Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson : biography

April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826

West Point

Ideas for a national institution for military education were circulated during the American Revolution. In May 1801 the Secretary of War Henry Dearborn announced that the president had appointed Major Jonathan Williams, grandnephew of Benjamin Franklin, to direct organizing to establish such a school. Following the advice of George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and others,Behn, Richard J. The American Founders and the American University 2002 in 1802 Jefferson and Congress agreed to authorize the funding and construction of the United States Military Academy at West Point on the Hudson River in New York. On March 16, 1802, Jefferson signed the Military Peace Establishment Act, directing that a corps of engineers be established and "constitute a Military Academy." The Act would provide well-trained officers for a professional army. On July 4, 1802, the US Military Academy at West Point formally started as an institution for scientific and military learning.

Native American policy

As governor of Virginia (1780–1781) during the Revolutionary War, Jefferson recommended forcibly moving Cherokee and Shawnee tribes that fought on the British side to lands west of the Mississippi River. Later, as president, Jefferson proposed in private letters beginning in 1803 a policy that under Andrew Jackson would be called Indian removal, under an act passed in 1830. As president, he made a deal with elected officials of the state of Georgia: if Georgia would release its legal claims to "discovery" in lands to its west, the U.S. military would help expel the Cherokee people from Georgia. His deal violated an existing treaty between the United States government and the Cherokee Nation, which guaranteed its people the right to their historic lands.Miller, 2008 p.90 Jefferson believed that Natives should give up their own cultures, religions, and lifestyles to assimilate to western European culture, give up their native religions, and a European-style agriculture, which he believed to be superior. He believed that assimilation of Native Americans into the European-American economy would make them more dependent on trade, and that they would eventually be willing to give up land that they would otherwise not part with, in exchange for trade goods or to resolve unpaid debts. In keeping with his trade and acculturation policy, Jefferson kept Benjamin Hawkins as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southeastern peoples, who became known as the Five Civilized Tribes for their adoption of European-American ways.

Jefferson believed assimilation was best for Native Americans; second best was removal to the west. He felt the worst outcome of the cultural and resources conflict between European Americans and Native Americans would be their attacking the whites.Bernard W. Sheehan, Seeds of Extinction: Jeffersonian Philanthropy and the American Indian (1974) pp 120–21 He told his Secretary of War, General Henry Dearborn (Indian affairs were then under the War Department): "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."James P. Ronda (1997), "Thomas Jefferson and the Changing West: From Conquest to Conservation," p. 10; in With the colonial and native civilizations in collision, compounded by British incitement of Indian tribes and mounting hostilities between the two peoples, Jefferson’s administration took quick measures to avert another major conflict. His deal with Georgia was related to later measures to relocate the various Indian tribes to points further west.

Burr-Hamilton duel

On July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded Federalist Party leader Alexander Hamilton, George Washington’s former Secretary of Treasury, in a duel at Weehawken, New Jersey.Banner (1972), p. 34 Hamilton had been a key factor in Burr’s defeat in running for the Governor of New York. Hamilton had made callous remarks regarding Burr and under an ancient code, believing his honor had been offended, Burr had challenged Hamilton to a duel. Burr was indicted for Hamilton’s murder in New York and New Jersey, however, he remained President of the Senate during Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase’s impeachment trial. The two Burr indictments were "quietly allowed to die". President Jefferson casually acknowledged Hamilton in a letter to his daughter three days after Hamilton’s funeral.Chernow (2004), p. 714 Hamilton had been Jefferson’s primary political enemy for fourteen years.