How Does the Louisiana Purchase Again Force Jefferson to Abandon His Principles?

Advisor: Scott Due east. Casper, Dean of the Higher of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Professor of History, Academy of Maryland, Baltimore County
National Humanities Center Fellow
©2015 National Humanities Center

Why did President Thomas Jefferson negotiate the Louisiana Purchase?

Agreement

Every bit a strict constructionist of the US Constitution, supporting but those powers specifically granted past the document, Thomas Jefferson questioned his executive authority to buy the Louisiana Territory from France. However, the economic 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, 1805

Text

From Thomas Jefferson to Robert R. Livingston, 18 April 1802
Find more correspondence at Founders Online from the National Archives.

Text Type

Alphabetic character, not-fiction

Text Complication

Grade eleven-CCR complication ring.

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

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

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Mutual Core Land Standards

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.one (cite evidence to clarify specifically and by inference)
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.6 (make up one's mind writer's bespeak of view)

Avant-garde Placement U.s.a. History

• Key Concept iv.3 (IA) (Following the Louisiana Buy, the Usa regime sought influence and control…)

Teacher'south Note

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

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

This lesson allows students to contextualize what will go the Louisiana Buy prior to its acquisition by viewing the Buy through a lens of national economical and war machine defence force rather than an act of territorial expansion. As Jefferson considers the possibility of an aggressive France led by Napoleon Bonaparte on America'due south doorstep, he states, "…perhaps nothing since the revolutionary war has produced more than uneasy sensations through the trunk of the nation." Original spellings and punctuation are retained.

This lesson is divided into ii parts, both attainable below. The text is accompanied by close reading questions, educatee interactives, and an optional follow-up assignment. The teacher'southward guide includes a background note, the text analysiswith responses to the close reading questions, access to the interactive exercises, and the follow-upwardly assignment. The student's version, an interactive PDF, contains all of the aboveexcept the responses to the shut reading questions and the follow-upwards assignment.

Teacher's Guide (continues below) Background note Text analysis and close reading questions with respond key Interactive exercises Follow-up assignment

Pupil Version (click to open) Interactive PDF Background notation Text assay and close reading questions Interactive exercises

Teacher'southward Guide

Background

Background Questions

1. What kind of text are we dealing with?
2. When was information technology written?
3. Who wrote it?
4. For what audition was information technology intended?
5. For what purpose was it written?

In 1801 the United States was rapidly expanding westward, well past the American boundary of the Mississippi River and into what was known as the Louisiana Territory. The Territory, approximately the center third of what would become the continental United states, saw the starting time of French settlements as early on as 1682, but French republic lost the territory to Spain in 1763 after the French defeat in the French and Indian War. In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) forced Espana to sign the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso, giving the Louisiana Territory back to French republic.

When give-and-take of the Treaty of San Ildefonso leaked out, United states President Thomas Jefferson became concerned, every bit you volition see in this private 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 get their goods to market place: retrieve, at this time there were very few roads and water travel was vital. Through the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo (also known as Pinckney's Treaty) Espana had agreed to allow the United states of america use these areas without paying export taxes. But after 1800 Spain no longer owned these areas, and so the Treaty was no longer in effect. Anticipating that a French army might land at whatever time to take command, America prepared to defend itself and accept New Orleans by force, even though the new nation was still weak and vulnerable, and a French landing forcefulness would force the The states to ally with United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland for protection. Fortunately for the Us, French troops were attempting to quash the Haitian Revolution and did not state equally expected.

Rather than go to 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 utilize the port of New Orleans (called "rights of deposit"). They were amazed when Napoleon offered the unabridged Territory for sale in exchange for $eleven.25 meg and the forgiveness of $iii.75 million in French debt. Merely there was a take hold of. Napoleon needed the money immediately to help fund a war with U.k..

Jefferson had serious doubts almost whether he could move frontward with an outright purchase — the Constitution did not grant the president the right to negotiate this kind of belongings deal. Federalists, the party opposing Jefferson, objected to the purchase as well, since they had already become a minority in the Congress and more territory would mean spreading out political power and weakening them even further. In add-on, provisions of the Purchase Treaty required that all those, excepting the Native Americans, living within the Louisiana Purchase become American citizens, implying that these areas would eventually get states. Did the President or Congress take the authority to bring into the country whole groups of people who were outside America's boundaries? No one knew the respond.

