Law Library Bulletin February 2019 Issue 6, Vol. 4 This Month in History: Thomas Jefferson Elected President On February 17, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was elected the third president of the United States. The election constitutes the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in the United States. By 1800, when he decided to run for president, Thomas Jefferson possessed impressive political *Courthouse will be closed on Tuesday, credentials and was well-suited to the February 12 for Lincoln’s Birthday and presidency. In addition to drafting Monday, February 18, 2019 for the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson had Washington’s Birthday. served in two Continental Congresses, as minister to France, as secretary of state under George Washington and as John Adams’ New IICLE Arrivals: vice president. Business and Commercial Litigation, 2019 Vicious partisan warfare characterized the edition campaign of 1800 between Democratic- Collection Litigation: Representing the Republicans Jefferson and Aaron Burr and Creditor, 2019 edition Federalists John Adams, Charles C. Pinckney, and John Jay. The election highlighted the Continuing Legal Education ongoing battle between Democratic-Republican supporters of the French, who were embroiled in Here is a free online Continuing Legal their own bloody revolution, and the pro-British Federalists who wanted to implement English- Education opportunity: style policies in American government. The Federalists abhorred the French revolutionaries’ Core Principals of Effective Legal Writing overzealous use of the guillotine and as a result were less forgiving in their foreign policy A CLE introducing the core principals of toward the French. They advocated a strong effective legal writing. centralized government, a standing military and financial support of emerging industries. In Approved for 1.00 hour of CLE contrast, Jefferson’s Republicans preferred Go to: limited government, unadulterated states’ rights http://pcam.mcleboard.org/publicui/(S(2004 and a primarily agrarian economy. They feared gtvlrrzmhodrbyssj45h))/Courses/CourseDeta that Federalists would abandon revolutionary il.aspx?id=316228 ideals and revert to the English monarchical tradition. As secretary of state under Washington, Jefferson opposed Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton’s proposal to increase military expenditures and resigned when Washington supported the leading Federalist’s and his sponsorship of the Lewis and plan for a national bank. Clark expedition opened the west to exploration and settlement. Jefferson’s first term ended in After a bloodless but ugly campaign in which relative stability and prosperity, and in 1804 he candidates and influential supporters on both was overwhelmingly elected to a second term. sides used the press, often anonymously, as a forum to fire slanderous volleys at each other, The flawed voting system that was so the then-laborious and confusing process of problematic in the election of 1800 was later voting began in April 1800. Individual states improved by the 12th Amendment, which was scheduled elections at different times and ratified in 1804. although Jefferson and Burr ran on the same ticket, as president and vice president Source: https://www.history.com/this-day-in- respectively, the Constitution still demanded history/thomas-jefferson-is-elected votes for each individual to be counted separately. As a result, by the end of January This Month in Legal History: 1801, Jefferson and Burr emerged tied at 73 Legal Tender Act Passed electoral votes apiece. Adams came in third at 65 votes. On February 25, 1862, the U.S. Congress passes the Legal Tender Act, authorizing the use of This unintended result sent the final vote to paper notes to pay the government’s bills. This the House of Representatives. Sticklers in the ended the long-standing policy of using only Federalist-controlled House of Representatives gold or silver in transactions, and it allowed the insisted on following the Constitution’s flawed government to finance the enormously rules and refused to elect Jefferson and Burr costly Civil War long after its gold and silver together on the same ticket. The highly reserves were depleted. influential Federalist Alexander Hamilton, who mistrusted Jefferson but hated Burr more, Soon after the war began, the federal persuaded the House to vote against Burr, whom government began to run low on specie. Several he called the most unfit man for the office of proposals involving the use of bonds were president. (This accusation and others led Burr suggested. Finally, Congress began printing to challenge Hamilton to a duel in 1804 that money, which the Confederate government had resulted in Hamilton’s death.) Two weeks before been doing since the beginning of the war. The the scheduled inauguration, Jefferson emerged Legal Tender Act allowed the government to victorious and Burr was confirmed as his vice print $150 million in paper money that was not president. backed by a similar amount of