THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
Left Map From THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA. (C) 1999 World Book, Inc. by permission of the publisher. Right map from map was downloaded from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection of the University of Texas at Austin.
LOUISIANA PURCHASE
The Louisiana Purchase marked one of the largest, if not the largest, land transactions in history. The persons who played key roles in this transaction were Thomas Jefferson , Napoleon I of France, Robert R. Livingston, James Monroe, and Lewis and Clark.
The actual Treaty can be viewed.
The vast Louisiana Territory was purchased for 60 Million Francs or about $15,000,000.00 of which $11,250,000.00 was to be paid directly. The balance to be covered by the U.S. in the assumption of French debts to U. S. citizens. This territory included 800,000 square miles of land. Remember the The cost of land was 3 cents per acre. (Use inflation calculator to determine how much that would be)
The purchase of the Louisiana territory came about as a result of concern to secure free navigation of the Mississippi River. President Jefferson sent Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe to negotiate with the government of the powerful Napoleon Bonaparte for the sale of New Orleans. Since the aggressive French leader roused fears once France had just acquired Louisiana from the Spanish, Jefferson knew immediate action must be taken. Surprisingly, Napoleon offered not only to sell New Orleans, but the entire Louisiana territory.The treaty that Livingston and Monroe sent home aroused constitutional worries in Jefferson's mind. A Constitutional amendment would be extremely slow and Napoleon wanted the transaction finalized by a specific date. Since the nation was so young, issues such as the one at hand had not arisen before.
Jefferson had to make a decision and that he did. He acted without hesitation and left the matter to the people to decide. With the exception of a small number of Federalists in New England, the people overwhelmingly accepted Jefferson's actions. The Louisiana Purchase was by far the greatest achievement of his presidency.
The Louisiana Purchase began exploration in the United States. Lewis and Clark were sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson’s chose his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, a Virginian, frontiersman, and soldier to lead the expedition. He had served in the army in Ohio with a former Army captain and friend, William Clark. These two men would work together as partners for President Jefferson. The two were to share joint command as they explored, mapped, and studied a new route to the Pacific. Lewis and Clark explorer team was called the Corps of Discovery.
The Corps of Discovery returned with a great deal of knowledge about the new United States territory west of the Mississippi -- the people, the land, the rivers, the mountains, the plants and animals. The expedition made important contributions to the mapping of the North American continent.
Zebulon Pike also explored the new territory. Although he went a more southern route looking for the Red River. He went west to Colorado, south down the Rio Grande River in Spanish Territory. Pike was arrested by the Spanish as a spy, and was released years later. He finally explored the Red River after his release and made his way back to the United States.