Thomas Jefferson Dbq

Thomas Jefferson DBQ

Thomas Jefferson won the election of 1800, and took the presidential seat over the Federalist, John Adams. Jefferson took oath of office on March 4, 1801. This led Aaron Burr to be his Vice-President. Jefferson owed his election to the inflation of the south and the three-fifths compromise. Due to the inflation of slaves in the south, some of Jefferson's opponents nicknamed him the "Negro President". When Jefferson entered office, he was facing an $83 million national debt. (O.I.)

Thomas Jefferson went against his views of having a large military built up that would intimidate other countries. When John Adams proposed to expand America's armed forces and create a navy, Jefferson rallied against Adam's movement. Jefferson believed that it would be too expensive and he wanted to avoid the precedent of having a standing army. However, when took office, one of his first decisions as President was to send American troops around the globe to the Barbary States of North Africa (Doc D). This area was full of pirates that blackmailed and plundered merchant ships in the Mediterranean Sea. Jefferson's decision to attack these pirates was an outright disregard for his previous views on the issue. Also, Jefferson did not inform Congress of him sending troops until the warships were far enough away to be called back. Obviously, Jefferson had the knowledge that he could not declare war and yet he did so illegally. This goes against his so called "love" for the constitution because of his illegal action.

Also, because the military was weak, Jefferson instead of building the armed forces, went against his old views by using economic might (Doc A). Jefferson decided he would force respect for the America by way of an economic boycott in 1807. Even though this boycott was inefficient, Jefferson refused to lift it for two years. After two years, Jefferson submitted to pressure from Congress, and stopped the economic policy.

Halfway through Jefferson's first term as President, he contradicted