![]() What he meant was the elimination of the Federalists, and indeed the elimination of all party spirit, that bane of republican virtue. We are all Federalists.” On the one hand, Jefferson was reaching out a hand of cooperation to the Federalists and saying, “No matter what our divisions, we really are all on the same team.” However, what he meant by that was that everyone should join his team and abandon the rival team. “We have called by different names, brethren of the same principles. In his inaugural address, Jefferson extended what sounded very much like an olive branch. ![]() The unhappy John Adams stayed up nights in the week before Jefferson’s inauguration, busily signing commissions for Federalist judges… But, as much as he would deal gently with the Federalists, he also made it clear that he would deal firmly with them. It showed that a republican experiment in popular government, even when opinion in that government was divided, could in fact take place, and that republics could survive. The smooth transition of power between these two very dissimilar leaders, Adams and Jefferson, was a real watershed. Learn more about the forced recruitment of a workforce of African slaves in early U.S. This was, in fact, a great moment in the history of political systems, because it is one of those rare moments when a party, or an individual, possessing power, speaking for the majority, agrees that that power will not be used by the majority to take revenge on the minority, and the minority agrees in effect to be a minority, to recognize that it has lost, but not on that basis to attempt to disrupt or overturn the system. One other thing: Jefferson promised that he would deal gently with his Federalist opponents. A Watershed Moment in the History of Politics Linked to that, Jefferson announced that he would support free trade and free commerce, which meant that there would be an end to the Hamiltonian tariffs that kept foreign manufactured goods at artificially high prices for farmers in order to benefit American manufacturers. What that meant, translated, was that there would be no concessions to the British, who were still at war with the French. Thirdly, Jefferson laid out, there would be no favoritism shown in foreign policy. ![]() The second thing he would do would be to contain the size of the military, because permanent military forces were always a threat to the independence of a republic and, of course, military forces had been identified with Washington and with Hamilton. First of all, he would dismantle the structure of federal government built up by Hamilton, and pay off the national indebtedness that had made taxation and the Bank of the United States necessary. His inaugural address laid out the course he intended to take with unmistakable clarity. (Image: By Everett Collection/Shutterstock) Jefferson’s policies as President were radically different from his predecessors Washington and Adams. A Humble Walk to the Capitol on Inauguration Day ![]() This is a transcript from the video series A History of the United States, 2nd Edition. Jefferson promised that his new presidency would prove to be as real a revolution in the principles of our government as the one in 1776. Through the 1790s, Jefferson had gradually convinced himself that Hamilton and Adams had betrayed the original spirit of republicanism, even to the point of selling the American republic back into the hands of the British and the British aristocracy. Statue of Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence inscription at the Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC (Image: By LO Kin-hei/Shutterstock) Guelzo, Ph.D., Gettysburg University There was no question in Thomas Jefferson’s mind but that his inauguration as the third President of the United States meant a completely new start for the practice of American republicanism. Gallagher, Ph.D., University of Virginia Patrick N.
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