Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of about 530,000,000 acres (828,000 sq mi or 2,100,000 km²) of territory from France in 1803, at the cost of about 3¢ per acre (7¢ per ha); totaling US$15 million or ₣80 million. Including interest, America finally paid $23,213,568 for the Louisiana territory.[1] Almost all of the land was occupied by American Indians, from whom the land was purchased a second time, piece by piece. The actual price paid for the land of the Louisiana Purchase was thus much higher than the sum paid to France. It was not the ownership of the land that was purchased so much as the right to purchase the land from the Indians.
The land purchased contained all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, much of North Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, northern Texas, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide, and Louisiana on both sides of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans. In addition, the Purchase contained small portions of land that would eventually become part of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada.
The land included in the purchase comprises around 23% of the territory of the modern United States.[1]
The purchase was an important moment in the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. At the time, it faced domestic opposition as being possibly unconstitutional.
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 U.S. west of the Appalachian Mountains. Through Pinckney's Treaty signed with Spain on October 27, 1795, American merchants had "right of deposit" in New Orleans, meaning they could use the port to store goods for export. Americans also used this "right of deposit" 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 increasingly vital to the growing trade of their western territories (Meinig 1993). 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 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. The transfer finally took place on November 30, 1803, just three weeks before the cession to the U.S.
Americans were fearful that they would lose their rights of use to New Orleans. The Jefferson Administration decided that the best way to assure long term access to the Mississippi would be to purchase the city of New Orleans and the nearby portions of Louisiana east of the Mississippi. Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to Paris to negotiate such a purchase. Their interest was only in the port, not in the broad swath of territory eventually included in the Louisiana Purchase, which came as a surprise bonus.
Negotiation
Jefferson laid the groundwork for the purchase by sending Livingston to Paris in 1801, after discovering the transfer of Louisiana from Spain to France. Livingston was to pursue a purchase of New Orleans, but he was rebuffed by the French.
In 1802, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours was enlisted to help negotiate. Du Pont was living in the U.S. at the time and had close ties to Jefferson, as well as to the political powers in France. He engaged in back-channel diplomacy with Napoleon, on Jefferson's behalf, during a personal visit to France. He originated the idea of the much larger Louisiana Purchase as a way to defuse potential conflict between the U.S. and Napoleon over North America. [2]
Jefferson disliked the idea: purchasing Louisiana from France would imply that France had a right to be in Louisiana. Jefferson also believed that Presidents did not have the authority to engage in such a deal because it was not specified in the constitution and doing so would further erode states' rights by increasing Federal executive power. On the other hand, he was aware of the potential threat that a neighbor like France could be for the young nation, and was ready to go to war in case a strong French presence in the region was implemented. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, likewise, was vehemently opposed to selling Louisiana since it would mean an end to France's secret plans for a takeover of North America.
Throughout this time, Jefferson had up-to-date intelligence on Napoleon's military activities and intentions in North America. Part of his evolving strategy involved giving du Pont information that was withheld from Livingston. He also gave intentionally conflicting instructions to the two. He next sent Monroe to Paris in 1803. Monroe had been formally expelled from France on his last diplomatic mission, and the choice to send him again conveyed a sense of seriousness.
Napoleon was faced with the defeat of his armies in Saint-Domingue (present-day Republic of Haiti) where an expeditionary force under his brother-in-law Charles Leclerc was attempting to reassert control over a slave rebellion that threatened France's most profitable colony.
Political conflicts in Guadeloupe and in Saint-Domingue grew with the restoration of slavery on May 20, 1802, and the defection of leading French officers, like the black general Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the mulatto officer Alexandre Pétion in October 1802, within the context of an ongoing guerrilla war. The French had successfully deported Toussaint L'Ouverture to France in June 1802, but yellow fever was destroying European soldiers and claimed Leclerc in November.
Lacking sufficient military forces in America, Napoleon needed peace with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to implement the Treaty of San Ildefonso and take possession of Louisiana. Otherwise, Louisiana would be an easy prey for the British or even for the Americans. Britain had breached her promise to evacuate Malta by September 1802 as stipulated in the peace of Amiens, and in the beginning of the year 1803, war between France and Britain seemed increasingly unavoidable. On March 11, 1803, Napoleon decided to start building a flotilla of barges to invade Britain.
These circumstances led Bonaparte to abandon his plans to rebuild France's New World empire. Napoleon gave notice to his business minister, François de Barbé-Marbois, on April 10, 1803, that he was considering surrendering the Louisiana Territory to the United States. On 11 April, 1803, just days before Monroe's arrival, Marquess de Barbé-Marbois, Napoleon's minister of the treasury, offered Livingston all of Louisiana instead of just New Orleans. President Jefferson had instructed Livingston to only purchase New Orleans. However, he was certain that the United States would accept such a large offer.
The American negotiators were prepared to spend $10 million for New Orleans but were dumbfounded when the entire region was offered for $15 million. The treaty was dated April 30, 1803, and was signed on May 2. On July 14, 1803, the treaty reached Washington D.C. The Louisiana territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert's Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Acquiring the territory would double the size of the United States at a cost in the currency of the day of less than 3 cents per acre (7 cents per ha).
