Jefferson and Madison Presidency Notes

Election of 1800- Big Issues… Adams runs for re-election, along with fellow Federalist Thomas Pickney. Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr (both Democratic-Republicans) oppose him. Jefferson and Burr each won 73 electoral votes, while Adams won 65 and Pinckney won 64. However nobody received a majority of votes. TIE FOR PRESIDENT… WHAT TO DO???

How do we handle this??? There was nothing in the Constitution about what to do… So they sent the issue to the House of Representatives for a vote which resulted in another tie…and for 30 more times after that!! Finally, some people refused to vote, and Jefferson ended up winning Because of this the 12th amendment was passed in 1803 creating a separate ballot for President and Vice President to avoid ties

Third President- Thomas Jefferson Jefferson was a Democratic- Republican Party Candidate…believes in less government control over issues Wanted the people to be in charge Wanted to be fair

Important people for Jefferson… Secretary of State- James Madison Chief Justice of Supreme Court- John Marshall Rival- Alexander Hamilton

1803- Marbury vs. Madison VERY IMPORTANT CASE!!! Established Judicial Review… gave the Supreme court its power of declaring laws unconstitutional. What Happens… Marbury sues Madison saying that he Madison illegally stopped Marbury from getting his job as a federal judge as was his right under the Judicial Act of 1789 The court rules that the Judicial Act was WRONG and did not follow the Constitution therefore it was invalid or illegal This is the FIRST time the Supreme Court has done this (declared a law unconstitutional)

1803- Louisiana Purchase- Land anyone??? France needs money to fight a war and offers to sell us some land This DOUBLES the size of the United States and gives us the control of the Mississippi and Port of New Orleans for trade Jefferson is able to purchase the land owned by France at the price of $15 million dollars This is called the LOUSIANA PURCHASE

Some fun facts… What cost $15,000,000 million in 1803 would now cost $204,768,579.15 TODAY in 2009. It came down to less than 3 CENTS and ACRE!!!! An acre is about ¾ of a football field… imagine all that land for less than 3 CENTS!!!

Time to go exploring… Jefferson commissions the Corp of Discovery in 1804 to go and explore our new land. Expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, famous native guide Sacagawea (a female) It took 3 years to travel from St. Lewis to the Pacific Ocean, creating maps and discovering new animals and tribes along the way

A map of the journey…

Think about it… Why did Jefferson buy the Louisiana Purchase even though the Constitution did not give him this power?

1807- Embargo Act… Good or bad idea? Passed in 1807 and banned all trade with foreign countries It was meant to hurt British and French merchants Wanted to stop the illegal seizures of American ships by the British Who do you think really got hurt???

1809- Congress says… Let’s try that again They get rid of the Embargo act and instead create the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 that banned trade only with Britain, France and their colonies. ( a little better I guess?)