Although Thomas Jefferson was in France serving as United States minister when the Federal Constitution was written in 1787, he was able to influence the development of the federal government through his correspondence. Later his actions as the first secretary of state, vice president, leader of the first political opposition party, and third president of the United States were crucial in shaping the look of the nation's capital and defining the powers of the Constitution and the nature of the emerging republic.
Jefferson played a major role in the planning, design, and construction of a national capitol and the federal district. In the various public offices he held, Jefferson sought to establish a federal government of limited powers. In the 1800 presidential election, Jefferson and Aaron Burr deadlocked, creating a constitutional crisis. However, once Jefferson received sufficient votes in the electoral college, he and the defeated incumbent, John Adams, established the principle that power would be passed peacefully from losers to victors in presidential elections. Jefferson called his election triumph “the second American Revolution.”
While president, Jefferson's principles were tested in many ways. For example, in order to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France he was willing to expand his narrow interpretation of the Constitution. But Jefferson stood firm in ending the importation of slaves and maintaining his view of the separation of church and state. In the end, Jefferson completed two full and eventful terms as president. He also paved the way for James Madison and James Monroe, his political protégés, to succeed him in the presidency.
Toward a Federal Constitution
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants”
“Our liberty depends upon the freedom of the press”
Jefferson objects to absence of Bill of Rights
Thomas Jefferson's annotated copy of the Federalist Papers
“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”
Erecting a Federal Edifice
Federal Hall, home of the First Federal Congress
Jefferson's plan of the Federal District, 1791
Jefferson seeks plans for Capitol building, 1792
Thomas Jefferson. Advertisement for a Capitol, c. March 6, 1792. Manuscript. Manuscript Division (103a)
Jefferson advocates limited power of constitution
Jefferson's parliamentary practice manual
Thomas Jefferson. Draft of Manual of Parliamentary Practice, c. 1799–1801. Manuscript. Manuscript Division (134)
Charles Willson Peale. Thomas Jefferson. Philadelphia, 1791. Copyprint of oil on canvas. Courtesy of Independence National Historical Park Collection, Philadelphia (128)
George Washington
Gilbert Stuart. George Washington, 1796. Copyprint of oil on canvas in the collection of the United States Architect of the Capitol. Prints and Photographs Division (132B)
National Partisan Politics
Jeffersonians claim extreme rights for states
The Kentucky Resolutions were drafted in secret by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the fall of 1798 to counter the perceived threat to constitutional liberties from the Alien and Sedition Acts. These federal laws limited naturalization rights and free speech by declaring public criticism of government officials to be seditious libel, punishable by imprisonment and fines. Jefferson's draft resolutions claimed states had the right to nullify federal laws and acts that violated the Constitution. The Kentucky Resolutions were passed, and the role Jefferson and Madison played in drafting them was kept secret throughout their years of public service.
Thomas Jefferson. Draft of the Kentucky Resolutions, November 16, 1798. Manuscript. Manuscript Division (135)
The Jeffersonian Republicans' first newspaper
Jeffersonians expose Hamilton's sexual liaison
James Callender's (1758–1803) History of the United States for 1796 was the original public venue for reports of financial dealings by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton as well as his 1792 adulterous affair with Maria Reynolds (b. 1768), the wife of James Reynolds, a United States Treasury employee. Jefferson's political lieutenant, clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, and later first Librarian of Congress John James Beckley was the immediate source of the confidential documents used by Callender to discredit Hamilton. Callender was one of the political pamphleteers supported by Jeffersonians to attack their Federalist opponents.
Jefferson experiences the political limits of freedom of the press
President Jefferson's support for freedom of the press was sorely tested in 1802 when James Callender publicly charged that Jefferson “keeps and for many years has kept, as his concubine, one of his slaves. Her name is Sally.” The Richmond Recorder, first printed Callender's account of Jefferson's intimate relationship with his wife's half sister, Sally Hemings, but controversy has surrounded the accusation and the relationship to the present day. Callender, whose vitriolic attacks on Federalist opponents of Jefferson in the 1790s had been secretly funded by Jefferson and Republican allies, turned against Jefferson when the president failed to give him a patronage position.
The Richmond Recorder, September 1, 1802. Courtesy of the Virginia State Library, Richmond (117a)
Jefferson urges supporters to write newspaper attacks
“The Providential Detection” depicts Jefferson attempting to destroy the Constitution
Artist unknown. The Providential Detection, 1797–1800. Copyprint of lithograph. Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts (136)
The Second American Revolution
“The true principles of the revolution of 1800”
“We are all republicans: we are all federalists”
Federal prohibition of foreign importation of slaves
Thomas Jefferson. “Sixth Annual Message to Congress,” December 2, 1806. Manuscript. Manuscript Division (112)
Separation of church and state
Thomas Jefferson believed strongly in religious freedom and the separation of church and state. While President, Jefferson was accused of being a non-believer and an atheist. Jefferson attended church services in the Capitol and on several occasions expressed his beliefs including this letter explaining his constitutional view. “I consider the government of the US. as interdicted by the constitution from intermedling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. this results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment, or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the US.”
Thomas Jefferson to Rev. Samuel Miller January 23, 1808. Manuscript letter. Manuscript Division (113)
Political attack ads in the era of the founding fathers
James Akin. “A Philosophic Cock,” Newburyport, Massachusetts, c. 1804. Hand-colored aquatint. Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts (140)
Jefferson's plans to improve the Urban Environment
Nicholas King. [Thomas Jefferson's plans for Pennsylvania Avenue] March 12, 1803. Manuscript sketch. Manuscript Division (141)
“Infant Liberty Nursed by Mother Mob”
William Leney after a drawing by Elkanah Tisdale in [Richard Alsop and Theodore Dwight] The Echo, with Other Poems. New York: Porcupine Press by Pasquin Petronius, 1807. Copyprint of engraving. Rare Book and Special Collections Division (142)