how did jefferson's presidency shape the settlement of the west

How did the United States expand after Thomas Jefferson took office?

By the time Jefferson took office, Americans had settled as far west as the Mississippi River, though vast pockets of land remained vacant or inhabited only by Native Americans. Many in the United States, particularly those in the west, favored further territorial expansion, and especially hoped to annex the Spanish province of Louisiana.

Why did Thomas Jefferson want to explore the west?

Thomas Jefferson had been interested in exploring the west well before the 1803 Louisiana Purchase from France. During the 1780's and 1790's, he championed a few failed attempts at such an exploration. Believing the United States needed to expand west...

What was the westward expansion of the US?

Westward Expansion. Contents. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the United States.

What did Thomas Jefferson do during the Shawnee Wars?

As his presidency continued, Jefferson prioritized white settlement of the western territories over peaceful assimilation. When Jefferson assumed power, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa were leading raids against American settlements in the Ohio Valley, with munitions provided by British traders in Canada.

What were Jefferson's goals in settling the West?

Through treaties and commerce, Jefferson hoped to continue to get Native Americans to adopt European agricultural practices, shift to a sedentary way of life, and free up hunting grounds for further white settlement.

Why was President Jefferson interested in exploration of the West?

He hoped to establish trade with the Native American people of the West and find a water route to the Pacific.

What did Jefferson accomplish during his presidency?

As the third president of the United States, Jefferson stabilized the U.S. economy and defeated pirates from North Africa during the Barbary War. He was responsible for doubling the size of the United States by successfully brokering the Louisiana Purchase. He also founded the University of Virginia.

How did Jefferson's presidency transform the US government?

Jefferson took office determined to roll back the Federalist program of the 1790s. His administration reduced taxes, government spending, and the national debt, and repealed the Alien and Sedition Acts.

What did Thomas Jefferson do that was important?

Thomas Jefferson was the primary draftsman of the Declaration of Independence of the United States and the nation's first secretary of state (1789–94), its second vice president (1797–1801), and, as the third president (1801–09), the statesman responsible for the Louisiana Purchase.

What was Jefferson's vision for the American economy?

Jefferson's vision was not anti-modern, for he had too brilliant a scientific mind to fear technological change. He supported international commerce to benefit farmers and wanted to see new technology widely incorporated into ordinary farms and households to make them more productive.

What was Thomas Jefferson's most significant accomplishment and why?

The terms of the agreement gave all of the Louisiana territory from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains to the United States. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States and is considered one of President Thomas Jefferson's greatest presidential accomplishments.

What are 3 things Thomas Jefferson is remembered for?

Jefferson is best known for his role in writing the Declaration of Independence, his foreign service, his two terms as president, and his omnipresent face on the modern nickel. The well-rounded Jefferson was also a Renaissance man who was intellectually curious about many things.

How did Jefferson's domestic policies impact the westward expansion of the United States quizlet?

How did Jefferson's domestic policies impact the westward expansion of the United States? The repeal of the whiskey tax supported farmers west of the Mississippi. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country. The sale of government-owned lands encouraged settlement west of the Appalachians.

Why did Thomas Jefferson want to explore the Louisiana Territory?

President Thomas Jefferson had many reasons for wanting to acquire the Louisiana Territory. The reasons included future protection, expansion, prosperity and the mystery of unknown lands.

Why did Thomas Jefferson want the Lewis and Clark expedition?

Though he did not disclose his intentions to Congress, Jefferson planned to send Meriwether Lewis, his private secretary, on a reconnaissance mission that far exceeded the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase to determine how far west the U.S. might extend commerce in the North American fur trade and to assess the ...

What was President Jefferson's underlying motivation for the expedition?

The expedition combined several qualities from scientific and military to trade and diplomatic, but the underlying motivation was prompted by Thomas Jefferson's widely shared belief that the future prosperity of the republic required the expansion of yeoman farmers in the west.

What were Jefferson's goals for the Lewis and Clark expedition?

While its primary mission was to explore waterways for a route to the Pacific Ocean, commerce with inhabitants of the region was a major goal. Jefferson specified the kinds of information Lewis should obtain about any American Indian nations he might encounter.

