...The Louisiana Purchase Thomas Jefferson's presidency was based on following the constitution strictly without exceptions. Although in 1803, Jefferson had to make one of the hardest decisions of his career. He had to decide between what he stood for and what would make this country prosper. Jefferson knew that if he followed the constitution he would not be able to purchase the Louisiana Territory. Jefferson's decision was influenced by three main principles; the importance of the Louisiana territory, other options available, and the affect of the purchase. At the time Louisiana was owned by the French power, Napoleon Bonaparte. He blocked one of the most important...
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...Louisiana Purchase 1803 Bridget Cochran 01/28/2012American InterContinental University |...
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...France explored the Mississippi River Valley then started settlements on land that would turn into fifteen states. At four cents an acre Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States for a total of $15 million. After the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on a expedition to discover the new land. On the trip Jefferson had them make a detailed map of what they saw and went different terrains they encountered. In the beginning of the Seventeenth Century after France they explored the territory they established scattered settlements in this region. During the Eighteenth Century, the United States was controlled more by France than any other European power. France then ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spain. Since it was ceded, the United States did not know about it. This took place during the French and Indian War [1754-1763]. The French transferred nearly...
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...The Louisiana Purchase began right after the election In Washington D.C. around 1800. President Thomas Jefferson had this belief that if people were able to obtain land, the would be able to endure. On the other side of the world in France, Napoleon Bonaparte convinced Spain Into giving them the territory Louisiana. After hearing about France buying spain, Jefferson was very apprehensive, for he believed it would cause problems with shipping on the Mississippi River. Because of his nervousness, he sent Robert Livingston, and James Monroe to try and block Napoleon from getting the Louisiana Territory. In 1803, Napoleon had plans to conquer Europe. The only problem was he was low on funds to do so. With Jefferson’s authorities in the...
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...On January 18, 1803, $2,500 is requested by Thomas Jefferson who sent a secret communication to Congress to get an approval for the expedition. Then, Napoleon offered to sell the Louisiana Territory to United States, which we accept in April 1803. In Spring 1803, Lewis (commander of the expedition) goes to Philadelphia to study botany, zoology, medicine, and navigation with the nation's best scientists. Lewis invites William Clark go on the expedition with him, and Clark accepts. Jefferson sends a team (Lewis and Clark) to explore the lands that they bought for the Louisiana Purchase. The Lewis and Clark expedition also known as The Corps of Discovery was the first American exploration of which is now the western part of the United States. Lewis and Clark start their expedition in 1804. They departed from St. Louis, Missouri and went all the way to the Pacific coast....
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...expansion became an integral part of the growth of the United States and the foundation of the country we see today. Keywords: Territorial expansion, country, natural resources, history The territorial expansion event that I have chosen to write about is the Louisiana purchase of 1803. The actual purchase of the state of Louisiana happened more by chance than by intention. What began as an attempt to regain access to navigate the lower Mississippi river evolved into one of the surprise territorial expansions in United States history. In reaction to Spain suddenly retracted an agreed upon treaty that allowed the United States to have access to the lower Mississippi river in 1802; the then President of the United States sent James Monroe to Paris to join with Robert Livingston to assist in negotiate the purchase of New Orleans and West Florida from the French. This maneuver was intended to secure control of the Mississippi, which was a vital trader route. However, as fortune would have it; Napoleon Bonaparte, who by this time had become a great military leader; was preparing for an impending war in Europe and needed a financial war chest. So, in April of 1803, Napoleon offered to sell, not just New Orleans, but all of Louisiana. Even though, they were not authorized to spend the amount Napoleon was asking, which was $15,000.000.00, this was an offer that was just too good to pass up. Because of this move, the American negotiators had doubled the size of the country by adding over...
