Table of Contents Introduction 6 Chapter One The Virginian 10 Chapter Two President Jefferson’s First Term 28 Chapter Three The Barbary War and the Louisiana Purchase 44 Chapter Four The Corps of Discovery and American Indians 56 Chapter Five Jefferson’s Second Term 66 Chapter Six An Active Retirement 80 Timeline 90 Source Notes 91 Glossary 96 Selected Bibliography 98 Further Information 99 Index 101
Introduction Nearly a thousand people gathered in the nation’s new capital city Washington DC on March 4 1801 to witness the inauguration of the third president of the United States The crowd packed into the Senate Chamber of the unfinished Capitol Building The room was so full not another creature could enter according to writer Margaret Bayard Smith who attended the event Seated on the podium was the president-elect Thomas Jefferson On either side of him sat the Supreme Court chief justice John Marshall and the vice president elect Aaron Burr Jefferson arrived in Washington DC on horseback though he walked to the site of his inauguration 6
Jefferson had walked with friends through the mild spring air to the Capitol from his nearby boardinghouse Isaac Jefferson an enslaved African American man Jefferson owned described the future president as a tall straight-bodied man as ever you see right square-shouldered Nary a man in this town walked so straight But apart from his commanding presence Jefferson would not have stood out from the crowd on his inauguration day He wore a simple suit in contrast to the ceremonial dress of the two previous presidents on their inauguration days Both George Washington and John Adams had worn stylish suits with a sword at the hip They had arrived in elegant horse-drawn carriages while Jefferson had come on foot The Capitol grew quiet as Jefferson rose from his seat to speak Despite the silence audience members seated behind the first few rows had to strain to hear Jefferson’s timid voice so faint it was almost a whisper He had printed the speech however so those in attendance could choose to read along Jefferson was a far better writer than orator and on this day his lackluster delivery was at odds with the magnitude of his words Luckily Americans could read his words later when a Washington DC newspaper the National Intelligencer reprinted a president’s inaugural address for the first time Just as the country’s capital city was still under construction so was its national government The American Revolutionary War 1775 1783 had established a democracy in a world where most rulers inherited or seized their power Americans were still debating how their democracy should work Adams and the Federalist Party favored a central government that wielded great power Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican Party envisioned a limited national government with individuals and state governments holding most of the power 7
