01x05 - President Jefferson (1793-1809)

[bunniefuu]

[dramatic music]

- Previously on

"Thomas Jefferson"

- Benjamin Franklin decides

he's going to give up

his role

as minister to France,

and Jefferson

takes over for him.

- Jefferson insists that his

daughter Maria come to France.

- And he says she should come

with a careful n*gro woman.

They send Sally Hemings.

- Sally and Jefferson begin

a sexual relationship.

- She's 16 years old.

♪♪

- And then, when Jefferson

returns home in late 1789,

George Washington

wants Alexander Hamilton to be

secretary of the treasury

and he wants Jefferson

to be secretary of state.

Jefferson believes

that Hamilton

is restoring the British

system to the United States.

But Washington agreed

with Hamilton and not him.

- That causes bad blood,

big time.

♪♪

- In the summer of 1793,

Thomas Jefferson has taken

on the role as America's

first secretary of state.

Though appointed directly

by George Washington,

he finds himself constantly

at odds with the president,

his vice president John Adams,

and his treasury secretary

Alexander Hamilton.

- The presidency, it's still an

office very much in evolution.

♪♪

People like John Adams

and Alexander Hamilton

are constantly agitating

for more titles, more pomp,

more circumstance.

Adams thinks that people

need that kind of figurehead

to look up to,

and there should be

some continuity between

the kings of Europe

and an American president.

- And Washington

and Hamilton were

seeing the struggle to

build a meaningful army,

to build institutions.

So they bring that to

the federal government.

How do we build institutions?

Can you really trust the people

to always do the right thing?

No, of course not.

- Jefferson believes

the exact opposite.

Jefferson believes

that anything that

tends towards monarchy

or British example

is a betrayal of

the Revolution;

that this is supposed to be

a country that's bottom up,

not top down.

But Washington,

Hamilton, Adams

are much more concerned

that anarchy can turn to

a new type of tyranny.

They see it happening

in France.

- Hamilton believes that

Jefferson and the people

who will come to be called

Jeffersonian Republicans

are adherents to the

French Revolution.

He believes they want

to overthrow all order.

Anarchy will be the result.

Blood will run in the streets.

America's republican experiment

will fail

and Britain will

take over again.

- After having been in

Paris in the early years

of the French Revolution,

Jefferson staunchly

supports the popular uprising.

Despite forming relationships

with the French royals,

Jefferson says he stands for

the toppling of all kings.

♪♪

- When it comes to the w*r

between Britain and France,

Washington declares a

policy of strict neutrality.

We are not going to get dragged

into continental squabbles.

But Jefferson disagrees.

Jefferson unfairly says

that neutrality

is a de facto endorsement

of England.

- And so he says

Washington isn't

listening to him anymore.

And Jefferson resigns

as secretary of state.

But of course,

he doesn't retire entirely.

He's a political animal.

♪♪

For over two years, he remains

in touch with people.

He's writing letters.

And he's maintaining his

networks, as we now say.

He's still agitating

behind the scenes.

- When Washington makes

the truly revolutionary step

of announcing his intention

to leave office

after his second term, setting

the second term precedent,

it eases those monarchical

concerns immediately.

It also sets off

the first contested election.

♪♪

- Jefferson runs for

president in 1796.

♪♪

- The 1796 election marks

the first official partisan

election in the United States.

53-year-old

Thomas Jefferson runs

as a Democratic Republican

against Federalist John Adams.

♪♪

- Jefferson is the founder

of the Democratic

Republican Party.

And it says that

government shouldn't

be so federalized,

that a lot of the power

should go to the states.

The federal government

shouldn't spend too much,

shouldn't tax too much.

The Washingtonian party

becomes the Federalists.

They were fighting for

more centralized power.

It's an ugly fight.

Adams is cast as

a puffed-up plutocrat,

a would-be monarchist,

an elite

who's out of touch

with the common people.

Jefferson is attacked as

an effete intellectual,

who's an apostate and

a radical revolutionary,

who has no faith,

and is therefore immoral.

♪♪

- It's hard for us

to imagine just how

acrimonious the 1790s were.

