Compare And Contrast Washington And Thomas Jefferson

President Jefferson’s style was very different from that of Adams and Washington; because of that, many Americans looked forward to his inauguration. Jefferson in Office As President, Jefferson believed strongly that the primary functions of government were to: • Protect the nation from foreign threats, •Deliver the mail, and • Collect customs duties, Jefferson hit the ground running with his attempts to put his republican ideas into practice. He urged the newly won Democratic-Republican controlled Congress to allow the Alien and Sedition Acts to expire. Jefferson then lowered military spending and reduced the size of the U.S. Army, reduced the number of Navy ships, and urged newly appointed Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin to find ways

"I confess I look to this duplication of area for the extending of a government so free and economical as ours, as a great achievement to the mass of happiness which is to ensue” Jefferson stated after the purchase. Jefferson’s attempts during his Presidency to lower government spending did not align with this huge government purchase. Yet, this was an undeniably good deal and now Jefferson needed Congressional approval and funding. Fisher Ames, a former Federalist Congressman said, “we are to give money of which we have too little for land of which we already have too much.” Only one Federalist supported ratification, but on October 20, 1803, the Senate passed the treaty to approve the Louisiana Purchase and the House authorized the funding, doubling the size of the United States and securing America’s future expansion westward. The Lewis and Clark Expedition Jefferson and the nation now needed to know what lay in the land that they had just purchased. Americans knew that indigenous people lived in the territory but they knew little about them or the ecology and geography of the lands west of the Mississippi. Jefferson commissioned his personal assistant, former army captain Meriwether Lewis to lead the Corps of Discovery expedition of 50 men westward, Lewis chose his friend Lieutenant William Clark to

SECTION 3- President Jefferson followed President Washington’s lead, or precedent, and refused to serve a third term. Instead he supported his friend, James Madison as the next candidate for the Democratic Republican party. George clinton ran as Madison's vice president. The opposition from the Federalist party included Charles Pinckney and Rufus King. During the campaign, Federalists insulted Madison for his support of Jefferson’s Embargo Act. Madison received 122 votes to Pinckney’s 44. Although most challenges President Madison faced were foreign, Madison did inherit a domestic headache with the rechartering of the Bank of the United States. When the anti-Bank forces killed the push for rechartering, the U.S. confronted the British without the means to support war loans or to easily obtain government credit. Madison's critics claimed that his support for the Bank revealed his pro-Federalist sympathies. SECTION 4- James Monroe was elected President in the election of 1816. At the beginning of his presidency, the American public was generally optimistic. The nation had declared victory in the War of 1812 and the economy was booming thus allowing President Monroe to focus on domestic issues. Americans were feeling a huge sense of