Additionally, today is July 5, 2022. Hence, it is the anniversary of the dissolution of the Committee of Five, the 5-member group Jefferson belonged to tasked by the Second Continental Congress with writing a document explaining why the 13 Colonies were leaving the British Empire, on July 5, 1776. This actually leads into my analysis: Jefferson was not only a member of the Committee of Five but also the main author of the Declaration of Independence, the ultimate fulfillment of the organization's goal. Its other members, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston, merely provided Jefferson with assistance. This, coupled with his creation of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, a local Virginian policy that contributed to the addition of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights and Constitution, is the reason Jefferson is considered one of the most significant Founding Fathers. And I agree with that judgment.
However, I believe that Jefferson's status as a major Founding Father has caused an unfair bias to surround his presidency. He is often included in historians' top 10 - or even 5 - US presidents. While Jefferson was a good president, he does not deserve this placement in historical rankings. As president, Jefferson achieved numerous amazing things, but his faults are impactful enough to keep him out of my top 10.
Jefferson became president on March 4, 1801. One of his first acts as president was to go after the Alien and Sedition Acts. Passed in 1798, the Alien and Sedition Acts were a set of policies targeting Democratic-Republicans and immigrants, two groups that tended to side with France during the Quasi-War, an undeclared conflict between the US and France. The package of bills contained 4 laws:
- The Naturalization Act of 1798, which increased the number of years an immigrant had to live in the US to become an American citizen from 5 to 14 years
- The Alien Friends Act, which permitted the government to deport any immigrant accused of plotting against the state
- The Alien Enemies Act, which allowed the president to, in the event of war with a country, deport all immigrants to the US from that country
- The Sedition Act, which criminalized all criticism of the government
Now, two of these statutes - the Alien Friends Act and the Sedition Act - had built-in expiration dates. More specifically, their terms were automatically nullified on March 3, 1801, the last full day of Adams' presidency. However, the Alien Enemies Act and Naturalization Act of 1798 both remained. While Jefferson never repealed the Alien Enemies Act, he did sign a law that reversed the Naturalization Act of 1798. In doing this, Jefferson established himself as a pro-immigrant president, as he allowed them to obtain US citizenship after just 5 years in the country. Early into his tenure, Jefferson also pardoned all people prosecuted under the Sedition Act.
But while Jefferson worked to mitigate the long-term impact of the Alien and Sedition Acts and absolutely deserves credit for that, he also warrants criticism for his own tyrannical acts as president. During his time in the White House, Jefferson routinely wrote to local law enforcement agencies and urged them to prosecute his critics on trumped-up charges. He also attempted to remove officials in the judicial branch belonging to the Federalist Party, the rival of the Democratic-Republican Party, which he belonged to. These are both terrible decisions that prevent Jefferson from being higher in my ranking.
I also hold a lot of issues with Jefferson's foreign policy. For decades before Jefferson entered office, Western countries had to give large sums of money to the pasha of Tripoli. This was done to address the issue of Tripoli's pirates attacking European sailors. In exchange for these tributes, the pasha of Tripoli would work to mitigate this harassment. Soon after Jefferson entered office, the pasha began demanding larger tributes. In response, Jefferson, later in 1801, attempted to overthrow the pasha in a covert operation. This failed coup would become the first of many such efforts throughout American history. The imperialistic nature of this act is indefensible.
One decision that Jefferson gets a ton of unwarranted praise for is the Louisiana Purchase. In 1803, Paris offered to sell the city of New Orleans, then part of a French colony, to the US. Jefferson eagerly sent a group of officials to negotiate the purchase. To their enormous shock, the French diplomats present at the conference then offered to sell the entirety of the Louisiana Territory - an area composed of what are now the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana - to America for just 3 cents per acre. Obviously, they agreed to the deal and Jefferson finalized it on April 30, 1803.
Many people consider the Louisiana Purchase to be one of the greatest achievements ever made by a US president. I strongly disagree. You must remember that there were dozens of indigenous communities already living in the Lousiana Territory who had no say in the agreement. Their land was being siphoned off from one power to another without their say. Furthermore, the French government only made this sale to finance its plans to attack the rest of Europe, attacks that would spark the Napoleonic Wars. Ironically, this set of conflicts led to Jefferson's last major flaw.
