Chapter Summary
Introduction
This chapter begins with an account of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's journey west across the country. President Thomas Jefferson arranged the journey to satisfy scientific interests, but Congress had more traditional aims, asking the expedition to scout out locations for military posts, to initiate trade agreements with the Indians, and to seek the fabled Northwest Passage waterway to the West. Lewis and Clark and their party reached the Pacific in November of 1805 and returned as heroes carrying invaluable information about the unknown West.
Jefferson's Presidency
Thomas Jefferson would look back on his election as the "revolution of 1800," a moment when he would impose a new vision of republican simplicity on the federal government. At the same time, a different kind of revolution was in the making as a slave named Gabriel, perhaps inspired by the rhetoric of the presidential campaign, plotted a rebellion to strike for freedom.
The "Revolution of 1800"
It took a while for Jefferson to obtain the presidency because the electoral college produced a tie vote between Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr. In February 1801, when the House met to choose the new president, it took thirty-six separate ballots to get Jefferson elected. The slave revolt planned by Gabriel was aborted because of a massive thunderstorm. Scores of alleged conspirators were quickly rounded up and tried, and twenty-seven were hanged for taking to heart the rhetoric of revolutionary rights and contemplating rebellion.
The Jefferson Vision of Republican Simplicity
Jefferson believed his mission was to direct the nation back to the principles of the Revolution, from which the Federalists had strayed. He believed the independent farmer was the source of true freedom in America and that widespread landownership would make for a virtuous citizenry. As president, Jefferson repudiated many of the programs of his Federalist predecessors, especially Alexander Hamilton, emphasizing instead simplicity and informality. To achieve economy in government, he cut military spending, eliminated all federal internal taxes, and drastically reduced the number of employees of the executive branch.
The Judiciary and the Midnight Judges
Within a few months of taking office, Jefferson found himself embroiled in a constitutional confrontation with the judicial branch. Infuriated by outgoing president John Adams's last minute selection of "midnight judges," Jefferson denied appointment to many of these individuals. A power showdown between the executive and judicial branches ensued when William Marbury brought suit against the executive for attempting to deny his judicial appointment. In the landmark decision Marbury v. Madison, Federalist Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Marbury had a right to his appointment, but that ordering Secretary of State Madison to make it would be unconstitutional. Marshall had sidestepped the confrontation but in the process established the concept of judicial review.
The Louisiana Purchase
Since the end of the Seven Years' War (1763), the Louisiana Territory had belonged to Spain. However, in 1800, Spain secretly ceded the territory back to France, a situation which aroused American fear of another French colonial empire in North America. An American delegation was sent to France to try to purchase New Orleans, and the United States eventually bought the entire Louisiana Territory for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase added 828,000 square miles to the United States.
Republicans in a Dangerous World
After his easy reelection in 1804, Jefferson faced the repercussions of the renewed war between France and England and the problem of a powerful new Indian confederacy to the west.
Troubles at Sea
Though both France and England placed a host of restrictions on American trade with the enemy, the British policy of impressment proved most egregious to the United States. Between 1807 and 1812, around 2,500 men were captured by British commanders and impressed into royal naval service. Events reached a crisis point when three American sailors were killed when a British frigate fired on the American ship Chesapeake, which had picked up some British deserters. Though many Republicans clamored for war, the American army and navy were unprepared, and Jefferson had to resort to economic means to punish the British.
The Embargo and Its Aftermath
In 1807, Jefferson persuaded Congress to pass a drastic measure known as the Embargo Act, prohibiting American ships from engaging in any trade with any foreign port. It was a complete disaster for the American economy, hitting New England merchants and southern planters particularly hard, and bringing trade to a standstill. It was also difficult to enforce and had little of the intended impact on the British, who simply turned to South American countries for agricultural goods.
Madison Gets Entangled
The 1808 presidential election came in the midst of this embargo-induced depression. James Madison, Jefferson's secretary of state, was elected president, but the Federalist candidate, Charles Pinckney, ran much more strongly than he had in 1804. Since the embargo was clearly a growing political liability, Jefferson repealed the measure before Madison took office, reopening trade with all nations except England and France. In 1810, Macon's Bill Number 2 passed, which reopened free commercial relations with either Great Britain or France, whichever stopped restrictions on neutral shipping first. Napoleon, wanting to entice the United States into reimposing its embargo against England, declared that France would no longer interfere with American shipping. Madison believed the French and reinstated the embargo against England, but French leaders continued to seize American ships.
Indian Troubles in the West
Maritime issues were only part of the reason for the conflict between the United States and Britain. In the face of constant encroachments of white settlers west onto Indian lands, Indians had begun consolidating alliances with British Indian agents. U.S. concern at this was compounded by two dynamic Shawnee Indian leaders, war chief Tecumseh and his mystical brother Tenskwatawa, known as the "Prophet," who united the many tribes of Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan in a confederation to protect their lands. In 1811, alarmed at the brothers' growing power, the governor of the Indiana Territory, William Henry Harrison, met the Shawnees at Tippecanoe Creek and captured and destroyed their stronghold, Prophetstown. The Battle of Tippecanoe was heralded as a great victory for the Americans and made Harrison a national hero.
The War of 1812
After Tippecanoe, Tecumseh allied with British military commanders in lower Canada, and U.S. conflicts with the Indians soon merged into a broader confrontation with England known as the War of 1812.
The War Begins
The belief that the British were responsible for Indian depredations on the frontier convinced a number of Americans, led by a faction of young Republicans known as the War Hawks, that only war could preserve the national honor. On June 18, 1812, Madison approved a declaration of war against Great Britain. Americans went to war with great enthusiasm but were woefully unprepared, as early defeats at Detroit and Fort Dearborn in Canada soon showed. On the home front, New Englanders, led by Federalist merchants, openly opposed the war and carried on illegal trade with England. American fortunes improved somewhat with General Harrison's victory at the Battle of the Thames in 1813 and Andrew Jackson's defeat of the Creeks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814.
