United States, Federalists Supported A Strong, Centralized Government and Geared Towards
United States, Federalists Supported A Strong, Centralized Government and Geared Towards
United States, Federalists Supported A Strong, Centralized Government and Geared Towards
After the American Revolution and the creation of the United States of America, a
successful form of government was established in the U.S. Constitution. The constitution
called for a three branch governing system with no one branch being more powerful than
the other. One of the branches was the executive branch, which was made up of the
president of the United States. After the successful term of George Washington, the first
U.S. president, different views as to how the country should be run came about and this
caused political parties to be formed. Two prominent political parties were the Federalists
and the Republicans, each party expressing opposite views when it came to running the
country. According to Carol Berkin in the textbook, Making America: A History of the
United States, Federalists supported a strong, centralized government and geared towards
limited government and an agrarian lifestyle when it came to the national economy.
When John Adams was elected the second president of the United States in 1796,
he began to increase the power of the national government and instilled Federalist
principles into his decisions as well. One way in which he increased the power of the
national government was to pass the Judiciary Act of 1801. As stated in the textbook,
Making America: A History of the United States, this act “increased the number of federal
courts and judicial positions” so that there would be Federalist dominance in the judicial
branch once Adams left office. Other decisions were made by Adams that would continue
to increase the power of the Federalists, but this would all change when Thomas
Jefferson would be elected the third president of the United States.
On February 17, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was elected president after winning the
majority of votes in the House of Representatives. Due to a tie in the number of electoral
votes, this brought the election to the house, which named Jefferson the winner after the
36th ballot. Once Jefferson was elected, he began to reverse the tendency of the
Federalists to increase the power of the national government. With his many decisions
that he made throughout his term, Jefferson was able to allow Republican views to be
One of the first things Jefferson did to counteract the Federalist views was to
propose the Judiciary Act of 1802, which explained how “circuit courts were expensive
and unnecessary”. This act would reverse the Federalist control in the judicial system and
eventually Congress passed the act and replaced the Judiciary Act of 1801. Another
decision Jefferson made to reverse Federalist control in the government was to bring
about changes in the economy. Jefferson’s Treasury Secretary, Albert Gallatin, was given
the task to put into the economy a Republican influence and with Jefferson’s approval, he
did just that. Many cuts were made in the budget of the United States, such as closing
American embassies overseas and reducing administrative staff. Also, social events and
other gatherings were put to an end to save money and even the military was cut down.
Both the army and the navy were reduced in size to save money. The decision to cut costs
on various aspects of the economy were able to reduce the overall federal presence in the
United States and transfer more power to the state governments, a principle strongly held
by Republicans.
Gallatin also eliminated all internal taxes, which put major emphasis on the sale
of western lands and foreign trade. Jefferson’s commitment to this foreign trade was
threatened by pirates who controlled the Mediterranean Sea, as stated by the textbook
Making America: A History of the United States. For years, the United States had been
bribing these pirates to not attack American ships and this took up a 1/5 of the American
budget. Wanting to see this cost eliminated, Jefferson chose to go to war, going against
his Republican ideals of staying a neutral country. But, although he chose to do this, the
impact of his decision to go to war would eliminate this cost in the budget, thus further
the Louisiana territory from France, who became focused on territory in Europe and
money for a continental war instead of worrying about holdings in North America. The
decision to purchase this territory from France would eliminate a European nation from
America and promote the Republican ideals of westward expansion. It would also allow
for the complete use of the Mississippi River, something that France still controlled
because of Louisiana. With the use of the river, trade would become much easier for the
United States and taxes put on by France would be eliminated. For $15 million, Jefferson
approved the “Louisiana Purchase” and its benefits strongly supported and upheld its
Republican ideals.
Many people supported the Louisiana Purchase but Federalists were quick to
point out that there was no approval in the U.S. Constitution for the gaining of new
territory. Jefferson chose to submit the ratification of the land to Congress and it was
approved in 1803. In this way, Jefferson went against his Republican ideals of strictly
sticking to what was written in the U.S. Constitution. For this decision, he decided to
vaguely interpret the constitution, something that Republicans were against doing. But
because the Louisiana territory would allow for Jefferson to uphold some of his more
important ideals such as westward expansion, he decided to approve for the betterment of
the country.
One last way in which Jefferson was able to reduce the Federalist influence in
government and instill Republican ideals was with the Embargo Act of 1807. Because of
warfare going on in Europe, many European countries relied heavily on American goods.
The United States remained neutral in the trading with Europe but this diplomatic policy
was challenged when certain countries began to “care for their own military victories, not
American prosperity”. In 1805, a military deadlock occurred between France and Britain.
This deadlock caused the passage of different laws to come about which eventually
prohibited neutral ships from trading without conflict. Then in June 1807, a British
frigate fired broadsides at an American ship, killing three sailors and injuring 18 others.
To pressure American neutrality even more, France passed the Milan Decree, which
would capture any neutral ship trading with England. In response to the many things
threatening the Republican ideal of neutrality, Jefferson decided to not go to war with the
countries but pass the Embargo Act in 1807. This act ended all foreign trade with
European countries until the U.S. was recognized as a neutral country. This elimination
of foreign trade went against the Republican ideal of promoting such a thing but because
Jefferson did not want to risk going against the other ideal of diplomatic neutrality, it can
be said that he chose the lesser of two evils when it came to running the government in a
Republican way. Neutrality was protected at the price of eliminating foreign trade for a
ideals, overall he was able to reverse the tendency of Federalists to increase the power of
the national government. Jefferson was able to maintain a sense of Republicanism in his
government when it came to ruling the country and supported the expansion and creation
of the modern United States of America by doing so. Although Jefferson’s principles
were questioned at times, he was able to stay true to the Republican party and propel his
ideals, allowing for the success of America in times of difficulty and struggle.