Early Presidents

thomas jefferson

background

• 1770s: enters political scene with law background

• 1176: helps write Declaration of Independence

• 85-96: Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice President under Adams

• 1801-1809: US President

• the election of 1800

• Democratic-Republican Jefferson v. Incumbent Federalist Adam

• Jefferson presented himself as a moderate, which attracted a lot of voters

• republicans → people's party (people had a president in Jefferson)

• Jefferson lost popular vote but won Electoral College

• technically tied, House of Representatives voted 30+ times; Alexander Hamilton throws support behind Jefferson

• campaign

• states rights > strong federal government

• common people

• farmers, laborers, workers

• federalists: wealthy elites in cities

• unconventional; saw himself as more than just a president

foreign affairs

military

• did not think an army was necessary unless they were at war (peace president)

• distrusted large armies; preferred forces similar to militias

• downsized military to 2,500 troops, viewed navy as pointless (and didn't want to spend money on it)

• neutral + friends with all nations, not necessarily allies

• similar to Washington's view

north africa

• "Barbary pirates" → paid off to stop harassing US ships

• more convenient than fighting, still embarrassing

Tripolitan war

• leader of Tripoli declared war by cutting down an American flag

• from this came the Marine Corps - Jefferson sent navy to "take care of business"

• following this, Jefferson started trying to strengthen the navy → built 200 small, quick gunboats ("mosquito fleet")

• ended up being a waste - larger, armored sea boats better for warfare

US/British relations

• the chesapeake affair

• US can trade with any side in the war

• 1806 - London issues/passes Orders in Council → any ships headed to France must check-in at a British port for inspection

French-British war

• embargo act (1807)

• passed by Jefferson

• forbid all US exports to any [European] nation

• cut off all trade with essentially everyone - what did he anticipate?

• hit NE hardest - merchants in trouble (ships just sitting in ports)

• S+W - crops pile up, not exported

• smuggling returned

• congress repeals - passed Non-Intercourse Acts (1809 - prevents shipping only to England and France)

• essentially same effect - main trade partners

• neither the embargo or non-intercourse act was successful

• Jefferson overestimated US' importance to England

• unexpected benefit: forced American industry to start on its own → benefited Jefferson's rival, Hamilton - vision of industrial country

domestic policy

Repeal of Federalist Laws

• alien and sedition acts - personally pardoned 10 victims of these

• excise tax on whiskey - $1mil/year, still unfair

• judiciary act of 1801 - Adams packed the court with Federalists, Jefferson replaces this with judiciary act of 1802 - restored some elements of Adams' plan, reorganized court system

Marbury v Madison

• Marbury → Justice of Peace - commission not delivered

• petitioned Supreme Court to compel Sec of St8 to push him through as a judge

• for the first time, the Sup C struck down a decision as unconstitutional

• caused Judicial Review - power of court to review constitutionality of laws, the Supreme power of the court system

• decision angers republicans, wanted to take down Federalist Judge Samuel Chase

Louisiana Purchase

• Jefferson sent Robert R Livingston to make a deal with Napoleon

• only supposed to buy a small piece for $10 mil - France offers the entirety for $15 mil

• made this offer due to a slave revolt in Haiti (Napoleon decided American endeavors weren't worth it)

• planning war in Europe - needed quick cash, couldn't maintain land

• Presidents not allowed to purchase land - too good to refuse, passed by Senate

• constructionism returns

• if it's not clearly outlined in the Constitution, you can't do it

• 1804: Lewis and Clark Expedition

• made it all the way to the Pacific ocean

• encountered many Indigenous tribes, some peaceful, some not

• Sacagawea

Aaron Burr

• just wanted to be in charge of something,,, Fs in the chat

• VP for first term

• tried to get NY and NE to break away and become their own federalist country so that he could rule them

• Hamilton reveals this to Jefferson → Burr is furious

• dual, Hamilton dies (more dumb luck than anything)

• tried to create new nation between E+W America → invade Spanish lands in Western America so that he could rule them

