Transcript Lecture 7b - Upper Iowa University

Hist 110
American Civilization I
Instructor: Dr. Donald R. Shaffer
Upper Iowa University
Lecture 7b
Jefferson Takes Over
 Election of 1800
Thomas Jefferson prevailed over Aaron
Burr in the House of Representative
 Led to the 12th Amendment joining the
vote for President and Vice President

 Jefferson’s inaugural: took a conciliatory
stance toward the Federalists
 His agenda:
 Cut government spending
 Eliminate internal federal taxes and
pay off the national debt
 Passive approach to economic policy
 Selective removal of Federalists in
appointive offices (only 69 of 433)
 Judiciary Act of 1801: Republicans repeal
act packing the judiciary with Federalists
 Republicans fail at using
impeachment to remove Federalist
judges—unable to oust archFederalist Samuel Chase
What did Jefferson mean by the
statement in his inaugural address:
“We are all Federalists.
We are all Republicans.”
Lecture 7b
Westward Expansion Under Jefferson
 Westward expansion sped up after 1783
By 1800, nearly a million Americans lived
west of Appalachian crest

 Movement encouraged by federal
government, particularly with the use of
U.S. army to force out Native Americans
 Louisiana Purchase (1803)
 Treaty of San Ildefonso (1800): Spain

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forced by Napoleon to cede Louisiana,
which threatened American commerce
on the Mississippi River
Jefferson offered to buy New Orleans
from France to fix this problem
Napoleon, suddenly needing money,
offered to sell all of Louisiana to U.S.
(828,800 sq. miles of territory)
Jefferson’s quandary: reconcile purchase
with strict construction of Constitution
Jefferson decided to allow the voters to
judge the constitutionality of purchase in
the 1804 presidential election
Map of the
Louisiana Purchase
(in deep green)
Lecture 7b
Forces Underlying Westward Expansion
 Two forces underlay Westward
expansion in the decades following the
American Revolution
Yeoman farmers both in the North and
South trying to maintain their
independence in the face of growing land
scarcity on the eastern seaboard
 The movement of commercial
agriculture, especially southern planters,
looking for fresh land
 The boom in cotton cultivation after
the invention of the cotton gin
spurred the movement of planters
west as cotton quickly exhausted soil

 Federal land policy, which initially
required large purchases for cash, meant
that much of western land ended up in
the hands of speculators

Speculators found themselves having to
deal with squatters
 Growing land scarcity, worn out land,
and labor departed for the frontier,
forced eastern farmers to introduce
progressive agricultural techniques
George Caleb Bingham’s famous
painting of Daniel Boone escorting
settlers through the Cumberland Gap
Lecture 7b
Jefferson’s Difficult Second Term

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Jefferson easily re-elected in 1804, but
afterwards his fortunes suffered
Political troubles:
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Fallout from Vice President Aaron Burr
killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel
The Quids: a ultra-pure faction within
Jefferson’s Republicans
James T. Callender: exposed Jefferson’s
sexual relationship with his slave, Sally
Hemings
Impressment

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Collapse of Peace of Amiens in 1803
British began stopping U.S. ships and
forcing American sailors to serve in the
Royal Navy
Non-Importation Act (1806): U.S.
resorted to trade pressure to end British
practice of impressment
Embargo Act (1807): failure of nonimportation, the Chesapeake Affair,
and New England’s resistance caused
Jefferson to ask for a cessation of all
U.S. imports and exports
Lecture 7b
Origins of the War of 1812
 James Madison succeeded Jefferson as
president in March 1809

Napoleon Bonaparte
Jefferson left the presidency unpopular
because of his harsh and unsuccessful
policies to end impressment
Who cheated the U.S.
in the implementation
of Macon’s Bill No. 2
 Madison also failed to end impressment
Non-Intercourse Act (1809)
 Macon’s Bill No. 2 (1810)

 Roots of Anglo-American conflict

Misunderstanding each others view of the
world and their place in it—Americans
wanted their neutral rights respected
while British and French thought weak
nations like the U.S. must ally themselves
with a great power for their own
protection
 War Hawks

Up and coming politicians like Henry
Clay and John C. Calhoun who pushed for
war because they felt it was the only way
for the U.S. to reclaim its honor
Henry Clay
John C. Calhoun
Lecture 7b
War of 1812 (1)
 June 19, 1812: War declared
Madison accused Britain violating U.S.
neutral rights
 Claimed also Britain was inciting Native
American attacks on the frontier
 Some Americans coveted Canada

 U.S. divided on war


South and West pro-war
New England anti-war
 They had strong trade ties to the
British Empire
 U.S. ill-prepared for war
Navy: 6 frigates, 3 sloops: even with the
use of privateers not even close enough to
the strength needed take on the Royal
Navy
 U.S. Army: never larger than 35,000
during war

 Yet the U.S. lack of preparation was
offset for most of the war by the fact that
the British were in 1812 still heavily
engaged in their war with France
American propaganda poster
from the War of 1812
What does it say about
American self perception?
Lecture 7b
War of 1812 (2)
 U.S. offense: 1812-1814.
American forces repeatedly invaded
Canada—and repeatedly failed
 Some U.S. victories
 Put-in-Bay: naval victory on Lake Erie
 Battle of the Thames in which the
Indian leader Tecumseh was killed

 British offensive: 1814-1815
Invasion from Canada stopped on Lake
Champlain
 Chesapeake campaign
 Washington, D.C. burned in
retaliation for U.S. burning Toronto
 Fort McHenry: successful defense
saved Baltimore and inspired the
national anthem

 Treaty of Ghent (December 1814):

With the end of the Napoleonic War the
underlying causes of the war ended
making a status quo settlement possible
American victory at the Battle of
New Orleans that took place after
the peace treaty ending the war
American victory in the battle
helped disguise that war had
been a near disaster for the U.S.