By the original plan for choosing a Presi dent the electors did not indicate by their votes whether they were voting for President or Vice President ; they simply voted for two persons. fn 1800 Jefferson and Burr, both candidates of the same party, received an equal number of votes, and it was for some time uncertain which would be chosen President. The House of Rep resentatives, despite the efforts of the Federal ists, who voted for Burr, finally elected Jeffer son, who became President on 4 March 1801. The passage of the Twelfth Amendment pre vented the recurrence of this embarrassment. Jefferson's two administrations were replete with important events, full of perplexity and of difficulties. In 1803 Louisiana was purchased from France for $15,000,000, and thus Amer ica became possessed of the great region stretch ing from the Mississippi westward to the sum mit of the Rocky Mountains; and Jefferson, the leader of the party which had objected to the broad and liberal interpretation of the Con stitution, did more by the acquisition of this territory to assure nationality and the continu ance of broad authority in the United States, than did any other President between the foun dation of the government and the election of Lincoln. The war, which was still waging in Europe and in which most of the nations of the civilized world were engaged, presented many perplexing problems to the American nation. Our merchantmen were seized on the ocean; our sailors were impressed; our cargoes were confiscated, and in general America was treated as seemed to suit the needs and the whims of England and France. The New Englanders, on the whole, sided with England, or believed, if war must come, that a navy should be built up for American protection. The Southern and Western partisans of Jefferson were more in clined to sympathize with France, while the President himself, averse to war, hoped that the European combatants could be brought to their senses by some system of persuasion or peace ful coercion. The embargo measure of 1807 had the effect, however, of injuring American commerce and threatening American merchants with ruin, but not of bringing either England or France to a proper appreciation of the neu tral rights of America.
When Jefferson retired from the Presidency in 1809, to be succeeded by Madison, our foreign relations were in a serious condition; and, in spite of efforts to avoid war by the enforcement of non-intercourse measures and similar ex pedients, hostilities finally broke out, war being declared against Great Britain in June 1812. The causes of this war need not be discussed here at length. It is sufficient to say, as we have already intimated, that both England and France had been ruthlessly disregarding the most palpable rights of • the United States, and that the time seemed to have come when the new republic, though seeking peace and unpre pared for war, needed to fight at least one of the European nations that had been doing us so much injury. The War of 1812 is not one which appeals to the enthusiasm, or unduly arouses the patriotism, of the American reader. The forces of the United States were not well handled, nor was there evidence of noteworthy generalship. The most famous battle was the victory of Jackson over the British at New Orleans, which in fact was fought after the treaty of peace had been signed, although of course the fact was not known on this side of the water. On the seas the American men-of
war brought credit and recognition to the nation and doubtless the prowess shown by American captains and seamen did much to establish the United States in the eyes of the European world as a nation to be respected and to be treated with common courtesy. In fact one of our best-known historians declares that the bat tle between the Constitution and the Guerriere, which ended in the total destruction of the British frigate, in the course of a short half hour raised the American nation into the posi tion of a first-class power. And thus, though the war was not crowded with honors for American arms, and though the Treaty of Ghent did not include a settlement of any of the chief difficulties which had brought the war about, the United States had done something to establish itself ; there was no longer danger that Ameri can seamen would be impressed or that Ameri can commerce would be treated with ruthless disrespect. After the war was over America entered on a long period of internal develop ment, for the most part altogether unfret ted by foreign complications. In 1817 James Monroe succeeded Madison in the Presidency.
Monroe's administration (1817-25) was in some ways uneventful, but it was not for that reason the less important in American history. These years are called the *era of good feeling.• As a matter of fact, there was much bitter feel ing, for there was intense rivalry and personal antagonism in State and national parties. But by 1820 there was practically only one party in existence, for the opposition of the Federalists to the war and the gradual broadening of the old Jeffersonian party, had had the effect of attracting all but a few irreconcilables into the old Jeffersonian party, which was, indeed, in most respects, Jeffersonian no longer. The young and vigorous West, naturally opposed to the narrow old-time Federalism, had strength ened the Republican party and helped to give it broader and saner views of national power and duty. In 1816, forgetting their animosity to Hamilton's measures, the Republicans enacted a protective tariff law and granted a charter to the second Bank of the United States. There was in the country at large, moreover, a strong national spirit, a feeling of national strength and independence, itself in some measure the effect of the war, which for a time smothered sectional jealousy and helped to awaken patriot ism. The period is also of interest to lawyers as well as to students of politics, as a time when a number of great decisions were rendered by the Supreme Court, giving, as it were, judi cial confirmation to the spirit of nationalism that was otherwise manifest. John Marshall, the chief justice, with an able bench of asso ciates, in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland, decided that a State could not tax a Federal agency, and that the Federal government could establish a corporation; and the court gave ex pression to the doctrine of implied powers which Hamilton had enunciated 27 years before. Near the same time decisions were rendered in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, Cohens v. Vir ginia and the Dartmouth College Case— all of great significance in constitutional history and law.