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...Louisiana Purchase I/Background The city of New Orleans controlled the Mississippi River through its location; other locations for ports had been tried and had not succeeded. New Orleans was already important for shipping agricultural goods to and from the parts of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. Pinckney's Treaty, signed with Spain on October 27, 1795, gave American merchants "right of deposit" in New Orleans, meaning they could use the port to store goods for export. Americans used this right to transport products such as flour, tobacco, pork, bacon, lard, feathers, cider, butter, and cheese. The treaty also recognized American rights to navigate the entire Mississippi River, which had become vital to the growing trade of their western territories. In 1798 Spain revoked this treaty, which greatly upset Americans. In 1801, Spanish Governor Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo took over for Governor Marquess of Casa Calvo, and the right to deposit goods from the United States was fully restored. Napoleon Bonaparte returned Louisiana to French control from Spain in 1800, under the Treaty of San Ildefonso (Louisiana had been a Spanish colony since 1762.) However, the treaty was kept secret, and Louisiana remained under Spanish control until a transfer of power to France on November 30, 1803, just three weeks before the cession to the United States. James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston traveled to Paris to negotiate the purchase in 1802. Their interest was only in...
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...The Louisiana Purchase had many advantages and disadvantages including moral dilemmas for President Thomas Jefferson that made him go against his own beliefs. The Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the size of the United States and it wasn’t that expensive, but nowhere in the constitution does it say a president can acquire land using funds because a president doesn’t have that kind of power and, President Jefferson was very fond of the Constitution, yet he went against it so he could buy it. The Louisiana Purchase was a land deal in 1803 between the United States and France, where France gave around 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River to the United States for $15 million (monticello.org). 15 states were eventually made...
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... Parnell Jefferson’s Dilemma In the spring of 1803 the United States was offered the opportunity to double its land size by purchasing the Louisiana Territory from the French. During this time Thomas Jefferson was in office serving as our 3rd president. Along with the decision of purchasing the land, Jefferson faced many other difficulties that could have both positive and negative effects on the United States. After hearing word that the Territory had shifted out of Spain’s hands in 1802, Jefferson knew he had to act while Napoleon Buonaparte was still in control of the land. Jefferson did not want to form an alliance with Britain but at the same time he did not want to go to war with France, he had to be vigilant in...
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...Chapter 11 - The Triumphs and Travails of Jeffersonian Republic I. Federalist and Republican Mudslingers 1. In the election of 1800, the Federalists had a host of enemies stemming from the Alien and Sedition Acts. 2. The Federalists had been most damaged by John Adams’ not declaring war against France. * They had raised a bunch of taxes and built a good navy, and then had not gotten any reason to justify such spending, making them seem fraudulent as they had also swelled the public debt. * John Adams became known as “the Father of the American Navy.” * Federalists also launched attacks on Jefferson, saying that he had robbed a widow and her children of a trust fund, fathered numerous children with his slaves (which turned out to be true), called him an atheist (he was a Deist), and used other inflammatory remarks. II. The Jeffersonian “Revolution of 1800” 1. Thomas Jefferson won the election of 1800 by a majority of 73 electoral votes to 65, and even though Adams got more popular votes, Jefferson got New York. But, even though Jefferson triumphed, in a technicality he and Aaron Burr tied for presidency. * The vote, according to the Constitution, would now go to the Federalist-dominated House of Representatives. * Hateful of Jefferson, many wanted to vote for Burr, and the vote was deadlocked for months until Alexander Hamilton and John Adams persuaded a few House members to change their votes, knowing that if ...
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...the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition have an impact on westward expansion and how did Jefferson's message to Congress (1803) show his vision for the new republic? The reasons why the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis Clark Expedition had an impact on the westward expansion, including the reasons why Thomas Jefferson arranged the journey, a summary of his vision for the new republic (Jefferson’s Secret Message) and the outcome of his vision as it relates to the Westward Expansion. “The portion of their country most important for us is exactly that which they do not inhabit. Their settlements are not on the Mississippi, but in the interior country. They have lately shown a desire to become agricultural; and this leads to the desire of buying implements and comforts. In the strengthening and gratifying of these wants, I see the only prospect of planting on the Mississippi itself, the means of its own safety. Duty has required me to submit these views to the judgment of the Legislature; but as their disclosure might embarrass and defeat their effect, they are committed to the special confidence of the two Houses.” (Jefferson, 1803) Taken from Thomas Jefferson’s Secret Message to Congress of 1803. This excerpt introduces the vision of Thomas...