The British Offensives of 1814
The lowest point for Americans in the war came in August 1814 when British troops landed and marched on Washington, putting the government to flight and setting fire to several public buildings, including the Capitol. The invading army then proceeded up toward Baltimore, but that city was sufficiently fortified so that the British could only bombard it from a distance, and they eventually withdrew. At the same time, the Americans were turning back other offensives in northern New York at Plattsburgh and in the South at New Orleans, where General Andrew Jackson once again led American forces to a decisive victory.
The War Ends
The 1814 Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812 resulted in the Americans giving in on impressment and relinquishing any claims to Canada. For their part, the British agreed to abandon their western forts and plans for an Indian buffer state in the Northwest. The war's biggest winners were the Republican War Hawks. Its biggest losers were the Indians whose leader, Tecumseh, had been killed and who could no longer count on support from the British. Also hurt was the Federalist Party, whose virulent opposition to both the war and the Republican administration contributed to its demise. In December 1814, New England Federalists had met in Hartford, Connecticut, to discuss their grievances, proposing seven amendments to the Constitution designed to protect New England from the growing southern and western influence. But in the changed atmosphere produced by American victories and the peace treaty, the Hartford Convention and the Federalist Party itself came to seem irrelevant and even treasonous.
Women's Legal Status in the Early Republic
Unlike the American Revolution, the War of 1812 had little impact on women because rights at sea, shipping, and trade were hardly issues that would affect their status. What advances in rights and status women gained during the early Republic came incrementally as a result of local action in courts and legislatures and in religious organizations.
Women and the Law
Despite the United States' independence, American law, especially regarding gender, continued to reflect its English past. The English common law doctrine of feme covert prevailed in most cases regarding white women. Under coverture, a married woman's rights, status, and property were totally controlled by her husband and she was obligated to obey him. Women also could not own their own wages, make contracts, sue, or be sued. Life was somewhat freer for single females, who in most instances could own and convey property, initiate suits, and pay taxes. However, they could not vote, serve on juries, or practice law. Still, subtle changes in divorce and sexual injury law very slightly increased women's personal autonomy during this period.
Women and Church Governance
By 1800, the majority of congregants in Protestant denominations were women. The churches' hierarchies, however, were exclusively male dominated. Yet, in some smaller Baptist sects and in the Quaker church, women increasingly played more active and visible roles, including serving with men on governance committees. In some Methodist and Baptist congregations, women even served as preachers or "exhorters." However, in the majority of Protestant congregations, individual churches established their respectability by reinstating gendered patterns of dominance and subordination.
Madison's Successors
Beginning with Madison's election in 1808 and through the elections of James Monroe in 1816 and 1820, Republican Virginians dominated the presidency. The Federalists never recovered from the stigma of disloyalty after the Hartford Convention. Called the "Era of Good Feelings," Monroe's two terms were seen as evidence that a one-party system could work. This era, however, was hardly devoid of controversy.
The Missouri Compromise
When Missouri applied for admission to the Union as a state in 1819, slavery was already well established there. Even so, two amendments were proposed to the Missouri statehood bill that called for prohibiting the further introduction of slaves into Missouri and provided for the gradual emancipation of those already there. These amendments alarmed southerners because they feared that admitting Missouri as an eventual free state would signal the increasing political power of the North at the expense of the South. Maine's desire for statehood helped to resolve the impasse, and what became known as the Missouri Compromise was proposed to maintain the balance of power. Maine would gain admission as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. In addition, to assuage northern fears that slavery would continue to expand north, the Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery above the southern latitude of Missouri at the 36°30¢. The compromise was hailed as a fortuitous resolution, but debate over it had revealed a strong undercurrent of sectionalism that would reach a crisis point in the 1850s, leading to the Civil War.
The Monroe Doctrine
After the War of 1812, the United States' most pressing foreign policy issue was Spain's presence in the Americas. Andrew Jackson's invasion into Florida led to the purchase of that territory from Spain in 1819. Meanwhile, the threat of Spanish interference in South American revolutions resulted in President James Monroe's promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine. The doctrine declared the Americas closed to further colonization and stipulated that the United States would consider any foreign challenge to the sovereignty of existing American nations as an unfriendly act toward the United States. In return, the doctrine pledged noninterference by the United States in European affairs.
The Election of 1824
In 1824, there were four candidates who competed for the presidency: William Crawford, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Andrew Jackson. Jackson received more popular and electoral votes than any other candidate but not the constitutionally mandated majority of electoral votes. This threw the election to the House, where Henry Clay's support of John Quincy Adams led to the latter's election. Jacksonians, believing their candidate deserved the presidency, were enraged when he lost and became even angrier when Adams named Clay his secretary of state -- the cabinet position considered the well-established route to the presidency. The outrage the Jacksonians expressed at what they called a "corrupt bargain" haunted Adams throughout his tenure.
The Adams Administration
Though considered one of the most qualified men ever to serve as president, John Quincy Adams's term of office was largely a failure. He refused to use patronage to gain support for his programs, most often awarding positions in his administration to the opposition to placate political enemies. His failure to create a loyal base of support spelled doom for most of his ambitious federal programs.
Conclusion: From Jefferson to Adams
Though the beginning of the nineteenth century saw Jeffersonian Republicans seeking to limit the size and power of government, this trend had to yield to the realities of a growing nation. The Louisiana Purchase expanded the United States dramatically, the War of 1812 renewed Americans' confidence in their independence from England, the Missouri Compromise raised worrisome sectional issues that would continue in the future, and the Monroe Doctrine represented American flexing of foreign policy muscle.