The election of 1800 marked the beginning of a 28-year period during which Republicans dominated national politics. Jefferson’s party won easily, in part because of the public outrage over the Federalist Alien and Sedition Acts; in many ways, the acts proved the undoing of the Federalist Party.
The election was a protracted affair. All of the Republican electors had voted for both Jefferson and Burr, so that both candidates earned the same number of electoral votes for president. Burr, who had been backed by the Republican Party as vice president, now had as legitimate a claim to the presidency as Jefferson did. The task of choosing the president fell to the House of Representatives. After seven days and thirty-six …show more content…
Once in office, Jefferson cut back on federal expenditures and federal bureaucracy. He persuaded Congress to cut almost all internal taxes, and balanced the cut with reductions in military expenditures and other government endeavors. For income, the government relied mostly on land sales and customs …show more content…
Fearing that the new French ruler, Napoleon, had plans to build an empire in the Americas, Jefferson sent negotiators to France in an attempt to purchase the territory. The envoy found that Napoleon had abandoned his plan for a colonial empire, in part because a massive slave revolt in Haiti, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, had severely depleted Napoleon’s forces. Napoleon thus agreed to sell all of the Louisiana territory in order to finance French efforts in the war in Europe. After some negotiation, the price was set at $15 million in April 1803. With the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. gained a massive, uncharted piece of land, nearly doubling the country’s size for the price of thirteen and a half cents per