But the idea of doubling the size of the US as well as making certain that a military power like France did not edge the US across the Mississippi River won the argument. Jefferson chosen Congress back into session three weeks early in order to ratify the Purchase Treaty. The actual boundaries of the Louisiana Territory were not specified in the sale, as much of the territory had non been mapped accurately, just the Treaty sold to the US the Mississippi River and all its western tributaries, approximately 828,000 square miles.

Lewis and Clark map, with annotations in 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 office of the Purchase in 1804. Their two-twelvemonth mission resulted in more than accurate maps, noesis of previously unknown Native American tribes, and an extensive natural history survey of the continent. Their journey, known equally the "Corps of Discovery," would exist used as a rationale for US Manifest Destiny in the years to come. Ii 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 get all or role of 15 U.s.a. states and two Canadian provinces.

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

Text Analysis

Text Excerpt

Shut Reading Questions

Activeness: Vocabulary
Learn definitions by exploring how words are used in context.

i. Why does Jefferson believe that the fact that Spain ceding Louisiana and Florida to France "works nigh sorely on the U.s.a."?
Jefferson believes that this shift of power on the continent volition significantly change US foreign policy. It "completely reverses all the political relations of the Us." (Note: For example, equally stated in the background, Pinckney's Treaty of 1785 had negotiated Spanish permission to apply New Orleans as a port, and now those arrangements volition no longer apply.)

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

3. Which urban center on the Northward American continent does Jefferson believed is crucial to the United States? Cite bear witness from the text.
New Orleans is the city, for "there is on the globe one unmarried spot, the owner of which is our natural & habitual enemy." This implies that information technology is critical that the Usa possess the city, for if anyone else possessed information technology they would be the enemy of the Us.

4. Why is this urban center so important?
Jefferson states, "The produce of 3/8 of our territory must pass to market place, and from it's fertility information technology volition ere long yield more than than half of our whole produce and contain more than half our inhabitants." The city is critical for getting U.s. goods to market, growing crops, and providing areas for settlement.

v. Why did Jefferson not see the Castilian control of New Orleans as a threat?
Jefferson felt that Kingdom of spain was not every bit powerful as France and "her [Spain's] pacific dispositions, her feeble state" would permit the US to expand its use of New Orleans. In addition, Jefferson could foresee a fourth dimension when the United States might purchase New Orleans from Spain. Spain is peaceful, while French republic is belligerent and expansionist. (Note: An boosted reason students might cite could be Pinckney's Treaty. In 1803 Charles IV was King of Espana, and he was considered by many to exist a weak monarch.)

6. Why does Jefferson feel that French republic poses such a threat? Cite evidence from the text.
Jefferson felt that the United states of america and France approached bug differently. "The impetuosity of her [French republic's] temper, the energy & restlessness of her character, placed in a bespeak of eternal friction with us, and our character, which though tranquility, & loving peace & the pursuit of wealth, is high minded, despising wealth in contest with insult or injury, enterprizing & energetic as any nation on earth, these circumstances return information technology impossible that France and the U.s. can continue long friends when they meet in and then irritable a position." He felt that the American and French characters were different, and that the French were much more ambitious. (Annotation: At this time, Napoleon Bonaparte was the leader of French republic.)

7. Regarding United states foreign policy, what does Jefferson meet equally the logical upshot of France taking possession of New Orleans?
Because it will mean that French republic will exist directly on a The states border, Jefferson believes that information technology volition require the United States to become more than closely allied with Dandy Great britain for its ain protection against France — that the US must" marry ourselves to the British fleet & nation." It will as well marker the low indicate of France, "restraining her forever within her depression water mark," because she volition become the enemy of both the U.s. and Great U.k.. )Note: At this time the United states of america did non have the military might to effectively oppose France and would need U.k. as an marry for defence force.)

viii. In sentence sixteen, how does Jefferson predict that French control of New Orleans would affect the Us?
He believes that the Us must "plow all our attentions to a maritime force" and that "this is non a state of things we seek or desire." It would limit American economic action and require a military and naval presence on the Mississippi River to keep the French from crossing into the The states. (Notation: At the time of this letter the U.s. did not take the financial ways to fund a large navy, and Jefferson did not support a large standing national armed services force.)

nine. Why does Jefferson non want a state of war with France?
It is not "from a fear of France that we deprecate this measure proposed by her." But he feels that the The states and France share interests and Jefferson has "a sincere love of peace."

x. 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 it is not a valid reason?
Jefferson says that France might feel that New Orleans would help in supplying French colonies in the W Indies, simply this would not be practical in times of war and would not exist needed in times of peace.

