The Election of 1804 1) Thomas Jefferson’s election in 1800 coincided with large Democratic-Republican gains in both the House and Senate. The Party gained a commanding majority after the 1802 midterm elections, outnumbering the Federalists by 2 to 1. Alexander Hamilton’s untimely death in July, 1804 only hastened the demise of his own party. Only pockets of Federalism persisted in the commercial centers of New England.

The Election of 1804 2) Historians rank Jefferson’s first term as one of the most successful in Presidential history. Jefferson had doubled the size of the nation with the vast Louisiana territory, maintained peace in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, retired a substantial portion of the national debt by cutting government spending, and eliminated many taxes inherited from John Adams.

The Election of 1804 VS. 3) Jefferson’s Federalist adversary, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, had little chance for victory against such a popular incumbent. Jefferson won over 72% of the popular vote and took every state except Delaware and Connecticut. Jefferson’s landslide in the election of 1804 remains the largest margin of victory since the advent of political parties.

The Election of 1804 4) During the election Democratic-Republican journalist James Callender turned his energies against the President and published an account of how Jefferson had previously financed Callender’s scandalous editorials against President Adams. When Jefferson denied the claim, Callender published letters from Jefferson that proved his involvement. Callender turned on Jefferson when the President denied his request to serve as the Postmaster General of Richmond, Virginia.

The Election of 1804 5) Democratic-Republicans responded by spreading rumors that Callender had abandoned his wife when she was dying of venereal disease. Callender responded by writing in the Federalist newspaper the Richmond Recorder that Jefferson “keeps and for many years has kept, as his concubine, one of his slaves. Her name is Sally." Abigail Adams wrote to Jefferson with a sense of satisfaction that, “The serpent you cherished and warmed bit the hand that nourished him.”

The Election of 1804 6) Sally Hemmings was a slave at Jefferson’s Monticello plantation and she had several biracial, light-skinned children that looked strikingly similar to their white master. Jefferson had inherited most of his slaves when his father-in-law, John Wayles died in 1773. It is widely believed that Sally Hemmings was his daughter, making her an illegitimate half-sister to Jefferson’s wife, Martha Wayles Skelton.

The Election of 1804 8) Many Jefferson biographers and historians reject the notion as conjecture. They point out that Jefferson wrote in 1814 that "[t]he amalgamation of whites with blacks produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character, can innocently consent." A 1998 DNA study proved that there was a genetic link between the Hemmings and Jefferson lines, however, Thomas Jefferson could not conclusively be identified as the father because he did not have a male heir. Historical records reveal that Jefferson was present at Monticello nine months before each of the Hemmings children were born. After a series of further studies, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation that operates Monticello released a statement in 2000 that said, “it is very unlikely that any Jefferson other than Thomas Jefferson was the father of [Hemings' six] children.”

Jefferson-Hemmings Descendents at Monticello in 1999

The Aaron Burr Conspiracy VP – 1800-04 VP – 1804-08 1) Thomas Jefferson lost all trust in Vice President Aaron Burr after the election crisis of 1800. Burr could have settled the matter by removing himself from the ballot, but his silence convinced Jefferson that he was conspiring with the Federalists to steal the White House from him. As a result, Burr was completely disregarded and played almost no role in the Jefferson administration. Jefferson removed Burr from the Democratic-Republican ticket during the election of 1804 and replaced him with George Clinton.

The Burr Conspiracy 2) Burr’s political isolation led him to switch parties and he ran for the governorship of New York as a Federalist. Burr was sponsored by a group of extremist Federalists that were plotting the future secession of the New England states. Burr made no promises to lead New York into secession, but he never exposed the treasonous conspiracy either.

The Burr Conspiracy 3) Alexander Hamilton was alarmed by the radical faction of his own party and he wrote to his wayward allies, “Tell them from ME, at MY request, for God’s sake, to cease these conversations and threatenings about a separation of the Union. It must hang together as long as it can be made to.” Hamilton distrusted Burr and considered him to be the most dangerous politician in the country. They had a long-standing feud that sprouted from their intense rivalry as New York politicians. Hamilton used his influence with moderate Federalists to ensure Burr’s crushing defeat in the New York gubernatorial (Governor) election of 1804.

The Aaron Burr Conspiracy 4) Supposedly Hamilton referred to Burr as “despicable” at a dinner party and his statement was published in the Albany Register newspaper. Hamilton refused to apologize and Burr challenged him to a duel. Just before dawn on July 11th , 1804, the two men were separately rowed across the Hudson River to meet above the cliffs of Weehawken, New Jersey.

The Aaron Burr Conspiracy 5) The two men walked twenty paces, turned and faced one another in silence. Hamilton supposedly raised his pistol and fired into the air, a few seconds passed, and Burr took aim and shot Hamilton in the lower abdomen above the right hip. The bullet ricocheted off his false rib and lodged in his spine. Hamilton died the following day and murder indictments were issued for the Vice President of the United States.

The Aaron Burr Conspiracy 6) In addition to becoming involved in a secessionist plot by extremist Federalists and killing Alexander Hamilton while he was still the sitting Vice President, Burr also contacted the British Minister (ambassador) to the United States and informed him of his plans to lead a military expedition into the Louisiana Purchase with plans to detach some portion of the Southwestern United States. He accepted $1500 dollars for his plot and requested that the British also provide him with ships.

The Aaron Burr Conspiracy 8) Chief Justice John Marshall presided over the trial and ruled that Burr was innocent of treason because he had not actually committed an act of war. Not only did the Constitution describe treason as an “overt act,” it also required two witnesses to testify. Wilkinson was the prosecution’s lone witness and his testimony was tainted when he admitted that the cipher letter was a copy of the original. Marshall explained, “merely suggesting war or engaging in a conspiracy was not enough to require a conviction.”

