LOUISIANA PURCHASE

In 1801 after a series of secret agreements, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) recovered the territory of Louisiana from Spain, which France had lost in 1763. When the land was handed over, U.S. goods were refused storage at the important international port of New Orleans—a violation of the Pinckney Treaty. Since New Orleans was an integral port to U.S. international trade, unhappy U.S. farmers and merchants grumbled for war.

President Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809) realized that this French acquisition challenged U.S. trade and presented a stumbling block to the United States, should it ever choose to expand its current borders westward. Believing that his decision was in his country's best interests, Jefferson sent Secretary of State James Monroe (1758–1831) to Paris to discuss the possibility of purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France. At the same time, Jefferson authorized a gathering of militiamen at home as a show of force against France.

Napoleon, who was already on unfriendly terms with Britain, did not want to face a British-U.S. alliance. In 1803 he agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory (approximately 827,000 square miles) to the United States for a price of $15 million. The United States doubled its territorial size and extended public lands westward into the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains.

Although the Louisiana Purchase extended U.S. boundaries and ensured protection of U.S. trade at the port of New Orleans, it presented a dilemma to Jefferson. He had a dream of seeing the United States stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. He also believed the government was invested with only those powers explicitly stated in the Constitution, and the authority to purchase new territory was not among those powers.

In purchasing the Louisiana Territory, Jefferson used implied Constitutional powers, by which he strengthened the national government. His action, however, created a sense of uneasiness among those who feared a return to an authoritarian regime so soon after the American Revolution (1775–1783). A strong central government infringed on states' rights, which Jefferson also ardently supported. At the time he considered proposing a Constitutional amendment to allow explicitly the authority to purchase new territory. But, Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gelatin, advised Jefferson that the executive office had an inherent right to expand the nation, and Congress had the power to admit newly acquired land into the Union as a state or annex it as territory. Jefferson accepted this position and Congress ratified the land purchase. Regardless of the president's philosophical conflict, the public approved of the purchase. In 1804 Jefferson was reelected to a second term.

Reaching from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, the Louisiana Purchase ensured that the U.S. would have ample room for expansion for years to come. Later four whole states (Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska) and parts of nine others (Louisiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota) were made from this vast area. It increased the reach of the agricultural class by securing large amounts of land and transportation networks. With uninhibited access to the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, goods and services could now be transported over greater distances. The U.S. economy could not help but expand.

Whatever its constitutional implications, the Louisiana Purchase was one of the most important presidential decisions in the nation's history. Through this purchase, the United States became a continental power, controlled the continent's main navigation routes, and became owner of vast new resources. These combined assets promised the young nation greater economic independence from Europe and set a precedent for future territorial expansion.

In order to realize the full potential of this uncharted land, President Jefferson dispatched a 35-member expedition to explore it. Led by U.S. Army officers Meriweather Lewis and William Clark, the expedition was to determine the most direct practicable water communication across the continent for commerce purposes, map the land, gather plant and animal specimens, collect soil and weather data, and record the details of all they saw. It was a large task. Between May 1804 and September 1806, the expedition sighted the Pacific Ocean before returning to St. Louis. The explorers did not find the much sought-after Northwest Passage, but the information they did acquire spurred the nation towards further expansion and settlement.

LOUISIANA PURCHASE

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