Mr. Kersey.org - Mr. Kersey's Lecture Notes

War and National Expansion: Mr. Jefferson Gets His Chance

(Lecture Notes from Mr. Kersey's 8th Grade U.S. History Class)

As you might have guessed, Jefferson did things a little differently as President.
He believed the government should be small and simple.

He believed in a laissez faire approach to to the economy.
Laissez faire means the government should play as small a role as possible economic affairs.
Like his economic policies, Jefferson liked a small and simple government.
Jefferson wanted to cut government spending and reduce taxes.

Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson wanted to change a lot of Federalist policies, like spending on the military.
He also wanted the Federalists to know they still had rights and a say.

One important development while the Big J was President was that the Supreme Court grew in power.
In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that part of the Judiciary Act was unconstitutional.
On his last night in office, Adams had appointed several “midnight judges.”
One of these guys was William Marbury.
Jefferson ordered Sec. Of State James Madison to hold the commissions of these new Federalist judges.
Marbury sued, saying that Madison could not hold his commission.
The Supreme Court decided that part of the Judiciary Act was not constitutional, which had given the Court power to hear cases brought against federal officials.
The Court said that the Constitution does not give that power to the Supreme Court, so Congress couldn’t either.
This decision established the power of judicial review, or the power to overturn laws made by Congress.
Judicial review remains an important power of the Court today.

In the early 1800’s France, under the rule of Napoleon was at war in Europe.
Napoleon had plans to conquer the world.
Conquering the world takes money though.
Napoleon, unable to fight a war in Europe and occupy France’s land in North America, began to look for a way out.
At the same time, the U.S. didn’t like to the idea of France having the port of New Orleans.
New Orleans was a very important port city.
Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert Livingston to offer to buy New Orleans from Napoleon for 10 million dollars.
Napoleon took a day or two to think about it, and when he met with them again, he offered to sell all of French Louisiana to them.
He needed the cash, and it seemed like a good way to get some.
In 1803 Robert Livingston and James Monroe purchased all of Louisiana from Napoleon for 15 million dollars.
The purchase doubled the size of the U.S. and is the largest land deal ever.

Jefferson, who was eager to see what was in the vast territory of Louisiana, sent Meriwether Louis and William Clark to explore the land. It took them 3 years to reach the Pacific and return.
Louis and Clark mapped and observed much in their time in the wilderness, and discovered America’s new land to be full of rich land and natural resources.

In 1812, after years of mounting tensions with Britain over American Neutrality and British impressment of our sailors, Congress declared war on the British.
In the end, the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, solved little and returned things to the way they were before the war.
It did set much of the border between the US and Canada at 49° N latitude.