THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE

1803

The Louisiana Purchase

• The Louisiana Purchase- was a land purchase transaction by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles.

•

The U.S. paid

• 60 million francs or $11,250,000 U.S.

• cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs or $3,750,000 U.S.

• a total cost of $15,000,000 U.S. for the Louisiana territory.

• $219 million in 2010 dollars

Louisiana Purchase Encompassed

• portions of 15 current U.S. states and 2 Canadian Provinces.

• In addition, the Purchase contained small portions of land that would eventually become part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

• the purchase comprises around 23% of the territory of the United States today.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0nW9bzP_wo

Thomas Jefferson

• The purchase was a vital moment in the presidency.

• it faced domestic opposition as being possibly unconstitutional.

• Jefferson decided to purchase Louisiana because he felt uneasy about France and Spain having the power to block American trade access to the port of New Orleans.

Dissention

Background

• Pinckney's Treaty signed with Spain on October 27, 1795.

• American merchants had "right of deposit" in New Orleans,

• they could use the port to store goods for export.

• 1798 Spain revoked this treaty, which greatly upset Americans

More Background

• In 1801, Spanish Governor Don Juan Manuel the right to deposit goods from the United States was fully restored.

• Napoleon Bonaparte returned Louisiana to French control from Spain in 1800.

• Louisiana had been a Spanish colony since 1762

More Background

• 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 United States

More Background

• James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston traveled to Paris to negotiate the purchase in 1803.

• they did not anticipate the much larger transfer of territory that would follow.

Monroe Negotiating

The original treaty of the Louisiana Purchase

• Jefferson made 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 failed.

The original treaty of the Louisiana Purchase Continued

• In 1802, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours was enlisted to help negotiate.

• 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 United States and Napoleon over North America

The original treaty of the Louisiana Purchase Continued

• Jefferson also believed that a U.S. president did not have the authority to engage in such a deal because it was not specified in the constitution

• On the other hand, he was aware of the potential threat that a neighbor like France would be for the young nation,

• and was prepared to go to war to prevent a strong French presence in the region.

Up Rising

• Napoleon was faced with an uprising in Saint-Domingue (present-day Republic of Haiti

• Charles Leclerc had attempted to conquer the territory, remove the substantial numbers of black and mulatto officers and soldiers in the armed forces,

• He wanted to enslave those who had been emancipated in 1793-4, and re-introduce the slave trade.

Up Rising Continued

• but the revolutionary war and the yellow fever were destroying most of the Leclerc's army of European soldiers.

• Having by his attempt to re-enslave the people and army in St. Domingue made enemies of what became the army of Haiti,

• and destroyed most the French military forces sent in 1802-1804 to the Caribbean, Napoleon needed peace

Up Rising Continued

• The failure of his plans for the re-enslaving of the freed population of Haiti led Bonaparte to abandon his plans to rebuild France's New World empire.

• Without the large profits that could accrue from sugar plantations in the Caribbean, Louisiana had little value to him.

• Napoleon gave notice to his minister of the treasury, François de Barbé-Marbois, on April 10, 1803, that he was considering surrendering the Louisiana Territory to the United States. On April 11, 1803

American Negotiations

• President Jefferson had instructed Livingston to only purchase New Orleans

• 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.

Occupants of the land

• Almost all of the land was occupied by American Indians.

• from whom the land was acquired 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

Occupants of the land Continued

• It was not the ownership of the land that was acquired so much as the right to acquire the land from the Indians who already occupied it

• Neither seller nor purchaser consulted with any Native Americans before the sale,

• Most Native Americans never even knew it had taken place.

Domestic opposition

• Jefferson's philosophical consistency was in question because of his strict interpretation of the Constitution

• The Federalists strongly opposed the purchase, favoring close relations with Britain over closer ties to Napoleon,

• believing the purchase to be unconstitutional, • concerned that the U.S. had paid a large sum of

money just to declare war on Spain.

Domestic oppositionContinued

• 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

Treaty Signing

• 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

• Congress made temporary provisions for local civil government to continue as it had under French and Spanish rule

• Congress authorized the President to use military forces to maintain order

Treaty SigningContinued

• Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory,

• the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

• France turned New Orleans over on December 20, 1803 at The Cabildo.

• On March 10, 1804, a formal ceremony was conducted in St. Louis to transfer ownership of the territory from France to the United States.

Boundaries

• The Purchase was one of several territorial additions to the U.S.

• A dispute immediately arose between Spain and the United States regarding the extent of Louisiana

Boundary Disputes

• The United States claimed Louisiana included the entire western portion of the Mississippi River drainage basin to the crest of the Rocky Mountains and land extending southeast to the Rio Grande.

• Spain insisted that Louisiana comprised no more than the western bank of the Mississippi River and the cities of New Orleans and St. Louis

Financing• The American government used $3 million

in gold as a down payment, and bonds for the balance to pay France for the purchase.

• Because of the impending war with Britain, French banks would not buy or market the American bonds

Financing Continued • After the American bonds had been

delivered, the French government then sold them to Baring and Hope at a discount

• Also, part of the 80 million Francs (approximately $15 million) sale price was used to forgive debts owed by France to the United States.

Financing Continued• In the end, France received $8,831,250 in

cash for the sale.