Revolution Of 1800 Dbq Analysis

The election of President Thomas Jefferson was one of the most important elections in American history. There was a lot of firsts that came with this election. It was the first that resulted in a tie which sent the country into chaos as they had no idea how to settle it. It was the first time that power was shifted from one party to another which is why it is often referred to as the “Revolution of 1800”. But this “revolution” was nothing like revolutions seen in the past as it was more of a peaceful revolution in which no blood was shed and no lives were lost. Nevertheless, power was transferred peacefully between the old administration and the new one led by Thomas Jefferson. This result caused the Federalists to lose the majority of control in

government as Democratic-Republican ideals replaced Federalist ideals in the government. Jefferson was elected primarily because of his popularity and wide opposition to the “monarchism” of Washington and unconstitutional laws. Shortly after he was elected to presidency, Jefferson reversed many of the policies that the Federalists had in place. Jefferson pardoned the Sedition Act prisoners and allowed law to expire.

The Sedition Act essentially said that it was illegal to speak, write, or print any scandalous or malicious statements about the president. This law was seen as the most unconstitutional of the four laws passed in the Alien and Sedition Acts that were passed during the administration of President John Adams. These laws were ideally used to limit the power of any opposition to the Federalist party. In addition, Jefferson also had Congress repeal the Alien Acts which were a series of acts passed in preparation for the possibility of war with France. Jefferson also reduced the size of the military. With this reduction, Jefferson slashed the size of both the army and the navy but immediately had to rebuilt it due to the First Barbary War. He also wanted to reduce power of the Bank of US so he created state banks which would do that. Jefferson additionally removed the whiskey tax and significantly lowered or removed other taxes. The whiskey tax taxed all liquor made and sold in the US to combat the federal government's debt. This angered many farmers because they would lose money as less people will buy whiskey which is made from the corn they

grew. Soon after, thousands of farmers began protesting and rioting. The violence escalated until Washington, with advice from Hamilton, sent in troops to but down the Whiskey Rebellion. After a short time, the rebellion had been suppressed. In additionally, Jefferson had congress repeal the Judiciary Act 1801 which reduced the number of justices from 6 to 5 and doubled the number of circuit courts from 3 to 6. Finally, the economy shifted from the exports to domestic commerce as Britain was trying to cut ties with Britain. In the long term, Jefferson increased the power of the president although he didn’t intend or want to. In addition, he doubled the land area of the US through the Louisiana purchase. Under the order of Jefferson, the US bought the Louisiana territory from France for roughly 10 million. Through this, the United States gained control of the Mississippi river and New Orleans which then doubled its size. Additionally, this ended fear of the competition for the French and Spanish competition to the west. He also inspired political participation as more people were concerned with government. He also put a ban on international slave trade and argued against slavery but ironically, he still kept his personal slaves. Finally, he killed federalism with “republicanism”. Ultimately, Jefferson was one of the most important presidents to our country as he made considerable change to our country through all of these changes.