United States

Shoshone guide Sacagawea with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, oil and tempera on panel by N.C. Wyeth, circa 1940.The Granger Collection, New YorkOn the American continent, Jefferson pursued a policy of expansion. He seized the opportunity when Napoleon I decided to relinquish French ambitions in North America by offering the Louisiana territory for sale (Spain had recently ceded the territory to France). This extraordinary acquisition, the Louisiana Purchase, bought at a price of a few cents per acre, more than doubled the area of the United States. Jefferson had no constitutional sanction for such an exercise of executive power; he made up the rules as he went along, taking a broad construction view of the Constitution on this issue. He also sought opportunities to gain Florida from Spain, and, for scientific and political reasons, he sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on an expedition of exploration across the continent. This territorial expansion was not without problems. Various separatist movements periodically arose, including a plan for a Northern Confederacy formulated by New England Federalists. Aaron Burr, who had been elected Jefferson’s vice president in 1800 but was replaced in 1804, led several western conspiracies. Arrested and tried for treason, he was acquitted in 1807.

As chief executive, Jefferson clashed with members of the judiciary, many of whom had been late appointments by Adams. One of his primary opponents was the late appointee Chief Justice John Marshall, most notably in the case of Marbury v. Madison" class="md-crosslink">Marbury v. Madison (1803), in which the Supreme Court first exercised the power of judicial review of congressional legislation.

Marshall, JohnJohn Marshall, crayon portrait by Charles-Balthazar-Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin; in the Duke University Law School, Durham, North Carolina.Courtesy of Duke University, Durham, N.C.

By the start of Jefferson’s second term in office, Europe was engulfed in the Napoleonic Wars. The United States remained neutral, but both Britain and France imposed various orders and decrees severely restricting American trade with Europe and confiscated American ships for violating the new rules. Britain also conducted impressment raids in which U.S. citizens were sometimes seized. Unable to agree to treaty terms with Britain, Jefferson tried to coerce both Britain and France into ceasing to violate “neutral rights” with a total embargo on American exports, enacted by Congress in 1807. The results were catastrophic for American commerce and produced bitter alienation in New England, where the embargo (written backward as “O grab me”) was held to be a Southern plot to destroy New England’s wealth. In 1809, shortly after Madison was elected president, the embargo act was repealed.

Madison as president and the War of 1812

James Madison, detail of an oil painting by Asher B. Durand, 1833; in the collection of The New-York Historical Society.Collection of The New-York Historical Society

Federalist broadside publicizing French attacks on American ships. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.Madison’s presidency was dominated by foreign affairs. Both Britain and France committed depredations on American shipping, but Britain was more resented, partly because with the greatest navy it was more effective and partly because Americans were extremely sensitive to British insults to national honour. Certain expansionist elements looking to both Florida and Canada began to press for war and took advantage of the issue of naval protection. Madison’s own aim was to preserve the principle of freedom of the seas and to assert the ability of the United States to protect its own interests and its citizens. While striving to confront the European adversaries impartially, he was drawn into war against Britain, which was declared in June 1812 on a vote of 79–49 in the House and 19–13 in the Senate. There was almost no support for war in the strong Federalist New England states.

Cartoon from 1812 showing Columbia (the United States) warning Napoleon I that she will deal with him after teaching John Bull (England) a lesson. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Cartoon showing Pres. James Madison fleeing from Washington, D.C., which is being burned by the British, during the War of 1812.Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZ62-1559)