What Was The Effect Of This Purchase On The Size Of The Nation.

Advisor: Scott E. Casper, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Professor of History, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
National Humanities Center Fellow
©2015 National Humanities Center

Why did President Thomas Jefferson negotiate the Louisiana Buy?

Agreement

As a strict constructionist of the United states of america Constitution, supporting but those powers specifically granted past the document, Thomas Jefferson questioned his executive potency to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France. Yet, the economical and national security benefits offered by the Louisiana Purchase to the fledgling nation outweighed the potential political risks of the land deal.

map of Louisiana

Map of Louisiana, 1805

Text

From Thomas Jefferson to Robert R. Livingston, eighteen April 1802
Discover more than correspondence at Founders Online from the National Archives.

Text Blazon

Letter of the alphabet, non-fiction

Text Complexity

Grade 11-CCR complexity ring.

For more information on text complexity see these resource from achievethecore.org.

In the Text Analysis department, Tier 2 vocabulary words are defined in pop-ups, and Tier 3 words are explained in brackets.

Click hither for standards and skills for this lesson.

Common Core Land Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.ane (cite testify to analyze specifically and past inference)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.eleven-12.6 (determine writer's bespeak of view)

Avant-garde Placement United states of america History

Central Concept 4.3 (IA) (Following the Louisiana Purchase, the United States government sought influence and control…)

Teacher'southward Note

In this lesson students will analyze a private letter that President Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) sent to Robert Livingston (1746–1813), his minister plenipotentiary (administrator) to France, regarding the negotiations for what would become the Louisiana Purchase. Livingston and James Monroe (1758–1831, 6th president of the Us) negotiated the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. It is important to note that at the fourth dimension this letter of the alphabet was written — Apr 18, 1802 — the area had non yet been offered for sale.

In this letter Jefferson, unaware of the possibility of outright purchase, focuses upon retaining commercial access to the Mississippi River and rights of deposit (economical access) in New Orleans. He also comments upon the danger of an aggressive France locating outposts merely across the Mississippi River from the United States. While some historians characterize Jefferson equally a Francophile, in this letter Jefferson sees France every bit a potential enemy to the Usa.

This lesson allows students to contextualize what volition become the Louisiana Buy prior to its acquisition past viewing the Purchase through a lens of national economic and armed services defence force rather than an human action of territorial expansion. Every bit Jefferson considers the possibility of an aggressive French republic led by Napoleon Bonaparte on America's doorstep, he states, "…peradventure nothing since the revolutionary war has produced more than uneasy sensations through the body of the nation." Original spellings and punctuation are retained.

This lesson is divided into 2 parts, both attainable beneath. The text is accompanied by close reading questions, educatee interactives, and an optional follow-upward assignment. The teacher's guide includes a groundwork annotation, the text analysiswith responses to the close reading questions, access to the interactive exercises, and the follow-upwardly assignment. The student'due south version, an interactive PDF, contains all of the aboveexcept the responses to the close reading questions and the follow-up consignment.

Teacher's Guide (continues beneath)

Background notation
Text analysis and close reading questions with answer key
Interactive exercises
Follow-upward assignment

Pupil Version (click to open)

Interactive PDF
Background notation
Text analysis and close reading questions
Interactive exercises

Teacher's Guide

Background

Background Questions

What kind of text are we dealing with?
When was it written?
Who wrote it?
For what audience was it intended?
For what purpose was it written?

In 1801 the United States was rapidly expanding w, well past the American purlieus of the Mississippi River and into what was known equally the Louisiana Territory. The Territory, approximately the middle third of what would become the continental US, saw the commencement of French settlements as early as 1682, but France lost the territory to Spain in 1763 after the French defeat in the French and Indian State of war. In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) forced Spain to sign the surreptitious Treaty of San Ildefonso, giving the Louisiana Territory back to France.