• Jefferson again alerted, arrested + tried Burr with treason (found not guilty because he never did it, but disgraced)

• shows Jefferson that governing such a large, new nation would not come without its disputes

james madison

4th President

• attended Princeton University

• 1789: wins seat in House of Representatives

• helped write Federalist papers with Hamilton and Jay

• instrumental to ratification of Constitution

• against Federal bank - unconstitutional

• then, he and Jefferson leave the Federalist party and join the Dem-Reps

• 1800: becomes Jefferson's secretary of state

• Dolley Madison becomes first "first lady"

• ie. Abigail Adams was called Mrs. President

• redefined role of President's wife → dedicated self to common good

• established state dinners → White House becomes a place of social life; gives james some personality + flavor

presidential election

• 70% of Electoral votes in 1808

• campaigned for hugely unpopular Embargo Act of 1807

• "economic disaster" for American merchants

• quiet, small, light, intellectual + unassuming

other

• active member of American Colonization Society

• supported freeing enslaved people, returning to “homes” in Africa (would send all of them back to present-day Liberia, not their actual places of geographic origin)

• 5'4"... yikes

• was once opposed to the Bill of Rights

• lost a House of Delegates election because he didn't give the voters alcohol

domestic policy

• not a priority of the Madison administration

northwest Indigenous peoples

• Madison believed the reason for their loss of land was a lack of unity, separate tribes

rechartering the bank

• 1816

• viewed as a stronghold of Hamiltonian power by old Republicans

• viewed as holding too much British stock by anti-British Republicans

• support showed Madison's pro-federalist sympathies

foreign affairs

war of 1812

• Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807 forced Madison to pass Macon's Bill No. 2

• this new bill proposed to allow trade with other nations, exclusively reinstate trade with either England or France, whichever pledged to drop its trade restrictions

• France ends up dropping them first - only ambition was self-serving

• reasons for the war

• "freedom of seas" → US wanted to trade and sail without fear of other countries

• land expansion → wanted to expand into Canada, Florida

• resolve issues with Indigenous peoples → British provided some tribes with guns to fight americans

• make a statement to world powers that they were capable of fighting off England

• divides

• South + West: pro-war; wanted land

• New England: anti-war; wanted trade with Britain

• warfare

• after losing a surprising battle in Canada, Americans began to win

• Oliver Hazard Perry beat the British on Lake Erie, forced them out of Detroit

• Tecumseh killed at battle of the thames → American victory, lead by William Henry Harrison

• British still planned to attack New York → Americans almost defeated, US halted British plan + saved New York (prevented New England separation from the rest of the nation)

• Washington DC was burned to the ground, stopped at Fort McHenry (where the Star Spangled Banner was written)

• New Orleans defended

• British troops targeted it - put entire Mississippi Valley at risk

• Andrew Jackson led an army of 7,000; British were confident with their 8,000

• largest battle of the war, American victory

• Treaty of Ghent

• delegates met in Belgium to make a peace deal

• just a ceasefire, despite Britain's initial unreasonable demands

• impact

• Americans → won and gained respect to the world, gained credibility

• end of Federalist party; now only Dem-Reps

• high nationalism - heroes eg. Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison

Hartford convention

• delegates decide what to do about war

• from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island

• discuss secession

• bad timing - seen as crybabies opposing this because they arrived just as news broke of Andrew Jackson's victory in New Orleans

• essentially the "nail in the coffin" for the Federalist party

war hawks

• younger men > older men elected in Congress

• became known as "war hawks" → pushed for war against Indigenous peoples to move them out to the West and steal their land

• these men hadn't been part of a revolution, seek conflict but need governmental support

• Shawnee tribe opposed to this; lead by Tecusmeh and the Prophet (brothers)

• encouraged traditional Indigenous clothes and culture

• urged Indigenous people to not give up their land and organized a coalition of Indigenous tribes