11. Fifty-fifty though he does not all the same know the Louisiana Purchase is for sale, how does Jefferson propose to resolve this disharmonize?
If French republic must retain control of Louisiana, Jefferson ponders that perhaps France would exist willing to requite the port of New Orleans and Florida to the US. This would resolve the conflict, removing "the causes of jarring & irritation between us."

12. In sentences 28 through 30 Jefferson addresses a diplomatic rumor that was circulating at the time stating that after French troops had put downwards the rebellion in St. Domingo (Haiti) they would exist bound for Louisiana. How does Jefferson respond to this rumor?
Jefferson states that even if it is true, French forces will not arrive in Louisiana any time soon because it will take a good deal of time and manpower to subdue the Haitian revolt. He reminds his ambassadors that they accept time to act. (Note: In fact, the French lost the Haitian Revolution in 1803 and the manpower and cloth spent in Haiti contributed to France's loss of interest in reestablishing a base in the North America.)

xiii. Jefferson closes this excerpt by commenting on how important the issue of Louisiana is to the U.s.a.. Summarize Jefferson's iii reasons from this letter for because this issue as critical. Why is "every eye in the US… now fixed on this matter of Louisiana?"

1. The loss of the rights of deposit in New Orleans would cripple the American economy since there were so few roads and merchants and farmers relied on river traffic to get good to market.
2. A French presence would stifle westward expansion.
3. The presence of strange troops then shut to the The states would pose a constant threat of invasion.

Activity: Review
Review the points Jefferson makes in his alphabetic character.

(1) The cession of Louisiana & the Floridas by Spain to France works almost sorely on the US…. (2) It compleatly reverses all the political relations of the US. and will grade a new epoch in our political course. (3) Of all nations of whatever consideration France is the one which hitherto has offered the fewest points on which we could have any disharmonize of right, and the most points of a communion of interests. (iv) From these causes we accept ever looked to her equally our natural friend, every bit one with which nosotros never could take an occasion of difference. (5) Her growth therefore we viewed as our ain, her misfortunes ours.

(6) 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 three eighths of our territory must laissez passer to marketplace, and from it'southward fertility information technology will ere long yield more than half of our whole produce and contain more than than half our inhabitants. (8) France placing herself in that door assumes to us the attitude of disobedience. (ix) Spain might have retained it quietly for years. (x) Her pacific dispositions, her feeble country, would induce her to increase our facilities there, so that her possession of the place would be hardly felt past usa, and it would not perhaps be very long earlier some circumstance might arise which might make the cession of it to us the cost of something of more worth to her.

(11) Non so can information technology ever exist in the hands of France. (12) The impetuosity of her temper, the energy & restlessness of her character, placed in a point of eternal friction with united states of america, and our character, which though quiet, & loving peace & the pursuit of wealth, is high minded, despising wealth in competition with insult or injury, enterprizing & energetic equally whatsoever nation on globe, these circumstances render information technology incommunicable that France and the United states of america tin can go on long friends when they meet in and so irritable a position. (thirteen) They as well as nosotros must exist bullheaded if they do not see this; and we must be very extravagant if nosotros do not brainstorm to make arrangements on that hypothesis.

(14) The 24-hour interval that France takes possession of N. Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low water marker. (15) It seals the spousal relationship of two nations who in conjunction tin can maintain sectional possession of the ocean. (16) From that moment nosotros must marry ourselves to the British fleet & nation. (17) We must turn all our attentions to a maritime strength, for which our resources place the states on very high ground: and having formed and cemented together a power which may render reinforcement of her settlements here impossible to French republic, brand the commencement cannon which shall be fired in Europe the signal for tearing up any settlement she may take made, and for holding the 2 continents of America in sequestration for the mutual purposes of the United British & American nations. (18) This is not a country of things we seek or desire. (19) It is i which this measure, if adopted past France, forces on usa, as necessarily every bit any other cause, by the laws of nature, brings on it's necessary effect.

