Jefferson’s Presidency Mrs. Ingram

New Policies When Jefferson took office, his followers preached a ‘republican revolution’ in governmental policies. As the first Democratic-Republican elected, he differed greatly from the Federalists before him. First time power had shifted from one party to another. Jefferson’s main goal was to bring down federal debt. He cut the debt from $80 mil to $59 mil.

John Marshall John Marshall became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court when Jefferson took office. In his 35 years, he heard over 1,000 cases and set 4 main precedents that would define his legacy. Power of judicial review; Federal laws were superior to state laws; Believed in the implied powers of the Constitution; Believed in limiting the power of state gov to interfere in business contracts.

Marbury v. Madison (1803) First court case to assert the power of judicial review– the power of the judicial branch (i.e. Supreme Court) to determine what is constitutional and what is not. William Marbury was appointed under John Adams as one of his ‘midnight judges’– a last minute appointment before he left office. His papers were not delivered by Jefferson’s Secretary of State, James Madison. Marbury claimed the Supreme Court had the power to order Madison to deliver his papers under the Judiciary Act of 1801; Marshall disagreed. This is the only time Marshall declared a federal law (JA 1801) unconstitutional.

The Nation Expands Democratic-Republicans wanted an economy based on farming, so Jefferson saw a need for increased area to grow these crops on. Jefferson sought to expand to the Pacific, first conquering the Louisiana Territory owned by Spain. However, Napoleon had claimed the land from Spain, making it much more difficult to claim (Jefferson thought). France was willing to sell the land because they had been unsuccessful at establishing an empire in the Western Hemisphere.

Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark Jefferson purchased the territory from France for $15 million. He then sent two men (Meriwether Lewis and William Clark) to explore the new land. On their exploration, Lewis and Clark cataloged flora, fauna, and natural formations (to create maps). However, as a Democratic-Republican, this acquisition went against Jefferson’s principles. Jefferson (D-R) believed in a strict interpretation of the Constitution. There is nothing in the Constitution that gives the president the power to purchase land.

Foreign Problems Jefferson had to send a small navy to northern Africa to stop the Barbary pirates from seizing American ships. The U.S. needed overseas markets to sell their surpluses of goods, but Britain ruled the seas. The U.S. adopted a policy of re-export, in which American ships would bring French goods from the Caribbean to the U.S. be re- labelled as American, and sent overseas past the British blockade. The U.S. became Britain’s greatest market competition, and aided the French economy.

Foreign Problems (cont’d) Jefferson also faced the problem of British ships seizing U.S. merchants and forcing them to serve in the British military. This was known as impressment. The problems with the British grew, and Jefferson knew the U.S.’ navy was not strong enough to take on Great Britain’s. Congress passed the Embargo Act of 1807 in hopes to ‘starve’ the British trade to the point where they had to trade with the U.S. Great Britain was able to start a successful trade with South America, so U.S. merchants suffered most of all.