Jeffersonian Indian Policy

• Jefferson knew that the growing population of the United States would need the land west of the Appalachian Mountains, (westward expansion into the Ohio River Valley, also known as the Northwest Territory, had already begun), so he hoped to peacefully incorporate the Indian tribes into American society as farmers.
• One of his ideas for speeding up this incorporation was to have corporations drive them into debt. To clear the debt they would have to sell their excess land, and then use the rest of it for agricultural purposes.
• He did not believe in declaring war on them, but if a tribe attacked a US settlement he thought that they should be crushed, and their lands would be forfeit.

Jeffersonian Military Policy

• One of Jefferson's main goals during his presidency was to decrease spending costs.
• To accomplish this, he reduced the military; he reduced the standing army from 4000 men and officers to 2500 men and officers.
• He took away the ability of the navy to project power, and transformed it into a defensive force made up of small, cheap gunboats.
• He also added many coastal fortifications and improved the state militias.
• In order to improve the leadership of the army he established the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Louisiana Crisis (1802-1803)

• The Mississippi River was the conduit for information and goods for all American settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains, and whoever controlled it controlled the American Interior. New Orleans, the city at the mouth of the river, was the only port that could be used to ship goods through.
• In a secret treaty, Spain gave Louisiana to France, and then stopped allowing Americans to use New Orleans.
• Thomas Jefferson sent a delegation to France in order to negotiate for the purchasing of New Orleans, because Jefferson felt that if "France [took] possession of New Orleans .. [he would be forced to ally the United States] to the British fleet and nation" (National Experience, 180) in order to protect the interests of all the Americans in the Interior.
• Napoleon Bonaparte, the French leader, offered the delegation the entire Louisiana territory for $15 million and a promise of religious freedom for all Roman Catholics living there. This offer was accepted.

Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)

• Jefferson still wasn't sure what he had purchased from Napoleon, so he sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to survey the land and make astronomical observations, and to look for mineral deposits and trading opportunities.
• They journeyed all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back, and they only lost one member of their crew-- who died of disease.

Tripolitan War [Barbary Piracy] (1801-1805)

• Pirates based on the northern coast of the African continent were raiding merchant shipping and demanding tribute from America.
• Jefferson had to change his naval policy in order to defeat the Tripoli threat, and he dispatched a naval squadron to deal with the pirates.
• For several years a virtual war was fought on the seas until the Pasha was forced to make peace in 1805 (National Experience, 185).

War of 1812

• Early in his presidency, Jefferson decided to keep the United States out of European affairs and wars.
• Jefferson was forced to enter a naval war against Tripoli from 1801-5 in order to protect American shipping interests from being attacked by pirates based along the Barbary Coast.
• When the British and French went to war against each other in 1803, the U.S. declared neutrality.
• Two years later, Napoleon announced that trade with the British was not allowed, while the British declared that all foreign trade must go through Great Britain before going to the continent.
• This gravely damaged relations with both the British and the French, whose alliance with the U.S. had ended in 1800.
• In June 1807, the British warship Leopard fought the Chesapeake while looking for deserters. The Chesapeake was forced to surrender.
• Jefferson immediately demanded that British warships leave U.S. waters, as well as reparations and a formal apology.
• In December, Congress forbade maritime trade except to Great Britain and France.
• James Madison became President, and after the British continued seizing American ships, Congress declared war on July 18, 1812, after Madison exhorted them, calling the actions of the British "a series of acts hostile to the United States as an independent and neutral nation."
• The call for war was strongly supported by War Hawks, the second-generation Republicans that were strongly anti-British, and used Indian attacks to support the declaration of war.
• Because the U.S. was strongly outnumbered on the sea, the invasion of Canada began.
• Americans expected that the Canadians would greet their "liberators" with open arms, but they instead fought fiercely out of loyalty to the British crown.
• After a series of losses to British forces, Captain Perry gained control of Lake Erie in September 13.
• Shortly thereafter, American general Harrison defeated British and Indian forces on October 13 in the Battle of the Thames, resulting in the collapse of the Indian confederacy, which supported the British.
• After British attacks through Niagara and Lake Champlain were halted in 1814, a stalemate was reached in the north.
• The British quickly responded by capturing Washington on August 24, and the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814, ending the War of 1812.
• Due to the time for news to reach the entire nation, the final battle was in January, 1815, when General Andrew Jackson successfully defended the key port of New Orleans from a British invasion.