SanJaya Reed
Mr. McCormick
AP US History 4A
January 19, 2015
Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase was a very imperative moment during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. He concluded that he would buy all 827,000 square miles of Louisiana, land west of the Mississippi River, for approximately 15 million dollars in 1803. Jefferson knew about the rights of the federal government and the strict interpretation in the Constitution, but regardless he still continued on with the Purchase of Louisiana. During that time, it was said to be unconstitutional. Even though having felt that The Constitution didn’t include any provisions for obtaining territory, Jefferson wanted to purchase Louisiana because he felt troubled over
…show more content…
Yet, Jefferson violated the acts of Sedition and the federalist’s Alien. By accomplishing the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson, overturned his principles against strict interpretation of powers. The agreement was not precisely listed as a direct right of the federal government in the Constitution. Violating his constitutional principles, Jefferson indicated that the Constitution would accept the purchase of new territories, and the creation of newly acquired territories as conclusive states, and he also used a certain perspective of the executive branches powers by using the President and the Senate’s power to accept the deal together without the need of Congress’s approval. Also, powers that aren’t authorized to the United States in the Constitution, constrained by it to the States, are subsequently for the people or the States. Since the power of buying land isn’t directly admitted to the Federal Government in the Constitution, the tenth amendment states that the Federal Government doesn’t have the power to purchase land. Jefferson also believed that the Federal government shouldn’t spend money if they did not have it, and the Louisiana Purchase very much contributed to the insufficiency. Thus violating at his own risk, he purchased Louisiana