The Best Land Deal in History:
Louisiana Purchase
Back during the early 1800s, the Mississippi River was a lifeline for
the people living on the Western frontier. Its waters allowed
farmers in the West to transport their goods to Eastern markets.
Without use of the Mississippi, these farmers could not efficiently
transport their products to market. The Mississippi
River also was important because the country that controlled it
would control the central region of North America. New Orleans was
the key to the Mississippi River. Its location at the mouth of the river
on the Gulf of Mexico made it vital for defending access to the river.
Because of its strategic importance, United States ambassadors went
to France in 1803 and offered to buy New Orleans. They were
willing to offer the French government $10 million for the city. This
original American offer was rejected, but events in the French
colony of Haiti soon caused French officials to reconsider.
Napoleon Bonaparte, the leader of France, rejected the Americans’
offer to buy New Orleans because he had to send French colonists
into the Louisiana Territory to establish French settlements. To
accomplish this, the French planned to use their Caribbean colony of
Haiti as a staging area for colonists and supplies. However, a slave
named Toussaint L’Ouverture led a slave revolt on Haiti,
freed the Haitian slaves, and expelled the French. Napoleon’s dream
of French settlements in central North America was dashed, and he
was faced with a war brewing in Europe. As a result, Napoleon made
a remarkable offer to the Americans. France would sell New Orleans
and the entire Louisiana territory to the United States for $15
million.
In the United States, the reaction to this real estate offer was
divided. Debates raged. What would be the division of slave and free
states? Did the president have constitutional power to make such a
deal? Would the addition of more Western states lead to conflicts
between Western farmers and Eastern merchants? Despite the
debates, the United States Senate approved the land purchase on
October 30, 1803. The transaction doubled the geographic size of
the United States.
Even before the treaty was signed, President Thomas Jefferson
began planning an expedition to travel into this new territory. The
expedition would map the land and form relations with American
Indian tribes living in the territory. Jefferson asked his secretary,
Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark to lead a Corps of
Discovery west and to return with details of the land and the people
they encountered. The Corps of Discovery’s mission lasted more
than three years. When Lewis and Clark returned, they reported
news of the many Indian tribes who lived in the region, and tales of
unknown creatures such as grizzly bears and prairie dogs. The
Lewis and Clark expedition’s reports of this vast wilderness
captivated the imagination of the young nation and inspired further
exploration of the territory.
The following states were a part of the Louisiana Territory:
Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, North Dakota, South
Dakota, Montana, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Wyoming, Kansas and
Nebraska.
The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase Timeline
1763:
France gave Louisiana to Spain.
March 1801:
Napoleon wanted a French empire in North America. So, under
pressure, Spain returned Louisiana to France.
Federalists in the United States were alarmed that France now
owned Louisiana. They wanted to use force against France. But
Jefferson (a Democratic-Republican) sent Robert R. Livingston, the
U.S. minister to France to attempt to buy New Orleans.
January 1803:
U.S. sent James Monroe to join Livingston and try to buy New
Orleans and West Florida from France.
April 1803:
Napoleon gave up his dream of an American empire because he was
overwhelmed by the slave revolt in Haiti and also wanted to go to
war with Britain.
The French offered Livingston and Monroe all of Louisiana (not just
New Orleans). Livingston and Monroe signed a treaty. For roughly
$15 million, the U.S. acquired some 828,000 square miles of land,
doubling the national territory of the United States.
October 1803:
The Senate ratified the treaty and in December the United States
acquired the Louisiana Purchase.
Document A: Alexander Hamilton
The purchase of New Orleans is essential to the peace
and prosperity of our Western country, and opens a free
and valuable market to our commercial states.
This purchase will probably make it seem like Mr.
Jefferson is brilliant. Any man, however, who possesses
any amount of intelligence, will easily see that the
purchase is the result of lucky coincidences and
unexpected circumstances and not the result of any wise
or thoughtful actions on the part of Jefferson’s
administration.
As to the vast region west of the Mississippi, it is a
wilderness with numerous tribes of Indians. And when
we consider the present territory of the United States,
and that not one-sixteenth is yet under occupation, the
possibility that this new purchase will be a place of actual
settlement seems unlikely.
If our own citizens do eventually settle this new land, it
would weaken our country and central government. On
the whole, we can honestly say that this purchase is at
best extremely problematic.
Source: Alexander Hamilton wrote an editorial called
“Purchase of Louisiana” for the New York Evening Post,
July 1803.
Document B: Letters by Federalists
Rufus King to Timothy Pickering, November 4, 1803
According to the Constitution, Congress may admit new
states. But can the President sign treaties forcing
Congress to do so?
According to the Louisiana Treaty, the territory must be
formed into states and admitted into the Union. Will
Congress be allowed to set any rules for their
admission? Since slavery is legal and exists in Louisiana,
and the treaty states that we must protect the property of
the inhabitants, won’t we be forced to admit the new
states as slave states? Doing so will worsen the problem
of unequal representation from slave and free states.
Timothy Pickering to Rufus King. March 4, 1804
I am disgusted with the men who now rule us. The
coward at the head [Jefferson] is like a French
revolutionary. While he talks about humanity, he enjoys
the utter destruction of his opponents. We have too long
witnessed his general wickedness—his cruel removals of
faithful officers and the substitution of corruption and
immorality for honesty.
Source: The two letters above are written between two
Federalists. Rufus King was a Senator from New York and
Timothy Pickering was a Senator from Massachusetts.