Essay - Forty-one Years Ago, President Kennedy Had the Occasion to Honor...

Forty-one years ago, President Kennedy had the occasion to honor Nobel Prize winners at the White House in late April. When giving the toast, he proclaimed: "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the ***** House...with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." *****, author of ***** Declaration of Independence was our third President and considered the greatest President in United States history. However, ***** Embargo Act ***** 1807-1809 caused him to leave office resented by many Americans. Many of these people believe him to have violated the individual liberty of American citizens that he had championed throughout his career. A successful study of ***** motives in *****itiating the embargo and its eventual manifestation is essential ***** understanding Jefferson and ***** early ***** of ********** trade and foreign policy.

***** was a classical liberal ***** perhaps the foremost moral and political *****ity of h***** day. As a thirty-three ye*****r old lawyer and delegate to ***** Second Continental Congress, Jefferson ***** almost singularly responsible for drafting the Declaration ***** Independence. Far from a mere announcement of the young nation's sovereignty, the ***** served as a mission statement, relying heavily on John Locke and other philosophers to provide a legal case for the country's existence. Subsequently, ***** served as Governor of Virginia and Secretary ***** State. Because the Articles of Confederation left the ***** States without a strong executive (***** was evidenced by the obscurity of Pey*****n R*****olph, its first *****,) it can be argued that the Virginia governorship was ***** most powerful executive role prior to the establishment of the Presidency.

According ***** Louis Sears in his book Jefferson and ***** Embargo, "The European belligerents, Great Britain and France, locked in a death grapple for world power, recognized no neutral right they felt bound to respect, ***** the bankrupt diplomacy of each spurned with utter fatuity a good will which should have been invaluable." (Sears, Pg. 3) Jefferson's experience ***** ***** two combatants against ***** sanctions were issued, Britain and France, were second only to that of Benjamin Franklin and second to none following Franklin's death. Although trade ***** undermined his essentially libertarian value system, Jefferson felt that such measures were essential to avoiding war with the European powers.

***** final decades of the 18th century saw Jefferson as sympa*****tic both to France ***** to ***** revolution. However, manufacturing innovations had lead ***** Britain to produce textiles and ***** manufactured *****s less expensively than Ameri***** ***** French manufacturers. These manufacturers became loathe to all competition and would protest the ancien regime's ***** concessions to the Americans, both in France and in San Dominigue. (Haiti) The latter had become a large foreign market for American products ***** independence.

***** at once supported free trade ***** denounced the actions of what he called 'monocrats;' monarchists in Europe and federalists at home in ***** United *****. Jefferson also detested Brita*****, which was seen as both t***** chief threat to