When word of the Treaty of San Ildefonso leaked out, United states of america President Thomas Jefferson became concerned, as you lot will come across in this individual letter written April 18, 1802, to Robert Livingston, his foreign minister in France. American farmers and merchants depended upon the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans to become their goods to market: call up, at this fourth dimension there were very few roads and h2o travel was vital. Through the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo (also known as Pinckney's Treaty) Spain had agreed to permit the United states of america utilize these areas without paying consign taxes. Simply after 1800 Spain no longer owned these areas, and so the Treaty was no longer in event. Anticipating that a French army might land at any time to accept control, America prepared to defend itself and take New Orleans by force, even though the new nation was still weak and vulnerable, and a French landing force would forcefulness the US to ally with Uk for protection. Fortunately for the United states of america, French troops were attempting to quash the Haitian Revolution and did non land as expected.

Rather than go to state of war, President Jefferson offered to buy New Orleans and West Florida for up to $10 million. He sent James Monroe to help Robert Livingston negotiate the sale, and if that was not possible, they were to negotiate rights to use the port of New Orleans (called "rights of deposit"). They were amazed when Napoleon offered the entire Territory for sale in exchange for $11.25 million and the forgiveness of $3.75 meg in French debt. Just there was a take hold of. Napoleon needed the money immediately to help fund a war with Great Britain.

Jefferson had serious doubts about whether he could move frontward with an outright purchase — the Constitution did not grant the president the right to negotiate this kind of holding deal. Federalists, the political party opposing Jefferson, objected to the buy also, since they had already become a minority in the Congress and more territory would hateful spreading out political power and weakening them even further. In addition, provisions of the Purchase Treaty required that all those, excepting the Native Americans, living inside the Louisiana Purchase become American citizens, implying that these areas would eventually become states. Did the President or Congress have the dominance to bring into the country whole groups of people who were outside America'south boundaries? No ane knew the answer.

But the idea of doubling the size of the U.s. too as making sure that a military ability like France did not edge the United states of america across the Mississippi River won the argument. Jefferson called Congress back into session 3 weeks early in club to ratify the Purchase Treaty. The actual boundaries of the Louisiana Territory were not specified in the sale, equally much of the territory had non been mapped accurately, but the Treaty sold to the U.s.a. the Mississippi River and all its western tributaries, approximately 828,000 foursquare miles.

Lewis and Clark map

Lewis and Clark map, with annotations in dark-brown ink past Meriwether Lewis, tracing showing the Mississippi, the Missouri for a short distance above Kansas, Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Winnipeg, and the country onwards to the Pacific.

What happened to the Louisiana Purchase? President Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore and map the northern part of the Purchase in 1804. Their two-year mission resulted in more accurate maps, knowledge of previously unknown Native American tribes, and an all-encompassing natural history survey of the continent. Their journey, known equally the "Corps of Discovery," would be used equally a rationale for U.s. Manifest Destiny in the years to come. Two future treaties, the Treaty of 1818 and the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, helped to confirm the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase, and the Purchase itself would eventually become all or role of fifteen U.s.a. states and two Canadian provinces.

Jefferson sent this private letter to Robert Livingston before he knew that Louisiana was for sale. As you clarify the text pay attention to reasons why Jefferson believes that the substitution of ownership of the Louisiana Territory from Spain to France poses such a threat to the US. Even though Jefferson had always been a supporter of France, note how he concludes that French command of New Orleans could hateful that France would become America'due south enemy. Look for Jefferson's arguments supporting American control of Louisiana.

Text Analysis

Text Excerpt

Close Reading Questions

Activity: Vocabulary
Acquire definitions by exploring how words are used in context.

one. Why does Jefferson believe that the fact that Spain ceding Louisiana and Florida to France "works most sorely on the The states"?
Jefferson believes that this shift of power on the continent will significantly alter US strange policy. Information technology "completely reverses all the political relations of the US." (Note: For example, equally stated in the background, Pinckney'southward Treaty of 1785 had negotiated Castilian permission to employ New Orleans equally a port, and now those arrangements will no longer apply.)

2. According to Jefferson what has been the previous relationship between the United states and France?
Jefferson believes that of all the nations, the United states and French republic have had the near "points of a communion of interests." The ii countries have been friends. (Note: Students might indicate out that the 2 nations fought together on the battlefields of the American Revolution, they shared democratic principles forged in revolution, and they shared economic ties. They accept been allies.)

