American Election Essay

The American Election 1800 is one of the most controversial elections in U. S. history, when Federalist John Adams and his former vice president and Democrat-Republican Thomas Jefferson run for U. S. Presidency. During 1800, the country was led by Federalist, and Jefferson as Republican opposed to their policies such as their higher taxes and tariffs. Federalist attacked Jefferson into different mediums to obliterate his image, but in spite the attacks, he never wavers and finally won together with his running mate Adam Burr, when he received the second highest number of votes in the electoral system.

Jefferson, during his term strongly opposed Federalist who centralized government and defended the rights of the state and their high taxes; he cut the budget by slashing Army and Navy expenditures. He also eliminated the tax on whisky and sent naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Jefferson became wary on foreign issues that were affecting American sailors. It became one of his major concerns during his second term. During the Napoleonic war, Britain and France violated American independence.

He passed the Embargo Act in 1808, which the main purpose was to hurt French and Britain by prohibiting all exports and most imports and supplementing by enforcing legislation and designed to persuade British and French to recognize American’s right. But it was a failure and hurt mostly the America’s economy. In 1803, Napoleon sells Louisiana Territory to America for $15 million despite of its valuable port of New Orleans, it’s known as the Louisiana Purchase. Before the purchase, Jefferson had sent ministers to France to offer $10 million for just New Orleans and small strip of land but Napoleon gave it all to them.

Prior from the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson sent for an expedition called The Lewis and Clark Expedition; it’s a scientific exploration to Louisiana. It was sent out from St. Louis in 1804 and made it back in 1806. In the same year, one of the controversial cases was held by the Supreme Court headed by John Marshall, when William Marbury who was commissioned by President John Adams as Justice of Peace sued James Madison who was Jefferson’s Secretary of State to gain back his commission.

The decision of the court was explained that even Marbury had the right to his commission, the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unauthorized to for Jefferson and Madison to appoint Marbury. Only the Constitution can issue an order to grant the commission to Marbury. According to Marshal, Supreme Court is made only for the judicial reviews for the acts of congress; he also stated that the constitution is the “supreme Law of the Land. ” The Tripoli War had been one of the major challenges for Jefferson. It started in 1801.

It was a conflict between U. S. and Tripoli which is now known as Libya, because U. S. ship was terrorized by pirates that were supported by North Africa. Pirates make U. S. seamen slaves and steal their cargo. USS Philadelphia was sent led by Captain Bainbridge to fight against the Tripoli, but Tripoli won with their Bashaw, Yussef Karamali. Another ship was sent headed by William Eaton, but it was a failure too. U. S. agreed instead to pay secretly to the Bashaw. But this became a failure as well, not until 1815 when the war finally ended for the Barbary Pirates.

Upon his death on July 4 1826, Jefferson left very important legacy, when he authored the Declaration of Independence. According to his letter to Roger C. Weigthman, “Declaration of Independence signals the blessings of self-government to an ever evolving world. ” He is also known for his moral opposition to slavery. He was a great defender of liberty. His philosophy such as individual and national liberty had remained the same even after his term as president ended. According to his letter to James Madison, his political principles and pursuits are the source of his happiness.

References: “Thomas Jefferson. ” The White House. http://www. whitehouse. gov/history/presidents/tj3. html “Thomas Jefferson: Legacy. ” October 30, 2000. Library of Congress. http://www. loc. gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffleg. html “Marbury v. Madison (1803). ” 2005. Person Education, Inc. http://www. infoplease. com/us/supreme-court/cases/ar20. html Rayment, W. J. “The War with Tropoli. ” http://www. indepthinfo. com/articles/tripoly-war. shtml “Jefferson and the Election of 1800. ” 2004. Voting Rights and Citizenship. http://www1. cuny. edu/portal_ur/content/voting_cal/jefferson. html