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.
Charles Brockden Brown, Clara Howard and Jane Talbot (epistolary
novels); second part of Arthur Mervyn
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.
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.
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.
Charles Brockden Brown, Memoirs
of Carwin the Biloquist (November 1803-March 1805)
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 longtime rival, Federalist politician Alexander
Hamilton, 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.
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.
Mercy Otis Warren, Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution,
a three-volume history that is the earliest such account by an American.
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.
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-Leopold incident in which three Americans are seized or "impressed"
as seamen from the American ship Chesapeake stirs anti-British feeling.
Washington
Irving, his brother William, and James Kirke Paulding start an anonymous
satirical magazine, Salmagundi.
Joel Barlow, The
Columbiad
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.
James N. Barker, The Indian Princess, or La Belle Sauvage; first play
having Native American life (that of Pocahontas) as its subject.
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.
Washington
Irving, History of New York
Page written and maintained
by D. Campbell