---
title: "Thomas Jefferson"
chunk: 10/19
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:06:33.894887+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Jefferson refuted the contemporary notion that Indians were inferior and maintained that they were equal in body and mind to people of European descent, although he believed them to be inferior in terms of culture and technology. As governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War, Jefferson recommended moving the Cherokee and Shawnee tribes, who had allied with the British, to west of the Mississippi River. But when he took office as president, he quickly took measures to avert another major conflict, as American and Indian societies were in collision and the British were inciting Indian tribes from Canada. In Georgia, he stipulated that the state would release its legal claims for lands to its west in exchange for military support in expelling the Cherokee from Georgia. This facilitated his policy of western expansion, to "advance compactly as we multiply".
In keeping with his Enlightenment thinking, President Jefferson adopted an assimilation policy toward American Indians known as his "civilization program" which included securing peaceful U.S.–Indian treaty alliances and encouraging agriculture. Jefferson advocated that Indian tribes should make federal purchases by credit holding their lands as collateral. Various tribes accepted Jefferson's policies, including the Shawnees led by Black Hoof, the Muscogee, and the Cherokee. However, some Shawnees, led by Tecumseh, broke off from Black Hoof, and opposed Jefferson's assimilation policies.
Historian Bernard Sheehan argues that Jefferson believed that assimilation was best for American Indians, and next-best was removal to the west; he felt that the worst outcome of the conflict would be their attacking the whites. Jefferson told U.S. Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, who then oversaw Indian affairs, "If we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down until that tribe is exterminated or driven beyond the Mississippi." Miller agrees that Jefferson believed that Indians should assimilate to American customs and agriculture. Historians such as Peter S. Onuf and Merrill D. Peterson argue that Jefferson's actual Indian policies did little to promote assimilation and were a pretext to seize lands.

=== Re-election in 1804 and second term ===

Jefferson was nominated for reelection by the Democratic-Republican Party, with George Clinton replacing Burr as his running mate. The Federalist Party ran Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, John Adams's vice presidential candidate in the 1800 election. The Jefferson-Clinton ticket won overwhelmingly in the electoral college vote, by 162 to 14, promoting their achievement of a strong economy, lower taxes, and the Louisiana Purchase.
In March 1806, a split developed in the Democratic-Republican Party, led by fellow Virginian and former Republican ally John Randolph, who viciously accused President Jefferson on the floor of the House of moving too far in the Federalist direction, permanently setting Randolph apart politically from Jefferson. Jefferson and Madison backed resolutions to limit or ban British imports in retaliation for British seizures of American shipping. Also, in 1808, Jefferson was the first president to propose a broad federal plan to build roads and canals across several states, asking for $20 million, further alarming Randolph and believers of limited government.
Jefferson's popularity suffered further in his second term as a result of his response to wars in Europe. Relations with Britain deteriorated, due partly to the antipathy between Jefferson and British diplomat Anthony Merry. After Napoleon's decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, Napoleon became more aggressive in his negotiations with Jefferson and the U.S. over trading rights, which the U.S. proved unsuccessful in countering. Jefferson then led the enactment of the Embargo Act of 1807, directed at both France and Britain, which triggered economic chaos in the U.S. and was strongly criticized, leading Jefferson to abandon the policy a year later.
During the American Revolution, colonial states abolished the international slave trade, but South Carolina reopened it. In his annual message of December 1806, Jefferson denounced the international slave trade as "violations of human rights" and called on the new Congress to immediately criminalize it. The following year, in 1807, Congress passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which Jefferson signed. The act established severe punishment against the international slave trade, although it did not address the issue domestically.
In Haiti, Jefferson's neutrality allowed arms to flow to the slave independence movement during the Haitian Revolution, and Jefferson blocked attempts to assist Napoleon, who was defeated militarily in Haiti in 1803. But Jefferson's administration refused official recognition of Haiti during his second term, in deference to southern complaints about racial violence against slave holders. Recognition was not extended to Haiti until 1862.

=== Controversies ===

==== Burr conspiracy and trial ====