Jefferson In Office

Thomas Jefferson Privately referred to his election as the “Revolution of 1800” Thought Washington and Adams acted too much like royalty and aimed to create a more informal presidency He rode horseback rather than in a carriage Had more intimate dinners rather than big galas Began paying off the national debt Shrunk the size of the federal government Abolished the hated whiskey tax Tried to connect with the masses rather than the elites

Louisiana Purchase Jefferson’s strongest belief was that a republic could only survive if most people owned land This belief led him to support the idea of expanding the nation to the west

Louisiana Purchase

Louisiana Purchase In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte convinced Spain to give Louisiana back to France in exchange for helping Spain control part of Italy This made Jefferson worry that the US would have to form an alliance with Britain to fend off the French In 1803, France resumed the fight to conquer Europe France didn’t want an alliance between Britain and the US France was also short on money On April 30, 1803 the US bought Louisiana from France for $11.25 million and also agreed to take on French debt The total cost of the Louisiana Purchase was $15 million

Louisiana Purchase

Louisiana Purchase The Senate overwhelmingly agreed to the purchase The deal more than doubled the size of the US The nation now had complete control of the Mississippi River

Lewis and Clark Even before the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson asked congress to fund a secret expedition into the Louisiana Territory to trace the Missouri River and find a route to the Pacific Ocean Jefferson chose Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to go on the expedition In 1804 the ‘Corps of Discovery’ headed west up the Missouri River Lewis and Clark meet Sacagawea, a member of the Shoshone people, and she joins the party as a guide and interpreter The expedition found a path through the Rocky Mountains and traced the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean The expedition also gave the United States a claim to the Oregon Territory along the coast