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He holds a master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University. Learn about our Editorial Process. Cite this Article Format. Stief, Colin. Jefferson considered a constitutional amendment to justify the purchase; however, his cabinet convinced him otherwise. Henry Adams and other historians have argued that Jefferson acted hypocritically with the Louisiana Purchase, because of his position as a strict constructionist regarding the Constitution since he stretched the intent of that document to justify his purchase.
Jefferson’s philosophical consistency was in question because of his strict interpretation of the Constitution. Many people believed that he and others, including James Madison, were doing something they surely would have argued against with Alexander Hamilton. The Federalists strongly opposed the purchase, favoring close relations with Britain over closer ties to Napoleon. Both Federalists and Jeffersonians were concerned over the purchase’s constitutionality.
Many members of the House of Representatives opposed the purchase. Majority Leader John Randolph led the opposition. The House called for a vote to deny the request for the purchase, but it failed by two votes, 59— The Federalists even tried to prove the land belonged to Spain, not France, but available records proved otherwise. There was also concern that an increase in the number of slave-holding states created out of the new territory would exacerbate divisions between North and South as well.
A group of Northern Federalists led by Senator Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts went so far as to explore the idea of a separate northern confederacy. Another concern was whether it was proper to grant citizenship to the French, Spanish, and free black people living in New Orleans, as the treaty would dictate. Critics in Congress worried whether these “foreigners”, unacquainted with democracy, could or should become citizens. The U. Government had to use English common law to make them citizens to collect taxes.
Spain protested the transfer on two grounds: First, France had previously promised in a note not to alienate Louisiana to a third party and second, France had not fulfilled the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso by having the King of Etruria recognized by all European powers. The French government replied that these objections were baseless since the promise not to alienate Louisiana was not in the treaty of San Ildefonso itself and therefore had no legal force, and the Spanish government had ordered Louisiana to be transferred in October despite knowing for months that Britain had not recognized the King of Etruria in the Treaty of Amiens.
Henry Adams claimed “The sale of Louisiana to the United States was trebly invalid; if it were French property, Bonaparte could not constitutionally alienate it without the consent of the French Chambers ; if it were Spanish property, he could not alienate it at all; if Spain had a right of reclamation, his sale was worthless.
Furthermore, the Spanish prime minister had authorized the U. Other historians counter the above arguments regarding Jefferson’s alleged hypocrisy by asserting that countries change their borders in two ways: 1 conquest, or 2 an agreement between nations, otherwise known as a treaty. The Louisiana Purchase was the latter, a treaty.
The Constitution specifically grants the president the power to negotiate treaties Art. II, Sec. Madison the “Father of the Constitution” assured Jefferson that the Louisiana Purchase was well within even the strictest interpretation of the Constitution.
Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin added that since the power to negotiate treaties was specifically granted to the president, the only way extending the country’s territory by treaty could not be a presidential power would be if it were specifically excluded by the Constitution which it was not.
Jefferson, as a strict constructionist, was right to be concerned about staying within the bounds of the Constitution, but felt the power of these arguments and was willing to “acquiesce with satisfaction” if the Congress approved the treaty.
On the following day, October 21, , the Senate authorized Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. In legislation enacted on October 31, Congress made temporary provisions for local civil government to continue as it had under French and Spanish rule and authorized the President to use military forces to maintain order. Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The opposition of New England Federalists to the Louisiana Purchase was primarily economic self-interest, not any legitimate concern over constitutionality or whether France indeed owned Louisiana or was required to sell it back to Spain should it desire to dispose of the territory. The Northerners were not enthusiastic about Western farmers gaining another outlet for their crops that did not require the use of New England ports.
Also, many Federalists were speculators in lands in upstate New York and New England and were hoping to sell these lands to farmers, who might go west instead, if the Louisiana Purchase went through. They also feared that this would lead to Western states being formed, which would likely be Republican, and dilute the political power of New England Federalists.
