Thomas Jefferson and other Democratic-Republican leaders spent 1826 denouncing the Adams-Clay arrangement as a fundamental betrayal of democratic principles, helping Jackson’s supporters organize what would become the Democratic Party. Jefferson had privately expressed horror at the …
Thomas JeffersonAndrew JacksonDemocratic-Republican PartyReform Movementsystematic-corruptiondemocratic-erosionpolitical-reforminstitutional-failureparty-realignment
The National Road, also known as the Cumberland Road, reaches Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) on the Ohio River after seven years of construction, completing the first federally funded interstate highway in American history. President Thomas Jefferson had promoted the road to support westward …
U.S. CongressThomas JeffersonGeorge WashingtonHenry McKinleyinfrastructureinternal-improvementswestward-expansionconstitutional-interpretation
President Thomas Jefferson signs into law the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves (2 Stat. 426), passed by Congress on March 2, 1807, prohibiting the importation of enslaved people into the United States effective January 1, 1808—the earliest date permitted by the Constitution’s Article I, …
Thomas JeffersonU.S. CongressJoseph Bradley Varnumslave-tradeslaveryconstitutional-deadlinefederal-legislation
The Electoral College meets in state capitals on December 3, 1800, and Thomas Jefferson defeats incumbent President John Adams 73 to 65 electoral votes, a victory determined entirely by the extra electoral votes slave states receive through the Three-Fifths Compromise. Without the constitutional …
Thomas JeffersonJohn AdamsVirginia slaveholdersElectoral Collegethree-fifths-compromiseelectoral-manipulationslaveryslave-powerinstitutional-corruption
President George Washington signs legislation creating the First Bank of the United States, establishing a national bank chartered for twenty years despite fierce constitutional opposition from Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s proposal creates an …
Alexander HamiltonThomas JeffersonJames MadisonGeorge WashingtonU.S. Congressinstitutional-capturefinancial-systemconstitutional-conflictelite-corruptionbanking-power
The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy established a sophisticated democratic system centuries before the United States Constitution, featuring consensus-based governance, sophisticated separation of powers, personal rights protections, and significant roles for women in political leadership. …
Haudenosaunee ConfederacyIndigenous LeadershipBenjamin FranklinJohn AdamsThomas Jefferson+2 moreindigenous-democracyconsensus-governancepre-colonial-democracyconstitutional-originspolitical-innovation+1 more