Summary
Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, having served as governor of
Virginia, secretary of state under George
Washington, and vice president under Adams.
Jefferson had basically founded the Republican Party upon resigning from
Washington's cabinet. He viewed the Republicans as the bastion of equality
in America, and eschewed the elitism of the Federalists. Jefferson walked,
rather than rode, to his inauguration, dressed in the clothes of the common
citizen, and spoke of government free from the pomp of royalty, for the people,
by the people. He took office convinced that taxation, standing armies, and
despotic leaders had corrupted the system of government the framers had tried to
install. He thus rallied to the cause of states' rights. He argued that
responsive state governments than would more efficiently and compassionately
serve the nation's people than could the central government in Washington.
Following his inauguration, Jefferson set about righting what he saw as the
wrongs perpetrated by his Federalist predecessors. He strongly disagreed with
the decision to maintain a continuous national debt, a plan devised by secretary
of treasury Alexander Hamilton during George
Washington's presidency. The debt had grown by $10 million during John
Adams' presidency. Even if the United States only paid the interest on the
debt, there would need to be taxation. However, Jefferson and his secretary of
treasury Albert Gallatin believed that taxes were an undesirable intrusion
of
government into private life, and planned to abolish them for good. Jefferson
and Gallatin devised a plan to lower taxes and cut expenses, with the ultimate
goal of an end to taxation. They persuaded Congress to cut almost all internal
taxes, and balanced the cut with reductions in the army and other expensive
government endeavors. As trade increased and customs receipts grew accordingly,
Gallatin made great strides in paying down the national debt. In an especially
daring move, Gallatin sold the government's stock in the national bank to the
House of Baring in London in 1802, and used the payment to pay an installment on
the debt owed to the Dutch.
Though Jefferson and Gallatin intended to cut expenditures in the military, they
maintained a portion of the naval force to fight the Barbary pirates. For years
the US and many other nations had been forced to pay tribute to Tripoli in
return for safe passage. The Barbary pirates off the coast of northern Africa
attacked the ships of nations that did not pay tribute. Jefferson believed it
would be less costly to go to war with the pirates than to continue paying
tribute, and shortly after assuming office, he dispatched apportion of the fleet
to the shores of northern Africa. After three years of fighting, the move
finally paid off in 1805, when the US signed a peace treaty with Tripoli which
cut the yearly cost of tribute in half.
Jefferson's presidency was, from the very beginning, more of a rhetorical
construction than a string of concrete actions. He had won the confidence of
the voters by verbally tearing down the work of the Federalists and glorifying
the needs of the common man. He conducted himself with great humility, walking
and riding horseback often, rather than riding in elaborate coaches, as had his
predecessors. He created, verbally, an image of an administration founded on
liberty and, most of all, equality. Generally, it is agreed that his ideals
matched up to his rhetoric, but there is evidence which has caused some
historians to question his sincerity. Most notable, and most often cited, is
the fact that Jefferson was a large slaveholder, and furthermore, that he
allegedly engaged in adulterous sexual relations with one of his slaves,
fathering her children.
Once in office, Jefferson took action as was needed, but tried extremely hard to
limit the scope of his actions to that which did not interfere in the lives of
the common citizens. Adhering to the Republican ideal which demanded the
separation of the branches of government, Jefferson began the practice of
sending a written message to Congress each year, to be read by the clerk, rather
than appearing in person. This practice survived until the early twentieth
century.
Though he refused to dismiss all Federalist appointees, as many of his
Republican colleagues urged, Jefferson did set about doing whatever he saw as
within his limited power to reverse the course that the Federalists had set the
nation upon. Since secretary of the treasury Alexander
Hamilton, under Washington, had spearheaded much of
the offending Federalist policy, Jefferson's secretary of treasury, Albert
Gallatin, played the most important role initially in undoing it. Jefferson's
views on government involvement in the economy were starkly in contrast to the
views set forth by Hamilton's Federalists. While the Federalists had firmly
believed that the government must closely regulate the economy, Jefferson and
Gallatin believed in the economic theories of Adam Smith, which stated that an
unregulated economy would create the greatest amount of wealth. Thus Gallatin
set about the task of undoing the bonds between the government and the wealthy
that Hamilton had so carefully erected. The most prominent act of this
revolution in political-economic theory was the selling off of bank stock to the
House of Baring. With this transaction the Republican government eliminated all
ties with the odious symbol of Federalist economic policy.
