JEFFERSON 



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JEFFERSON 



LEADING FACTS 

 JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATIONS 



Lewis and Clank Expedition 1803 ] 



Pultons Steamboat, the Clermont 



popularity in France 

 may be judged from 

 the fact that in July, 

 1789, while he was still 

 accredited as minister 

 to the French king, he 

 was invited by the na- 

 tional assembly to as- 

 sist in drafting a new 

 French constitution. 



Secretary of State 

 and Vice-President. In 

 the late autumn of 1789 

 Jefferson was granted a 

 six-months' leave* of ab- 

 sence and sailed for 

 home. He planned to 

 return to France at the 

 end of that time, but 

 with great reluctance 

 finally accepted the po- 

 sition of Secretary of 

 State, at President 

 Washington's urgent re- 

 quest. He was the first 

 to hold this Cabinet 

 position. His tenure of 

 the office was not a 

 happy one, for he had 

 no sooner entered on 

 his duties than he be- 

 came the open leader 

 of the Democratic-Republicans, who believed 

 in state sovereignty and trusted the people. 

 Alexander Hamilton, the leader of the Federal- 

 ists, was also in the Cabinet as Secretary of the 

 Treasury, and used his great influence in favor 

 of a strong, centralized government. Jefferson, 

 in short, admired French republican models; 

 Hamilton, British monarchical models. The two 

 men were personally and politically antagonis- 

 tic, and it was with great joy that Jefferson 

 induced Washington to accept his resignation. 



Pa. 



War witK Barbary L States 



A few months later, when Hamilton, too, re-> 

 signed, Washington again offered Jefferson the 

 post of Secretary of State, but the latter de- 

 clined it. He was determined more than ever, 

 he said, to devote the remainder of his life to 

 farming. Nevertheless, in 1796 he allowed his 

 name to be used as a candidate for the Presi- 

 dency to succeed Washington, and escaped 

 election by the narrow margin of three votes. 

 John Adams received seventy-one electoral 

 votes to sixty-eight for 

 Jefferson, who, under the 

 Constitution as it then 

 existed, became Vice- 

 President. Adams and 

 Jefferson were of oppo- 

 site parties, and through- 

 out his term the Presi- 

 dent steadily disregarded 

 the Vice-President. Jef- 

 ferson had no share in 

 fixing the government's 

 policy; in fact, he re- 

 mained the leader of the 

 opposition party, and 

 wrote the Kentucky 

 Resolutions, the most 

 vigorous statement of its 

 views. 



Election of 1800. The 

 Presidential election of 

 1800 was bitterly con- 

 tested. There were four 

 leading candidates, Jef- 

 ferson, Aaron Burr, John 

 Adams and Charles C. 

 Pinckney; Jefferson and 

 Burr were Democratic- 

 Republicans ; the other 

 two were Federalists. 

 Under the Constitution 

 each elector cast two 

 ballots without designat- 

 ing which was for Presi- 



Ohio 



admitted to 

 Union J 803 



Louisiana Purchase 



