PQ 2a

Thomas Jefferson

1801-1809

Democratic-Republican

Louisiana Purchase (1803)

Thomas Jefferson

The 1803 purchase of French territory west of the Mississippi River that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States and opened the way for future American expansion west. The purchase required President Thomas Jefferson to exercise powers not explicitly granted to him by the Constitution. So Jefferson accepted a loose interpretation of the Constitution and used its treaty-making powers to complete the deal with France. It was the single most important act in his administration and changed the course of US history.

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Thomas Jefferson

William Marbury, a federalist that was denied his appointment by the Jefferson administration, asked the Supreme Court to force the Jefferson Administration to allow his judicial appointment to go through. The Supreme Court refused to issue the order forcing the Jefferson Administration and Marbury was never appointed. It established the principle of judicial review which allows the Supreme Court to strike down acts of the Congress, actions of the president, and eventually acts of the state governments as unconstitutional.

Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806)

Thomas Jefferson

The Lewis and Clark Expedition was a two-year expedition by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark who explored the Louisiana Purchase, the vast territory west of the Mississippi River. A key member was Sacagawea who led them in their journeys. The expedition's goals were to: discover a water route across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, establish a legal claim for the US to the land, establish a trade network across the country, befriend the American Indians encountered. The expedition was a huge success, providing new geographic, ecological, and cultural information about previously uncharted areas of North America.

12th Amendment (1804)

Thomas Jefferson

Amendment Twelve to the Constitution was ratified on June 15, 1804. It revises and outlines the procedure of how Presidents and Vice Presidents are elected, specifically so that they are elected together. At its inception in 1789, the Constitution had established the Electoral College as the means for electing presidents. This system would have the candidate with the majority of electoral votes become the President, while the candidate with the second-highest number would become Vice President. For the electors, it was now mandated that a distinct vote had to be taken for the president and the vice president. The catalyst for the Twelfth Amendment was the U.S. presidential election of 1800 when presidents of opposing political parties were president and vice president.

Barbary Pirates of North America (1805)

Thomas Jefferson

The first major challenge to Jefferson’ foreign policy came from the piracy practiced by the Barbary states on the North African coast. To protect the US merchant ships from being seized by Barbury pirates, Washington and Adams agreed to pay tribute to the Barbury governments. The ruler of Tripoli demanded a higher sum in tribute from Jefferson. Refusing to pay, Jefferson sent a small fleet of the US Navy to the Mediterranean. Sporadic fighting with Tripoli lasted four years. Although the American navy did not achieve a decisive victory, it did gain some respect and offered a measure of protection to US vessels trading in Mediterranean waters.

Embargo Act (1807)

Thomas Jefferson

As an alternative to war, Jefferson proposed this act. An act of Congress that prohibited U.S. ships from traveling to foreign ports and effectively banned overseas trade in an attempt to deter Britain from halting U.S. ships at sea. The embargo caused hardships for Americans engaged in overseas commerce. A drastic maneuver, the embargo overestimated the reliance of Britain and France on American shipping and underestimated the resistance of merchants, who feared the embargo would ruin them. In fact, the embargo cut the American gross national product by 5% and weakened the entire economy. This resulted in the Non-Intercourse Act.

Robert Fulton invents steamboat Clermont on the Hudson River (1807)

Thomas Jefferson

The steamboat added crucial flexibility to the Mississippi basin’s river-based transportation system. Engineer-inventor Robert Fulton piloted the first American steamboat, the Clermont, up the Hudson River. These vessels halved the cost of upstream navigable river transport and dramatically increased the flow of goods, people, and news. In 1800, the same journeys had taken twice as long. Because of the mass migration to the area, to meet the demand for cheap farmsteads, Congress in 1820 reduced the price of federal land. By the 1840s, this had enticed people to states and territories west of the Appalachians, and canals had boomed.

International Slave Trade Ended (1808)

Thomas Jefferson

On January 1, 1808, the United States passed the "Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves", which permanently ended the legal importation of enslaved people from Africa into the country. This was the earliest date permitted by the Constitution. ​​Between 1776 and 1808, when Congress outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, planters purchased a lot of Africans. Planters also imported new African workers illegally, through the Spanish colony of Florida until 1819 and then through the Mexican province of Texas. Yet these Africans did not satisfy the demand either. The law did not affect the domestic slave trade within the United States, which increased in importance after the legal supply of imported slaves was terminated. However, the practice of slavery continued to be legal in much of the U.S. until 1865.

Non-Intercourse Act (1809)

Thomas Jefferson

After the repeal of Jefferson’s Embargo Act, Madison hoped to end economic hardship while maintaining his country’s rights as a neutral nation. The Nonintercourse Act of 1809 provided that Americans could now trade with all nations except Britain and France. The act's goal was to maintain US neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars. The act allowed trade with all other nations, but barred British and French ships from American ports. The act was mostly ineffective and contributed to the War of 1812. In 1810, Congress replaced the Non-Intercourse Act with Macon's Bill No. 2, which reopened trade with Britain or France.