We sort of imagine people

like Jefferson and Hamilton

as stiff.

But these are human beings,

who had emotions,

who got angry,

who felt insulted,

who didn't like each other.

The 1790s was a moment where

you really had

two opposing parties form,

each of whom thought that

if the other group had power,

the American experiment

would fail.

♪♪

- In 1796, the winner

of the election

is the person who

gets the most votes

in the electoral college.

But unlike today,

the person who comes second

becomes vice president.

- In theory,

this is really nice.

You're going to reunite

the nation after an election

and get people to transcend

their partisan divides

by working together.

- But that doesn't happen.

♪♪

- Adams wins.

Jefferson becomes

his vice president.

And actually, Adams makes

overtures to working together,

but Jefferson rebuffs.

- Jefferson thought he'd

been there at the beginning,

and he wanted it to be

the way he wanted it.

He thought that he was right.

He thought the Republicans

are the nation.

That's the way he saw it.

- He's already

planning for a rematch.

- Rather than watch Adams

and the Federalists

move forward with an agenda

he disagrees with,

Jefferson disengages from

his role as vice president.

♪♪

- He comes back to Monticello

a lot during this time

to his mistress.

Sally Hemings has

her first child Harriet

in 1795 before Jefferson

becomes vice president.

And then, thereafter,

every two or three years,

has another baby.

- Meanwhile, in Philadelphia,

John Adams and his

Federalist cabinet

receive fierce criticism

and accusations of tyranny.

Adams signs the Alien

and Sedition Acts,

which authorized the

president to deport immigrants

and arrest any citizens who

make what he deems to be

false or malicious statements

about the federal government.

The Democratic Republicans

staunchly oppose these acts,

which they believe

are direct assaults

to the freedom of speech

guaranteed by

the First Amendment.

A promise to repeal these

unconstitutional acts

will be a tenant

of Jefferson's

next presidential campaign.

- The 1796 election,

it's an ugly fight.

But the election of 1800

is even uglier.

[drumming]

- You see the beginning of

a vitriolic partisan press

that is full of misinformation

and half-truths and truths

that are exaggerated.

- I mean, Adams is accused

of being a hermaphrodite.

- It's widely reported by

Federalists in New England

that if Jefferson is elected,

he's an atheist

and he'll take

your Bibles away.

- The Federalists really

believed that if Jefferson

was elected, you would have

a French-loving anarchist

who is hostile to the

Christian religion in power,

and he would threaten

the stability of society

with all his wild-eyed ideas

of letting the people

rule themselves.

- Now,

on the other side of this,

Jeffersonians had

been broadly hinting

that if Jefferson

didn't become president,

the Union was gone--

the experiment in Republican

government would fail.

Jefferson and Adams become

highly polarizing

and polarized figures.

♪♪

- Paradoxically, because

of the intense animosities,

you also have

intense engagement.

We've seen this in our

most recent election,

that that animosity in some

ways can breed engagement.

Citizens are really coming out

to make their will known.

So both the Federalists

and Jefferson realize

that they need

to appeal to voters,

and voters need to

therefore be informed,

or misinformed

as the case may be,

so that they'll vote

for the right person.

And this is really important

for American democracy

because the voters themselves

are starting to learn

that they have a role to play.

- And so in order to appeal to

and mobilize support

in Virginia,

Jefferson says, in order

for a republic to succeed,

its citizens

should be small farmers,

farming their own land--

independent farmers.

- There is this

weird thing where

you have a wealthy person

who is a champion

of supposedly the little guy.

But he is seen as the person

who represents the common man.

He's against banks

and the elites,

and he wants public education

for people.

That kind of talk

is galvanizing,

and makes him popular

among artisans and farmers

and people who recoil

at the Federalists,

whom they see as elitists.

♪♪

- In the election of 1800,

it's a confused and confusing

election because it ends up

that New York Senator

Aaron Burr and Jefferson,

both Republicans,

are tied in the

electoral college.

And that means the outgoing

House of Representatives,

which is dominated

by Federalists,

has to decide the election.

- And it takes Congress

36 tries to break that tie.

