PRESIDENT JEFFERSON

INAUGURAL ADDRESS Like all Presidents, Jefferson gave a speech when he became President This is called an “inaugural address” In it he said “We are all republicans, we are all federalists.” He is saying that everyone was an American first and that we should stop arguing so much and dividing ourselves this way.

HAMILTON’S FINANCIAL PLAN  Jefferson did NOT like Hamilton’s financial plan  He thought the Bank of the United States was unconstitutional  He thought the excise tax on whiskey was wrong  He did not like a large debt  When he became President Jefferson  Got rid of the excise tax  Kept the National Bank

LOUISIANA PURCHASE  America had been using the city of New Orleans and the Mississippi River to send its products to markets while Spain controlled it  Spain gave it back to France in a secret treaty  Jefferson sent Monroe and Livingston to ask to buy New Orleans from France  France offered to sell all of Louisiana and they said yes  It cost 3 times the amount of money in the whole American budget! But it more than doubled the size of America  Jefferson approved it, but wanted an amendment to make it Constitutional  The people liked it and didn’t worry about it being constitutional, so he did not worry about making the amendment

LEWIS AND CLARK  Jefferson wanted to know what was in the land to the west of America and wanted to see if there was a river that ran all the way to the Pacific Ocean  He sent Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and a group of explorers to the Pacific to find out  Never asked Congress to approve this  It was a secret mission  They had peace medals to give to the Native Americans they met  They came back 3 years later with amazing stories and objects

THE PRESS  While he was Vice President, Jefferson wrote the Kentucky Resolution to say that the Sedition Act was wrong and should be nullified by states  As President many newspapers criticized Jefferson  He never stopped them from writing  He quietly supported pro-Republican newspapers with his own money  They printed stories that made him look good  Also, he never answered questions about whether he had a relationship with Sally Hemmings, an enslaved woman at Monticello  Did not say yes or no; he said nothing

FOREIGN TROUBLES  France and England had been at war for a while  They were bothering American boats on the oceans  England said any boat going to Europe could be shot down  Called the “Orders in Council”  France said all boats going to England could be shot down  Called the “Continental System”  American boats were being attacked  Example: the Chesapeake was taken by the British and American sailors were kidnapped

THE EMBARGO  Jefferson reacted to all the troubles with England and France by passing the Embargo Act  Said that American boats were not allowed to leave America at all!  We could not trade with anybody  Did this because he didn’t want America to be dragged into a war because of another fight like what happened to the Chesapeake  This hurt American shippers in New England the most  Many of them broke the law and sent their boats out anyways