-Political unity and division in Jefferson's America
-A deadly rivalry: Burr and Hamilton
-Trouble at Sea

[SLIDE 1]

Despite Jefferson's successes and the seemingly absolute triumph of the Republican party, dissent was brewing both inside and outside his party. A group of powerful New England Federalists created a coalition known as the Essex Junto, named for Essex County, Massachusetts, which many of them called home. They threatened the secession of New England from the Union and took other radical political positions. Inside Jefferson's own party, some from the south, including his own cousin John Randolph, criticized him for expanding federal power. In the Yazoo Land Scandal, a corrupt Georgia land deal, Jefferson involved the federal courts, angering Democratic-Republicans who though the issue should have been resolved at the state level. He further angered his opponents within the party by seeking to buy Florida from Spain, further expanding the federal borders. As a result, John Randolph formed a splinter party that adhered more closely to early republican principles.

[SLIDE 2]

Prominent New Yorker Aaron Burr was Jefferson's vice president during his first term, but Jefferson did not trust him, and for his second term he picked NY governor George Clinton instead. Burr and Hamilton had a longstanding hostile relationship. When Burr loses by a landslide an election for NY governor, he blames Hamilton for smearing his name in support of his opponent. He challenges Hamilton to a duel, which takes place in New Jersey to avoid New York's harsher penalties for dueling, which is illegal. The duel actually took place while Burr was still vice president. It is not certain whether or not Hamilton planned his shot to miss, but Burr planned no such face-saving show and aimed with deadly accuracy. Hamilton was mortally wounded and died the next day. Burr was charged with murder in both New York and New Jersey but never faced trial. The death of Hamilton ended Burr's chances for a conventional political career. He is said to have shown no remorse

[SLIDE 3]

Burr's failures in American politics led him to seek openings elsewhere. Many of Aaron Burr's contemporaries viewed him as too motivated by self-interest to be trustworthy in the political arena. What happened next can be seen in that light, as Burr entered into an area of dark intrigue. He traveled west, recruiting supporters for…what? To organize a farming settlement? Or to provoke a war? He made contact with the governor of the Louisiana Territory, James Wilkinson, who himself was a shady character now believed to have been a Spanish agent. What Burr's real intentions were is still a matter of speculation, but he seems to have been trying to carve out his own nation in the center of North America from parts of the Louisiana Territory, Mexico, and the Texas Territory. His version of events was that he had simply leased a large amount of land from Spain in the Texas Territory, which he intended to farm. Although he was acquitted of the charge of treason, whatever was left of his political life was now destroyed, and his further adventures had little success.

[SLIDE 4]

All this time, America was benefitting economically from Europe's Napoleonic Wars. American neutrality was profitable. Europeans needed American ships and American goods, especially food, although France was much better able to produce sufficient food than was England. But America was also able to take in foreign goods and ship them out again because of its neutral status. Caribbean sugar was safeguarded by first passing through American ports. Both Britain and France threatened to reject America's neutral status, and tensions rose. One particular provocation was impressment. The British navy, perpetually short of sailors to meet its war needs, began reclaiming sailors who had jumped ship in American ports and signed onto American ships, even when those sailors had in the meantime become American citizens. British law said that if they were born in Britain, they were subjects of the Crown. Thousands of sailors were seized in this way, which seemed a blatant violation of American sovereignty and enraged Americans.

[SLIDE 5]

By 1805, the war between France and Britain was at an impasse: Britain was superior at sea, and France on land. This brought about nonmilitary maneuvering to try to gain the advantage. England was blockading French ports. In 1806, Napoleon decided to wage economic war and issued the Berlin Decree, preventing ships that had been in British ports from entering French ports. The plan was to cut off British supplies and trade. Britain responded by barring neutral ships from entering Europe unless they first docked at a British port. It was clearly impossible for neutral countries to follow the contradictory dictates of both warring parties. Initially, the American economy didn't suffer, but France wanted to break America's hold on its food supply and formed an alliance with Russia instead. The result was that both France and Britain tried to cut off supplies to the other, and American trade was pulled into the conflict. 

[SLIDE 6]

The situation reached a head in 1807 off the coast of Virginia, when an American ship refused to allow the British navy to impress its sailors. The American ship was incapacitated by British canons, a number of sailors were killed or wounded, and the British boarded the vessel and seized four sailors who had deserted from the British navy; three of the four were naturalized American citizens, and two of those were African Americans. The British deserter was hanged. Americans were outraged. France made the situation even worse when Napoleon issued another decree targeting neutral ships with even the faintest connection to England.

[SLIDE 7]

Despite his belief that the government should not interfere with commerce, Jefferson took action to force European countries to recognize America's neutrality. He threatened to close all foreign trade unless European countries recognized America's neutrality and stopped interfering with American sea trade.