♪♪

- After two months

of House re-votes,

lobbying,

and backdoor dealing,

Jefferson's adversary

Alexander Hamilton writes,

"In a choice of evils,

let them take the least.

Jefferson is in every view

less dangerous than Burr."

And so thanks to the support

of his archrival,

on February 17, 1801,

Thomas Jefferson is announced

as the third president

of the United States.

♪♪

- On March 4, 1801,

after an extremely fraught

and ugly election,

57-year-old Thomas Jefferson

is elected the third president

of the United States.

♪♪

- Jefferson gets it by

the skin of his teeth.

And this is the first time

we've had a change of parties

in the United States.

These two parties have

believed for a decade

that the other represents

a mortal danger,

an existential threat,

to the United States.

♪♪

For the people have spoken,

and they have decided

to elect a different

president in response

to Federalist highhandedness.

And so this is a

revolution because we had

a peaceful transfer of power.

This is a big part of what the

American political tradition

is all about.

♪♪

Thomas Jefferson is the first

president to be inaugurated

in Washington, D.C.

- Jefferson walks over into

the old Senate chamber.

And in that chamber

are gathered

our entire government.

They have the House of

Representatives, the Senate,

and the Supreme Court.

[applause]

- Adams is bitter.

He bails on the inauguration.

- After the swearing-in,

Jefferson then turns

to read his inaugural address.

- And it's the first great

presidential inaugural speech.

♪♪

It's his best piece of writing

since the Declaration.

♪♪

- "Let us, then,

fellow citizens,

"unite with one heart

and one mind.

"Let us restore to

social intercourse

"that harmony and affection,

without which liberty

and even life itself

are but dreary things."

- The first inaugural

is all about togetherness

and how beautiful

the country is.

♪♪

- He is preaching the

values of national unity,

saying famously,

we are all Republicans,

we are all Federalists.

He defends the

right of dissent,

saying criticism in a

democracy is your birthright.

Our country is going to be

strong enough to withstand it.

That's new.

But what's really

stunning is when

he becomes

a born-again Washingtonian

on the issue

of foreign policy.

Remember, he has been

arguing against neutrality,

saying it's a de facto

endorsement of England.

Suddenly, he's in

the presidential chair,

and he starts by

extolling the virtues

of America's relative isolation

from the problems of Europe.

We're insulated from

those fights, he says.

We don't need to

be part of them.

That's what Washington's

been arguing all along

that he's been attacking.

- "Let us stand with

courage and confidence,

"pursue our own federal

and republican principles,

"our attachment to union and

representative government,

"kindly separated by nature

and a wide ocean

from the exterminating havoc

of one quarter of the globe."

- He's saying like,

we're really lucky because

the Atlantic Ocean separates us

from our greatest enemies.

And also, we're really

fortunate because,

on the other side of us,

to our west,

there's a bunch of forests

through which

it's hard for enemies to come.

- And then he does

a better articulation

of Washington's vision

of foreign policy for America

than Washington ever did,

despite spending

the past decade

fighting those principles.

♪♪

- "Equal and exact justice

to all men

"of whatever state

or persuasion,

"religious or political,

"peace, commerce, and honest

friendship with all nations,

entangling alliances

with none."

- It shows how much

that where you stand

is often a matter

of where you sit,

that Jefferson is

already being changed

and constrained by

the responsibility

of the presidency.

A president has an

obligation to think bigger.

♪♪

- But the address itself,

nobody could hear it.

♪♪

Because he basically

had his text

and he mumbled his text

to himself.

♪♪

- He literally reads it.

He holds it up this close.

He has his spectacles on, and

he reads his inaugural address

very much like this.

They say that those seated

beyond the second row

could not hear

a single word he uttered.

♪♪

- So I argue Jefferson couldn't

run for president today.

He doesn't have the skill set,

didn't like speaking in public,

doesn't like conflict,

couldn't have a debate.

He has the wrong skill set

to run for president,

not just today,

but, frankly,

throughout much

of American history.

- As soon as Jefferson

moves into the White House,

he begins to redefine

the role of the presidency.

