The American President Thomas Jefferson Essay

Introduction

Thomas Jefferson was one of the few American presidents whose administration was characterized by irony. Ironically during Jefferson ended up giving his presidency to his greatest rival. He was elected into office in 1800, and that was his first term. Although Jefferson had spent years in researching on how to be a principled leader in governance, his administration had a lot of controversies.

He and James Madison opposed the enactment of the alien and sedition act. They believed that the act was intended to intimidate and suppress the democratic –republicans rather than the enemies of United States of America. According to Jefferson the Sedition was the source of revolution and was leading the country into war.

In his quest for declaration of independence, one of Jefferson’s controversial decisions was Louisiana Purchase. It is imperative to note that Jefferson was very much interested in the west. According to him, expansion towards the west was the county’s future. The purchase was done during the Napoleonic war in France.

This was a significant land acquisition from France which was almost double the size of United States of America. His negotiations to purchase the land were faced with criticism. To a large extent, Jefferson’s actions were regarded as contradicting especially because of the inexistence of contrary a clear Constitutional authority. He forced the congress to sign the treaty so that he could seize the opportunity. He acted without consulting the relevant authorities.

The land was finally not secured by the Americans, leading to Jefferson to impose an arms embargo to the new states that had acquired the western hemisphere. This proved difficult for France to recover from the effects of Napoleonic war. When Jefferson was sworn into office in 1802, he preached peace and reconciliation, but his political program was biased. Jefferson’s main objective after getting into power was to abolish the federalist’s system of government.

Additionally, Thomas Jefferson increased the controversy by making controversial appointments, as well as releasing prisoners who had been detained under the alien and sedition acts. He went ahead to repeal the judicial act which saw the removal of almost all the ‘Adam’s judges’.

The removal of these judges influenced the Supreme Court to make a quick judgment on the case involving Marbury and Madison. It is also worth noting that the repeal gave power to the judges of the Supreme Court to travel all over the country so as to serve as circuit judges. Jefferson is known for using a large amount of government revenue to pay down his Hamilton debt.

As the governor of Virginia, Jefferson had proposed the removal of Cherokee and Shawnee tribes from the areas that were west of Mississippi river. When he became president, he advocated for military removal of these tribes from the west part of the United States. This was ironical since the United States had signed a treaty with the Cherokee nation. Expelling the Cherokee people from Georgia was a violation of the treat signed between the United States and the Cherokee nation.

Jefferson also owned any slaves. This showed how Jefferson was a racist. His racist views were also part of his culture. One would wonder whether Jefferson was evil or was slavery not useless after all. Although he viewed slavery as harmful both to the slave and the master, it’s ironically that he has many slaves himself.

Towards the end of his second term, Thomas Jefferson had almost given James Madison full responsibility of his powers. This was due to his presidential blunders he had done in the American history. According to Jefferson, Madison was the only person who could fulfill his political goals. When Madison won the elections, Thomas Jefferson resigned from active politics.