James Madison

1809-1817

Democratic-Republican

Macon’s Bill #2 (1810)

James Madison

As a result of the Non-Intercourse Act, economic hardships continued into 1810. Nathaniel Macon, a member of Congress, introduced a bill that restored US trade with Britain or France. Macon’s Bill No. 2 provided that if either Britain or France formally agreed to respect US neutral rights at sea, then the US would prohibit trade with the other. Napoleon took advantage of the bill to further his Continental System, which was a French embargo on Britain. President James Madison, who opposed the bill, allowed trade with France to continue. However, when Britain threatened to punish the United States, Napoleon reneged on his promise and continued to seize American ships and cargoes. In February 1811, Madison cut off trade with Britain and recalled the American minister. 

Battle of Tippecanoe (1811)

James Madison

The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought in Battle Ground, Indiana. The battle was between American forces led by Governor William Henry Harrison and Native American warriors led by Tenskwatawa, also known as "The Prophet". The battle was fought after the Treaty of Fort Wayne, which required Indiana tribes to sell three million acres of land to the United States government. Shawnee chief Tecumseh organized a confederacy of Native American tribes to fight against the pioneers. After the battle, Harrison's men burned Prophetstown to the ground, destroying the food supplies stored for the winter. The outcome of the battle pushed Tecumseh to officially side with the British in the impending War of 1812. 

Cumberland Road Begins (1811)

James Madison

In 1811, construction began on the National Road, the first 10 mi being the Cumberland Road, in Maryland. The road was the first federally funded road in the United States, authorized by Congress in 1806. The road was built in sections over decades to connect Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling, West Virginia, and then northwest to Vandalia, Illinois. By 1818, the road was completed to Wheeling, and mail coaches began using it. The National Road's popularity declined in the 1870s with the rise in railroads.

US Invades Canada (1812-1813)

James Madison

As a part of the War of 1812, a poorly equipped American army initiated military action by launching a three-part invasion of Canada, one force starting out from Detroit, another from Niagara, and a third from Lake Champlain. These led into Canada were easily repulsed by the British defenders. An American raid and burning of government buildings in York (Toronto) in 1813 only served to encourage retaliation by the British. Though an easy win for Americans at the time, the Battle of York would cost them many of their men who were killed or wounded in the explosion. The battle did little to advance either side’s dominant control of Canadian waters, but the easy victory boosted American morale, fueling the fire for continued attempts at expansion into Canada.

War Hawks

James Madison

A congressional election in 1810 had brought a group of new, young Democratic-Republicans to Congress, many of them from frontier states. Known as war hawks because of their eagerness for the war with Britain, they quickly gained significant influence in the House of Representatives. Led by Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, the war hawk members of Congress argued that war with Britain would be the only way to defend American honor, gain Canada, and destroy American Indian resistance on the frontier. The War Hawks believed that Thomas Jefferson's economic policies, such as the Embargo Act and the Non-Intercourse Act, had failed, and that Britain was funding Native American tribes who were resisting white settlers.

Hartford Convention (1814)

James Madison

Just before the war ended, the NE states threatened to secede from the Union. Opposed to both the war and Democratic-Republican government in Washington, radical Federalists in NE urged that the Constitution be amended and that, as a last resort, secession be voted upon. They believed because states approved the Constitution, they had a right to leave if they wanted. An idea called for a two-thirds vote of both houses for any future declaration of war. Shortly after the convention dissolved, news came of both Jackson’s victory at New Orleans and the Treaty of Ghent. These events ended criticism of the war and further weakened the Federalists by stamping them as unpatriotic.

Treaty of Ghent (1814)

James Madison

Madison’s government recognized that the Americans would be unable to win a decisive victory. American peace commissioners traveled to Ghent, Belgium, to discuss terms of peace with British diplomats. The terms halted fighting, returned all conquered territory to the prewar claimant, and recognized the prewar boundary between Canada and the US. The Treaty of Ghent, promptly ratified by the Senate in 1815 Britain made no concessions concerning impressment, blockades, or other maritime differences. Thus, the war ended in stalemate with no gain for either side; it restored diplomatic relations and restored trade.

Battle of New Orleans (1815)

James Madison

The Battle of New Orleans took place between the United States and Great Britain after the War of 1812. The battle was the last armed conflict between the two countries.The British, led by General Edward Pakenham, attacked the American forces, led by General Andrew Jackson, both unaware the war had ended. The Americans were dug into fortified earthworks on the east bank of the Mississippi River at Chalmette Plantation. The British hoped to capture New Orleans and separate Louisiana from the United States. However, the battle boosted American morale and led the Senate to unanimously approve the treaty. The battle made Jackson a national hero and helped him win the presidency in 1828. 

