Ranking the Presidents #4

THOMAS JEFFERSON (DR) - 1801-1809

Jefferson was one of the Founding Fathers, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the country's first Secretary of State. But becoming the 3rd President wasn't easy. The election of 1800 ended with an electoral tie between him and Aaron Burr. His ideological enemy Alexander Hamilton urged his colleagues to support Jefferson as the lesser of two evils. Burr became Jefferson's vice-president, but after Burr killed Hamilton in a duel, Jefferson kicked him off the ticket.

Jefferson doubled the size of the US with the Louisiana Purchase (illegal under the Consititution by his own principles) and was big on western exploration, but he was also a supporter of states' rights and limited government. He repealed the Alien & Sedition Acts passed under Adams and pardoned those in jail. He avoided public speaking and submitted his legislative requests to Congress in writing.

Jefferson was against slavery in theory but owned hundreds himself over his lifetime. Afer his wife died, Jefferson had a decades-long affair with Sally Hemings, a slave but 3/4 white, and under Virginia law, their children were white. It is only recently that the question of their affair was settled with DNA tests, as at the time the cover story was she'd had the children via Jefferson'a nephew Peter Carr. Jefferson did fight against the international slave trade and signed a bill making it illegal.

Increased tensions between Britain and France grew during Jefferson's final years in office, and he left it to the next president to deal with the fall-out that resulted in the War of 1812.

While Hamilton and Jefferson differed greatly, history shows that Hamilton's views were just as valid, as Jefferson had to make some solidly Hamiltonian decisions for the good of the country.