♪♪

- Washington was very aware

of his dignity and gravitas.

And in many respects,

this was very important

because this was

a new government

and Washington was

striving to give

that government legitimacy.

Jefferson, by contrast,

was very critical of what

he saw as a kind of regal

style around Washington,

and actively sought

to push against that

in his presidency.

He walks to the Capitol

to be inaugurated.

He doesn't take a coach.

He wears a plain brown suit.

Famously,

in November of 1803,

he encountered the British

ambassador Anthony Merry.

♪♪

Merry was in his full

diplomatic uniform,

and was dressed appropriately

to meet a head of state.

And Merry commented

with some disdain--

Jefferson, as he put it,

was wearing

down-at-the-heels slippers.

He called him slovenly, even.

This wasn't an accident.

He also was making

a political statement here.

♪♪

In contrast

to the imperial grandeur

that Merry represented,

Jefferson was deliberately

attempting to cultivate

a democratic sensibility,

and expressing that

in the way he dressed

when he greeted Merry.

♪♪

- As president,

Jefferson does not try

to dominate public debate.

He also governs in that

dinner table diplomacy format

that hearkens back

to his youth in Virginia.

- Dinners at the

Jefferson White House,

instead of having

formal seating plans,

the seating was pell-mell,

as they described it.

People were meant to just

find their own seats.

And this is more democratic

than the more formal style

of the Washington

administration.

- He knows he's not going

to command a room

the way Washington did.

But he brings together

people at his dinner table

for honest and frank

discussion and debate.

He gains political

intelligence.

He networks.

He earns goodwill.

He doesn't necessarily

combine the Republicans

and the Federalists at

the same dinner table,

but the Federalists in

Congress get to know him.

And they find that,

on an interpersonal level,

he's almost

impossible to dislike.

He's interesting.

He listens.

That's something that most

politicians are terrible at.

♪♪

- But while Jefferson

gains a reputation

as a charming politician

in Washington,

in Virginia, he gains a

reputation for something else.

[birds chirping]

[dramatic music]

- Two years into

his presidency,

Thomas Jefferson is popular.

He's established America's

first military academy

at West Point

and has repealed

a number of controversial

taxes and laws,

and let the unconstitutional

Alien and Sedition Acts

expire.

But though he is

a political success,

rumors fly about

his personal life.

♪♪

- People who knew Jefferson

noticed that

when they come to dinners

at Monticello,

that there seemed to be

a number of mixed-race people

who kind of resembled

Thomas Jefferson around.

♪♪

- Over the years, there are

some blind items in newspapers

clearly talking

about Jefferson

and his addiction

to golden affections,

meaning mixed-race women.

So we get a sense that

people are talking

about this in his area.

- Then, in September 1802,

a bombshell article

is published by popular

political writer

James Callender.

- Callender had really

come to the fore

for attacking

Alexander Hamilton

on behalf of Jefferson

in the 1790s.

- He also wrote some really

nasty things about John Adams

in the past, which Jefferson

ends up supporting.

So Callender is one of the

people who got jailed because

of the Sedition Act,

and Jefferson promised

to pardon all of those people

if he were elected.

And when Jefferson is elected,

Callender was one

of those individuals.

- Callender was looking

to restart his career.

And he had asked Jefferson for

an appointment as postmaster,

but Jefferson declined

to give him that post.

♪♪

- So Callender turns on him.

♪♪

- It's James Thompson

Callender

who will publish and make

public the allegations

that Jefferson had had

a longstanding relationship

with one of the people

he enslaved, Sally Hemings.

♪♪

- He writes that Sally Hemings

only has a child

nine months after she has been

in close physical contact

to Thomas Jefferson.

♪♪

When Thomas Jefferson

is away in Washington,

Sally Hemings isn't

getting pregnant.

When Thomas Jefferson

is away in Philadelphia,

she's not getting pregnant.

When Thomas Jefferson

is at Monticello

and Sally is at Monticello,

she's getting pregnant.

♪♪

- It's a bombshell.

It's a huge scandal.

