What Was The Louisiana Purchase

Aerielle Atkinson Professor History 1301 23 February 2017 The Louisiana Purchase In 1803, Thomas Jefferson, was able to effectively double the United States Territory with a single purchase from France. These approximately 827,000 square miles of land, which would later go on to become different parts of 15 states, have come to be known as one of the greatest achievements of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency: The Louisiana Purchase. After explorations lasting from the beginning of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th, France had control over lands stretching from New Orleans to the Great Lakes and modern-day Montana, effectively claiming more lands than any other European power. Yet due to the French and Indian war, France ceded French Louisiana
were highly dependent on free access to the Mississippi River ... and New Orleans.” Not only that, but many political officials in the U.S. feared Napoleon Bonaparte would try to dominate the Mississippi river and such frictions with France could lead to a war that Jefferson did not want. Jefferson, however, found himself in a conflict. His high Constitutional beliefs told him that it wouldn’t be right to buy the land. There was no mention about a President’s rights to buy territories in the Constitution. Many, Jefferson himself included, even wondered if the it would be illegal to do so. Yet, while not authorized by the Constitution, President Jefferson chose to act and sent Robert R. Livingston to Paris as an ambassador of France in hopes of buying New Orleans and the rights to the Mississippi River. In his desperations for the land, Jefferson told Livingston that it was “of absolute importance, not only to control all the rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico but also to defend America from invasion.” The fear of France owning the territory under Napoleon’s rule was so strong that Jefferson even commented that the United States would have to “... marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.” And so after two declined offers and stalled negotiations over the New Orleans, Jefferson decided to send Livingston some help in the form of James Monroe with the hopes of further convincing France to sell the territory. Surprisingly, just as Monroe arrived, Napoleon accepted the ten million dollars for New Orleans and the Mississippi, and also agreed to sell the rest of the Louisiana territory for only five million more. This great purchase became official in the Treaty or Cession on May 2, 1803. Yet not everyone was as happy and accepting of the Louisiana Purchase as Jefferson, Livingston, Monroe, and many of the democratic party heads. Federalists saw this as a violation of the Constitution and harshly criticized Jefferson at every turn for the