What Was The Reason For The Expansion Of Louisiana Territory

Today, the United States of America is known for its strong structured government and this ideology of freedom among its people. However, the reality was that our journey to gain this freedom and structure was a rocky road that caused a division among the American people. A couple of issues that caused a division among American society were the purchase of the Louisiana Territory and the expansion of slavery into new territories. Slavery has always been a controversial topic, and people had used their opinions to argue for their support or rejection of expansion of slavery into new territories. The Louisiana Territory was purchased with the help of Thomas Jefferson with the intentions of it benefitting the United States of America. However, there were people who opposed of this purchase, like the Federalist Party.
The Louisiana Territory at the time was currently occupied by the French.
The United States of America gained the 530,000,000 acre territory from Napoleon Bonaparte for only around $11,250,000. However, there is a question that has not been asked yet and wondered by many Americans, what was the reason for the acquirement of this territory? Document 4b helped to show how those who opposed of this purchase failed that the Louisiana Territory contained vital aspects to boost the United States’ economy, the Port of New Orleans and the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River would help people to trade with the world since the river lead into the Gulf of Mexico. The Port of New Orleans would help to strengthen the flux of goods that would be used for great trade with other nations. Also, the idea of Manifest Destiny just started to fill Americans with pride for desires of success that could come as a result of westward expansion. Document 6 helped to express how President Thomas Jefferson was an avid supporter of westward expansion despite the Federalist Party’s opposition to this
purchase. Despite the positive effects that could have been brought by the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, others still had their negative view points and how detrimental this acquired territory could actually harm the United States. The Federalist Party as mentioned in Document 6 had this idea that the territory was just worthless desert not worth anything due to the land costing less than three cents per acre. Another argument was how the land was definitely worth more, however, the selling price in which Thomas Jefferson bought it for didn’t represent the actual value the land reflected. The controversy that also contributed to this division among people was how President Thomas Jefferson technically bought the Louisiana territory “illegally” without the Senate’s consent, which is stated in the Constitution according to Document 6. People saw Jefferson as a hypocrite from this because he was an avid supporter of strict interpretation of the Constitution. All of this could lead to issues dealing with slavery and border tensions. However, there were those few people who did support the purchase of the Louisiana Territory. Document 5 showed that doubling the size of the United States could create positive effects such as the completion of certain people’s Manifest Destiny and farmers of Southwest gaining money from trade due to access of the Mississippi River and Port of New Orleans. In addition, Documents 5 and 6 help to support the argument in favor of the purchase by showing the opportunities of creating more states and the ability to gain territory peacefully.