Chapter 11 section 1

 In 1801, Thomas Jefferson became the first President to take the oath of office in Washington, D.C. Jefferson was also the first Republican President. He put his political ideas to work by keeping the government small and simple.

 Thomas Jefferson was a renaissance type man. He served his country as a President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, legislator, governor, and as the author and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  As a inventor, Jefferson designed a new type of clock, the swivel chair, the dumbwaiter elevator, and a new form of plow. He was also a musician, a farmer, an architect, and spoke 5 languages.

 As President, Jefferson tried to live by his words and put Republican ideas about government to work. He ended many customs of President Washington and Adams.  Guests now shook hands with the President, instead of bowing before him. Formal receptions were also replaced with informal dinners at a round table, so no person appeared superior to anyone else.

 The Supreme court gained a new, more powerful role in the Federal government. In the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison, the court established its power of judicial review.  Judicial review-the power to decide whether or not an act of Congress is constitutional.

WILLIAM MARBURYJAMES MADISON

 Soon after taking office, Jefferson noticed that a stack for new judges had not been delivered. Before Jefferson’s inauguration, President Adams appointed loyal Federalists to new judgeships. Adams did this so the Federalists would have the upper hand. Jefferson was outraged when he saw them and told his Secretary of State James Madison not to deliver them.

 One man who did not receive his commission was William Marbury. Marbury claimed that the Judiciary Act of 1789 gave the Supreme Court the power to force federal officials to perform their duties. Marbury argued, the court could order Madison to give him his commission.

 In 1803, the outcome of the case of Marbury vs. Madison forever changed the relationship of the three branches of government. In his decision, Chief Justice John Marshall and the court ruled that the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional because the Constitution did not grant such power to the Court. Therefore the Supreme Court could not force Madison to give Marbury his commission.

 John Marshall’s decision in Marbury vs. Madison was important because it established the power of judicial review for the Supreme Court. Just as the President could veto acts passed by Congress, now the Supreme Court could rule them unconstitutional.

 In 1803, Jefferson doubled the size of the United States by buying Louisiana from France. President Jefferson sent James Monroe to France. His mission was to persuade Napoleon to sell New Orleans to the United States. Luckily France was on the brink of war with Great Britain. Napoleon knew that he did not have a strong enough navy to protect French lands in North America.

- Rather than lose Louisiana to Britain, why not sell it to the Americans? Napoleon thought. Monroe accepted Napoleon’s offer of the Louisiana Purchase. - On April 30, 1803, he signed a treaty with France in which the United States agreed to buy Louisiana from France for about $15 million dollars.(about 3 cents per acre)

 To many Americans, the Louisiana Purchase looked like the bargain of the century. Although the Louisiana Purchase did double the size of the United States, it added 200,000 Native American, French, and Spanish inhabitants.  Thomas Jefferson hired Meriwhether Lewis and William Clark to explore the Louisiana Purchase.

 In 1804 Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on an expedition to explore the vast Louisiana Purchase and find a route to the Pacific Ocean. The other information they documented was native tribes they met (established trade with them),soil samples, terrain, and animals they encountered.  Lewis and Clark were joined by a guide named Toussaint Charbonneau and his 17 year old Shoshone Indian wife, Sacagewea. Sacagawea had been kidnapped as a child and taken far from her mountain homeland. She would serve as a guide and interpreter.

MERIWHETHER LEWISWILLIAM CLARK

 In 1806, Zebulon Pike began exploring a different part of Louisiana. Pike and his party pushed west across the Kansas Plains along Osage and Arkansas rivers. Upon reaching the Colorado Rockies, Pike caught a sight of the “Grand Peak”, now named “Pike’s Peak”.  The party got lost and wandered south into present day New Mexico. There, Spanish soldiers arrested them as spies and took them deep into Mexico. They were held captive until the spring of  Both expeditions returned with valuable information about newly purchased lands.