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Louisiana purchase
Louisiana purchase
Historical circumstances surrounding louisiana purchase
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The decision of whether or not to purchase Louisiana possessed an equal amount of advantages and disadvantages for President Jefferson the main ones are the doubling in size of the country and the presidential powers issue. Jefferson struggled with this because he wanted to help benefit the United States, but he had to deal with the moral aspect of this situation.
At the beginning, President Jefferson never had a care in the world about Louisiana itself, but in actuality, he had his eyes set on securing the waterway that lead into the Gulf of Mexico. This site alone would be advantageous to the United States, and Jefferson knew that. He then made France a two million dollar offer for the just the waterway, but then France came back with a counteroffer. France was offering the entire Louisiana
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This was the deal of a lifetime, but Jefferson was apprehensive. He was hesitant in buying the Louisiana Purchase because of his belief of the Constitution. He was stuck on this decision, and had to weigh his pros and cons.
As for the pros, the Louisiana Purchase would be an amazing asset to the United States. As President, all Jefferson wanted to do was anything that revolved around the benefit of the nation and the people. The most obvious advantage of the United States acquiring the Louisiana territory would the doubling in size of the country. The United States could easily double its size just by gaining one territory. Jefferson would be a fool no to take that deal. This would create dominance for the United States. Anyone would want to double the size of his or her country for a cheap price. This would make the United States become a force to be reckoned with. They would become a “top dog” within the
The United States acquired the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, thereby gaining control of the Mississippi River, and its watershed at the golf of Mexico. The U.S. government realized how important this was and its potential of becoming a great trading post. By 1812 this area called New Orleans grew as expected in size and importance. In peace it was a commercial outlet and trading center of the western United States.
The Louisiana Purchase 1803 and the Proclamation Line of 1763 were documents that changed the course of the United States. The Proclamation Line was one of the several attempts to keep the peace between Native Americans and white settlers. The intention of the imaginary line was to reduce conflict between the two cultures living in the border zone. Louisiana Purchase was done to ensure western expansion and to kept the United States of America from pursuing a war with France.
The Loose construction of the elastic clause gave more power to the congress and allowed Thomas Jefferson to purchase the Louisana territory. The Louisiana Purchase was more than 530,000,000 acres of territory purchased from France in 1803.
The Louisiana Purchase stands as an iconic event today that nearly doubled the size of America, ultimately introducing the United States as a world power. In 1762, during the Seven Years’ War, France ceded its control of the Louisiana Territory to Spain (Britannica). However, when Napoleon Bonaparte assumed control of France in 1799, France rallied as a world power once more. Bonaparte’s interest in the Louisiana Territory spiked, and he pressured Spain’s king, Charles IV to relinquish his control of the land on October 1, 1800. This was known as the Treaty of San Ildefonso (Britannica). In view of the transfer between France and Spain, president Thomas Jefferson sent Robert R. Livingston to Paris in 1801. Jefferson became worried, because
This book helped me with finding information about the Louisiana Purchase. It also helped me with all people and things involved in the Louisiana Purchase.
(Page 242) A lot of people say that it was pretty hypocritical for Jefferson to buy the territory of Louisiana without having permission of congress and also the permission of the American people because that’s what he said he believed in. Our textbook sides with the people that blatantly states that Jefferson is a hypocrite. It talks about how “Jefferson acknowledged that the purchase was “beyond the constitution”” and then states that Jefferson was “a velvet hypocrite” (Page 244). This decision is looked at from a lot of different viewpoints. One interesting way some people look at it is that Jefferson didn’t do anything wrong at all. They back this up by saying that the Louisiana Purchase was a treaty with France and the constitution specifically gives the President full power to negotiate treaties with other countries and that’s exactly what he did. Other people say that Jefferson saw an opportunity to better the country, and being a leader and wanting the best for the United States, he quickly took advantage of the opportunity. I think the only reason that the people that did get upset about it, got upset only because they weren’t able to feel good about themselves by being a part of such a successful and big deal. I don’t think Jefferson did anything wrong by making this decision on his own because he was simply making a decision with the country’s best interest
Once again, Jefferson changed from Republican views to Federalist views because of his realist and public official side. Jefferson knew this would help the United States grow and it would keep Louisana out of the hands of other countries in Europe. Because of the war between France and Britain, the United States wanted to perserve their neutrality. The United States could trade with either of the countries without facing attacks. Jefferson asked Congress for an embargo.
The overarching theme in the section regarding the Louisiana Purchase is Environment and Geography. In this section , the Jefferson Administration was astonished by the unexpected and abrupt acceptance of the American offer on the part of Napoleon to sell the vast Louisiana territory. Jefferson accepted the deal without much hesitation fearing that while waiting for some type of treaty to be authorized by the government, Napoleon might have a change of heart. The United States paid a sum of $15 million dollars to the French, as wella s granting special concessions in the commercial sector. Jefferson was unsure of at first if the act of the president accepting the deal was constitutional, yet the congress would effectively
Did Thomas Jefferson make the right deal on purchasing the Louisiana Territory in 1803? I believe Thomas Jefferson made the right choice of accepting the deal Napoleon Bonaparte offered. The Louisiana Purchase was one of the biggest and cheapest land deals in United States history. The Louisiana Purchase involved two countries, the United States and France, and a big bill for the newly formed United States. Thomas Jefferson doing his best to follow the constitution would soon find it difficult to do so. When Spain gave the Louisiana territory back to France, Jefferson was hit with a dilemma. Thomas Jefferson was caught between his ideas and reality, and with the Pinckney Treaty now void, Jefferson had to find a way to get access to the Mississippi
Wachal, Barbara Schwarz. "Louisiana Purchase." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 5. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 2003. 162-163. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 Nov.
http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/louisiana-purchase>. The "Miller Center" - "Miller" American President Thomas Jefferson. Ed. Peter Onuf. N.p., n.d. Web.
Jefferson went against his belief in strict Constitutional interpretation several times during office as president, the first time was when he authorized the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Though the power to purchase the land was not given to him as president in the Constitution he went ahead with it because he felt that it was in the best interest of the nation.
After Thomas Jefferson, who served as president from 1801 to 1809, made the Louisiana Purchase on April 30, 1803, the U.S. gained 828 thousand square miles of territory from France. In 1817, the Missouri territory assembly applied for statehood. Missouri was slated to be the first state, other than Louisiana, to be created from the purchase. Considering there was slaves already in Missouri territory, it was clear that Missouri was going to enter the Union as a slave state and have implications on the rest of the new territory from the Louisiana Purchase unless congress opposed it (America Past and Present). Fear began to rise due to the unbalance of free and slave states. Fortunately, the Maine territory was separating from Massachusetts and requested for statehood. Correspondly, the senate passed the Missouri Compromise on February 1820, which allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine enter as a free state, making the free and slave states balanced once again. Another amendment was passed to prohibit slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern border of Missouri. This event envisioned a possible threat on the relationship between the North and South.
The Louisiana Purchase was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory by the United States from France in 1803. This purchase encompassed present day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska as well as large portions of Texas, New Mexico,
President Jefferson was instrumental in the Louisiana Purchase, which secured an area extending from Canada to the Gulf and the Mississippi to the Rockies, for fifteen million dollars. This purchase also led to the planning and organization of the Lewis and Clark expedition. However, the argument over whether or not Florida was included in the Louisiana Purchase caused many sarcastic attacks on Thomas Jefferson from members of congress.