Jefferson's First Act As President example essay topic

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 on his family's plantation in Shadwell, Virginia. The third of six children his parents raised him modestly and his father schooled him to be a gentleman. The young Jefferson suffered an emotional shock, when at the age of 14 his father Peter Jefferson died. The young Jefferson was the first male of the family and so he received the bulk of his father's assets, leaving him with a sizable fortune. He received his early education along with his sisters and cousins near the family farm, and later was sent away to be tutored by a professional teacher in foreign languages and more advanced sciences and math. Beginning in 1760 Jefferson began attending the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

While there he began studying such enlightenment thinkers as Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke. His admiration for these men became even greater as he began to make his way in life. Once he finished his college education Jefferson decided he wanted to pursue a career in law. To achieve this he began studying for the bar exam under a practicing lawyer George Wythe. After complete ing his studies he began establishing a law practice out of his home in Shadwell.

Then in 1768 he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses where from the very start he made his presence known. If first proposal to the body was to establish procedures for the emancipation of slaves, an idea quickly shot down. He remained a member of the house until its dissolution in 1774 by the colony's British Governor Dunmore. The same year plans were made to hold a continental congress of all the colonies. In preparation for this meeting Jefferson wrote an essay called A Summary of the Rights of British Americans, in which he voiced his thoughts on the rights of men. Due to illness he was unable to attend this meeting, but its widespread publishing lead to his nomination to the second Continental congress.

During the 1776 meeting of the second Continental Congress Jefferson wrote one of the most famous documents in American history, the Declaration of Independence. This document would become the basis for the writing of the Articles of Confederation and eventually the United States Constitution. Another document written by Jefferson that would become an integral part of the federal Constitution would be the Virginia state constitution. Written around the same time as the Declaration Jefferson created a government divided into legislative, judicial, and executive branches. He also included provisions for trial by jury and no taxation without representation. Shortly after the completion of the documents the revolutionary war began in full and Jefferson worked to help defend Virginia.

In 1779 he was appointed war time governor of Virginia and held the position until the end of the conflict. Shortly after which he left America and went to France as an ambassador. Jefferson spent nearly a decade in France leading up to the French Revolution. While he was away a constitutional convention was held to write a new supreme law for the country.

When the new Constitution of the United States of America was ratified in 1788 Jefferson supported it for the most part. He supported the idea of a strong central government but was concerned because of the lack of a bill of rights. Above all else he was in favor of the rights of the people and he wanted to protect them at all times. Jefferson returned to America in 1789 after the on set of the French Revolution. In 1790 he was nominated by President George Washington to become the first Secretary of State. During this time he proved himself to be an excellent leader and was given the republican presidential nomination for the 1796 election.

Much to the disappointment of the party Jefferson won the vice-presidency and Federalist John Adams won the presidency. During his time in office Jefferson was faced with one the first Constitutional conflicts of the new nation. Due to the impending threat of war with France Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Alien Act gave the president the power to deport aliens if he felt they were a threat to the nation and the Sedition Act made it illegal for citizens to oppose the government by, writing, or speaking. Jefferson felt that the Constitution should be interpreted strictly and so wrote the preliminary draft for what would become the Kentucky resolutions of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. These resolutions stated that only the states have the power to outline new powers not stated in the Constitution.

They also stated that the Sedition Act went against the people's rights to assembly, speech, the state's rights and civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. After his term as Vice-President, Jefferson ran for president again in 1800, the election turned out to be a tie. The tie tested the true workings of the Constitution, the vote was sent to the House of Representatives and it took 37 ballots before a winner was declared. Jefferson was declared the winner of Aaron Burr who assumed the office of vice-president.

Jefferson's first act as president was to tell Secretary of State James Madison to withhold the midnight appointment of William Marbury to the office of Justice of the Peace of the District of Columbia. Marbury sued for the appointment President Adams had given him and Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in his favor. The case Marbury vs. Madison set the precedent of the courts right to judicial review of the other branches of government. Jefferson went against his belief in strict Constitutional interpretation several times during office as president, the first time was when he authorized the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Though the power to purchase the land was not given to him as president in the Constitution he went ahead with it because he felt that it was in the best interest of the nation.

He went against his beliefs two other times when he went along with the 1804 impeachments of Federal district judge John Pickering and Supreme court judge Samuel Chase. The constitution states that "treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors" must be committed to warrant this, but both men were impeached by the Senate due to erratic behavior.