Secretary of State

Most people remember me as being the third President of the United States but I was also the first Secretary of State of the United States. I was the Secretary of State for Thomas Jefferson. I sereved this position from 1790-1793, I was 47-49. When I was in office there was this terrible man named Alexander Hamilton. One of the things we debated most about is the national debt from the war. He had this stupid idea to divide the debt equally for each state. I believed we should make each state pay for their own debt. This was just one of the many things we debated. In 1793 we sided with French in a battle against Britain. I helped convince everybody to side with the French. This helped lead to the war of 1812. This was one of the many things I did as the Secretary of State.
-Benjamin Padden

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1796
http://religionanddemocracy.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/biog/lj29.htm
http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/facts-on-thomas-jefferson.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

The election of 1800 was very important because people realized that the Constitution didn’t distinguish electoral votes for president and vice president which caused some problems. Both John Adams and I decided to run for president again. Burr and I were running together again for Democratic Republican. Later on in the election instead of running together we became rivals. The election would be decided by the House of Representatives. Federalists did not want me to win so they supported Burr. After several days of voting I was declared winner and Burr became my Vice President. In the end the twelfth amendment was changed. I am happy to say that after two terms as President John Adams and I were able to become friends, we also died on the same day.
-Marifer

In the election of 1796 I tried running for president against John Adams. This election was very important and intense because the results were so close. I don’t think anyone could have predicted who would have won. John Adams was running for the presidency on the Federalist Party while I was running with Senator Aaron Burr on the Democratic Republican. Since this election was so close people were trying to make both sides look bad. For example the Federalists blamed us for violence in the French Revolution, while we accused Federalists of favoring monarchy. Even though John Adams won I am proud to say that I became Vice President, beating Thomas Pinckney by more electoral votes.
-Marifer

Even though I did a lot of things to help our country, I also made some mistakes. One thing that affected my reputation was the Embargo Act of 1807. I tried to pass a bill were people couldn’t trade between the United States and other nations. Also this bill prevented any ships from leaving American ports which didn’t give people that chance to explore other places. The reason I tried to pass this bill was because I did not want people getting involved in the Napoleonic Wars. This bill led to an economic depression, so it was repealed at the end of my 2nd term as a president.
-Marifer

As a President I accomplished a lot, most people would agree that I was a very good president. One of my greatest accomplishments was the Louisiana Purchase. In 1803 I bought 800,000 square miles of land from France. I believed that by purchasing all that land it would prevent our country and other countries from fighting and going to war. Even though I had to pay $15 million dollars and borrow some money from Great Britain it nearly doubled the size of the United States creating more diversity and opportunities.
-Marifer

Declaration of Independence

One of the most fascinating things Thomas Jefferson did in his lifetime was writing the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson had to write a rough draft and the final draft. After I finished I teased that nobody would catch me writing a paper again. When I finished the rough draft I thought it was pretty much done. Well I was way wrong. I had to end up making 86 corrections to it. Then I had the whole thing over to make it neater. Well I decided it was all worth the while because people say it’s one of my greatest accomplishments ever. I’m still very proud of it.
-Benjamin Padden

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffdec.html