Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson referred to his presidential election in 1800 as a “bloodless revolution.” The election signaled a shift away from the Federalist policies supporting a strong federal government. As president, Jefferson was committed to shaping a government representative of and responsive to the needs of the people. To him, that meant keeping most government decisions at the local and state levels.

The 1800 election revealed a bitter split between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans — the party of which Jefferson emerged as the leader. Americans feared a difficult transition of power, but Jefferson’s inaugural address called for cooperation and good will. He said, “We are all republicans: we are all federalists,” meaning that all U.S. citizens were Americans first and were bound by the same founding ideas. He showed how to bring about an orderly and stable change from one political party’s leadership to another’s leadership.

Jefferson kept the United States free of “entangling alliances” at a time when Europe was caught up in costly wars. Jefferson also cut taxes and was able to pay off much of the national debt. He made sure freedom of speech was protected, and he loosened limits on immigration.

The most important event of Jefferson’s presidency was acquiring the vast Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 and sending the Corps of Discovery led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore it. The territory measured more than 800,000 square miles and included everything south of Canada and north of Mexico, running from the Mississippi River west to the Rocky Mountains. Without bloodshed and at the price of about $15 million (about three cents an acre), the United States gained control of the mighty Mississippi River as well as the land from which 11 states would be carved. Jefferson worried about the constitutionality of the purchase, but most Americans were pleased when the nation nearly doubled in size.