What did Jefferson believe about the Westward Expansion?

To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation’s health: He believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that independence and virtue went hand in hand with land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms.

What was the Westward Expansion and the Compromise of 1850?

Westward Expansion and the Compromise of 1850. Bleeding Kansas. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the United States.

What was the Missouri compromise?

The acquisition of this land re-opened the question that the Missouri Compromise had ostensibly settled: What would be the status of slavery in new American territories? After two years of increasingly volatile debate over the issue, Kentucky Senator Henry Clay proposed another compromise. It had four parts: first, California would enter the Union as a free state; second, the status of slavery in the rest of the Mexican territory would be decided by the people who lived there; third, the slave trade (but not slavery) would be abolished in Washington, D.C.; and fourth, a new Fugitive Slave Act would enable Southerners to reclaim runaway slaves who had escaped to Northern states where slavery was not allowed.

What was the battle between Kansas and Nebraska?

The battle for Kansas and Nebraska became a battle for the soul of the nation. Emigrants from Northern and Southern states tried to influence the vote. For example, thousands of Missourians flooded into Kansas in 1854 and 1855 to vote (fraudulently) in favor of slavery. “Free-soil” settlers established a rival government, and soon Kansas spiraled into civil war. Hundreds of people died in the fighting that ensued, known as “ Bleeding Kansas .”

What was the Westward Migration?

Westward migration was an essential part of the republican project , he argued, and it was Americans’ “ manifest destiny ” to carry the “great experiment of liberty” to the edge of the continent: to “overspread and to possess the whole of the [land] which Providence has given us,” O’Sullivan wrote.

What was Douglas' middle ground?

However, since no Southern legislator would approve a plan that would give more power to “free-soil” Northerners, Douglas came up with a middle ground that he called “popular sovereignty”: letting the settlers of the territories decide for themselves whether their states would be slave or free.

How many square miles did the Gadsden Purchase add to the United States?

Did you know? In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase added about 30,000 square miles of Mexican territory to the United States and fixed the boundaries of the “lower 48” where they are today.

What was Jefferson's political position in the 1790s?

There was a good deal of nervous speculation whether the new American nation could survive a Jefferson presidency. The entire thrust of Jefferson’s political position throughout the 1790s had been defiantly negative, rejecting as excessive the powers vested in the national government by the Federalists. In his Virginia Resolutions of 1798, written in protest of the Alien and Sedition Acts, he had described any projection of federal authority over the domestic policy of the states as a violation of “the spirit of ’76” and therefore a justification for secession from the Union. (This became the position of the Confederacy in 1861.) His Federalist critics wondered how he could take an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States if his primary goal as president was to dismantle the federal institutions created by that very document. As he rose to deliver his inaugural address on March 4, 1801, in the still-unfinished Capitol of the equally unfinished national capital on the Potomac, the mood was apprehensive. The most rabid alarmists had already been proved wrong, since the first transfer of power from one political regime to another had occurred peacefully, even routinely. But it was still very much an open question whether, as Lincoln later put it, “any nation so conceived and so dedicated could long endure” in the absence of a central government along Federalist lines.

What was Jefferson's response to the Napoleonic Wars?

Jefferson’s response was the Embargo Act (1807), which essentially closed American ports to all foreign imports and American exports. The embargo assumed that the loss of American trade would force England and France to alter their policies, but this fond hope was always an illusion, since the embryonic American economy lacked the size to generate such influence and was itself wrecked by Jefferson’s action. Moreover, the enforcement of the Embargo Act required the exercise of precisely those coercive powers by the federal government that Jefferson had previously opposed. By the time he left office in March 1809, Jefferson was a tired and beaten man, anxious to escape the consequences of his futile efforts to preserve American neutrality and eager to embrace the two-term precedent established by Washington.

What was the purpose of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798?

In his Virginia Resolutions of 1798, written in protest of the Alien and Sedition Acts, he had described any projection of federal authority over the domestic policy of the states as a violation of “the spirit of ’76” and therefore a justification for secession from the Union.

What was Napoleon's first achievement?

