Thomas jefferson?

Question

) When Thomas Jefferson was elected president in 1800 he promised to reestablish the republic that was fought for in 1776. What did he mean by this and how was the republic lost in his opinion? How would he reestablish the republic during his presidency? Be sure to explain his political philosophy and some of his key proposals to achieve this goal? Finally, how would these idealistic proposals be destroyed during he and James Madison’s presidencies? What would Thomas Jefferson conclude after the War of 1812?

Answer 1

~Basically, Jefferson was saying some of the things that most southerners would continue saying right up until South Carolina seceded in 1860.  No one listened to Jefferson or his successors and the result was the War for Southern Independence (there is no way by any logical, legal definition that it could be called a civil war).

When he and John Adams and John Marshall played the political games that resulted in Marbury v Madison, he, and they, almost destroyed the Republic.  As president, he was powerless to propagate the goals of the founding fathers.  Neither the New England shippers nor the Middle American merchants were going to let that happen and the disenfranchisement of the Southern Planters was well in swing.

After the War of 1812, Jefferson would probably have said, 'Well, we fought the Brits to a draw but we lost the nation we had intended to create in 1789 as a result.  And if that Andy Jackson fellow makes political hay out of his military career, the country is doomed.'

Answer 2

thomas jefferson saw himself above all as a farmer.  he was in favor of a small central government and hated the idea of a national bank.  he wanted a country of small farming towns and was in favor of a loose confederacy of states rather than a tight knit commercial and manufacturing country.  he believed that Adams and Hamilton would create such a place and in turn create a class based society with a large divide between rich and poor.  he supported the war of 1812 because he wanted to drive European ideals out of America once and for all.  the republic that was fought for in 1776 was seeking to escape these ideals rather than embrace them.  his political philosophy was greatly influenced by philosophers John Locke and Jean-Jacques Roussea.

Answer 3

The basic and short answer is that Jefferson was in many ways the intellectual founder of the opposition to Federalist control, and sought to recapture not merely the principles but the "Spirit of '76."  He meant that it was important to limit ALL government, and most specifically the federal government.  He almost immediately reduced the size of the federal government.  He also worked to repeal the Alien and Sedition Acts passed under Adams, and pardoned those convicted thereunder.  In his first term, he was remarkably successful.  Popular, and now regarded as one of the most successful first-term Presidents, Jefferson's principles and policies were rooted in a single basic truth:  Less is more.  Unfortunately, the Louisiana Purchase threatened those principles (But not disasterously so- see, e.g., Clinton Rossiter's Constitutional Dictatorship, arguing in essence that departure from principle in extraordinary circumstances is both necessary and consistent.  After the War of 1812, Jefferson would write extensively with Madison and (eventually) his old friend Adams, discussing the changed realities of the nation.  If nothing else, the War of 1812 proved that a weak federal government was powerless to repel serious threats.  Jefferson lived his retirement in fear over the consequences of slavery, all the while developing his views on this and other subjects.  He died still believing that a small nation of vast territory marked by aggrarian ideals was best, but the world was changing in ways that threatened those principles.

In conclusion, see Jefferson's last letter, written in response to an invitation to attend ceremonies on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration in Washington, DC.  In declining, he reiterated his thoughts from fifty years previous, clarifying that there was not a set class intended to be saddled by others, but that the eyes of the world were open or opening to liberty.