Tariff of 1816

James Madison

American manufacturers feared that British goods would be dumped on American markets and take away much of their business. Congress raised protective tariffs as a part of the American System for the express purpose of protecting US manufacturers from competition rather than to simply raise revenue. This was the first protective tariff in US history. New England, which had little manufacturing at the time, was the only section to oppose higher tariffs. Even the South and West, which had opposed tariffs in the past and would oppose them in the future, generally supported the 1816 tariff, believing that it was needed for national prosperity and was especially liked by the southern elite, plantation owners, to further the cotton complex.

Second Bank of the US (1816)

James Madison

Founded in Philadelphia in 1816, the bank was privately managed and operated under a twenty-year charter from the federal government, which owned 20 percent of its stock. The bank’s most important role was to stabilize the nation’s money supply, which consisted primarily of paper money issued by state-chartered banks. By collecting those notes and regularly demanding specie, the Second Bank kept the state banks from issuing too much paper money and depreciating its value. This cautious monetary policy pleased creditors — the bankers and entrepreneurs in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, whose capital investments were underwriting economic development. Jackson would not renew this bank in his term and create an economic pitfall.

American Colonization Society Founded (1817)

James Madison

The idea of transporting those people freed from slavery to an African colony was first tried in 1817 with the founding of the American Colonization Society. This appealed to some opponents of slavery. It also appealed to many White Americans who wanted to remove all free Black Americans from US society. In 1822, the ACS established an African American settlement in Monrovia, Liberia. Colonization never proved practical. For the most part, free African Americans did not want to leave the land where they and their ancestors had been born. Between 1820 and 1860, only about 12,000 African Americans moved to Africa while the enslaved population grew by 2.5 million.

James Monroe

1817-1825

Democratic-Republican

Era of Good Feelings

James Monroe

The period’s nickname suggests the Monroe years were marked by a spirit of nationalism, optimism, and goodwill. One party, the Federalists, faded into oblivion, and Monroe’s party, the Democratic-Republicans, adopted some of their policies and dominated politics. This perception of unity and harmony, however, can be misleading and oversimplified. Throughout the era, people had heated debates over tariffs, the national bank, internal improvements, and public land sales--the American System. Sectionalist tensions over slavery were increasing. Moreover, even a sense of party unity was illusory since antagonistic factions among Democratic-Republicans would soon split it in two. The actual period of “good feelings” may have only lasted from the election of 1816 to the Panic of 1819. 

Erie Canal Begins (1817)

James Monroe

The New York legislature’s 1817 financed the Erie Canal, a 364-mile waterway connecting the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Previously, the longest canal in the United States was just 28 miles long—reflecting the huge capital cost of canals and the lack of American engineering expertise. New York’s ambitious project had three things working in its favor: the support of New York City’s merchants, who wanted access to western markets; the backing of New York’s governor, De Witt Clinton, who proposed to finance the waterway from tax revenues, tolls, and bond sales to foreign investors; and the relatively gentle terrain west of Albany.  Workers—many of them Irish immigrants—dug out millions of cubic yards of soil, quarried thousands of tons of rock for the huge locks that raised and lowered the boats, and constructed vast reservoirs to ensure a steady supply of water. The first great engineering project in American history, the Erie Canal altered the ecology of an entire region. 

Rush-Bagot Treaty (1817)

James Monroe

During Monroe’s first year as president, British and American negotiators agreed to a major disarmament pact. The Rush-Bagot Agreement strictly limited naval armament on the Great Lakes. In time, the agreement was extended to place limits on border fortifications as well. Ultimately, the border between the US and Canada was to become the longest unfortified border in the world. The treaty regulated naval armaments on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain after the War of 1812, demilitarizing the border between the U.S. and Canada. It created the world's longest east-west boundary , which is also said to be the world's largest demilitarized zone.

Andrew Jackson Invades Florida

James Monroe

In late 1817, General Jackson was commissioned to stop the raiders and, if necessary, pursue them across the border in Spanish west Florida during the First Seminole War. Jackson carried out his orders with a vengeance and went beyond his instructions. In 1818, he led a force of militia into Florida, destroyed Seminole villages, and hanged two Seminole chiefs. Capturing Pensacola, Jackson drove out the Spanish governor and hanged two British traders accused of aiding the Seminoles. This led to Spain's agreement to cede Florida to the United States in 1819. The Adams-Onís Treaty, signed in 1819 and ratified in 1821, officially transferred Florida to the United States. 