The major achievement of his first term was also an act of defiance, though this time it involved defying his own principles. In 1803 Napoleon decided to consolidate his resources for a new round of the conflict with England by selling the vast Louisiana region, which stretched from the Mississippi Valley to the Rocky Mountains. Although the asking price, $15 million, was a stupendous bargain, assuming the cost meant substantially increasing the national debt. More significantly, what became known as the Louisiana Purchase violated Jefferson’s constitutional scruples. Indeed, many historians regard it as the boldest executive action in American history. But Jefferson never wavered, reasoning that the opportunity to double the national domain was too good to miss. The American West always triggered Jefferson’s most visionary energies, seeing it, as he did, as America’s future, the place where the simple republican principles could be constantly renewed. In one fell swoop he removed the threat of a major European power from America’s borders and extended the life span of the uncluttered agrarian values he so cherished. Even before news that the purchase was approved reached the United States in July 1803, Jefferson dispatched his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an expedition to explore the new acquisition and the lands beyond, all the way to the Pacific.

What was Jefferson's focus during his second term?

During his second term, Jefferson's attention was focused on the trial of then former Vice President Burr for treason, which resulted in an acquittal, and on the issue of slavery, specifically the importation of slaves from abroad.

What did Thomas Jefferson do in the 1790s?

Jefferson took office determined to roll back the Federalist program of the 1790s. His administration reduced taxes, government spending, and the national debt, and repealed the Alien and Sedition Acts. In foreign affairs, the major developments were the acquisition of the gigantic Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, an embargo against trade with both Great Britain and France, and worsening relations with Britain as the United States tried to remain neutral in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars that engulfed Europe. He established a military academy, used the Navy to protect merchant ships from Barbary pirates in North Africa, and developed a plan to protect U.S. ports from foreign invasion by the use of small gunboats (a plan that proved useless when war came in 1812 ). He also authorized the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory and the Pacific Northwest .

Why did Jefferson want Aaron Burr to secede?

Jefferson believed that to be so by November 1806, because Burr had been rumored to be variously plotting with some western states to secede for an independent empire, or to raise a filibuster to conquer Mexico. At the very least, there were reports of Burr's recruiting men, stocking arms, and building boats. New Orleans seemed especially vulnerable, but at some point, the American general there, James Wilkinson, a double agent for the Spanish, decided to turn on Burr. Jefferson issued a proclamation warning that there were U.S. citizens illegally plotting to take over Spanish holdings. Though Burr was nationally discredited, Jefferson feared for the very Union. In a report to Congress January 1807, Jefferson declared Burr's guilt "placed beyond question". By March 1807, Burr was arrested in New Orleans and placed on trial for treason in Richmond, Virginia, with Chief Justice John Marshall presiding. On June 13, Jefferson was subpoenaed by Burr to release documents that favored Burr's defense. Jefferson stated he had no loyalty to Burr and only released a few documents Burr had requested having invoked executive privilege. Jefferson refused to appear at Burr's trial. The weak government case led to Burr's acquittal, but with his reputation ruined he was never able to mount another adventure. Burr later died on his Staten Island residence in October 1836.

Why did Jefferson and his allies oppose the Judiciary Act of 1801?

Jefferson and his allies sought to reverse the Judiciary Act of 1801, partly because they did not believe the new judicial positions were necessary, and partly to weaken Federalist influence on the courts. Federalists vehemently opposed this plan, arguing that Congress did not have the power to abolish judicial positions that were occupied. Despite these objections, the Democratic-Republicans passed the Judiciary Act of 1802, which largely restored the judicial structure that had prevailed prior to the Judiciary Act of 1801. The Jefferson administration also refused to deliver judicial commissions to some Adams appointees who had won Senate confirmation but had not yet formally taken office. One such appointee, William Marbury, sued Secretary of State Madison to compel him to deliver the judicial commissions. In the 1803 Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison, the court ruled against Marbury, but also established the precedent of judicial review, thereby strengthening the judicial branch.

How many electoral votes did Jefferson and Burr receive?

Jefferson and Burr each received 73 electoral votes, while Adams finished in third place with 65 votes. The House of Representatives, still controlled by the Federalists, held a contingent election in February 1801 to decide whether Jefferson or Burr would accede to the presidency.

