along the Mississippi River
 * These farmers talked of marching to New Orleans to violently get back what they deserved, which would have plunged the US into a war with Spain and France
 * In 1803, Jefferson sent James Monroe to join minister Robert Livingston to buy New Orleans and the land east of the river for $10 million, but instead, Napoleon offered to sell New Orleans and the land west of it for $15 million
 * Although this would abandon Napoleon's dream of a French North American empire, he went through with it because there was rebellion in Haiti led by Toussaint L' Ouverture, which killed many French troops, and Napoleon needed cash to renew his war with Britain
 * Jefferson was unsure if he should accept it or not, as the Constitution said nothing about purchasing foreign land, but the deal was simply too good to pass up, and so the Louisiana Purchase was finalized on April 30, 1803, doubling the size of the US
 * Federalists had opposed the purchase, as they figured new lands meant new settlers and new states, which meant more farmers and more Republicans
 * The Louisiana Purchase caused both parties to make a full turnaround from their previous beliefs about the Constitution, simply because of the practical matters at hand
 * The purchase also created a precedent of acquisition of foreign territory through purchase
 * In 1804, Jefferson sent William Clark and Meriwether Lewis to explore the new territory, who reached the Pacific along with a Shoshoni woman named Sacajawea
 * Other explorers, such as Zebulon Pike, ventured into the southern portion of the Louisiana territory, as well as Spanish land in the southwest
 * The Federalists tried to scheme with Burr to make New England and New York secede from the union, during which Burr killed Hamilton in a duel, resulting in him being arrested in 1806
 * The Louisiana Purchase was also nurturing a sense of loyalty among the West to the federal government, and a new spirit of nationalism surged through it
 * In 1803, Napoleon provoked Britain into renewing its war with France, resulting in a sinking of American trade
 * In 1806, London issued the Orders of Council, which closed ports under French continental control to foreign shipping, including American
 * Napoleon ordered the seizure of all ships, including American, which entered British ports
 * In 1807, a royal frigate (the Leopard) confronted the US frigate (the Chesapeake) ~10 miles off the coast of Virginia and ordered the seizure of four alleged deserters, to which the American commander refused, and so the US ship was attacked
 * Even though Britain was in the wrong, Jefferson remained at peace, though he did order an embargo to stop the British and French seizure of American ships
 * Jefferson was under the belief that Britain and France relied on American goods, but it was the opposite
 * The US still had a weak navy and army
 * The Embargo Act of 1807 forbade the export of all goods from the US to any foreign nation, which ended up hurting the same New England merchants that it was trying to protect, and southern/western farmers were alarmed by the mounting piles of unexportable crops
 * Illegal trade mushroomed in 1808, where people resorted to smuggling again
 * Congress repealed the act on March 1, 1809 and replaced it with the Non-Intercourse Act, which reopened trade with all the nations of the world, excluding France and England, however this act had the same effect as the Embargo because America's top trade partners were France and England, resulting in economic coercion from 1809-1812, when war struck
 * The embargo failed because Jefferson underestimated America's dependence on British goods, and he didn't continue the embargo long enough or tightly enough to achieve success
 * The Federalist Party managed to regain some of its power
 * The embargo helped promote industrialism
 * In 1809, James Madison became president
 * In 1810, Congress adopted a bargaining measure called Macon's Bill No. 2 which promised American restoration of trade to France and/or England if they dropped their commercial restrictions
 * Napoleon announced that French commercial restrictions had been lifted, so Madison declared France available for American trade; however, Napoleon lied, and so America had been duped into entering European affairs against Great Britain
 * In 1811, Henry Clay of Kentucky was appointed to Speaker of the House
 * Western politicians (War Hawks) cried out against the Indian threat on the frontier, as the Indians had watched with increasing apprehension as more and more whites settled in Kentucky, a traditionally sacred area
 * Two Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and the Prophet, and their followers decided to not acknowledge the white man's ownership of land and urged no one to cede any control of land
 * On November 7, 1811, American general William Henry Harrison advanced upon Tecumseh's headquarters at Tippocanoe, killed the Prophet, and burned the campground
 * Tecumseh was killed by Harrison at the Battle of the Thames in 1813
 * In the South, Andrew Jackson crushed the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814, effectively breaking Indian rebellion and leaving the entire area east of the Mississippi open for safe settlement
 * The War Hawks cried that the only way to get rid of the Indians was to wipe out their base, Canada, since the British had helped them
 * In 1812, war was declared against England rather France, because England's impressments stood out, France was allied more with Republicans, and Canada was a very tempting prize that seemed easy to get
 * Federalists opposed the war because they were more inclined toward Britain and, if Canada was conquered, it would add more land and increase the amount of Republican supporters
 * America's reasoning for entering war because they wanted freedom of the seas, more land (Canada and/or Florida), and to end issues with Indians
 * The nation became sectionalized, as the North was against the war, whereas the South and the West supported the war