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1800-1809 |
Political and
Social History |
Literature |
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1800 |
1800 Census: Population about 5.3 million
people.
30 August. Gabriel Prosser's plan to lead
Virginia slaves in rebellion is revealed.
The Library of Congress is established. In
1815, Thomas Jefferson's library of 7,000 volumes will be purchased.
In Philadelphia, free African Americans
petition Congress to end the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.
Congress convenes in Washington, D. C. for the
first time.
John Chapman, aka "Johnny Appleseed," begins
dispensing apple seeds and seedlings to settlers in Ohio.
 Thomas
Jefferson is chosen as president over incumbent John Adams in a contested
election that is decided in the House of Representatives; Aaron Burr becomes
vice-president. With this election, the Federalist party loses control of
the presidency and of Congress. (Image of John Adams
courtesy of the
Images of American Political History site.)
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Charles Brockden Brown, Clara
Howard and Jane Talbot (epistolary novels); second part of
Arthur Mervyn |
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1801 |
War with Tripoli begins and will last until
1805.
In the last weeks of his presidency, John
Adams creates new judgeships and "packs the courts" with Federalist
appointees to mitigate the effects of the election. Among his appointments
is John Marshall as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
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1802 |
4 July. United States Military Academy opens
at West Point, N. Y. Among its cadets will be Ulysses Grant, Robert E. Lee,
and Edgar
Allan Poe.
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1803 |
In the case of
Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John
Marshall rules that an act of Congress is null and void when it conflicts
with provisions of the U. S. Constitution. This is the first important test
of the system of checks and balances between the executive, legislative, and
judicial branches of government.
May. Louisiana purchase ($15 million) doubles
the land area of the United States.
31 August. Lewis and Clark expedition sets out
down the Ohio River; they will complete a 3-year journey to the West Coast.
Passage of the 12th Amendment: election of
president and vice president on separate ballots.
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Charles Brockden Brown,
Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist (November 1803-March 1805) |
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1804 |
April. Aaron Burr is defeated in his campaign
for governor of New York.
May. Lewis and Clark expedition leaves St.
Louis. By October, the expedition is encamped for the winter at a Mandan
Indian village near what is now Bismarck, N.D.
July. Aaron Burr challenges Federalist
Alexander Hamilton, his longtime rival, to a duel after Hamilton had
successfully foiled Burr's bid to become governor of New York. Burr shoots
Hamilton, who dies 10 hours later.
Jefferson wins a second term as president,
with George Clinton as vice president.
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1805 |
May. Members of the Lewis and Clark expedition
see the Rocky Mountains; in November, they see the Pacific Ocean.
Lt. Zebulon Pike explores the Louisiana
Territory.
 Painter
Charles Willson Peale establishes the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where this trompe l'oeil
picture by Peale,
The
Staircase Group (1795), is still exhibited.(Picture
courtesy of
Carol Gerten's Fine Art site.)
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Mercy Otis Warren, Rise, Progress and
Termination of the American Revolution, a three-volume history that is
the earliest such account by an American. |
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1806 |
Noah Webster issues his Compendious
Dictionary of the English Language
Lewis and Clark expedition winters at Fort
Clatsop in Oregon and ends its journey by returning to St. Louis in
September.
The Cumberland Road is built to facilitate
western settlement.
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1807 |
Embargo Act bans all trade with foreign
countries and forbids American ships to set sail for foreign ports. This
act has a lasting negative effect on New England seaports.
The Clermont, first reliable steamboat,
travels from New York City to Albany, N.Y.
The Chesapeake-Leopard incident in which three
Americans are seized or "impressed" as seamen from the American ship
Chesapeake stirs anti-British feeling.
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Washington Irving, his brother William, and James Kirke Paulding start
an anonymous satirical magazine, Salmagundi.
Joel Barlow,
The Columbiad |
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1808 |
The Osage, a Sioux tribe, sign the Osage
Treaty ceding their lands in what is now Missouri and Arkansas to the U. S.
Thomas Jefferson refuses to run for a third
term as president, naming James Madison as his successor.
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James N. Barker, The Indian Princess, or La
Belle Sauvage; first play having Native American life (that of
Pocahontas) as its subject. |
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1809 |
Shawnee leader Tecumseh begins to establish a
defensive confederacy to resist the westward movement of white settlers.
New England governors refuse to supply militia
to enforce the Embargo Acts (of 1807 and 1808)
Phoenix completes the first sea voyage
by a steamboat by traveling around the shores of New Jersey.
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Washington Irving, History of New York
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