The Aaron Burr Conspiracy 9) Burr was acquitted and he fled to Europe to live in exile until 1812. There are rumors that he even tried to seek audiences with the British monarchy and Napoleon in the hopes of sparking a war on the United States. He eventually returned to America and lived under the alias “Aaron Edwards” in order to escape his creditors and his scandalous past.

The Embargo Act (1808) 1) Jefferson’s second term was a considerable disappointment compared to his first four years as President. The same European war that had plagued Washington and Adams now re-emerged under Jefferson.

The Embargo Act (1808) 2) After Napoleon secured the purchase of Louisiana, he resumed his bloody war to conquer Europe. This conflict would continue for eleven more years and would continuously threaten American neutrality.

The Embargo Act (1808) 3) In 1805, the British were able to destroy the French fleets off the coast of Spain in the Battle of Trafalgar, giving their Navy total control of the high seas. In the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon defeated the combined armies of Russia and Austria and took total control of mainland Europe.

The Embargo Act (1808) 4) The British and the French were now separated to their dominant spheres and were forced to fight an indirect war. Unfortunately for the United States, this foreboding development rendered a policy of neutrality useless in the face of a British naval blockade of Europe. Merchant vessels were seized and thousands of American sailors were “impressed” into the ranks of the British Navy against their will.

The Embargo Act (1808) 6) Appreciating the wisdom of Washington’s isolationist stance, Jefferson calmed American cries for war and attempted to negotiate with the British. Instead of war, Jefferson issued the Embargo Act of 1808 in order to cut off all American trade to Europe. Believing that Europe was dependant on American foodstuffs and raw materials, the Embargo would force Britain and France to respect American neutrality.

The Embargo Act (1808) 7) The Embargo actually had a crippling economic impact on American shipping long before it was felt overseas. Federalist New England in particular suffered under the constraints of the Embargo. Many shippers turned to illicit trade and smuggling in order to bypass the hated law.

The Embargo Act 8) Rampant smuggling led the White House and Congress to increase enforcement by raising fines and issuing harsher penalties, policies that a younger Jefferson would have condemned as tyrannical acts of an intrusive federal government. Congress eventually responded by repealing the Embargo Act in 1809, three days before Jefferson’s retirement.

The Embargo Act (1808) 9) The day before James Madison’s inauguration as the 4th President of the United States, Jefferson wrote, “Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such a relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power.”

Jefferson and Slavery 1) Thomas Jefferson’s greatest dilemma was perhaps the troubling condition of the African-American slaves that toiled in his plantation fields and homes. His enlightenment ideals expressed in the Declaration conflicted sharply with the political reality in late 17th and early 18th century America.

Jefferson and Slavery 2) Jefferson’s views on slavery fluctuated considerably during his lifetime and he drifted from abolitionist stances rooted in moral indignation to resigned acceptance rooted in political expediency. In 1781 Jefferson wrote in Notes on the State of Virginia, “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever …The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other.” However, he lamented in 1805, “I have long since given up the expectation of any early provision for the extinguishment of slavery among us.”

Jefferson and Slavery 3) Many dispute whether Jefferson included disenfranchised groups like women and slaves in the Declaration’s statement on the self-evident truth of equality and inalienable rights. It’s hard to imagine that a man of such enlightened thought and utter faith in the people would believe that God intended freedom to be anything but universal.

Jefferson and Slavery 4) Jefferson’s early political career was tinged with notable pronouncements against the institution of slavery. In 1769, Jefferson introduced a bill in the House of Burgesses to emancipate slavery in Virginia that failed to pass, but the state legislature did pass his bill in 1778 to ban the further importation of slaves into the state. Jefferson later wrote that it "stopped the increase of the evil by importation, leaving to future efforts its final eradication."

Jefferson and Slavery 5) Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence included a condemnation of the British crown for sponsoring the importation of slavery to the colonies, charging that the crown. This section was eliminated from the final draft of the Declaration after delegates from South Carolina and Georgia objected. Jefferson’s experiences with southern resistance to emancipation led him to the realization that he couldn’t take such a radical political stance without sacrificing his political credibility.

(blacksmith and tinner) Jefferson and Slavery 7) Jefferson also maintained a paternalistic attitude toward his slaves and he often referred to them as his “extended family,” preferring to think of himself as their “father” rather than their “master.” There is no recorded instance where Jefferson ever personally resorted to whippings. He would rather sell off troublesome slaves than wield the lash. He made arrangements to have his most adept slaves educated in trades like cooking, carpentry, and masonry. Jefferson felt that common field hands were better off at Monticello because their lack of skills would frustrate the enjoyment of their freedom. He was reluctant to free anyone unless he believed they could become self-sufficient. Isaac Jefferson (blacksmith and tinner)

Jefferson and Slavery 8) As his personal debts mounted, he became increasingly aware of how his own livelihood depended upon the value of slaves and their labor. Ironically, his monetary problems coincided with his attitude that slavery was too complicated to solve and would have to be left in the hands of future generations. “He later wrote, “as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go…Justice is in one scale and self-preservation in the other.” He came to fear the sectional divide created by slavery and declared it would be “the rock upon which the Union will split.”

Exit Ticket – With a partner What was the Embargo Act of 1808? (Ex. What countries were involved, what were the results) Why would a younger Jefferson been disgusted with how his government dealt with the Embargo Act of 1808?