Thomas Jeffersons two terms in office - Essay Example

THOMAS JEFFERSON’S TWO TERMS IN OFFICE [Insert al Affiliation] Thomas Jefferson’s two terms in office range from 1801-1809, a term that started 4 years after Washington’s presidency and a period when the US was facing numerous challenges both internally and externally. However, despite his trivial failures and incapability brought about by constitutional restrictions, Jefferson performed his best to save America from the verge of failure. Washington would, therefore, evaluate Jefferson’s two terms in office by assessing his internal and external policies as well as his ability to contain party politics and would eventually realize that Jefferson’s presidency was quite successful.

Washington had constraint the operations of the judiciary to deliver justice to all Americans by allowing it to be overly influenced by federalists. Jefferson succeeded in eliminating federal influences in the judiciary by making the Supreme Court independence. The independence of the judiciary was a critical aspect in America’s rise to a justly state. His intention to repeal the 1801 Judiciary Act, remove judges untrustworthy judges from office, and eliminate district courts from the judicial structure were motivated by his intention to see an efficient and effective judicial system that functions within the budgeted expenditures (Bailey, 2001).

He also ensured that the executives operate within the constitutional frameworks and are non-partisan in their actions as this was critical to America’s growth. Additionally, Jefferson was committed to strengthening the nation’s economy through elimination of debt and superfluous taxes that were deemed offensive and unreasonably burdened struggling Americans. He saw a ballooning national debt as a cesspool of bigoted patronage (Denson, 2001). Unlike Washington, Jefferson believed that the nation could build foreign credit without carrying a huge national debt.

However, I believe that his misdoing came in during the Louisiana Purchase when he candidly violated his powers and borrowed gold from England only to reimburse with treasury bonds which particularly increased the state’s external debt as it is equaled to debt. Moreover, he rescinded federalist taxes as he believed that the government could function solely on custom revenues. However, this policy proved ruinous when the Napoleonic wars started in… and disrupted American trading partners and systems, only for Jefferson to realize the importance of direct taxes in running federal activities (Denson, 2001).

Apparently, the purchase doubled US’s size meaning more trade, an upsurge in revenues and military strength as well as taxes. Interestingly, his respect for human rights made him the first president to ban slave trade in American soil and championed for equal treatment of human beings irrespective of race. What’s more, the rational and prudent nature of Jefferson can be seen in his ability to maintain the America’s neutral position amidst the wars in Europe. Jefferson was clearly aware that America’s neutrality position, as previously upheld by Washington, would boost the state’s economic power, which came to be true.

From 1803 to1807, US’s ships ferrying colonial and European goods to American and later to Europe changed US’s re-exports revenues from 13.5 to 58.4 million US dollars (The Miller Center, 2015). Seeing that Europe was not valuing America’s neutrality, Jefferson directed state governors to suspend trade with Europe. However, this was a misdoing since US economy suffered severely with exports reducing from $108 to $22 million (The Miller Center, 2015). His success is evident when he proximately realized the adversarial nature of his decision and decided to allow trade with European countries with an exception of England and France.

His quick actions saved the American economy from submerging. Despite facing opposition from previous associates, Jefferson succeeded to bring American economy back to its position and Washington would, therefore, consider him to be among the most successful presidents in American history (Denson, 2001). The above elucidation clearly indicates that Washington would have evaluated Jefferson’s term in office as successful basing on his ability to improve the functioning of the presidency, improve American economy, and development or enhancement of the president’s power.

He could also champion for implementation or removal of policies as necessitated by the economic, political, and social environment. His banning of slavery was his major accomplishment which Washington can openly admit that he never achieved. References Bailey, J. D. (2001). The Republican Executive. Thomas Jefferson and Development of Presidential Power. In: Extraordinary Times, IMW Junior Visiting Fellows Conferences, Vol, 11: Vienna. Retrieved from http://www.iwm.at/wp-content/uploads/jc-11-041.

pdf Denson, J. V. (2001). Reassessing the presidency: The rise of the executive state and the decline of freedom. Auburn, AL: Mises Institute. The Miller Center. (2015). American President: Biography of Thomas Jefferson. Retrieved from http://millercenter.org/president/jefferson/essays/biography/print