Thomas Jefferson Inaugural Address Summary

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Thomas Jefferson, the author and spokesman of his presidential Inaugural Address. Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, and passed away on July 4, 1826 at the age of eighty-three. Thanks to Thomas Jefferson, America would become a thriving nation of small independent farmers, a prominent Manufacturer in world trade, and becoming the richest and most powerful nation in the world of the nineteenth century. He unified himself with the newly formed political party, to be known as the Republican Party, or better known as the Democratic-Republican Party. Jefferson had a very clear vision of where he wanted to steer the newly formed nation, which often times contradicted many of Alexander Hamilton ideas of government. Some of his well known …show more content…

In fact, in the first presidential election there wasn't even a campaign, let alone political parties. George Washington won the presidency virtually unopposed. However, after Washington's second term, Americans were divided into two groups, Federalists and Republicans. The leader of the Federalist, and Secretary of the Treasury was the renowned Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had a strong personality and had very definite ideas about what he wanted the future of America to look like. Hamilton was one of the writers of the The Federalist Papers, which supported a strong national government. He wanted the country to be mercantile and become a manufacturing powerhouse, which would be governed primarily by the elite(rich, able, and well born). He wanted strong ties to Great Britain, so that the United States and Great Britain both had a flourishing economy. Note that, Hamilton thought too much Democracy and free speech was a threat to the United States. On the other hand, Thomas Jefferson was the founder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party. Jefferson not only disagreed and opposed Hamilton's(Federalists) ideologies, but had completely different viewpoint of the government. He wanted America to be predominantly agrarian, opposed international trade and manufacturing, and distrusted concentrated power in the privilege. In other words Jefferson wanted a small-scale local economy that would be best served by a small scale local government. In addition, Jefferson wanted strong ties with France, for he spent time there as an ambassador, and appreciated French’s help in the revolutionary war. Unlike Hamilton, Jefferson wanted more Democracy. During the second presidency John Adam won more electoral votes than his competitor Thomas Jefferson, thus winning the election. However, since Thomas Jefferson had the second-highest total number of electoral votes, he

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