What was Jefferson's second term?

During his second term, Jefferson's attention was focused on the trial of then former Vice President Aaron Burr for treason, which resulted in an acquittal, and on the issue of slavery, specifically the importation of slaves from abroad. In 1806, he denounced the international slave trade as a "violation of human rights" and called upon Congress to criminalize it. Congress responded by approving the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves the following year. Rising tensions between the United States and Britain dominated the final years of Jefferson's second term, as the Royal Navy began impressing sailors from American ships and attacking American shipping. Jefferson rejected war and instead used economic threats and embargoes that ultimately hurt the U.S. more than Britain. The disputes with Britain continued after Jefferson left office, eventually leading to the War of 1812 .

Why did Thomas Jefferson want a military academy?

Jefferson strongly felt the need for a national military university that could produce a competent officer engineering corps that would not have to rely on foreign sources for top grade engineers. An academy would also help to replace many of the Federalist officers who Jefferson dismissed when he took office. Jefferson signed the Military Peace Establishment Act on March 16, 1802, thus founding the United States Military Academy at West Point. The Act documented in 29 sections a new set of laws and limits for the military.

How was the West settled?

How the West Was Settled. The 150-Year-Old Homestead Act Lured Americans Looking for a New Life and New Opportunities. By Greg Bradsher. W. hen the war for American independence formally ended in 1783, the United States covered more than 512 million acres of land. By 1860, the nation had acquired more than 1.4 billion more acres, ...

What states were settled westward in the 1870s?

As settlers pushed westward during the 1870s, every state bordering the Mississippi River except Arkansas and Minnesota lost population. Between 1871 and 1880, the government issued more than 64,500 patents. Many of these were in the up-per Midwest. Other frontiersmen turned northward to the level grasslands of Dakota country, where settlement had begun in the late 1850s with migrations from Minnesota and Nebraska. Migration did not assume sizable proportions until 1868, when the Sioux were driven to a reservation west of the Missouri River.

How did the Homestead Act affect the American West?

Therefore, new laws allowed settlers to acquire up to 1,120 acres when used in conjunction with the preemption and homestead laws. To promote the growth and preservation of timber on the western prairie and to ad- just the Homestead Act to western condi- tions, Congress passed the Timber Culture Law of March 3, 1873, which was intended to promote the planting of trees. The Desert Land Act of March 3, 1877, intended to promote the establishment of individual farms, was actually backed by wealthy cattle- men. Neither law proved successful. The Timber and Stone Act of June 3, 1878, put almost 3.6 million acres of valuable forest land into private hands before it was finally re- pealed in 1900. The act applied only to lands “unfit for cultivation” and “valuable chiefly for timber” or stone in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington and was extended to the remainder of the public domain (ex- cept Alaska) in 1892. It allowed claimants to buy up to 160 acres at $2.50 an acre. A tim- ber magnate could use dummy entrymen to grab the nation’s richest forest lands for little cost. The act was so unsatisfactory that the General Land Office recommended its repeal almost annually between 1878 and 1900. Land fraud became so bad that Congress in 1879 created the first Public Lands Commission to look into revising land laws but paid little attention to its recommendations. The head of the General Land Office, William A. J. Sparks, declared in 1885 that “the public domain was being made the prey

How did the Homestead Act help the economy?

Homestead laws, despite their inadequa- cies, did foster economic growth , which was certainly in the national interest. They enabled large numbers of people of modest means to obtain farms, either free or at rela- tively low cost. The United States’ greatest period of ag- ricultural expansion was between 1860 and 1920. It is probably safe to say that Homestead Act accounted for a substantial proportion of the new farms opened during that period. And certainly the Homestead Act left an important legacy in the develop- ment of the country. In 1936, the year after most homestead- ing was effectively ended, Congress created the Homestead National Monument of America in Beatrice, Nebraska, as a me- morial to all the settlers who had built the American West and to commemorate the changes to the land and the nation brought about by the Homestead Act of 1862. P

Where did homesteading occur?