♪♪

- Callender uses this

as an attempt

to attack Thomas Jefferson,

to discredit his suitability

to be president.

- He refers to her as a sl*t

as common as the pavement.

It's pretty vile stuff.

- This is grist for

the political mill

of Jefferson's opponents.

The Federalist press in

particular picks up on this,

and there are derisory cartoons

mocking Jefferson and Hemings.

♪♪

So in response to this,

Jefferson has to adopt

a media strategy, effectively.

And his strategy

is to say nothing.

♪♪

- So there's just silence.

- Silence.

He was not going to give

people the satisfaction

of responding, as if

this were their business.

♪♪

- It never gained

any traction.

I mean, it's something

that people talk about,

but it's not something that

people get very upset about.

So it kind of comes and goes.

- It doesn't have

the kind of effect

that James Callender wanted.

People think that

this is going to sink

Jefferson's presidency.

But it doesn't.

People didn't care.

- The scandal doesn't

sink Jefferson,

but his resolve to ignore it

solidifies America's belief

in the First Amendment and

the press's right to attack

any sitting president.

And like any scandal,

the Hemings story

becomes old news

when President Jefferson's

next move dominates headlines.

♪♪

In 1803,

Jefferson turns his attention

to the Louisiana Territory,

an area comprised of more

than 800,000 square miles.

- Jefferson says

this is the most

important spot on the globe

for us because of geography.

And whoever controls

New Orleans

basically has

a knife to our throat

because the United States

at that time

extended from

the Atlantic Ocean

to the Mississippi west of

the Appalachian Mountains--

just a rapidly growing part

of the United States.

That growing population

west of the mountains

can't get their

produce to market

easily over the mountains.

So what do they do?

They go down the Ohio River

to the Mississippi,

down the Mississippi

to New Orleans,

through the Gulf of Mexico,

and to the wider world.

♪♪

- And so if you have

a hostile power

controlling access

to New Orleans,

then you have several problems.

One is the trade down

the Mississippi River.

The other was it wasn't clear

that the Americans in the West

would remain loyal

to the nation,

and Jefferson's dream of an

expanding empire could falter.

♪♪

- He thought America should

have the entire continent.

♪♪

- In 1803,

the Louisiana Territory

is controlled by France

and its notoriously

erratic leader,

Napoleon Bonaparte.

♪♪

Originally, Napoleon had

grand plans to establish

a North American empire.

But around the same time

he acquires Louisiana in 1800,

he begins to embroil France

in battles all over Europe.

By 1802, he has lost interest

in North America

and needs cash to fund his

military campaigns in Europe.

Jefferson sees an opportunity.

- He also thought that

one of the purposes

of the American Revolution was

to take the United States

out of European conflict.

He thought that if you could

have an ocean on one side

and an ocean on the other

side, you could have peace.

So it was about

national security.

- Jefferson sends

a trusted dignitary to France

to negotiate a sale

with the volatile dictator.

- The negotiations

were undertaken

by Robert Livingston.

But Robert Livingston

is aging,

he's deaf,

and he didn't speak French.

French was the language

of diplomacy

at the turn of

the 19th century.

It was also

the language of France

[laughing] At the turn of the

19th century, and remains so.

And Jefferson's worried

about this.

And so he dispatches

James Monroe to assist.

Monroe had served in France

before as a diplomat.

His French was better

than Livingston's.

And Monroe was the luckiest

diplomat in American history

because he turns up

virtually at the same moment

Napoleon has decided

to sell Louisiana

to the United States.

♪♪

- Napoleon offers to sell

the entire Louisiana Territory

to the United States

for $15 million--

about $388 million today.

♪♪

- Jefferson, in the 1790s,

and certainly

when he was

secretary of state,

had been an advocate

of what was called

strict construction

of the Constitution.

If something

is not stipulated,

if it's not specified

in the Constitution,

he said,

look, you can't do it.

Well, nowhere in

the Constitution

does it authorize the

president of the United States

to buy hundreds of thousands

of square miles of territory

just because it's a good deal.

- Jefferson talked about

maybe we should float the idea

of a constitutional amendment

to authorize it.

