JEFFERSON 



3134 



JEFFERSON 



dent and which for Vice-President, and the re- 

 sult gave Jefferson and Burr each seventy-three 

 votes, Adams sixty-five and Pinckney sixty- 

 four. The election was thus thrown into the 

 House of Representatives, which was controlled 

 by a Federalist majority. A few Federalists, 

 willing to go any lengths to defeat Jefferson, 

 allied themselves with Burr, after a series of in- 

 trigues, but Hamilton, still the leader of the 

 Federalists, threw his influence to Jefferson, 

 who was finally elected by the vote of ten 

 states to four for Burr. The members of the 

 House voted by states, not as individuals. This 

 contest, which threatened to disrupt the govern- 

 ment, resulted in an amendment to the Con- 

 stitution, adopted in 1804, by which electors are 

 required to name their choice for President and 

 Vice-President respectively, and by which the 

 House is allowed, in case no candidate has a 

 majority, to choose from the three candidates 

 receiving the most votes, instead of two candi- 

 dates as before. 



Administrations of Thomas Jefferson, 1801- 

 1809. Jefferson served two terms; he was re- 

 elected in 1804 by an electoral vote of 162 out 

 of 176 votes cast. When Jefferson entered 

 office he held extreme theories of strict con- 

 struction of the Constitution, and he set about 

 putting them into effect. The navy, created 

 during the preceding administration, he cut 

 down by putting out of commission all but six 

 ships. He secured a reduction in the appro- 

 priations for the army and the diplomatic serv- 

 ice, and in every way tried to lessen the 

 expenses and the functions of the govern- 

 ment. He also took steps, in 1802, to end the 

 collection of internal revenue, and in 1803 

 secured from Congress the repeal of the 

 national bankruptcy law, which had been 

 passed in 1800. 



A vigorous assertion of national feeling, 

 however, was the course he followed in relation 

 to the piratical Barbary States. Nearly twenty 

 years earlier, while minister to France, he had 

 urged the United States government to refuse 

 further tribute to the pirates. In 1801 Tripoli, 

 one of these Barbary States, demanded an 

 increased annual payment, which was refused. 

 Tripoli thereupon declared war, and Jefferson 

 responded by sending an American squadron 

 into the Mediterranean Sea. Tripoli's ports 

 were blockaded and bombarded, and in June, 

 1805, Tripoli asked for peace. The United 

 States was thus the first nation in the world 

 to gain immunity from tribute and piracy in 

 the Mediterranean (see BARBARY STATES). 



The crowning achievement of Jefferson's first 

 administration, however, was the Louisiana 

 Purchase (which see). Jefferson himself 

 doubted the constitutionality of the act, and 

 he was taunted by his opponents for abandon- 

 ing his principles of strict construction. Yet 

 the purchase was also proof of Jefferson's far- 

 sightedness, of his practical statesmanship, of 

 his willingness to subordinate personal views 

 to whatever seemed, in the last analysis, for 

 the common good. 



Reflected in 1804 by an overwhelming ma- 

 jority, Jefferson's second term began auspi- 

 ciously. The nation was prosperous, commerce 

 was flourishing, and American ships carried 

 much of the trade of Europe. Unfortunately 

 the war between England and France (the 

 Napoleonic wars) had broken out again in 

 1803, and the United States was destined to 

 suffer at the hands of both belligerents. Jef- 

 ferson endeavored to secure for the United 

 States and other neutrals certain rights which 

 belligerents acknowledged in theory but refused 

 to concede in practice. Great Britain, as the 

 first step, declared a blockade of the European 

 coast from Brest to the Elbe River. To this 

 Napoleon replied by declaring a blockade of 

 the British Isles (see CONTINENTAL SYSTEM ; 

 ORDERS IN COUNCIL). Great Britain, moreover, 

 made a practice of stopping and searching 

 American merchantmen for contraband and for 

 British citizens, a practice which came to a 

 climax in the "Chesapeake Affair." Hence- 

 forth British vessels were forbidden to enter 

 American harbors, and in December, 1807, 

 Congress passed the Embargo Act (see EM- 

 BARGO). The Embargo, however, did France 

 and Great Britain little damage, whereas it 

 practically ruined American commerce and 

 nearly alienated the New England states. It 

 was evaded by many shippers in the United 

 States, and was finally replaced by the Non- 

 Intercourse Act (which see) in 1809. Jeffer- 

 son always believed that the Embargo was 

 justified and that it would have attained its 

 object if the nation as a whole had been will- 

 ing to make the sacrifices demanded. 



During Jefferson's eight years in office many 

 other noteworthy events took place, with some 

 of which he was not personally concerned. 

 Ohio was admitted as a state in 1802, and the 

 United States Military Academy at West Point 

 was founded in the same year. Robert Ful- 

 ton's first successful steamship, the Clermont, 

 was completed in 1806, at the same time that 

 the Cumberland Road (which see), the first 



