Louisiana Purchase Essay

During Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, the Louisiana Purchase became one of the most important events during the time according to World Book. The purchase not only heightened the amount of economic resources, but it also doubled the size of the U.S. Many different events led up to the 15 million dollar purchase of the Louisiana territory. As stated in American History, we are all still uncertain if the U.S had demonstrated signs of wanting to purchase the territory or if France proposed to sell the land to the United States. But as soon as Jefferson started his political career, he began to become more and more interested in learning more about the uncovered lands that lied West of the Mississippi River. Problems with his plans of this emerged

Senate. With a slight problem of worry that the treaty may be illegitimate, Jefferson suggested that making changes to the constitution in order to make it lawful would be a good idea before he presented it for a vote. Members of Jefferson’s cabinet responded and urged that Napoleon “would not wait for the for the United States to ratify a constitutional amendment.” (Fact Cite) But in the end according to Fact Site again, “Jefferson decided that the Louisiana Territory had such great value for the United States that future generations of Americans would not quibble about the way he went about acquiring it.” On October 20, 1803, the treaty was agreed upon by the U.S. Senate and was signed. Though America was beyond happy when they had first came into possession with the Louisiana Territory, they didn’t really know that much about it and had only heard rumors. So Jefferson figured that holding an expedition to find out more information about the sweeping lands West of the Mississippi River would give everyone the information that they wanted. Following up with his plan, Thomas Jefferson presented his ideas for the expedition to Congress on January 18, 1803. He explained that his plans with this expedition could and would lead to many new advantages to many new things including more facts about the climate, the cultures of others who were once there, and many other things. The journey would