Finance
The finance of the purchase involved the British Barings Bank. In 1802, it helped finance the Louisiana Purchase, despite the fact that Britain was at war with France, and the sale had the effect of financing Napoleon's war effort. Technically the United States did not purchase Louisiana from Napoleon. Louisiana was purchased from the Baring brothers and Hope & Co.. The payment for the purchase was made in US bonds, which Napoleon sold to Barings at a discount of 87 1/2 per each $100. As a result, Napoleon received only $8,831,250 in cash for Louisiana. Alexander Baring, working for Hope & Co., conferred with the French Director of the Public Treasury François Barbé-Marbois in Paris, went to the United States to pick up the bonds and took them to France.
Details and original historical documents can be found at the Lousiana Secretary of State webpage.
Domestic opposition
The American purchase of the Louisiana territory was not accomplished without domestic opposition. Jefferson's philosophical consistency was in question because of his strict interpretation of the Constitution. Many people believed he was being hypocritical by doing something he surely would have argued against with Alexander Hamilton. The Federalists strongly opposed the purchase, favoring close relations with Britain over closer ties to Napoleon. The Federalists argued that the purchase was unconstitutional and that the U.S. had paid a large sum of money just to declare war on Spain. The Federalists also feared that the political power of the Atlantic seaboard states would be threatened by the new citizens of the west, bringing about a clash of western farmers with the merchants and bankers of New England. There was concern that an increase in slave holding states created out of the new territory would exacerbate divisions between north and south, as well. A group of Federalists led by Massachusetts Senator Timothy Pickering went so far as to plan a separate northern confederacy, offering Vice President Aaron Burr the presidency of the proposed new country if he persuaded New York to join. Burr's relationship with Alexander Hamilton, who helped bring an end to the nascent northern secession movement, soured during this period. The animosity between the two men grew during the 1801 election and ended with Hamilton's death in a duel with Burr in 1804.
Treaty signing
On April 30, 1803, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed by Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Barbé Marbois at Paris. Jefferson announced the treaty to the American people on July 4.
The United States Senate ratified the treaty with a vote of twenty-four to seven on October 20; on the following day, it authorized President Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. In legislation enacted on October 31, Congress made temporary provisions for local civil government to continue as it had under French and Spanish rule and authorized the President to use military forces to maintain order. Plans were also set forth for a mission to explore and chart the territory, which would become known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
France then turned New Orleans over on December 20, 1803. On March 10, 1804, a formal ceremony was conducted in St. Louis to transfer ownership of the territory from France to the United States.
Effective on October 1, 1804, the purchased territory was organized into the Orleans Territory (most of which became the state of Louisiana) and the District of Louisiana, which was temporarily under the control of the governor and judges of the Indiana Territory.
Boundaries
When purchased, the boundaries of "Louisiana" were not undefined, and the land itself was generally unknown. In particular, not wanting to anger Spain, France refused to specify the southern and western boundaries.
The tributaries of the Mississippi were held as the boundaries. Estimates that did exist as to the extent and composition of the purchase were initially based on the explorations of Robert LaSalle.
If the territory included all the tributaries of the Mississippi on its northern side, the northern reaches of the Purchase extended into the equally ill-defined British possession—Rupert's Land of British North America, now part of Canada. The Purchase originally extended just beyond the 50th parallel. However, the territory north of the 49th parallel such as the Red River Basin, Milk River, and Poplar River watershed was ceded to the UK in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818.
The eastern boundary of the Louisiana purchase was the Mississippi River, from its source to the 31st parallel; the source of the Mississippi was then unknown, but is now known to be Lake Itasca in Minnesota. The eastern boundary below the 31st parallel was unclear; the U.S. claimed the land as far as the Perdido River; Spain claimed the border of its Florida Colony remained the Mississippi river. The Treaty with Spain of 1819 resolved the issue. Today, the 31st parallel is the northern boundary of the western half of the Florida Panhandle, and the Perdido is the boundary between Florida and Alabama.
The purchase extended eastwestward to the Rocky Mountains.
The northsouthern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase was initially unclear; the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 began to lay down official dividing lines.
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The Louisiana Massacre shown on the 2002 Louisiana State Quarter. -
The Purchase was one of several territorial additions to the U.S.
References
- Meinig, D.W. The Shaping of America: Volume 2, Yale University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-300-06290-7
- ^ a b Table 1.1 Acquisition of the Public Domain 1781-1867
- ^ Duke, Marc; The du Ponts: Portrait of a Dynasty, P.77-83, Saturday Review Press, 1976
External links
- Text of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty
- Louisiana Secretary of State - Government historical documents and other educational material
- Louisiana Purchase Treaty and related resources at the Library of Congress
- Teaching about the Louisiana Purchase
- Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial 1803-2003
- The Louverture Project: The Haitian Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase
Lewis and Clark Expedition