Adam-Onis Treaty (1819)

James Monroe

Spain, worried that the US would seize Florida and preoccupied with troubles in Latin America, decided to get the best possible terms for Florida. By the treaty in 1819, Spain turned over all of its possessions in Florida and its own claims in the Oregon Territory to the US. In exchange, the US agreed to assume $5 million in claims against Spain and give up any US territorial claims to the Spanish province of Texas. It emboldened the American government to expand its territory further and helped establish the United States as a force to be reckoned with. The acquisition of Florida and Oregon also eventually resulted in them both becoming states, the former in 1845 and the latter in 1859.

Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)

James Monroe

Republican members of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees wanted to make the private school a state university. They wanted a state board to have control over hiring and instruction. Federalist members of the board argued that the state cannot impair the obligations of private contracts. The Supreme Court overturned the decision of the state court of New Hampshire. The decision upheld the sanctity of contracts. The decision was important in assuring economic development and encouraging investing in new corporations. It set the precedent of the SC overturning the actions of state governments/courts.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

James Monroe

Republicans had argued since 1791 that the Bank of the US was unconstitutional. With the renewal of the BUS in 1816, several states opposed that the BUS had put taxes and special restrictions within their respective states. The BUS in Maryland refused to pay the state tax. The SC declared Maryland’s tax null and void. The decision sanctioned the Federal government use of implied powers. The decision also established the Supremacy Clause of the national government over states. This opens the door for vast expansion of federal power in the future. It made the BUS legal.

Panic of 1819

James Monroe

The first major financial panic occurred after the Second Bank of the US tightened credit in an effort to control inflation. Many state banks closed, and unemployment, bankruptcies, and imprisonment for debt increased sharply. The depression hit the West hardest, where many people were in debt because they had speculated on land during the euphoria after the War of 1812. In 1819, the Bank of the US foreclosed on large amounts of western farmland. As a result of the bank panic and depression, nationalistic beliefs were shaken. In the West, the economic crisis changed many voters’ political outlook. Westerners began calling for land reform and expressing opposition to both the national bank and debtors’ prison.

Missouri Compromise of 1820

James Monroe

Missouri’s bid for statehood alarmed the North because slavery was well established there. If Missouri came in as a slave state, it would tip the political balance in the South’s favor. Southerners and northerners alike worried about the future status of the other new territories applying for statehood from the rest of the vast Louisiana Purchase. They compromised on Henry Clay’s plan of making Missouri a slave state, Maine a free state, and above the 36*30’ of the Louisiana purchase would all become free states, and under would become slave. This would eventually be contested 30 years later by the southerners because they agreed to a bad deal.

Denmark Vesey Rebellion (1822)

James Monroe

The Denmark Vesey Rebellion was a planned revolt by enslaved and free Black people in Charleston, South Carolina. The plan was to take place on Bastille Day, July 14, 1822. Denmark Vesey, a former slave and carpenter, organized the rebellion, which was inspired by the successful 1791 slave revolution in Haiti. The plan was to seize weapons, attack the city's armory, kill white enslavers, liberate the city, and sail to Haiti. However, two enslaved men leaked the plot to their owners, and Charleston authorities arrested Vesey and 130 other men before the rebellion could take place. The rebellion's failure led to increased repression and legislation targeting enslaved people and free Black Americans in South Carolina with stricter slave codes, more restrictions on movement and assembly, and the creation of a special court to try enslaved people accused of crimes. 

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

James Monroe

Monroe inserted into his annual message to Congress a declaration of US policy toward Europe and Latin America. The Monroe Doctrine, as it came to be called, asserted “as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.” Monroe declared further that the US opposed attempts by the Europeans power to interfere in the affairs of any republic in the western hemisphere. These words were soon forgotten, but would come to be hailed by politicians and citizens alike as the cornerstone of the US foreign policy toward Latin America. In the 1840s, President James Polk was the first of many presidents to justify his foreign policy by referring to Monroe’s warning words.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

James Monroe

In order to encourage the development of the steamboat, NY granted Robert Fulton a long-term monopoly on the steam-navigation on the waterways of NY. Ogden was a licensee of Fulton and was sued by Gibbons for access to the waterways. The Supreme Court ruled that the monopoly granted was a violation of the Constitution because the regulation of interstate commerce was a power granted only to Congress. The power to regulate interstate commerce rests with the USFG. The decision secures the concept of a common market and prevents states from impeding commerce between states. It unified the national economy. 

“Corrupt Bargain” (1824)

James Monroe

Henry Clay had used his influence as Speaker of the House to elect Adams rather than Jackson in the election in 1824. Clay's fourth-place finish shut him out of the presidency. He tried to use his post as Speaker of the House to play kingmaker. He called in favors and worked behind the scenes to influence the vote. Jackson was a fellow Westerner, but Clay suspected that he would be a rival in future presidential races. Clay disliked Adams, but the two met privately a month before the House election. Both men denied making any bargains. But rumors said that Adams had promised to make Clay Secretary of State.