- And his secretary of state,

his old friend James Madison,

said, look, if you dither,

Napoleon could change his mind.

We don't have time for this.

Think back

to his governorship.

One of the things

he learned was

you can't dither when

you're making decisions.

Because if you do,

disaster can happen.

- So Jefferson's advisors

convinced him, look,

just do it.

- And so, presented

with this opportunity,

Jefferson seized it

with two hands

because he believed

this was essential

for the economic future

of the United States.

♪♪

- And so, in October of 1803,

Jefferson authorizes

James Monroe

to accept Napoleon's offer,

and effectively increases

America's size by 140%.

♪♪

- It becomes

one of the most intense

and significant actions

the federal government

has ever done,

to more than double

the size of the nation

by buying land.

♪♪

- It was a great

real estate deal.

But the Jefferson

who purchases Louisiana

despite constitutional scruples

is acting like a king,

the very thing

he supposedly despised.

♪♪

- If Alexander Hamilton

had tried to buy Louisiana,

Thomas Jefferson's head

would have exploded

because it would have been

this massive overreach

of constitutional power.

But Thomas Jefferson

as president does it.

- So he's willing to embrace

his inconsistencies

when it helps achieve

larger goals.

- As he said, you can believe

something in principle,

but act differently

in practice.

That's the nature of politics.

♪♪

- Despite its hypocrisy,

the Louisiana Purchase

is the biggest accomplishment

of Jefferson's presidency.

But let's not forget

that land is occupied.

♪♪

So that expansion,

that necessary growth

as he sees it,

will come at the expense

of Indigenous people.

And in the southern part

of that,

where sl*ve-based agriculture

is being practiced,

much of the labor is going to

be provided by enslaved labor.

♪♪

- Expanding the size

of the country

opened up that territory

for sl*very.

♪♪

- Acquiring

the Louisiana Territory

gives the United States

large tracts of land

ripe for the

cultivation of cotton,

which in 1802 accounts

for nearly

20% of American exports.

However,

the profitability of cotton

relies entirely

on unpaid labor.

- This vision of his,

it's coming

at the expense of others.

♪♪

- The Louisiana Purchase

is a major victory

for the Jefferson

administration.

The acquired land

more than doubles

the size of the country.

Just seven months later,

on May 14, 1804,

Jefferson sends Meriwether

Lewis and William Clark

on an expedition

to explore and survey

not only the newly acquired

530 million acres,

but the uncharted mountains

and Pacific Northwest beyond.

- Jefferson was also

very interested

in issues around exploration.

And he's got some

bizarre ideas.

For example, he thinks there

might still be woolly mammoths

west of the Mississippi River

because he's not sure

how natural history

might have unfolded there.

- Meriwether Lewis

and William Clark

have four dozen men with them.

And so it's a huge expedition,

called the Corps of Discovery.

As they're going up

the Missouri

and they're carrying

all of this equipment,

they are instructed

to keep journals

to give to Thomas Jefferson.

They discovered

178 new kinds of plants,

122 species of animals.

- Lewis and Clark depart

from St. Louis, Missouri,

and over the course

of two years,

travel more than 8,000 miles

to the Pacific Ocean.

They are often touted

as lone adventurers,

taming uncharted territory.

But in reality,

they elicit the help

of hundreds

of Indigenous people

throughout their journey.

- Lewis and Clark

meet something like

50 different tribes, handing

out these peace medals--

like medallions.

Lewis and Clark told

the native leaders,

you are friends with

Thomas Jefferson.

♪♪

The difficulty in world history

is always in shared space,

and that's where he begins

to change his ideas

about the rights

of Native people.

[tense music]

- Jefferson believed that

there were stages

of human development,

and that Native Americans

had the potential to be equal

to European Americans,

but they were at a different

stage of development.

♪♪

- It was all tied up

with this notion of

America and North America

and the New World

having inherently

good things in it.

And Native Americans

were part of that.

But Africans were never

supposed to be here.

So Jefferson says Blacks

are intellectually inferior.

- And because of that,

Jefferson's Indian policy

was to cultivate Native people

so that they would become

"more civilized."