When Spain later objected to the United States purchasing Louisiana from France, Madison responded that America had first approached Spain about purchasing the property but had been told by Spain itself that America would have to treat with France for the territory. France turned over New Orleans, the historic colonial capital, on December 20, , at the Cabildo , with a flag-raising ceremony in the Plaza de Armas, now Jackson Square.
Just three weeks earlier, on November 30, , Spanish officials had formally conveyed the colonial lands and their administration to France. From March 10 to September 30, , Upper Louisiana was supervised as a military district, under its first civil commandant , Amos Stoddard , who was appointed by the War Department.
Effective October 1, , the purchased territory was organized into the Territory of Orleans most of which would become the state of Louisiana and the District of Louisiana , which was temporarily under control of the governor and judicial system of the Indiana Territory. The following year, the District of Louisiana was renamed the Territory of Louisiana. Louis was the capital of the Louisiana Territory. To pay for the land, the American government used a mix of sovereign bonds and the assumption of French debts.
Because of this favored position, the U. Barings had a close relationship with Hope and Company of Amsterdam, and the two banking houses worked together to facilitate and underwrite the purchase. As part of the deal, the U.
Because Napoleon wanted to receive his money as quickly as possible, Barings and Hopes purchased the bonds for 52 million francs, agreeing to an initial 6 million franc payment upon issuance of the bonds followed by 23 monthly payments of 2 million francs each. In need of funds, Napoleon pressed the banks to complete their purchase of the bonds as quickly as possible, and by April the banks transferred an additional Although the War of the Third Coalition , which brought France into a war with the United Kingdom, began before the purchase was completed, the British government initially allowed the deal to proceed as it was better for the neutral Americans to own the territory than the hostile French.
Barings relayed to order to Hopes, which declined to comply, allowing the final payments to be made to France in April A dispute soon arose between Spain and the United States regarding the extent of Louisiana. The territory’s boundaries had not been defined in the Treaty of Fontainebleau that ceded it from France to Spain, nor in the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso ceding it back to France, nor the Louisiana Purchase agreement ceding it to the United States.
The relatively narrow Louisiana of New Spain had been a special province under the jurisdiction of the Captaincy General of Cuba , while the vast region to the west was in still considered part of the Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas.
Louisiana had never been considered one of New Spain’s internal provinces. The purchase originally extended just beyond the 50th parallel. However, the territory north of the 49th parallel including the Milk River and Poplar River watersheds was ceded to the UK in exchange for parts of the Red River Basin south of 49th parallel in the Anglo-American Convention of The eastern boundary of the Louisiana purchase was the Mississippi River, from its source to the 31st parallel , though the source of the Mississippi was, at the time, unknown.
The eastern boundary below the 31st parallel was unclear. Today, the 31st parallel is the northern boundary of the western half of the Florida Panhandle , and the Perdido is the western boundary of Florida. Because the western boundary was contested at the time of the purchase, President Jefferson immediately began to organize four missions to explore and map the new territory. All three started from the Mississippi River. Governing the Louisiana Territory was more difficult than acquiring it.
Its European peoples, of ethnic French, Spanish and Mexican descent, were largely Catholic ; in addition, there was a large population of enslaved Africans made up of a high proportion of recent arrivals, as Spain had continued the transatlantic slave trade.
This was particularly true in the area of the present-day state of Louisiana, which also contained a large number of free people of color.
Both present-day Arkansas and Missouri already had some slaveholders in the 18th and early 19th century. During this period, south Louisiana received an influx of French-speaking refugee planters , who were permitted to bring their slaves with them, and other refugees fleeing the large slave revolt in Saint-Domingue.
Many Southern slaveholders feared that acquisition of the new territory might inspire American-held slaves to follow the example of those in Saint-Domingue and revolt. They wanted the U. The Louisiana Territory was broken into smaller portions for administration, and the territories passed slavery laws similar to those in the southern states but incorporating provisions from the preceding French and Spanish rule for instance, Spain had prohibited slavery of Native Americans in , but some slaves of mixed African-Native American descent were still being held in St.
