man who took his stand with the people. In dress,1 manners, and ideas he was quite different from the Federalist Presidents, Washington and Adams. They both thought it proper for the head of the nation to stand a little apart from the people; and though both were opposed to monarchy, yet they kept up something of the dignity and ceremony of a king. Jefferson preferred, on the contrary, "republican simplicity" in all things, and was ready to receive and shake hands with any one and every one that wanted to shake hands with him. 66 Jefferson took the oath of office 2 in the new capitol, which was ridiculed as a "palace in the woods." It stood on a hill in the city of Washington," then nothing but a straggling village of a few hundred inhabitants. Washington, for whom it was named, had himself chosen the ground for the city ten years before. Many people preferred Philadelphia, thinking that the new national capital was too far west. 213. What was thought of the Probable Extent of the Republic. Eminent men of that day thought it very doubtful whether the American republic could extend into the wilderness beyond the Alleghany Mountains. Many agreed with them, and believed that in time the country would be divided into several nations for it seemed impossible to them that a territory reaching from the Atlantic to the Mississippi could be efficiently and safely governed by a single President. When we consider that there were then no steamboats, canals, or railroads, to bind the states together, and in fact very few good ordinary roads, it does not seem so strange that men of sound judgment should have thought so. of votes next to those of the successful candidate, became Vice-President. This period marks the downfall of the Federalists; for the next forty years the Democrats held control. 1 It was about this time that a marked change took place in mer's dress, and breeches and long stockings began to give way to trousers-a product of the French Revolution. The British minister, Mr. Merry, says Jefferson wore "pantaloons and slippers" when he received him. 2 See page 192, note 3. THE PIRATES OF TRIPOLI. 203 214. The Pirates of Tripoli; they declare War against the United States; the Result. For many years Tripoli and other towns on the north coast of Africa had been nests of pirates. The people were Mohammedans, and they were in the habit of sending out fast-sailing armed vessels to capture the ships of Christians coming to the Mediterranean to trade. European nations had made repeated efforts to break up this system of robbery, but had not succeeded. Even Great Britain was obliged to pay the governors of Algiers and Tripoli large sums of money every year in order to protect her commerce in that quarter of the globe. During Washington and Adams's presidencies the United States, having no ships of war worth mentioning, had to buy the good will of these pirates. At one time we paid the ruler of Tripoli twenty thousand dollars a year to let our merchant vessels sail the Mediterranean in peace. But even this did not satisfy him, and we had to give him costly presents, and purchase the liberation of many of our sailors whom the people of Tripoli had seized, held as slaves, and worked like beasts of burden under the lash. It had cost us a million, part given by government and part contributed in collections taken up in the churches on Sunday, merely to get these unfortunate men restored to their homes and friends. Just before Jefferson became President, the governor of Tripoli, disappointed because we did not yield to his demands and give him a still larger tribute, declared war against the United States. Jefferson was a man of peace, but he believed with Benjamin Franklin that, "if you make yourself a sheep, the wolves will eat you." He thought we had been sheep long enough. We now had a small fleet of war-ships commanded by such men as Bainbridge, Decatur, and Preble. The President sent them out to Tripoli, and they soon made the ruler of that place confess his sins and beg for mercy. The Pope declared that the Americans had done more toward punishing the insolent power of the Mohammedan pirates than all the nations of Europe put together. The result of the war was that the people of Tripoli were glad to make a new treaty (1805) with the United States. By it they agreed to let our merchant ships and sailors alone in future, without asking pay for their good behavior. 215. Purchase of the Territory of Louisiana. While this war with Tripoli was going on, the greatest event of Jefferson's presidency occurred. France owned the territory of Louisiana,1 including New Orleans. Napoleon Bonaparte, who was then about to engage in a tremendous contest with England, was afraid that when war broke out the English would send over a fleet and take Louisiana out of his hands. For that reason he was willing to sell it to the United States — especially as the money would help him to fit out his armies against Great Britain. President Jefferson bought (1803) the whole territory for fifteen millions of dollars. By so doing he got the very heart of the American continent, reaching from the Mississippi back to the Rocky Mountains. He thus, at one stroke, more than doubled the area of the United States, getting upwards of a million of square miles, or over six hundred millions of acres, for two cents and a half an acre. There were people who grumbled at the purchase, some denying that he had the right to make it, but the majority heartily supported the President. He himself confessed that he had stretched his power "till it cracked," in order to complete the bargain. In reality Jefferson showed his statesmanship in the act. The possession of Louisiana secured to us four most important points: 1. It prevented any disputes with France about the territory. 2. It prevented England from getting control of it. 3. It gave us the Great West- that is, the West beyond the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains. us masters of the entire Mississippi River, with the Orleans to boot. 4. It made city of New 1 Just before the close of the great war between England and France in 1763, France ceded Louisiana with New Orleans to her ally, Spain. In 1801 Spain ceded them back to France. |