- Jefferson said

that Native Americans

had to adopt European ways.

They had to farm

like Europeans.

They had to bring their women

in the house.

In many Native American

cultures, women worked.

And he said

we should intermarry,

our blood should mingle.

So that was his solution

for Native Americans.

- He thought they could

become the equal to whites--

at the cost of their

culture, of course.

He lamented, as he saw it,

that they would probably

never catch up.

But he allowed for the

possibility that they might.

♪♪

- But also,

Thomas Jefferson

wants to really kind of

keep them at peace.

He believes that,

if we keep them at peace,

we then can later

bargain for their lands.

♪♪

And so trading posts

are set up by Jefferson

and the government,

and owned by the government,

not individuals.

That's key.

- Jefferson's strategy

for western expansion,

first laid out in a letter

to William Henry Harrison

in 1803, is quite clear--

"to promote this disposition

to exchange lands,

"which they have to spare

and we want,

"we shall push

our trading uses,

"and be glad to see the good

and influential individuals

"among them run in debt.

"We observe that when

these debts get beyond

"what the individuals can pay,

they become willing

to lock them off

by a cession of lands."

- He sees, the more that

they become dependent

upon American goods,

then they will build up debts,

then they will need to pay

with their lands.

It's maneuvering.

It's exploitation.

It's taking advantage.

- He admired Native peoples,

but he believed they were

passing from the scene

because that was

the price of progress.

- For Jefferson,

the fact was there were

two possible solutions

for Native Americans--

assimilation or annihilation.

♪♪

- In November 1804,

fueled in part

by his successful acquisition

of the Louisiana Territory,

Jefferson is reelected

in a landslide victory

over the Federalist candidate

Charles Pinckney.

[dramatic music]

His second term

is largely uneventful,

until 1807,

when he is yet again faced

with a delicate

foreign policy issue.

As Britain and France duel

in a series of battles

surrounding Napoleon's attempts

to annex Italy and Germany,

despite its distance, America

is caught in the crossfire.

♪♪

- Britain and France

are at w*r.

And the United States benefits

from this because

the United States trades

with both sides.

♪♪

The United States is neutral,

and Jefferson believes

in free trade.

He said, we should be able to

trade with anybody we like.

♪♪

The British and the French

say, you can trade with us,

but you can't trade

with our enemies.

Also, since Britain hasn't

always recognized or respected

American independence,

the British Navy

has a habit of engaging in

what's called impressment,

where they stop

American merchant ships

and review their crews.

And if they identify

anybody they believe

is a deserter

from the Royal Navy,

they take them off the ship.

And then, in 1807,

there's an incident

off the coast of Virginia,

when a British Navy ship,

the HMS "Leopard,"

stopped a United States warship,

the USS "Chesapeake."

So not a merchant ship--

and this is important--

just within

international waters.

And there are actually

deserters on the "Chesapeake."

So the British forces them

into the Royal Navy.

And the "Leopard" fires

on the "Chesapeake."

[expl*si*n]

And there's a widespread call

to declare w*r on Britain.

♪♪

There's also

a widespread belief

that the British

are encouraging

Native peoples in the West

to attack American settlers.

And these are the issues

that are going to become

the justification for

a declaration of w*r in 1812.

But Jefferson recognized

that the United States

was not in a position

to go to w*r in 1807.

And so he proposed an embargo.

He said, the United States

will not trade with anybody.

We're taking our ball

and we're going home.

♪♪

- Jefferson believed

Americans could show

France and England

that their economic interests

lay in peaceful free trade.

So the solution was to hold

all American ships in port.

- I don't think this is

necessarily as naive

as it's often portrayed.

I think it's the least

bad option available to him.

However, it's a disaster.

♪♪

- Jefferson imposes

an embargo.

He closes all

U.S. ports to exports,

and severely restricts

imports from Britain.

- The embargo wrecks

the American economy.

- American exports collapse.

- It led to protests.

It led to one of America's

first secession movements.

New England Federalists met and

talked about the possibility

of leaving the Union.

- The authority

of the government

is called into question.