3. Which metropolis on the North American continent does Jefferson believed is crucial to the United States? Cite evidence from the text.
New Orleans is the city, for "there is on the globe one unmarried spot, the possessor of which is our natural & habitual enemy." This implies that information technology is critical that the US possess the city, for if anyone else possessed information technology they would be the enemy of the US.

four. Why is this city and then of import?
Jefferson states, "The produce of 3/eight of our territory must pass to market, and from it'due south fertility it volition ere long yield more than half of our whole produce and contain more half our inhabitants." The city is critical for getting U.s. goods to market place, growing crops, and providing areas for settlement.

5. Why did Jefferson non run into the Castilian control of New Orleans every bit a threat?
Jefferson felt that Spain was not as powerful as French republic and "her [Spain's] pacific dispositions, her feeble state" would allow the The states to aggrandize its use of New Orleans. In addition, Jefferson could foresee a time when the Usa might purchase New Orleans from Spain. Espana is peaceful, while French republic is belligerent and expansionist. (Note: An additional reason students might cite could exist Pinckney's Treaty. In 1803 Charles Iv was Rex of Kingdom of spain, and he was considered by many to be a weak monarch.)

6. Why does Jefferson experience that French republic poses such a threat? Cite evidence from the text.
Jefferson felt that the The states and France approached issues differently. "The impetuosity of her [France'south] atmosphere, the energy & restlessness of her graphic symbol, placed in a signal of eternal friction with the states, and our character, which though quiet, & loving peace & the pursuit of wealth, is loftier minded, despising wealth in competition with insult or injury, enterprizing & energetic as any nation on globe, these circumstances render it impossible that France and the U.s.a. can keep long friends when they run into in so irritable a position." He felt that the American and French characters were dissimilar, and that the French were much more than aggressive. (Annotation: At this time, Napoleon Bonaparte was the leader of France.)

7. Regarding U.s.a. foreign policy, what does Jefferson see as the logical effect of France taking possession of New Orleans?
Because it will hateful that France will exist directly on a US border, Jefferson believes that it will require the United States to get more closely allied with Great Britain for its ain protection against French republic — that the The states must" marry ourselves to the British fleet & nation." It will besides marking the low betoken of France, "restraining her forever within her low h2o mark," because she volition become the enemy of both the US and Not bad Great britain. )Note: At this time the US did not have the war machine might to effectively oppose French republic and would need Britain as an ally for defense.)

8. In sentence 16, how does Jefferson predict that French control of New Orleans would affect the U.s.?
He believes that the US must "plough all our attentions to a maritime strength" and that "this is not a state of things nosotros seek or desire." It would limit American economic activity and require a military and naval presence on the Mississippi River to continue the French from crossing into the US. (Notation: At the time of this alphabetic character the United states of america did non have the financial means to fund a large navy, and Jefferson did not support a large standing national war machine force.)

ix. Why does Jefferson not desire a war with French republic?
It is not "from a fear of France that nosotros deprecate this measure proposed past her." Simply he feels that the The states and French republic share interests and Jefferson has "a sincere beloved of peace."

10. In sentences 22 through 24, Jefferson considers a reason why France might desire the port of New Orleans. What is the reason, and why does Jefferson believe information technology is not a valid reason?
Jefferson says that France might feel that New Orleans would help in supplying French colonies in the West Indies, but this would not be practical in times of war and would not exist needed in times of peace.

11. Even though he does not yet know the Louisiana Purchase is for sale, how does Jefferson propose to resolve this conflict?
If France must retain control of Louisiana, Jefferson ponders that perhaps France would exist willing to give the port of New Orleans and Florida to the US. This would resolve the conflict, removing "the causes of jarring & irritation between united states of america."

12. In sentences 28 through 30 Jefferson addresses a diplomatic rumor that was circulating at the time stating that later French troops had put down the rebellion in St. Domingo (Haiti) they would be bound for Louisiana. How does Jefferson respond to this rumor?
Jefferson states that fifty-fifty if it is truthful, French forces volition not arrive in Louisiana any time soon considering it volition accept a adept deal of time and manpower to subdue the Haitian revolt. He reminds his ambassadors that they have fourth dimension to deed. (Notation: In fact, the French lost the Haitian Revolution in 1803 and the manpower and material spent in Haiti contributed to France's loss of interest in reestablishing a base in the North America.)

