Thomas Jefferson Case

Thomas Jefferson was a well-known early American politician whose actions never went unnoticed. Before Jefferson came to office, he was a very avid follower of the constitution, and a fan of a centralized government. The three most prominent contradictions that stand out in his term was the war with the Barbary pirates, his purchase of Louisiana, and the use of restrictive policies to achieve his goals. Although these things were good for the United States, they still went against the convictions that got him elected.

Critically, Jefferson went against his views of having an unnecessarily large military that would intimidate other countries. When Adams was president, he proposed to create a navy and expand the armed forces. Jefferson, supposedly opposed to this campaigned against such a move due to the massive expense and to avoid the precedent of a standing army. This being said, one of his first decisions as president, he dispatched American armed forces around the world to confront the Barbary Sates of North Africa. These pirates had made a national industry of blackmailing merchant ships that sailed through the Mediterranean. Jefferson's decision to destroy these people was a complete disregard of his previous view on this issue. Also, he did not "inform Congress until the warships had sailed far enough to ne effectively beyond recall. " This also goes against his supposed love for constitutional ideas because of this technically illegal action. In American politics, it is illegal for the executive branch to declare war on foreign entity, because it takes an act of congress to do so. Clearly, Jefferson had thorough knowledge of this and yet still went ahead and declared war illegally.