Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/89

 JEFFERSON

JEFFERSON

gain, and entangling foreign alliances were to be frowned down. America for the Americans, and gradual expansion within the bounds of the American continent to make room for the in- creasing population, was to be the policy of the new administration. An army and navy on a peace footing, with no ostentatious preparations for war in times of peace, depending; on the mili- tia of the states and on state volunteers in times of danger, for defence, and the exclusion of

THE. WHITE. HOUSE. ,-i600.

monarchical institutions on the American conti- nent, were the chief outlines of the political philosopliy of Thomas Jefferson, and for these theories he was charged in 1801 with being a "dangerous demagogue," a "theorist," a "French Reiuiblican," a "maker of epigrams," and one not to be trusted with the administration of a government that had been created by Hamil- ton and presided over by Washington and Adams. After selecting his cabinet, he appointed Robert R. Livingston, of New York, minister to France; Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, minister to Spain, and, in 1803, James Munroe, of Virginia, minister to Great Britain. Munroe was soon after transferred to France as si^ecial envoy to Bonaparte in Paris, where for $15,000,000 he se- cured for the United States the extensive domain of the territory of Louisiana. He also so con- ducted the naval war against the Barbary States as to restore peace where for years American commerce had been in constant jeopardv. In the U.S. congress the Federalist senators had dwin- dled to five and the representatives of the party in the house numbered but twenty-seven. The country was at peace with the world, and the fears that calamity would follow a change of administration were unrealized. He was re- elected in 1804 under the amended constitution providing for separate candidates for President and Vice-President by each party, the 1G3 Repub- lican electors voting for Thomas Jefferson for President and George Clinton, of New York, for Vice-President, the 65 Federalist electors voting for Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, for President, and Rufus King, of New York, for Vice-President. The President ntade no change in his cabinet except to transfer Robert Smith

from the navy department to the attorney- general's office, and to appoint Jacob Crownin- shield, of Massachusetts, secretarj^ of the navy. Attorney-General Smith resigned in December, 1805, and John Breckinridge, of Kentucky, was appointed his successor, and on his death, Dec. 14, 1806, Cajsar A. Rodney, of Delaware, became attorney-general. "William Piiikney was made U.S. minister to Great Britain in 1806, John Armstrong U.S. minister to France in 1804, George W. Erving charge d'affaires in Spain in 1805, and in August, 1805, at the request of Alexander I. of Russia, President Jefferson ap- pointed as U.S. minister at St. Petersburg "William Short, of Virginia, who had served with him in France as his secretary of legation, and afterward as charge d'affaires and also as minister resident at the Hague and at Madrid. The senate met Dec. 2, 1805, but the President did not send in the nomination till Feb. 24, 1806, after Mr. Short had been in Russia six months, and then the senate unanimously rejected the appointment, and the wish of Emperor Alexander was not gratified until President Madison sent John Quincy Adams in 1809. President Jefferson favored the much debated policy of an embargo on foreign trade in 1807; instituted the Lewis and Clark exploring expedition; introduced Democratic simplicity in conducting the social functions of the administration, and originated the President's message to take the place of the President's speech on the assembling of the two houses of congress. His views on offensive par- tisanship were expressed Nov. 3, 1806, in a letter to Surveyor C. Parker of Norfolk, Va., in these words: — " I have never had a wish to control the right of private opinion or of suffrages in the offices of the government — I have onlj' believed it wrong, where they disapprove those principles of administration which the will of the nation has sanctioned, that they should employ the in- fluence of their office in aid of an active opposi- tion to them. No person not doing this has ever been disturbed in the right of his personal suf- frage." Upon the inauguration of James ^ladison as his successor, March 4, 1809, Mr. Jefferson retired from pul^lic life, and gave his remaining years to the cultivation of his farm and the build- ing of the University of Virginia. This latter work had been long in contemplation and was the result of a careful study of the ai'cliitecture of the universities of Europe. His hope to use the College of "William and Mary as the founda- tion of the university had departed, and it only remained for him to plant the new institution at Charlottesville, within easy sight of Monticello. He had already opened the Rivanna river tona^ i- gation, established a nail factorj% a blacksn>ith shop, grist and saw mills, and a factory for mn.k-