Please answer all 4 questions completely. If you need any help, let me know! 1. Thomas Jefferson has a very mixed legacy: some celebrate him as a brilliant intellectual and freedom fighter,
others view him as a hypocrite and elitist; still others point to his purportedly lackluster presidency. Assess
the efficacy of Jefferson's presidential administration (1801-1809) – the pros and the cons – and the overall
legacy of this much-disputed historical figure.
2. Was Jefferson wise to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France? Consider such issues as its dubious
constitutionality, encroachment on Indian land, and exasperation of the slave question, but also its vast
expansion of American boundaries and new economic opportunities for freeholding farmers.
3. Was the War of 1812 a just war? Was there legitimate cause to declare war on Great Britain, as the
Democratic-Republicans so clamored for? Or was it a foolhardy, rash action by impatient war hawks, as the
Federalist Party argued?
4. In the presidential election of 1824, Andrew Jackson won the popular vote and a plurality of electoral votes.
And yet he lost the White House. Discuss the pros and cons of the Electoral College. Were the Founders wise
to establish it, or is it a peculiar anomaly whose reform or elimination is long past due?