Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson’s time in office A point that both men agreed on was that the United States needed to stay neutral during the French Revolution Agreeing to stay in office until the end of 1793, Jefferson decided to retire again from public life and return to Monticello His retirement lasted only a few years Jefferson was nominated for the presidency in 1796 but lost to political rival John Adams During these four years, the Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which Jefferson interpreted as being designed more to attack his own party than to protect the new country Writing anonymously, Jefferson and James Madison attacked the acts with the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, declaring that the federal government could have no power that was not specifically allowed by the states In effect, this was the first voicing of the theory of states’ rights THE PRESIDENCY In 1800 Jefferson ran for president, and the election ended in a tied electoral vote between him and Aaron Burr The tie was broken by the House of Representatives, which voted for Jefferson He was the first president to have his inauguration in Washington, D.C., which he had helped design while secretary of state Jefferson served two terms from 1801 to 1809 It was during Jefferson’s first term that he sent James Monroe to France to purchase the town of New Orleans; Madison worked out a deal to purchase the entire Louisiana Territory for $15 million The purchase doubled the size of the country Jefferson then commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead an expedition into the new territory During his first term he also sent a naval force against the Barbary pirates and against the sultan of Morocco In the end a new treaty was negotiated with the sultan that granted the United States more favorable terms than the previous agreement Jefferson’s second term was marked by war between France and England The United States wanted to remain neutral and not get involved in the war Because of the limits and restrictions placed on American merchants by both European powers, the United States found itself in a no-win situation In an attempt to keep the United States out of war, Congress enacted an embargo on shipments to Europe to get France and Britain to negotiate better trade terms with the United States, which did not happen On March 1, 1809, Jefferson was forced to end the embargo Shortly afterward, his second term was over, and he was able to 203 turn the office and the problems of Europe over to Madison After leaving office Jefferson returned to Virginia, where he spent the remainder of his life The embargo had hurt most of the planters in Virginia, and Jefferson was no exception Taking on even more debt, he was forced in 1815 to sell his personal library to the government; the collection started the Library of Congress He also turned over management of his lands to his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph Jefferson wanted to see a university established in western Virginia In 1814 he got involved, as a trustee, with the Albemarle Academy, which then became Central College and eventually the University of Virginia The General Assembly approved funding for the university in 1818, and a commission was formed, with Jefferson as a member, to find a site for the school The final report was made, and a charter was issued in 1819 for the university, which opened its doors in 1825 Jefferson suffered another financial setback and set about selling his land to cover his debt He died believing that his debts would be covered, not realizing that Monticello would end up passing out of the hands of his heirs Jefferson died on July 4, 1826 In 1998 evidence came to light suggesting that Jefferson had fathered a number of children with his slave Sally Hemings While such allegations were not new—as early as 1802 a Richmond newspaper reported that Jefferson lived with a slave named Sally as a concubine—DNA evidence linked Jefferson’s family with that of Hemings While inconclusive in determining the actual parentage, most experts agree that it is unlikely that any member of Jefferson’s family other than Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings’s children This highlights Jefferson’s complicated views on race and slavery While a slaveholder himself, Jefferson spoke out against slavery; original wording in the Declaration of Independence condemned the British government for continuing the slave trade; and, as president, Jefferson abolished the slave trade in 1807 His own ownership of slaves appears to have caused him a great deal of internal conflict, and shortly before his death he freed his five most trusted slaves Further reading: Cunningham, Noble E In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987; Holmes, Jerry, ed., Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts Lanham, MD: Rowen & Littlefield Publishers, 2002; Malone, Dumas Jefferson and His Time New York: Little, Brown, 1981; Peterson, Merrill