wouldn’t let us use the port of New Orleans, Jefferson offered to buy this area from France.  When Napoleon offered the entire area of Louisiana, Jefferson wasn’t sure he could legally buy all of this land. He believed in a strict interpretation of the Constitution.  Nowhere in the Constitution did it say the president could buy land. Jefferson was persuaded to make the purchase!

The first obstacle Thomas Jefferson faced was simply becoming the President. In the presidential election of 1800, Jefferson tied with Aaron Burr in the dysfunctional Electoral College. The House of Representatives had to break the tie, and it did so after 36 ballots.

Upon assuming office in 1801, Jefferson faced another challenge as he sought to move the government away from the Federalist policies of his predecessors. The Founding Fathers had not foreseen the development of political parties, but it became a reality during the terms of the first two presidents from 1789–1801. As a Republican, Jefferson fought hard to return more power to the state and local governments.

Jefferson's biggest accomplishment was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. It doubled the size of the nation. Jefferson was troubled by his acquisition because the Constitution did not specifically authorize it. Ultimately, he had decided to proceed with the purchase, fearing that Napoleon might change his mind.

Another obstacle that Jefferson faced was the threat to American commerce on the high seas. Britain and France—at war with one another—preyed upon American merchant ships. Jefferson was not successful at dealing with this issue, and it eventually led to the War of 1812.

Thomas Jefferson faced several obstacles while he was President. One obstacle was trying to stop the midnight appointments of former President John Adams. John Adams appointed many federalists as judges just before he left office. Some of these appointments did get completed before the term of President Adams ended. President Jefferson ordered his Secretary of State, James Madison, not to complete the appointments that weren’t completed.

Another obstacle President Jefferson faced was the court system. President Jefferson knew the judiciary would be an issue for him since many of the judges that were appointed by John Adams throughout his presidency were Federalists. Some of President Jefferson’s initiatives were blocked by the courts, which were controlled by Federalist judges.

President Jefferson faced some issues in foreign policy. The countries on the North African coast supported pirates. These pirates attacked our shipping unless we paid them a bribe to leave us alone. When we began to refuse to pay the bribe, we fought those countries supporting the pirates for the right to be able to freely trade. We were successful and no longer paid bribes to them. We also had issues with Great Britain and France. Both countries were interfering with our trade because they were at war with each other. Neither country wanted us to trade with the other country. When we decided to stop all trade with the Embargo Act, this policy failed, as trade was too important for our country. Even cutting off trade only with Great Britain and with France didn’t work because most of our trade involved these countries.

President Jefferson faced many obstacles while he was President.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), the third President of the United States, faced many challenges, both personal and moral in nature. First, his beloved wife, Martha, died in 1782 at age 33 as a result of suffering from diabetes and bearing many children. Jefferson was in a long state of mourning following her death, and it is thought by many historians that he had a long relationship with Sally Hemings, a slave woman of biracial ancestry, after his wife died. Sally was the half-sister of his wife, Martha, and likely had six children with Jefferson.

Jefferson was also challenged morally by the issue of slavery. He had proposed releasing and retraining slaves, and he wanted to insert into the Declaration of Independence a statement criticizing King George III of England for his support of the slave trade (this section was taken out). However, as President, Jefferson allowed slavery into the territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, and he did not support emancipation while President. In addition, he only freed some of his slaves, and he was clearly divided about the issue of whether slaves could lead independent lives right after slavery, though he thought slaves had inalienable rights as human beings.

The election of 1800 that brought Jefferson to the presidency as a Democratic-Republican (then known as a Republican) was also a highly bitter and controversial one. Jefferson and Aaron Burr were tied in the electoral college, and the House of Representatives, which had to then decide the election, cast the deciding votes for Jefferson after several ballots and lobbying by Alexander Hamilton. Burr became Jefferson's Vice-President.

During Jefferson's presidency, he often carried out actions that were contrary to his stated beliefs. While he advocated a small federal government, he increased the complexity of the role of the federal government through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Members of his party were not sure whether the federal government had the right to acquire land, but Jefferson did so anyway.

Jefferson also faced international challenges. In his second term in the White House, Jefferson tried to avoid U.S. entanglement in the Napoleonic Wars. During these wars, the British and French were interrupting American shipping, so Jefferson declared an embargo on American shipping. However, this embargo is thought to have mainly hurt the U.S. After his second term, he retired to his house in Monticello. 

Thomas Jefferson certainly faced many obstacles, which should not be surprising for a leader of a revolution and founder of a nation. The other educator mentions some great examples. I will mention a couple more you might consider that occurred during his presidency.

When he was president, Jefferson really wanted to expand the country's role in international commerce. Unfortunately, the Barbary pirates of North Africa were seizing American ships and demanding huge tributes. In fact, in 1800, twenty percent of the federal budget went to paying pirates. The next year the United States fought its first foreign war against the Barbary pirates in order to end this tribute system. This meant building and outfitting a sufficient navy for the young country.

Back at home, Jefferson faced the embarrassing trial of Aaron Burr, his former vice president. It had come to light that Burr was conspiring to seize land in the southwest of the country and part of Mexico and might be establishing an independent nation. Jefferson was compelled to issue a warrant for Burr's arrest and charge him with treason. Ultimately, Burr was left uncharged, as there was not enough evidence to convict him. This was a political embarrassment for the Jefferson administration but it did negate any future political aspirations of Burr.

One of the first major obstacles Jefferson faced was the responsibility to draft an acceptable first version of the Declaration of Independence. There were a variety of competing interests involved in the approval of the document and Jefferson had to overlook some of his own interests in order to win approval of the Continental Congress. For example, he had to remove a part of the draft that attacked King George III and the slave trade in order to appease some representatives who felt he was going too far. But he understood that he would have to make personal compromises in order to accomplish a larger goal.

He had to deal with the national debt and the question of where to put the capitol of the United States while he was serving as Secretary of State. He faced similar obstacles while pursuing major political goals like the Louisiana Purchase and funding and sending expeditions into the western portion of the continent when others felt that the money could be better spent.