Land for Sale
Napoleon & the Louisiana Purchase
Presentation created by Robert Martinez
Primary Source Content: America’s History
Images as cited.
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In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte
seized power in France and began
an ambitious campaign to a French
empire in Europe and in America.
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In 1801, he coerced Spain into
signing a secret treaty that
returned Louisiana to France.
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A year later, he directed Spanish
officials in Louisiana to restrict
American access to New Orleans,
violating the terms of Pickney’s
Treaty.
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Meanwhile, Napoleon planned an
invasion to restore French rule in
Haiti a rich sugar island seized in
1793 by rebellious black slaves led
by Toussaint L’Ouverture.
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Napoleon’s aggression
prompted Jefferson to question
his party’s pro-French foreign
policy.
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“The day that France takes
possession of New Orleans,”
President Jefferson warned, “we
must marry ourselves to the British
fleet and nation.”
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Jefferson feared that the French
might close the Mississippi River
to western farmers, threatening
his vision of an expanding yeoman
republic.
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He instructed, Robert
Livingston, the American
minister in Paris to negotiate
the purchase of New Orleans.
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Simultaneously, Jefferson sent
James Monroe to Britain to
negotiate an alliance in case of
war with France.
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By 1802, the French invasion of Haiti was
faltering in the face of disease and
determined black resistance, a new war
threatened in Europe, and Napoleon
feared an American invasion of
Louisiana.
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Acting with characteristic
decisiveness, the French ruler
offered to sell not only New
Orleans but the entire territory of
Louisiana for $15 million dollars.
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The Louisiana Purchase forced
the president to reconsider his
strict interpretation of the
Constitution.
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Jefferson had always maintained that
the national government possessed
only the powers “expressly” delegated
to it in the Constitution, but there was
no constitutional provision for adding
new territory.
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In this case, a pragmatic Jefferson
accepted a loose interpretation of
the Constitution, using the treatymaking powers authorized there
to complete the deal with France.
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A scientist as well as a statesman,
Jefferson wanted detailed information
about the physical features of the new
territory, its plant and animal life, and
its Native peoples.
Species collected
During the
Lewis & Clark
Expedition.
In 1804, he sent his personal
secretary, Meriwether Lewis,
to explore the region with
William Clark, an army officer.
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With the help of Indian guides, Lewis
and Clark and their party of American
soldiers and frontiersmen traveled up
the Missouri river, across the Rocky
Mountains, and, venturing beyond the
bounds of the Louisiana Purchase, down
the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.
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After two years, they returned
with the first maps of the immense
wilderness and vivid accounts of
its natural resources and
inhabitants.
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