Louis in Upper Louisiana when the U. Supreme Court , slavery of Native Americans was finally ended in After the early explorations, the U. Louis in for business with the Sauk and Fox. During the War of , Great Britain hoped to annex all or at least portions of the Louisiana Purchase should they successfully defeat the U. Aided by their Indian allies, the British defeated U.
The British would have likely garrisoned New Orleans and would have occupied it for a very long time because they and their ally Spain did not recognize any treaties and land deals conducted by Napoleon since , especially the Louisiana Purchase.
The Louisiana Purchase was negotiated between France and the United States, without consulting the various Indian tribes who lived on the land and who had not ceded the land to any colonial power. The four decades following the Louisiana Purchase was an era of court decisions removing many tribes from their lands east of the Mississippi for resettlement in the new territory, culminating in the Trail of Tears.
The purchase of the Louisiana Territory led to debates over the idea of indigenous land rights that persisted into the mid 20th century. Felix S. Cohen , Interior Department Lawyer who helped pass ICCA, is often quoted as saying, “practically all of the real estate acquired by the United States since was purchased not from Napoleon or any other emperor or czar but from its original Indian owners”, roughly estimating that Indians had received twenty times as much as France had for the territory bought by the United States, “somewhat in excess of million dollars”.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Louisiana Purchase disambiguation. This article is part of a series about. Retrieved October 1, Journal of American History.
Government Printing Office. Dissertations and Theses Thesis. Portlad State University. Paper Archived from the original on May 25, Retrieved July 21, Archived from the original on January 31, Retrieved February 19, Archived from the original on April 23, Retrieved April 12, Web Guides.
Library of Congress. March 29, Archived from the original on March 2, Retrieved March 26, Archived from the original on June 10, Retrieved June 11, National Constitution Center. October 20, Archived from the original on April 30,
How much was the louisiana purchase –
Apr 16, · The Louisiana Purchase encompassed ,, acres of territory in North America that the United States purchased from France in for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane, lit. ’Sale of Louisiana’) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a See more. May 31, · about $ million. On March 10, , France officially transferred its claim to the Louisiana Territory to the United States. President Thomas Jefferson had .
The Louisiana Purchase | Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.
The land purchased had an area of about , square miles. The purchase happened in the year Thomas Jefferson, the President of the United States US at that time, played the leading role in purchasing the land that helped double the size of the US. The purchase also led to the formation of several new US states.
Fifteen US states had their territories located partly or completely within the purchased land area. A small part of present-day Canada was also included in the Louisiana Territory. The Louisiana Purchase is regarded to be one of the most significant achievements of Jefferson during his presidency in the US. In the north to south direction, the territory extended between the Canadian border and the Gulf of Mexico.
France owned this entire territory. The area included the port at New Orleans which was a strategic port in the region. France was at that time led by Napoleon Bonaparte and the American government feared that under the leadership of their able ruler, the French might dominate the Mississippi River and limit the access of Americans to the Gulf of Mexico.
However, to their surprise, they got more than they had originally asked for, albeit at a higher price. The treat of the purchase and handover of the Louisiana Territory was dated April 30, , and signed on May 2 of the same year.
It is believed that several factors acted in unison to influence the decision of Napoleon to offer Louisiana to the US for sale. The factors include the inability of France to suppress the Haitian slave revolution, the possibility of a war with Great Britain and a British naval blockade, and also internal economic problems.
The US we see today would not have been possible without the addition of the massive Louisiana Territory. The purchase of this land was followed immediately by the expansion of America into previously unknown territories westward.
In , a territorial government was established in the area. Jefferson soon commissioned an expedition named the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the newly acquired territory. On April 30, , the US state of Louisiana was established. The US also gained control of the New Orleans port city and the Mississippi River, both important for supporting trade and industrialization of the region.
Area included in the Louisiana Purchase. Oishimaya Sen Nag May 14 in Environment.