13. Jefferson closes this excerpt by commenting on how important the effect of Louisiana is to the Usa. Summarize Jefferson's iii reasons from this letter for considering this issue equally critical. Why is "every heart in the U.s.a.… now fixed on this matter of Louisiana?"

The loss of the rights of deposit in New Orleans would cripple the American economy since there were and so few roads and merchants and farmers relied on river traffic to get good to marketplace.
A French presence would stifle westward expansion.
The presence of foreign troops so close to the U.s. would pose a constant threat of invasion.

Activity: Review
Review the points Jefferson makes in his letter.

(1) The cession of Louisiana & the Floridas by Espana to France works nearly sorely on the US…. (two) It compleatly reverses all the political relations of the US. and will course a new epoch in our political course. (three) Of all nations of any consideration France is the ane which hitherto has offered the fewest points on which we could have whatsoever conflict of right, and the nearly points of a communion of interests. (4) From these causes we take ever looked to her as our natural friend, as 1 with which we never could have an occasion of departure. (5) Her growth therefore we viewed as our ain, her misfortunes ours.

(half-dozen) There is on the earth one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural & habitual enemy. (7) It is New Orleans, through which the produce of 3 eighths of our territory must pass to market, and from information technology's fertility it will ere long yield more than half of our whole produce and contain more than half our inhabitants. (viii) France placing herself in that door assumes to the states the mental attitude of disobedience. (ix) Kingdom of spain might have retained it quietly for years. (10) Her pacific dispositions, her feeble state, would induce her to increment our facilities there, then that her possession of the place would be hardly felt by united states of america, and it would not perhaps be very long before some circumstance might arise which might make the cession of it to us the price of something of more worth to her.

(11) Not so tin information technology always be in the hands of French republic. (12) The impetuosity of her atmosphere, the energy & restlessness of her grapheme, placed in a indicate of eternal friction with united states, and our character, which though quiet, & loving peace & the pursuit of wealth, is loftier minded, despising wealth in competition with insult or injury, enterprizing & energetic as any nation on earth, these circumstances render information technology impossible that France and the United states can continue long friends when they run into in and so irritable a position. (13) They equally well as we must be blind if they practise not run into this; and nosotros must be very improvident if nosotros exercise not begin to brand arrangements on that hypothesis.

(14) The day that France takes possession of N. Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever inside her depression h2o mark. (15) It seals the marriage of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. (sixteen) From that moment nosotros must marry ourselves to the British fleet & nation. (17) Nosotros must turn all our attentions to a maritime strength, for which our resource place us on very high ground: and having formed and cemented together a power which may render reinforcement of her settlements here impossible to France, make the first cannon which shall be fired in Europe the signal for fierce up any settlement she may take fabricated, and for holding the two continents of America in sequestration for the mutual purposes of the United British & American nations. (18) This is not a land of things we seek or desire. (xix) It is 1 which this measure, if adopted past France, forces on u.s., as necessarily as any other cause, past the laws of nature, brings on it's necessary effect.

(20) It is non from a fright of France that we deprecate this measure proposed by her. (21) For notwithstanding greater her force is than ours compared in the abstract, information technology is zip in comparing of ours when to be exerted on our soil. (22) But information technology is from a sincere dear of peace, and a business firm persuasion that bound to France by the interests and the strong sympathies still existing in the minds of our citizens, and belongings relative positions which ensure their continuance nosotros are secure of a long form of peace. (23) Whereas the change of friends, which will exist rendered necessary if France changes that position, embarks us necessarily as a belligerent ability in the first war of Europe….

(24) And will a few years possession of N. Orleans add equally to the strength of France? (25) She may say she needs Louisiana for the supply of her Due west Indies. (26) She does not need information technology in time of peace, and in state of war she could not depend on them considering they would exist then easily intercepted….

(27) If French republic considers Louisiana however as indispensable for her views she might perhaps be willing to look near for arrangements which might reconcile it to our interests. (28) If whatever thing could exercise this it would be the ceding to us the island of New Orleans the Floridas. (29) This would certainly in a great caste remove the causes ofjarring & irritation betwixt us….