gold and silver. Many bankers and financial experts predicted A contingent of sword-bearing soldiers escorted doom for the economy, as they believed there the new president to his inauguration on March would be little confidence in the scheme. There 4, 1801, illustrating the contentious nature of the were also misgivings in Congress, as many election and the victors’ fear of reprisal. In his legislators worried about a complete collapse of inaugural address, Jefferson sought to heal the nation’s financial infrastructure. political differences by graciously declaring “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists”. The paper notes, called greenbacks, worked much better than expected. The government was As president, Jefferson made some concessions able to pay its bills and, by increasing the money to his opponents, including taking Hamilton’s in circulation, the wheels of Northern commerce advice to strengthen the American Navy. In were greased. The greenbacks were legal tender, 1801, Jefferson sent naval squadrons and which meant that creditors had to accept them at Marines to suppress Barbary piracy against face value. In 1862, Congress also passed an American shipping. He reduced the national debt income tax and steep excise taxes, both of which by one-third, acquired the Louisiana Territory, cooled the inflationary pressures created by the Ultimately a suspect in the LA Central greenbacks. Library fire was identified and arrested on a probable cause warrant, but he was never Another legal tender act passed in 1863, and by charged. war’s end nearly a half-billion dollars in greenbacks had been issued. The Legal Tender The story is more complicated, though, than Act laid the foundation for the creation of a permanent currency in the decades after the straightforward arson. Funding is always an Civil War. issue for libraries, and Central Library was becoming run down. In 1973 – thirteen years Source: https://www.history.com/this-day-in- before it burned - over a thousand library history/legal-tender-act-passed staff members signed a petition complaining that Central Library was a hazardous work environment, and the Los Angeles Fire The Library Book by Susan Orlean Department cited numerous code violations Book review by Leslie Strauss in the building. So was it arson or just the result of being a fire trap badly in need of Have you ever loved a updating? That question is addressed of book? Do you have course, but it also tells of the salvaging and fond memories of a rebuilding afterwards. Books were frozen library from your for two years then thawed, dried, fumigated, childhood? Perhaps repaired and rebound with the help of you have a librarian in engineers at aerospace manufacturer your life? The Library McDonnell Douglas. The community came Book is a fascinating together. look at our relationship with books wrapped up Equally interesting is Orlean’s discussion of in the mystery of a libraries in general throughout the world, massive library fire – the Los Angeles and their importance to us even in the digital Public Library fire of 1986 - which remains age. Libraries are creative in getting library unsolved more than thirty years later. On materials to their patrons, even those April 28, 1986, the biggest library fire in without easy access to a physical building: U.S. history destroyed 400,000 books and book boats serve communities in Norway, damaged 700,000 more at LA’s Central Sweden, Finland, Canada, and Venezuela, Library. The fire reached 2,000 degrees and and there are library vending machines in burned for more than seven hours. Beijing. The LA library fire also leads to a discussion of book burning as a political (or The possibility of the fire being caused by more precisely oppressive) act, both arson was investigated, but arson is a crime historically and recently, as well as in that is hard to investigate and prove under literature (remember being assigned the best of circumstances. Being a public Fahrenheit 451?). The Library Book is a fun space made it all the more difficult; public and informative read for anyone who has libraries are by definition open to everyone, ever loved a book. and users are generally unmonitored and anonymous. According to author Orlean, of all major criminal offenses, arson is the least successfully prosecuted. The rate of conviction is less than one percent. Staff Book Recommendations Fiction Selections: Legal Selection: A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott – Recommended by Mary. Cane and Abe by James Grippando "’I'd gladly sell my soul “An explosive to Satan for a year of psychological thriller freedom,’ cries in which Miami’s top impetuous Rosamond prosecutor becomes a Vivian to her callous prime suspect when his grandfather. Then, one wife’s disappearance stormy night, a may have a chilling brooding stranger connection to the appears in her remote vicious murders of island home, ready to beautiful women in the take Rosamond to her Florida Everglades.” – word. Spellbound by the mysterious Philip From the publisher.