(twenty) Information technology is not from a fear of France that we deprecate this measure proposed past her. (21) For however greater her force is than ours compared in the abstract, information technology is zippo in comparison of ours when to be exerted on our soil. (22) Just it is from a sincere love of peace, and a house 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 grade of peace. (23) Whereas the alter of friends, which will be rendered necessary if France changes that position, embarks us necessarily equally a belligerent ability in the first war of Europe….

(24) And will a few years possession of N. Orleans add equally to the forcefulness of French republic? (25) She may say she needs Louisiana for the supply of her West Indies. (26) She does not need it in fourth dimension of peace, and in war she could not depend on them considering they would be and then easily intercepted….

(27) If France considers Louisiana even so as indispensable for her views she might perchance exist willing to look about for arrangements which might reconcile it to our interests. (28) If any thing could do this it would be the ceding to united states of america the island of New Orleans the Floridas. (29) This would certainly in a great degree remove the causes ofjarring & irritation between us….

(30) The idea here is that the troops sent to St. Domingo, were to go on to Louisiana after finishing their work in that island. (31) If this were the arrangement, it will give y'all fourth dimension to return again & again to the accuse. (32) For the conquest of St. Domingo volition not be a short piece of work. (33) Information technology will take considerable time and wear down a bang-up number of souldiers.

(34) Every eye in the U.s.a. is now fixed on this thing of Louisiana. (35) Perhaps naught since the revolutionary state of war has produced more uneasy sensations through the body of the nation. (36) Notwithstanding temporary bickerings take taken place with French republic, she has still a strong concur on the affections of our citizens generally.

Louisiana Buy Treaty, April 30, 1803

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

The Louisiana Purchase was very controversial at the time. President Jefferson believed in a strict structure 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 ability to negotiate territorial purchases, but Jefferson acted in contrast to this principle in the example of the Louisiana Purchase. Why would he do 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's distinction between "in principle" and "in exercise." Jefferson wrote:

Whether circumstances exercise not sometimes occur which get in a duty in officers of loftier trust to presume regime beyond the police, is easy of solution in principle, just sometimes embarrasing in exercise. A strict observance of the written laws is doubtlessi of the high duties of a proficient citizen: but it is notthe highest. The laws of necessity, of cocky-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our land past a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the constabulary itself, with life, liberty, belongings & all those who are enjoying them with the states; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the ways…. Information technology is incumbent on those only who accept of swell charges, to risk themselves on great occasions, when the safety of the nation, or some of it's very high interests are at stake.

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

Write a well-adult essay in which you defend, challenge or quality this argument: "Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana was justified." Share your work with your classmates.

Vocabulary Pop-ups

• cession: giving up
• epoch: historical menstruum
• hitherto: until at present
• misfortunes: bad luck
• habitual: usual
• fertility: ability to grow crops
• ere long: shortly
• disobedience: open contempt
• pacific: peaceful
• induce: crusade
• impetuosity: thoughtlessness
• despising: regard with contempt
• extravagant: not cautious
• hypothesis: supposition

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

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Text:

• "From Thomas Jefferson to Robert R. Livingston, 18 April 1802," Founders Online, National Athenaeum. http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-37-02-0220, ver. 2014-05-09. Source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 37, four March–30 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 Sectionalization Washington, D.C. http://lccn.loc.gov/2001620468, accessed January, 2015.
• Lewis and Clark map, with annotations in brown ink past Meriwether Lewis, tracing showing the Mississippi, the Missouri for a short distance in a higher place Kansas, Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Winnipeg, and the country onwards to the Pacific, Map. Due north. King, 1803. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. http://lccn.loc.gov/98687178, accessed January, 2015.
• Louisiana Buy Treaty, April xxx, 1803 (ARC ID 299807); General Records of the U.South. Government; Record Group 11; National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doctor=five&championship.raw=Louisiana%20Purchase%20Treaty, accessed March, 2015.

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