Hello and welcome to a history of the United States,

Episode 188, The Revolution of 1800.

Last time out, we looked at the election of 1800, which saw Thomas Jefferson narrowly defeat

John Adams to become the third president of the United States. This marks one of the key moments in American history. Jefferson's

Democratic Republicans had a completely different version of what the United States should be,

both internally and in terms of its place in the world than the Federalists did. This marks a course shift. This will impact

everything that comes after. Jefferson himself would call it the Revolution of 1800.

So, before we plunge Jeperson into the narrative, I think this marks a good moment for us to stop and look around,

really throw ourselves into the world of 1800. We arguably haven't done that properly since the

1600s. That said, before we start, I think it's important to get Jefferson set up in office and get a sense

of what he wanted to do with his presidency. That's what we'll do today. So what did Jefferson

want to do? What did he want America to be? Well, luckily for us, he did a great job of telling us in his inaugural address.

If you'll allow me to quote a section, quote,

let us then, with courage and confidence, pursue our own federal and republican principles,

our attachment to union and representative government, kindly separated

by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one-quarter of the globe, too high-minded

to endure the degradation of the others, possessing a chosen country with enough room for our

descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation,

entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties,

to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honour and confidence from our fellow citizens,

resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their

sensed them, enlightened by a benign religion, professed indeed and practiced in various forms,

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