During the first decade of the 20th cen-tury, homesteading increased in the plateau and basin states, as settlers moved into the cold desert of southern Oregon and into interior Washington, California east of the Sierras, and Arizona. Homesteading did not increase in Alaska, despite the gold rush. The Enlarged Homestead Act of February 19, 1909, increased the maximum permis-sible homestead to 320 acres of nonirri-gable land in parts of Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Arizona, and Wyoming. The law responded to the dryland farming movement that grew soon after the turn of the century. Lands previously thought to be useful only for grazing now became valuable for agriculture as farmers adopted techniques of deep plow-ing, compacting, summer fallowing, and seeding drought-resistant crops. As with the 1862 Homestead Act, the homesteaders had to reside on the land.

How many homestead patents were issued in the 1880s?

During the 1880s, nearly 193,000 home- stead patents were issued, nearly three times as many as in the previous decade. This re- sulted, by the late 1880s, in the public do- main rapidly diminishing. In 1887 Congress, seeking to satisfy the nation’s hunger for land, adopted a policy of giving individual farms to reservation Indians and opening the remaining Indian lands to settlers. The Great Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota and Chippewa lands in Minnesota and other Indian land was opened to settlement. The most famous opening was the “land rush” in Oklahoma. In 1885, Congress authorized the Indian Office to extinguish all native claims to the two unoccupied portions of the region—the Oklahoma District and the Cherokee Outlet. For the next three years, Indian agents did nothing, knowing that any settlement would doom the whole reservation system. During that time, “boomers” continued moving into the areas. Western pressure forced the Indian Office in Washington to act. In January 1889, the Creeks and Seminoles were forced to sur- render their rights to the Oklahoma District in return for cash awards of nearly 4.2 mil- lion dollars. Two months later, Congress officially opened the district to settlers un- der the Homestead Act and authorized the President to locate two land offices there. Acting under those instructions, President Benjamin Harrison announced that the Oklahoma District would be thrown open at noon on April 22, 1889. Thousands of people gathered for a land rush. A few days before the opening, they were allowed to surge across the Cherokee Outlet on the north and the Chickasaw reservation on the south to the borders of the promised land. Most waited along the southern border of Kansas and the northern boundary of Texas. Rumor had it that many had already sneaked across the border to establish the town of Guthrie hours ahead of schedule, thereby earning the name “sooners.” On the morn- ing of April 22, 100,000 persons surround- ed the Oklahoma District. By sunset, every available homestead lot had been claimed, over 1.9 million acres. Oklahoma City had a population of 10,000 tent dwellings by that night and Guthrie, nearly 15,000. The rush also resulted in the creation of the towns of Kingfisher, Stillwater, and Norman. A little over a year later, on May 2, 1890, Congress created the Oklahoma Territory. After the Oklahoma Territory was set up in 1890, its population was increased dur- ing the next years by a series of reservation “openings.” The Sauk, Fox, and Potawatomi lands, 900,000 acres in all, were thrown open in September 1891; the 3 million acres of the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation went in April 1892. The latter were quickly settled by 30,000 waiting homesteaders. A more dramatic rush occurred at noon on September 16, 1893, when 100,000 to 150,000 home seekers rushed the 6.5 mil- lion acres of the Cherokee Outlet.

What was the purpose of the Homestead Act?

During the 1840s, the call for homestead legislation received sup- port from eastern labor reformers, who envisioned free land as a means by which industrial workers could escape low wages and deplorable working conditions. Congress did, on occasion, offer free land in regions the nation wanted settled. But the landmark law that governed how public land was distributed and settled for over 100 years came in 1862. The Homestead Act, which became law on May 20, 1862, was responsible for helping settle much of the American West. In its centennial year in 1962, President John F. Kennedy called the act “the single greatest stimulus to national de- velopment ever enacted.” This past year marked the 150th anniversary of the Homestead Act. The provisions of the Homestead Act, while not perfect and often fraudulently manipulated, were responsible for helping settle much of the American West. In all, between 1862 and 1976, well over 270 million acres (10 percent of the area of the United States) were claimed and settled under the act.

Overview

Foreign affairs

Election of 1800

Transition

Inauguration

Administration

Judiciary

Domestic affairs