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Society and Politics in the Early...
Summary
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Thomas Jefferson assumed the presidency in 1801 and set out to restore political harmony, direct the country on a republican course, and implement his vision of an expanding, agrarian nation. America expanded territorially with the Louisiana Purchase; saw the growth of sectional differences among the North, South, and Trans-Appalachia; and despite various types of resistance, finally crushed Indian resistance east of the Mississippi. Jefferson's administration coincided with the beginning of the Second Great Awakening, which in addition to being a religious revival, introduced an impulse for social reform—ironically, one that virtually ignored slavery, which became even more deeply entrenched in the South with the invention of the cotton gin. In foreign relations, the U.S. continued to joust with both England and France, going to war with the former in 1812, and it supported Latin American independence movements against Spain and Portugal , most stridently in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Domestically, sectionalism became a national political issue by 1820.
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