4.2: Political Parties and Jefferson
4.2: Explain the causes and effects of policy debates in the early republic.
Hello and welcome to the first set of notes for Unit 4 of AP United States History! And to start things off, we will be talking about the rise of political parties and the next president after John Adams, Thomas Jefferson!
The Rise of Jefferson
During this time period, there were numerous political debates caused by the emergence of two important political parties. These were the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson. The Federalists wanted a strong central government and supported urban and manufacturing interests. They mostly had support from the middle states and New England. On the other hand, the Democratic-Republicans favored a limited central government that supported agricultural interests. As a result, they were supported by Virginia and other southern and western states. Washington and Adams, the first two presidents of the United States, were Federalists, but when Jefferson became the third president in 1800, this became known as the Revolution of 1800 because it was the first peaceful transfer of power between two different political parties.
Throughout Jefferson’s presidency, he worked to limit the government’s power by abolishing the Whiskey Tax created during Washington’s presidency, reducing the size of the military, and reducing the number of federal jobs that existed, among other things.
The Louisiana Purchase
But then there was the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which went against Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican views. French Louisiana, which included the Mississippi River and land to the west of the Ohio River Valley, was previously owned by France. However, after the French and Haitian Revolutions, it became difficult for France to continue to have access to this land. As a result, France sold it to the United States for fifteen million dollars, doubling the size of America. Although the Constitution did not grant the president the authority to purchase land, Jefferson justified it by believing that the purchase was necessary to allow for westward expansion and to stop further European influence in the region. Soon after, Congress then dispatched the Corps of Discovery, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to explore and map the northern Louisiana Territory in 1804.
The Supreme Court
With respect to federal power, it’s important to talk about the Supreme Court. There were two important Supreme Court cases that were ruled during this time period. In the case of Marbury v. Madison in 1803, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Supreme Court had the power of judicial review, meaning that they had the power to interpret laws and decide whether or not they were unconstitutional. Another case, McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819, started over a dispute about whether a state had the power to tax a federal bank. This case ruled that not only could a state not do this, but also, the “Necessary and Proper Clause” in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gave Congress implied powers to create a national bank and additionally, it meant Congress had the power to create whatever it needed to fulfill the job of the federal government, such as collecting taxes with a bank.
Foreign Powers and the War of 1812
There were many disputes with foreign powers during this time period. Since the 1790s, the United States had been paying tribute to the Barbary States of North Africa to protect their ships in the region. However, when Jefferson became president, the ruler of Tripoli demanded higher payments. This led to a brief series of fighting between the two sides when Jefferson refused.
In the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair in 1807, the British ship HMS Leopard attacked an American ship, USS Chesapeake, off the coast of Virginia. This led to the Embargo Act, in which the U.S. closed its ports to all exports from foreign nations.
A few years later, the United States found itself in another war with Britain, the War of 1812. This war started because Britain still had not stopped their practice of impressment and was continuing to encourage natives to attack Americans migrating westward. The War Hawks, a group of young Democratic-Republicans in the House of Representatives, supported the war. On the other hand, Federalists, especially those in New England, opposed the war and even threatened to secede from the country in a meeting called the Hartford Convention. When the war ended with an American victory, although borders didn’t change that much, this led to the downfall of the Federalist Party because of their opposition. During this war, Washington City was burned in 1814 and during the Battle of Fort McHenry, the Star-Spangled Banner, the United States’ national anthem, was written.
