The presidency of Thomas Jefferson began on March 4, 1801, when he was inaugurated as the third President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1809. After serving two terms, Jefferson was succeeded by Secretary of State James Madison, also of the Democratic-Republican Party. Under the election system in place at the time, the members of the Electoral College were permitted to vote for two names for president; any tie would be decided in a contingent election in the United States House of Representatives. After Aaron Burr was disgraced in the duel of 1804 and his own presidential ambitions were ended, he was reported by the British ambassador as wanting to 'effect a separation of the western part of the United States '. Jefferson believed that to be so by November 1806, because Burr had been rumored to be variously plotting with some western states to secede for an independent empire, or to raise a filibuster to conquer Mexico.
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