Western farmers, who are

Jefferson's core constituency,

they suffer really, really

badly as a result of this.

Smuggling is rife.

- So because of this,

he goes through a period where

he's not as popular

as he was before.

And he's pretty thin skinned,

very thin skinned.

He didn't like criticism.

- Desperate to revive

his public image,

Jefferson turns to

the controversial business

of sl*very.

♪♪

The cotton harvested

by unpaid labor

had nearly doubled

since the Revolution.

In 1808,

the Southern United States

is home to more

millionaires per capita

than any other region

on Earth.

And so despite

Northern sentiments

moving towards emancipation,

national abolition

is out of the question.

Instead, Jefferson makes

a calculated move.

- There was

a compromise made

at the Constitutional

Convention in 1787,

where Congress couldn't outlaw

American participation

in the transatlantic

sl*ve trade for 20 years.

- So going back to 1806,

President Jefferson

goes to Congress and says,

in 1808, we can end

the sl*ve trade.

Let's pass a law now

so that the sl*ve traders know

that on January 1, 1808,

the sl*ve trade

will be ill*gal,

and they won't bring any

more sl*ves in after that.

We've got to give them

advance notice.

- This is the most

concrete step he took

during his long public life

in opposition to sl*very.

♪♪

And it is a significant step,

but it's a relatively

moderate step.

♪♪

- In the North, the gradual

abolition of sl*very

had been rolling out

for decades.

Even in the Deep South,

they're not really worried

about importing sl*ves

from Africa anymore.

People have a lot of sl*ves.

- Look, almost everyone

agrees at the time

that the transatlantic

sl*ve trade

is just a terrible, terrible,

terrible crime.

And so for slaveholders

who want to demonstrate

their anti-sl*very

credentials,

that's the position

they can take.

- Now, we look at that and say,

well, that's ridiculous,

because obviously sl*ves

are going to increase here.

They're going to reproduce.

- Abandoning

the transatlantic sl*ve trade

only makes American sl*very

more lucrative.

♪♪

- Jefferson, in his ledgers,

at one point

does calculate that there's

a guaranteed 4% rise in value

over time of sl*ve women,

who are going to reproduce.

He sees women are valuable

in Virginia precisely because

you're thinking about

selling their children.

♪♪

- Years later,

Jefferson writes,

"I consider a woman who brings

a child every two years

"as more profitable than

the best man of the farm.

"What she produces is in

addition to the capital,

while his laborers disappear

in mere consumption."

♪♪

- After the abolition

of the sl*ve trade,

the value of domestic sl*ves

is actually going to go up.

- So this also simply makes

Jefferson much richer.

And there's

one more piece of this,

which historians

don't talk about very much.

♪♪

Under Jefferson's law,

if you import sl*ves

to the United States

and you're caught--

you're smuggling them--

the Africans will be seized

and they are given to

the governor of the state

where they're brought in.

And the governor

gets to sell them

for the benefit of the state.

So the state makes money,

and Jefferson

doesn't have to worry

about freeing Black people.

And so the governments

of the states

will become involved

in the very sl*ve trade

that we're supposed

to be suppressing.

- As President,

Jefferson has the opportunity

to untangle America from

its dependence on sl*very.

Yet his actions only ensure

that the country continues

to rely on sl*ve labor

for another 57 years.

♪♪

- In 1809,

Jefferson has no interest

in serving a third term.

♪♪

Washington had set

the precedent

of a president serving

two terms.

And so he would only

serve two terms.

- He is somebody who is

happy to have the job,

but is also ready

for it to end.

- And so, after 40 years

in public service,

he said, probably one of

the greatest pleasures

was to leave eight years

of a splendid misery.

♪♪

He is putting

the federal government

that he built in the hands

of some very close friends.

- When he leaves office,

he is succeeded

by his friend James Madison,

and then James Monroe.

So he has sort of

an extended term

even after he's gone because

his acolytes take his place.

And he is confident that

the political program

of the Democratic

Republican Party,

of which he was the head,

would continue.

- But though

his political career ends

in 1809, Jefferson's story

is far from over.

♪♪