Democratic-Republican · 1801–1809
Thomas Jefferson
Smaller federal establishment, the Louisiana Purchase, and an embargo that contradicted his own small-state creed.
Thomas Jefferson was president 1801–1809. The party color on the chart is Democratic-Republican. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: Smaller federal establishment, the Louisiana Purchase, and an embargo that contradicted his own small-state creed.
The dot is economics +8 and authority -8. That is near the middle on economics. The other axis sits near the middle. Color and place are allowed to disagree. Theodore Roosevelt sits left of Grover Cleveland on economics.
What was said, and what the administration did, are filed separately. Said: A frugal government, no standing army of tax men, and an empire of liberty. Done: He cut taxes, bought Louisiana, and then embargoed trade — a larger state than the inaugural. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are Jimmy Carter (1977–1981, -2 / -8) and Bill Clinton (1993–2001, +18 / -10). A small distance can join people who would have disliked each other. The chart is a compression, not a claim that they were alike.
Presidents are not placed with the Voteview roll-call score used for the current Congress. Two axes cannot carry a war, a court, a tariff, and a civil-rights record as separate facts.