Dbq Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States, who served two terms from 1801-1809. Thomas Jefferson was in the Democratic-Republican party and was the first president to be a Democratic-Republican. The Election of 1800 was the first peaceful transfer of power in history from Federalists to Democratic-Republicans. This was a turning point as the Federalists were slowly fading away, and the Democratic-Republican were rising as Jefferson became president. Jefferson’s presidency was a mixture of exceptional decisions and disagreeable ones with his handling of domestic and foreign policies. Thomas Jefferson had made decisions in order to find a way to make foreign policies with the interaction of America and the rest of the world

After the Louisiana purchase, Thomas Jefferson assigned his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, along with William Clark as the leaders of the expedition to explore the unexplored area. This expedition led to the various information of the uncharted land with the scientific observations, maps, Native Indians information, and adventurous stories. Thomas Jefferson made the right choice in the purchase and Americans can realise what to expect in the land that would benefit farmers. During his presidency, he found a way to decrease the national debt in half by repealing many Federalist taxes, and this was a major accomplishment. There was a major conflict when Jefferson became president and that was the Marbury vs Madison judicial review incident. When Jefferson became the president, the Federalists had made new judges and new judicial positions and William Marbury was appointed as a judge as well. Jefferson knew that there was something not right because it looked like the Federalists were trying to control the courts and therefore, he refused to deliver the appointment to Marbury, resulting in conflict. Marbury sued Madison and led to the Supreme Court and led to the reasoning that the Judiciary Act of 1789 being unconstitutional. Resulting into a whole other conflict that the Supreme Court could decide if laws were constitutional and this power was called the judicial review. Jefferson had to take care of domestic issues and with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the cut in national debt, and the judicial review that work out in the end for the majority of the