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How Did Thomas Jefferson Purchased The Louisiana Territory

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Kimberly Nguyen October 2017 Swanson 9:30 US History Unit 2 First Draft In 1803, Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory, a land deal between the United States and France. “The U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.” Jefferson sent James Monroe along with Robert Livingston to Paris to negotiate. Jefferson gave them a mandate to negotiate up to $10 million for purchase of New Orleans and all or part of the Floridas. If they weren’t able to do this, they would try negotiate for US access to Mississippi and the port. When Monroe and Livingston arrived in Paris, they learned there was a different deal happening. Napoleon could not afford to have troops occupy the entire …show more content…

This purchase would double the size of the US. This negotiation had to be ratified by end of October and was ratified on October 20 with a vote of 24 to 7. Spain gave Louisiana to France on November 30 and France transferred territory to Americans on December 30. During this purchase of the Louisiana Territory, Thomas Jefferson abandoned his political ideals to secure the purchase. One way Jefferson abandoned his political ideas was that the way he purchased the Louisiana territory was not listed in the Constitution. In Article IV of the Constitution, it stated that “new states could be added, but made no provision for taking on foreign territories.” The Louisiana territory was considered foreign territory since it was owned by France. However, when France offered the U.S. the Louisiana territory, “the two American ministers seized the opportunity, going beyond their mandate.” Jefferson tried to make an amendment but when Congress disregarded his draft, he authorized the purchase anyways without the amendment in place. Jefferson wasn’t sure what he wanted to do about adding more territory to the United States so he asked his cabinet for advice. Attorney General Levi

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Did Federalists oppose the Louisiana Purchase for practical reasons or political reasons? The Federalists took it from a more political view with some ethical points regarding putting in new states through the executive branch, treatings, and slavery, (Document B ). Hamilton himself hates Jefferson and tried to make him look dumb and lucky and tried to make the possibility of success slim(Document A ). In Document B Rufus King is concerned about admitting new states with treaties through the executive branch or Congress, but if they do they have to follow their treaty and help settlers and property owners have their property “protected”. They are also worried about treating slaves unequally coming from the current increase of the representation

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The Federalists opposed the Louisiana Purchase for many practical reasons and not for practical reasons. The document, A said that Federalists thought that American Indians in the area could cause problems and kill some colonists moving into the area. Document A said that the Federalists suspected new states formed in the Louisiana Territory would be Republican. Document A said that the Federalists thought that probably no one would settle there so the land purchased would be useless. Document A said that they(the Federalists) feared that the new national government would be too powerful and thus put at risk individual liberties.

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Let’s imagine that Napoleon didn’t have a need for the allotted money for the French war efforts so he decided not sell the Louisiana Territory or the Louisiana Purchase to the United States. The history of the United States would have been very different if we didn’t obtain the purchase of the Louisiana territory from the French specifically Napoleon because it would have changed the activities and regions in the United States a great deal. If this didn’t happen to begin with, The United States wouldn’t have a been a region ranging from coast to coast. This meaning that the United States would have not been doubled the size that it was previously.

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The Federalists opposed the Louisiana Purchase due to political reasons. In document B it states, “The cowardly wretch at their head [Jefferson]”. This quote displays how low the Federalists thought of Jefferson. The document also states, “an infernal pleasure in the utter destruction of his opponents”, showing that Jefferson is thought of as a man with demonic pleasures against the Federalists. Further reasoning is that if they denied him an amendment to buy Louisiana, he would be stuck in a dilemma.

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The negative components were by purchasing the territory from France, The United States was antagonizing Spain .The opponents of the Louisiana Purchase feared that Spain would attempt to reclaim the Louisiana

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Also, with the control of the Mississippi river we could now have stronger trade and be able to use the Mississippi river for different things. This evidence supports that it was a very smart move that the United States decided to make the Louisiana Purchase with France. To conclude, the Louisiana Purchase was a very smart move by the United States because this allowed many positive thing to happen. First, it allowed the western country to have peace and prosperity mainly with the Indians and opened a free and valuable market. Second, it doubled the size of the United States making it a bigger and stronger nation.