• US viewed them as a threat

james monroe

• won all electoral college votes except one - deliberately votes against so that only George Washington would have the distinction of a unanimous electoral vote

• looked and carried himself like Washington

• last of "Virginia dynasty" - all 5 except Adams were Virginians

background

• from Virginia

• revolutionary - Monroe at Trenton

• studied law under Thomas Jefferson, "the most immediate rewards" → fastest path to wealth and power

• tried to run for president in 1808, didn't get nomination

• temporarily secretary of war during war of 1812 - decent

election of 1816 + first term

• won in a landslide in 1816 against William H Crawford (fall of Federalists)

• took a goodwill tour in 1817

• all the way around the country

• Boston (federalist stronghold) - agreed that he was a good guy, lead to Era of Good Feelings

• made effort to connect with everyone

• internal improvement → states or federal government?

• fate of BUS

election of 1820

• lost one vote again (reserved for Washington)

• unopposed - only president to be reelected after a financial crisis (1819) - Federalists suck

• dispute Missouri compromise, "dirty bargain"

• fun facts

• ranked as above average president

• 17 US counties named after him

• his 3rd child married her cousin - first marriage in the White House

• took part in storming of Governor's palace in Virginia

• fought in continental army

domestic policy

Westward Expansion + the financial panic of 1819

• era of good feelings following war of 1812 → ready for Westward expansion

• land act of 1820 - 80 acres of land for $1.25/acre; promoted expansion

• people were buying too much land on credit from banks → economic panic

• BUS loaned money to Western banks, who soon went bankrupt

• Western farmers lost land, blamed Eastern banks (esp BUS)

• last straw for Federalists - most support Jacksonian democracy

Missouri

• territory wanted to join as a slave state - disrupts balance

• Missouri Compromise - Missouri is slave state, Maine is a free state (12 of each); South views their influence as decreasing and fears abolition

• tallmadge amendment

• goal: limit # of enslaved people in Missouri

• congress ruled that: no more enslaved people could be imported in Missouri, all must be freed at ~25

• voted down in south

• Southern reaction: upset - didn't want freedom/abolition

• enslaved population decreases = less representatives

supreme court cases

• highly contested - 5 major cases

• john marshall was a justice - shifted toward judicial nationalism

• fed government more powerful than state

• all complaints based on rights of states governments

• decision/outcome: federal government has ultimate power over states' affairs

• rules in favor of federal government (reestablishing/reaffirming power of federal government every time) - John Marshall stops

• bank, charter, boundaries, etc.

foreign affairs

rush-bagot treaty of 1817

• demilitarized Great Lakes

• US + Britain

• each only have one warship on Great Lakes (much of war of 1812 fought on Great Lakes)

treaty of 1818

• with France

• resolved fort disputes after war of 1812

• drew Canada line - 49th parallel

• allowed joint occupation and settlement in Oregon country

Andrew Jackson in Florida

• told to occupy areas in Florida; acted within authority of instructions - did not have any specific instructions to invade

• hung ~10 people loyal to Britain + Spain

• Jackson took a fort at St. Marks, took control over Pensacola, and disposed of Spanish governor

Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 (aka Transcontinental Treaty)

• Spain sells all of Florida territory to US

1822

• recognized Peru, Argentina, Colombia, and Chile as countries in Aguirre mission

• Monroe doctrine

• reiterated policy on neutrality on European wars and conflicts

• wouldn't accept recolonization by any country to its foreign European master

• stated that European countries shouldn't consider Western hemisphere as open to colonization

• mainly addressed to russia

• no more colonization by Europeans in Latin America + no more intervention in Latin American affairs/Western Hemisphere; in return, Americans agree to remain uninvolved in the Eastern Hemisphere - esp conflict in Greece

• Washington's farewell address → American foreign policy

• Britain signs on, puts navy behind - this makes other European nations agree

Russo-American treaty of 1824

• gives Russia claims of NW Pacific coast of North America (Oregon territory)

• signed by representatives in St. Petersburg, Russia on April 17, 1824