Jefferson the President

Jefferson the President: Second Term, 1805-1909 is the fifth and penultimate volume in Dumas Malone's biography f Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson and His Time. In this volume, Malone completes the story of Jefferson's presidency, following him to the climax of an official career that spanned some forty years.

Second Term, 1805-1908 chronicles the mounting problems that best the final years of Jefferson's presidency. For although he remained the major unifying factor in his party, the government, and the country, Jefferson was confronted by a succession of events that frustrated even his masterful statesmanship. Aaron Burr's conspiracy provided most of the drama on the domestic scene, while the highly controversial trial that followed Burr's arrest aggravated an already bitter relationship between the executive and judicial branches of government. In Congress, the once-cooperative John Randolph exerted his formidable influence to obstruct land settlements in the Louisiana Territory. On the whole, it was a turbulent period of increasing factionalism at home coupled with aggression from abroad, as foreign powers displayed little respect for the security of the lightly armed young Republic.

Yet Jefferson's second term also produced several positive achievements. His leadership remained distinctly personal and he continued to attach fundamental importance to maintaining certain constitutional freedoms, most notably freedom of speech.He secured his greatest success as a patron of western exploration with the Lewis and Clark expedition. He enjoyed constructive, cordial relations with most members of Congress until near the end of his term.