How Did Thomas Jefferson Change Dbq

Thomas Jefferson’s opinion of how the national government should be run, changed quite a bit over the course of his presidency. He started it off as a strict constructionist as he opposed the excise laws and his opposition to the Alien and Sedition acts. At some point he began to transform into a loose constructionist when he bought the louisiana purchase and he improved our navy to help fight the Barbary war. Somewhere during his presidency his views changed and it was most likely before he bought the Louisiana territory. Before Jefferson entered the presidential office he was a states rights supporter and when the tax on whiskey was placed he opposed it, saying “The first error was to admit it by the Constitution.” (Doc A). He didn’t like the constitution because of the fact that it would make central government stronger. When the alien act was passed he was opposed to it and said that the central government should only have a set of specific purposes and the leftover purposes should be left to the states individually.(Doc B) Determining the amount of time it takes to be a citizen, and the ability to jail people opposing the government was too much power to Jefferson. When he came into office he realized the necessity for more central power and took more matters into his own hands, he had become a loose constructionist. When he bought the Louisiana territories he

There were also many other times where he acted outside of his authority that is stated in the Constitution. His views before were very anti-federalist because he expressed his opposition to the whiskey tax. And he was very upset with the alien and sedition acts that John Adams put into place. His views changed very radically as he saw the need for a stronger central government and how essential it was for the new nation to be