Later in 1803, in an attempt to boost their odds in the war, the British and French militaries adopted a strategy known as impressment. Using the method, they would attack neutral ships, take control of the vessel, and force those on board to enlist in the military of the aggressor force. In other words, if the French military was carrying out a specific instance of impressment and succeeded in capturing the ship, those on board would have to enlist as French soldiers. The same applied to the British military. More often than not, those who fell victim to impressment were American sailors.
Clearly, Jefferson was outraged by this development and so began searching for a solution. It ostensibly came to him in 1807 in the form of the Embargo Act. Signed on December 22, 1807, the Embargo Act prohibited the US from trading with the outside world. Jefferson believed that this would get the British and French militaries to stop using impressment. Jefferson knew that cutting the US off from trade with other countries would deprive Britain and France of American goods, as well as the profits they could gain from trade with the US. So, the Embargo Act, he concluded, would place an economic pressure on the two countries to cease engaging in impressment. Instead, the Embargo Act merely decimated the American economy. Worst of all, it didn't even fulfill its goal, as Britain and France didn't mind the loss of American products enough to fulfill Jefferson's desires. The Embargo Act also contributed to the War of 1812 under James Madison.
However, while Jefferson was an imperialist who tried to stifle many of his critics and who damaged his nation's economy, he was a good president overall. Outside of repealing the Naturalization Act of 1798 and pardoning those arrested for violating the Sedition Act, Jefferson did a lot of wonderful things during his years in the White House. For example, in 1808, he enacted a ban on the importation of slaves into the US. I actually consider this to be Jefferson's greatest accomplishment.
Jefferson also displayed great leadership during the Yazoo Affair. The Yazoo Affair was a scandal that began in 1795 when the state government of Georgia passed the Yazoo Act. This corrupt bill sold all of Alabama, which was part of Georgia at the time, to just 4 private companies for just an absurd $500,000. The public was rightly outraged by this development. In 1802, Jefferson boldly and effectively brought the Yazoo Affair to a close by going to Georgia and forcing the removal of the Yazoo Act. By taking this action, Jefferson restored these lands to sensible uses that benefitted the public, rather than increasing the profits and prestige of corporations.
That same year, on March 16, 1802, Jefferson signed the Military Peace Establishment Act. By signing this law, Jefferson placed limits on the growth and operations of the American military, which I consider a good thing. The statute also created West Point, which is indisputably an accomplishment. Jefferson also commissioned the construction of the National Road, another inarguable good.
Earlier, I criticized the Louisiana Purchase and Jefferson's economic policies. Before I write my conclusion, I want to make two notes about these issues. One, while I dislike the Louisiana Purchase, it led to the Louis and Clark Expedition, an exploration of the Louisiana Territory led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Like the creation of West Point and the commissioning of the National Road, there is no way to reasonably argue that this is a bad thing. The Lewis and Clark Expedition merely provided the population with valuable information about the flora and fauna of the Louisiana Territory.
Lewis and Clark also treated the indigenous residents of the territory quite well. There was only one instance of violence between Lewis and Clark and the Louisiana Territory's Native American population: The Two Medicine Fight. On July 27, 1806, a small group of Native Americans stole food and medical supplies from Lewis and Clark's team. Outraged, they got into a skirmish with the indigenous group, killing 2 of them. This is a rare example of such a conflict being excited by the indigenous party, rather than the settler one. The Native Americans involved were stealing crucial materials totally unprovoked, so they were in the wrong.
My second note revolves around Jefferson's economic policies. While the Embargo Act was awful for the economy and Jefferson certainly deserves to be criticized for that, he also reduced the national debt. When Jefferson entered the White House in 1801, America's debt stood at $80,000,000. When he left the White House for good in 1809, it was at $57,000,000.
Jefferson's presidency centered around an administration that was ultimately very good for the US. It assisted immigrants, pardoned those unjustly prosecuted under the Sedition Act, ended the importation of slaves into America, diffused the Yazoo Affair, limited the military, presided over the creation of important projects like the National Road, launched the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and reduced the debt. But at the same time, it had severe flaws that cannot be ignored, such as the Embargo Act and attacks on Federalists in the judicial branch.
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