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...P 4 LOUISIANA PURCHASE: 1803 Brandon Correll AIU Online Abstract This paper discusses Louisiana Purchase, and how the territory was acquired. It discusses who we acquired the territory from, and the events that took place in order to acquire it. It discusses the short term impacts and consequences the Louisiana Purchase had on our country. Finally it discusses the long term impacts and consequences the Louisiana Purchase had on our country. Louisiana Purchase: 1803 The Louisiana Purchase was the process and agreement in which the United States acquired territory by purchasing said territory from Napoleon of France. Thomas Jefferson was the President of The United States of America at the time of the purchase, and Jefferson is the President who closed and signed the deal. Napoleon, the ruler of France, had offered to sell the territory of Louisiana to the United States for $15 million. This vast territory extended westward from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and southward from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico and the Spanish lands of what is now Texas and New Mexico. (Patrick, 2003) Jefferson wanted to buy Louisiana, but he was reluctant to stretch too far the constitutional powers of the federal government. Jefferson believed that the powers of the federal government should be limited precisely to those explicitly granted in the Constitution. (Patrick, 2003) Patrick, J (2003) stated: According to his strict constructionist interpretation...
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...When you think of Louisiana what comes to mind? A small boot-shaped state? Well, when Louisiana was first in the hands of the United States it was a very large territory that took up about a third of present-day America. Up until this point, his vast area of land had remained unexplored. As a result, the Lewis and Clark Expedition was initiated by the current president, Thomas Jefferson. The Lewis and Clark expedition was the exploration of the Louisiana purchase.America bought the Louisiana purchase from France in 1803 for $15,000,000. The expedition was launched that same year and on this journey they searched for a water route to the pacific. The Lewis And Clark expedition’s greatest achievement was mapping the west because it created the first accurate maps of the west, It was the original purpose of the expedition, and aided in building relationships with Indians. The reason why mapping the west was the expedition's greatest achievement is that it helped create the first accurate maps of the west. This can be easily seen just by looking at the map in Document D. It has excruciating detail from the path of their onward journey and their returning, to spot on points of interest. This is exactly the kind of map Jefferson wanted. This detail was important because it was one of the first maps made of the west. Another reason why the...
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...ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Thomas Jefferson and the Purchase of Louisiana Annotated bibliography 1. Esmond Wright, “THE RELEVANCE OF MR. JEFFERSON, “Virginia quarterly review 76, no.3 (2000): 379, http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/detail?vid=18&hid=120&sid=cb07f42a-e296-4a5d-baa5-5b4c39975cbe%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=3313415 (accessed November 28, 2012) Database: Academic Search Complete, (accessed November 28, 2012) My research topic is on Thomas Jefferson and the purchase of the Louisiana Territory. I have chosen the database above because Part of the article describes the family background and political liabilities of Thomas Jefferson former president of the United States. Thomas Jefferson was a powerful advocate of liberty. He was born in 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia from a wealthy family. He went to a very good school and also attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg where he received a good training in Philosophy and law. He became a linguist and also loved to read books on diverse subjects. According to Esmond Wright, Thomas Jefferson’s interests were catholic. He married a widow Martha Skelton in 1772 and took her to his house in Monticello. After Martha died in 1872, Jefferson was suspected to have an intimate relationship with Martha half-sister Sally Hemings who was biracial. Even though his political liabilities were impressive, he was...
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...controlled New Orleans and the immeasurable extends of region to its south and west. In any case, with wars boiling over in Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte constrained the session of the Louisiana region from Spain to France and quickly banished American access to the port of New Orleans in 1802. President Thomas Jefferson immediately dispatched then Secretary of State James Madison to Paris to arrange access to the port of New Orleans through buy of domain, transaction, or by picking up some other kind of access to the port. Be that as it may, upon his landing in Paris, Madison quickly took in of Napoleon's plan to offer the whole Louisiana domain to the United States. Seizing the open door to buy around 827,000 square miles of land, Madison arranged the buy of the Louisiana region for 15 million dollars in 1803. Since Madison was just sanctioned to use 10 million dollars, the buy surpassed his power, which was possibly hazardous. Jefferson likewise mulled over the legality of such a buy, actually proposing, to the point that an alteration to the U.s. Constitution may be essential before the buy could be made authority. In any case, his bureau convinced him that this movement was not required. The buy was likewise generally welcomed inside Congress, which confirmed the buy that same year. The Louisiana Purchase exhibited a number of the same long haul issues that the 1783 Treaty of Paris postured. Again, the United States gained endless domains not...
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