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He was a strong believer in states' rights and thought that rights not explicitly stated in the Constitution should be given to the states. However, in writing the Constitution, there was no way to predict that a deal such as the Louisiana Purchase would ever be possible. Therefore, the power to purchase land from another government, thereby expanding the size of the United States, was never explicitly given to the federal government. Although Thomas Jefferson realized what a deal the Louisiana Purchase was, he had lots of moral doubts about completing the

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The Louisiana Purchase was an agreement between the France and the US that involved giving the Louisiana Territory. This cost the US for $15 million dollars. The Federalists opposed this purchase that Thomas Jefferson made. The Federalists believed that the purchase of this territory would weaken their country and central government. Also, they felt that this decision to buy this territory was not very smart.

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He petitioned for all children, male and female to have three years of learing arithmetics, writing, reading, and history. Petitioning for this bill took great courage, especially because the government had been at its riches point. The United States doubled in 1803 after Jefferson purchased Louisiana territory from France for about 15 million dollars. Having just purchased this new land, Jefferson appointed his personal secretary Meriwether Lewis, who then enlisted William Clark to go scope out the terrain of the territory.

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Some have labeled Jefferson’s actions Machiavellian. However, Machiavelli constrained the ruler’s behavior only by political necessity, separating the ruler from conventional Christian virtues. This may be the rare occasion, where Christian values and Machiavellianism can come together for a common purpose. Jefferson anguished over the decision to purchase the Louisiana Territory without a constitutional amendment, and decided it was in the best economic, political, and national security interests of the nation to proceed. Most historians agree with his conclusion; the benefits of purchasing the Louisiana Territory outweighed the cost to his strict constructionist principles.

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In the years following the Revolutionary War the United States would begin to expand, although not popular among all citizens, it helped shape the country into what we know today. The first acquisition of territory would be as a result of the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain ending the Revolutionary War. This treaty marked the boundaries between the British colonies still located in North America and ceded the thirteen American colonies to a newly recognized country known as the United States of America. This would not be the only acquisition of territory that the United States would complete between the years of 1789 and 1815 but it would be the initial acquisition of territory that would develop this newly formed nation.

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The Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana purchase was one of the biggest land purchases in history. In 1803, the United States paid around $15 million dollars for around 800,000 square miles of land. This was arguably the greatest achievement of thomas jefferson’s presidency. The louisiana territory was a wild card in the european game of imperialism.

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A representative, Robert Livingston, was sent to France to purchase the land, or at least convince Napoleon to not occupy the Louisiana Territory or New Orleans. In reality, Jefferson and Livingston wanted all of the Louisiana Territory, including the port of New Orleans. When Napoleon was approached by the US diplomat he agreed to sell the territory to the US. In the treaty created, besides agreeing to pay money for the territory, Jefferson agreed to in direct violation of the Constitution, that the French and Spanish traders would have special lower tariffs than other countries’ tariffs. Having fought Alexander Hamilton’s attempt to interpret the Constitution broadly, Jefferson knew that the Constitution did not allow him to take New Orleans, as nothing allowed the federal government to annex or govern new territories.

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Having the land come at about four cents an acre wasn’t too bad, but because the vast size of the land that America was acquiring, it was not the best situation for the debt of America. Just this outcome alone will become one of the few reasons why the Louisiana Purchase could be viewed as one of the poor decisions made back in the

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In the late 1700s, when Napoleon became the first emperor of France, his aspiration was to build a colonial empire in North America. In 1800, Napoleon persuaded the Spanish to sign the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso and transfer Louisiana back to France. When President Thomas Jefferson learned of the secret agreement, he became very worried. Jefferson was also afraid that when the French controlled

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