What were Thomas Jeffersons political views during the election of 1800?
Jefferson believed that the Federalists he defeated represented not just a different political vision, but a dangerously wrong political vision—one that threatened to restore the antidemocratic principles and institutions of the British government Americans had rejected in 1776. For Jefferson, therefore, the election of 1800 represented more than a simple changing of the guard. It signified the restoration of America’s Revolutionary vision, the return of the great ideals of 1776. And in Thomas Jefferson’s mind—as in the minds of his followers—Jefferson himself, as the author of the Declaration of Independence, was just the man to lead this second revolution. From Shmoop (written by Ph.d.
