Differences Between Jefferson And The Federalists

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In 1800 Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republicans won back the presidency from the Federalist they claimed that it was a revolution and that they would be guardians of “agrarian purity, liberty and state rights”(The American Pageant). They believed that the Federalist had brought a bureaucracy to the newly founded nation and had betrayed the ideals of the American Revolution. Though Jefferson claimed he would do away with the Federalist actions like Alexander Hamilton’s bank he actually maintained the economic framework to help keep the prosperity for the newly founded nation. Jefferson however did get rid of some federalist economic ideals and had a very opposing view of how the deal with the debt the country faced. When it came to foreign …show more content…
The Jeffersonians were very pro French while the Federalist had been very pro British. The Federalist hated when the embargo of 1807 was passed because it greatly hurt relations with Britain and also the economy and the trade with them. The Federalist had like England because trade h to pay off the war debts and without it this plan could not be continued. The embargo was one of the largest uses of presidential authority. Even though Jefferson had claimed to be for small government he was willing to go above this if it meant protecting the country. This use of power was barley touched by the Federalist and Jefferson was willing to go beyond his predecessors. Under Jefferson the greatest expanse of U.S territory occurred when Louisiana was bought from France in the Louisiana Purchase. The French had been willing to sell after they loss their colonies in Haiti and Napoleon realized he was not going to be able to achieve his American empire. This allowed for America to now have a vast land to expand and move west into. It was part of Jefferson dream to have a country of farmers, which the purchase had now made possible. This was another big overstep because Jefferson had gone around congress to purchase this and was another example of Jefferson using strong federal powers to help the country. The Federalist greatly disapproved of this purchase because they believed the country should be centered on the coast in small area and this challenged the purchase. Not only did more land come into Americas possession but also it got a major foreign power off of the continent and Britain and a weakening Spain were all that was left. Under Jefferson, the U.S was able to successfully stay out of the Napoleonic wars and involvement would have greatly hurt America still recovering from the Revolutionary war. Jefferson foreign policy greatly differed from the Federalist view and it was

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