7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7Presidency
Jefferson was inaugurated into office on March 4, 1801. He
delegated all executive messages in writing rather than
through public speeches. Initially, at least, his policies as
president reflected his desire for decentralization, which
meant dismantling the embryonic federal government, the
army and navy, and all federal taxation programs, as well as
eradicating the national debt. These reforms enjoyed con-
siderable success.
The major achievement of his first term was what
would become known as the Louisiana Purchase. In 1803
Napoleon decided to consolidate his resources for a new
round of 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, the cost meant substantially
increasing the national debt. But Jefferson never wavered,
reasoning that the opportunity to double the national
domain was too good to miss.
In 1804 Jefferson was easily reelected over Federalist
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, winning 162 electoral votes
to Pinckney’s 14. George Clinton replaced Aaron Burr as
vice president.
Meanwhile, the resumption of the Napoleonic Wars
resulted in naval blockades in the Atlantic and Caribbean
that severely curtailed American trade. 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 poli-
cies, but it did not. The embryonic American economy
lacked the size to generate such influence and was itself
wrecked by Jefferson’s action. Moreover, the enforcement