TODAY MARKS IMPORTANT HISTORIC ANNIVERSARIES

This newspaper appears on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's inauguration as third president of the United States, March 4, 1801. It also marks the 100th anniversary of William McKinley's second inauguration, March 4, 1901.

While these anniversaries are noteworthy of themselves, they also give cause to reflect on where the United States was on those two moments in time and where it was about to go. Both points of time marked important turning points for the nation.

America in 1801

While Jefferson's inaugural is often remembered for John Adams' ungracious flight from Washington, D.C., the day before, to avoid the ceremonies, it was a pivotal moment for the fledgling republic.

The United States occupied just under half its current territory. Surrounded by French and British Canada, Spanish Louisiana and Spanish Florida although the Louisiana Territory had secretly been ceded back to France a year earlier, the young republic was still fighting to gain respect among the older nations of the world. Although the nation had survived a quarter of a century since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it was still in its infancy.

The two-party political system, not at all what the Founding Fathers had had in mind, was just 5 years old. Adams and Jefferson had been the leaders of the Federalist and Democrat-Republican parties in both 1796 and 1800. The first time around, Jefferson had avoided an out-and-out presidential race, quickly agreeing to take the vice presidency under Adams. Things were much less civil in 1800. In many ways it was the nation's first modern political election.

Even the great American political tradition of mudslinging and negative campaigning took roots. Adams' supporters warned that the election of Jefferson would mean murder, robbery, rape and adultery, and that incest will be openly taught and practiced.

The campaign also had a controversial and confusing finish. Although both Jefferson and Adams were running on modern tickets, with vice presidential candidates (Charles Pinckney with Adams and Aaron Burr with Jefferson), electors voted for both candidates. The results of the electoral vote, therefore, wound up: Jefferson 73, Burr 73, Adams 65. It was assumed Burr would graciously step aside. He did not, and thanks to some Federalist tinkering, it took 36 ballots before Alexander Hamilton was able to swing enough votes away from Burr to give Jefferson the election. Of course, Burr would even that score later.

The Jefferson administration opened a new era, while still continuing many of the traditions of the early years of the republic.

Thus the Federalist era ended, and a generation of Republican leadership began, said Don E. Fehrenbacher in The Era of Expansion, 1800-1848. Yet, the nation was still in the hands of its founders -- men of the Revolution and the Age of Reason, who studied the theory while practicing the art of politics. Continuity with the past modulated the abrupt transfer of power.

In his first inaugural, 200 years ago today, Jefferson returned to his revolutionary past, yet struck a note of pragmatic unity.

"We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists," he said. "If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."

Of course, the young nation was also poised on the brink of huge expansion. Only two states were in the Union beyond the Appalachian Mountains, but American pioneers had firmly established themselves up to the Mississippi River. In fact, a great many were already living under the auspices of the Spanish across the river.

When it would be learned two years later that Napoleon and France actually owned the massive Louisiana Territory, Jefferson would be quick to seek its purchase. The Louisiana Purchase would virtually double the size of the American territory, give the adventurous Americans a clear path to the Pacific and lead to the notion of Manifest Destiny.

America in 1901

While William McKinley's second inaugural might not seem as historic as Jefferson's first swearing-in, it nevertheless stands as another key point in history. The United States, again in a new century, was again re-examining its world role.

Where the nation had been on the verge of establishing itself as a legitimate member of the international community in 1801, in 1901, it had established itself as a world power. During the closing years of the 1800s, the nation had increased involvement in China with the resultant Boxer Rebellion occurring and had stepped onto the stage as world policeman in the Spanish American War.

While McKinley's second term would last barely half a year, he would leave his stamp on an America thrusting itself wholeheartedly into industrialization, commerce and, at least in the words of opponents, imperialism. Science, medicine and technology were outdoing themselves each year, and a larger middle class was forming. While a huge rift continued to build between the super rich and the dismally poor, the standard of living in general was rising, and the world was becoming a smaller place.

The automobile was just beginning to make a small dent in the horse's world. The telephone and telegraph were already well-established, as was electricity. The motion picture was already around and was about to begin changing America's entertainment habits. Health was obviously improving and would be boosted more during the coming Progressive Era. Many Americans were able to work a little less hard and earn quite a bit more than their parents.

"There is not a man here who does not feel 400 percent bigger in 1900 than he did in 1896," said Sen. Chauncy Depew in 1900, "bigger intellectually, bigger hopefully, bigger patriotically, bigger in the breast from the fact that he is a citizen of a country that has become a world power for peace, for civilization and for the expansion of its industries and the products of its labor."

It was not merely the celebration of a new century celebrated by the masses in 1900, and by scholars in 1901, just as it would be 100 years later that evoked such hyperbole. It was a time of immense national pride, as well as a growing faith in man's ability. The Manifest Destiny that had become possible after the Louisiana Purchase and flamed into life at mid-century, now saw the United States as a benevolent worldwide imperialist watchdog. McKinley's death in the fall of 1901 would do nothing to change that. His successor, Theodore Roosevelt, was even stronger in his convictions.

A new century lay ahead. Just as the tempo of life and role of the nation had changed unimaginably from Jefferson's time to McKinley's, so it would again change from McKinley's second inaugural to George W. Bush's first inaugural.