Week 24 in Mr. Bruce's History

Parents and Students,

Welcome to March! Today, March 4, 2016 is the 215th Anniversary of Jefferson's inauguration as president. We used this day to spend an extra class period on Jefferson's presidency and his legacy as he left us constantly confused about what he really believed in. This is what makes Jefferson's presidency and his record as a leader difficult, interesting, and important for us to study it today.

All week, we have been exploring the nature of foreign policy as it affected the decisions made by our first presidents. We began by making it clear, using Washington's Farewell Address (video assignment pt. 2 last weekend) that our first president challenged his successors to remain neutral and isolated. Unfortunately, the dirty love triangle between U.S., France, and Britain (our top two trading partners) made this very difficult as the latter two continued to declare war on each other. Adams, Jefferson, and (as we will see Monday) Madison all had to address the dilemma of how to protect American ships engaged in overseas trade.

Adams used a bit of force (Quasi-War) and military build-up to create a firm ground upon which we could negotiate with the French. This resulted in a peace that (kind-of) lasted a few years but it cost us more in the end than we received from the deal (see Notes for Tuesday's Lesson: Adams' Foreign Policy and the Election of 1800 - Web view). As we learned, Adams chose the right thing to do, keeping us out of war and without any permanent alliances. However, as we also learned, it also cost him the Election of 1800.

We took the time to study Jefferson's goals as president to reduce the size of the national government. We had learned about his beliefs of Government last week as we contrasted the Hamiltonian Federalists with the Jeffersonian Republicans. These ideals and goals when he becomes president would definitely bite him as he, too, had to address the same dilemma as Jefferson: how to keep American shipping safe from attack. Whereas Adams had to deal with the French, Jefferson faced more enemies on the seas. He uses the navy to challenge the Barbary Pirates, leading to an end to paying them tribute for our safety (eventually). But his troubles with French are amplified by increased conflict between them and Britain. He works with Congress to pass the Embargo act of 1807, cutting off all trade with Britain and France, intended to punish them. This results in a disastrous effect on our economy and boosted American manufacturing, which Republicans desired less of. In the end, he kicks the problem down the road to the next guy, Madison. We'll learn how his strategy is what the others avoided...

Lastly, as we re-capped and came full-circle of Jefferson's presidency, we learned about Marbury v. Madison. As  most important Supreme Court decision that served as the only battle of the "Revolution of 1800." Feel free to view the notes from today (Friday 3.4.16 - Web view) and the videos we used today.

Looking forward to next week. Until then, I remain

Yours,
Mr. Bruce