The Louisiana Purchase: A Great Buy for a Growing Nation
A map of the United States showing the Louisiana Purchase.
With Thomas Jefferson’s ascent to the Presidency in 1801, the national stage was set for major changes. Events that would cause those changes greeted Jefferson almost as soon as he took office. Word came of a secret agreement whereby Spain ceded, or gave, the Louisiana Territory to France. Though France had come to the United States’ aid during the Revolutionary War, and initially grasped the idea of freedom and liberty in their own revolution, the aggression of Napoleon Bonaparte was a potentially major threat to Americans in the Far West. Thomas Jefferson’s belief in expanding (farming) territories while maintaining access to foreign markets was the best way for his Republican ideals and the country to grow.
Anxious to refocus government support toward farmers and a more agrarian (Links to an external site.)-based republic, and away from the Federalist supported merchant and manufacturing area, Jefferson was looking for means to provide land for those who sought it. The threat of France taking ownership of the vast Louisiana territory would place in jeopardy the development of the western lands around the Ohio and Mississippi rivers for several reasons. First, by actually “owning” those lands west of the Mississippi, France could stop American expansion beyond the great river. And second, the French would control the city at the mouth of the Mississippi, New Orleans, and thus control commerce and trade of the inland areas from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico.
To maintain access on the waters of the trade highway of the Mississippi, whether it was bringing wheat, cotton, and other agricultural products down the river for distribution to customers worldwide, or carrying manufactured goods, tools and machinery to the towns and farms that dotted the lands through which the river passed, permission would have to be negotiated with the French Government. The aggressive and unpredictable actions of Emperor Napoleon had made this an undesirable option.
In September 1801, Jefferson sent American minister Robert Livingston to France to lobby the French against receiving the territory, but to no avail. Napoleon was planning on building an empire in the Americas and the Louisiana territory would give him a tremendous base in the New World. But, as they say, “the best laid plans…” Early in 1802 a French representative appeared in New Orleans to receive the transfer from Spain to France. Rioting in Haiti, another of France’s holdings in the Americas at that time, caused the troops which were to represent France’s authority in Louisiana, to be redirected to there to attempt to put down the unrest. The transfer of the Louisiana Territory to France did not take place.
Robert Napoleon was having financial problems over the war with Britain.
Jefferson was so concerned over the potential of France on the western border of the United States that he was willing to seriously consider an alliance with America’s recent foes, the British. He wrote to Livingston, “…the day that France takes possession of New Orleans … we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.”
In further messages to Livingston, Jefferson directed him to inform France that, “the inevitable consequences of their taking possession of Louisiana ... will cost, and perhaps not very long hence, a war which will annihilate (Links to an external site.) her on the ocean ....” However, it wasn’t so much the threat of an Anglo-American alliance that quashed the French acceptance of Louisiana as much as it was the continued unrest in Haiti. Napoleon continued to send troops to attempt to restore slavery on the island, draining his resources that otherwise would have been directed to New Orleans to secure the Louisiana Territory. Napoleon realized that soon France would be in conflict with Britain, and he needed to conserve his money and his troops.
Napoleon had decided to sell the troublesome territory when Livingston and James Monroe (who had been sent to help with negotiations) approached the French with an offer to buy New Orleans and the Floridas. They were directed to spend up to nine million dollars for those areas. They were flabbergasted (Links to an external site.) when the French finance minister offered the entire Louisiana Territory for fifteen million dollars!
Robert Livingston negotiates with France.
The treaty was signed on May 2, 1803. Jefferson was ecstatic (Links to an external site.). In his message to Congress in October 1803, Jefferson said: "Whilst the property and sovereignty of the Mississippi and its waters secure an independent outlet for the produce of the Western States and an uncontrolled navigation through their whole course, ... the fertility of the country, its climate and extent, promise in due season important aids to our Treasury, an ample provision for our posterity, and a wide spread for the blessings of freedom and equal laws."
American access to the sea for the products and people of the region west of the Appalachians was secured – at least on paper. Looming ahead would be challenges concerning American ships and freedom of the seas, as well as the fact that no one ever spoke to the original owners of the Louisiana Territory, thousands of Native Americans representing scores of tribes who lived on those lands. The gateway to the West and all the potential there had been thrown open and for those willing to brave challenges and hazards the new lands.