(xxx) The idea here is that the troops sent to St. Domingo, were to proceed to Louisiana after finishing their piece of work in that island. (31) If this were the organisation, information technology will give you time to render again & again to the charge. (32) For the conquest of St. Domingo will non be a brusque work. (33) It will have considerable fourth dimension and wear down a great number of souldiers.

(34) Every middle in the US is now stock-still on this matter of Louisiana. (35) Perhaps nothing since the revolutionary war has produced more uneasy sensations through the torso of the nation. (36) Notwithstanding temporary bickerings take taken identify with France, she has still a strong concur on the affections of our citizens generally.

Louisiana Purchase Treaty

Louisiana Purchase Treaty, April 30, 1803

Follow-up Assignment: The Letter of the Law versus the Spirit of the Law

The Louisiana Purchase was very controversial at the time. President Jefferson believed in a strict construction of the Us Constitution — unless the Constitution specifically granted a power to the government, the power belonged to the people. The Constitution did non specifically grant the president the power to negotiate territorial purchases, but Jefferson acted in contrast to this principle in the example of the Louisiana Purchase. Why would he practice this?

In September of 1810 after he had left the presidency, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John B. Colvin, a newspaper editor, responding to a question about the president strictly interpreting the Constitution. Note Jefferson'southward stardom betwixt "in principle" and "in practise." Jefferson wrote:

Whether circumstances practise not sometimes occur which brand information technology a duty in officers of high trust to presume authorities beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes embarrasing in practice. A strict observance of the written laws is doubtlessone of the high duties of a good citizen: merely information technology is notthe highest. The laws of necessity, of cocky-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of college obligation. To lose our country past a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, holding & all those who are enjoying them with united states; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the ways…. It is incumbent on those merely who accept of bang-up charges, to risk themselves on great occasions, when the safety of the nation, or some of information technology's very high interests are at stake.

Consider this tension between the strict "letter of the law," or what a law literally states, and the "spirit of the law," or what a law means in practice. When Jefferson negotiated the Louisiana Buy he was extending the ability of the presidency beyond the letter of the constabulary. According to Jefferson, what are the responsibilities of the president regarding this balance between the letter of the law and the spirit of the police force? How might this explain his purchase of the Louisiana Territory?

Write a well-developed essay in which y'all defend, challenge or quality this statement: "Jefferson's buy of Louisiana was justified." Share your piece of work with your classmates.

Vocabulary Popular-ups

cession: giving up
epoch: historical period
hitherto: until now
misfortunes: bad luck
habitual: usual
fertility: ability to grow crops
ere long: before long
defiance: open contempt
pacific: peaceful
induce: crusade
impetuosity: thoughtlessness
despising: regard with contempt
extravagant: not cautious
hypothesis: assumption

marry: connect closely
maritime: naval
render: cause
sequestration: isolation
deprecate: protestation against
abstract: in theory
relative: comparative
continuance: perseverance
belligerent: war-like
indispensable: absolutely necessary
jarring: conflicting
charge: task
bickerings: petty arguments

Text:

"From Thomas Jefferson to Robert R. Livingston, 18 April 1802," Founders Online, National Athenaeum. http://founders.athenaeum.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-37-02-0220, ver. 2014-05-09. Source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 37, 4 March–thirty June 1802, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, pp. 263–267.

Images:

Louisiana, Map. Samuel Lewis, 1805?. Library of Congress Geography and Map Partitioning Washington, D.C. http://lccn.loc.gov/2001620468, accessed January, 2015.
Lewis and Clark map, with annotations in brownish ink past Meriwether Lewis, tracing showing the Mississippi, the Missouri for a short distance higher up Kansas, Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Winnipeg, and the land onwards to the Pacific, Map. N. King, 1803. Library of Congress Geography and Map Segmentation Washington, D.C. http://lccn.loc.gov/98687178, accessed January, 2015.
Louisiana Purchase Treaty, Apr 30, 1803 (ARC ID 299807); General Records of the U.Southward. Government; Tape Group 11; National Archives. http://world wide web.athenaeum.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=5&title.raw=Louisiana%20Purchase%20Treaty, accessed March, 2015.