Louisiana Purchase
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From Frank Bond, "Louisiana" and the Louisiana Purchase.
Government Printing Office, 1912 Map No. 4. |
The
Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the
United States of more than 529,911,681 acres (827,987 mi² or 2,144,476 km
2) of territory from
France in 1803, at the cost of about 3¢ per acre (7¢ per
hectare); $15 million or 80 million
francs in total. (If adjusted for the relative share of GDP, this amount would equal approximately $390 billion in 2003
[ The relative value in U.S. Dollars - Economic History Services ], or about $1800 per hectare.)
The
French territory of Louisiana included far more land than just the current
U.S. state of
Louisiana. The lands purchased contained parts or all of present-day
Arkansas,
Missouri,
Iowa,
Minnesota west of the
Mississippi River,
North Dakota,
South Dakota,
Nebraska,
New Mexico, northern
Texas,
Oklahoma,
Kansas, the portions of
Montana,
Wyoming, and
Colorado east of the
Rocky Mountains, the portions of southern
Manitoba, southern
Saskatchewan and southern
Alberta that drain into the
Missouri River, and
Louisiana on both sides of the
Mississippi River including the city of
New Orleans.
The land included in the Purchase comprises 22.3% of the territory of the modern
United States.
The purchase was an important moment in the presidency of
Thomas Jefferson. At the time, it faced domestic opposition as being possibly
unconstitutional.
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, this treaty was kept secret, and Louisiana would remain under Spanish control until a transfer of power to France that had yet to be organized. It 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.
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.
[Duke, Marc; The du Ponts: Portrait of a Dynasty, P.77-83, Saturday Review Press, 1976]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.
Talleyrand, likewise, was vehemently opposed to selling Louisiana, as 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, as 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 itself grew with the restoration of
slavery on
20 May,
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 himself 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
11 March,
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 the Floridas. However, he was certain that the United States would accept such a large offer.
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The original Louisiana Purchase treaty, as preserved by the National Archives |
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 2nd. 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 of less than 3 cents per acre (7 cents per square kilometer).
The American purchase of the Louisiana territory was not accomplished without domestic opposition. 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. 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 Mr. Burr in the year of 1804.
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 to the United States 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 of America.
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.
The Louisiana Purchase led to a dispute between the United States and
Spain over the boundaries of the area the United States had bought. According to the Spanish, Louisiana consisted roughly of the west bank of the
Mississippi River and the city of
New Orleans. The United States, on the other hand, claimed that it stretched all the way to the
Rio Grande and the
Rocky Mountains, a claim unacceptable for Spain, as it would mean the loss of
Texas and half of
New Mexico, both Spanish colonies. The two nations also disagreed about the ownership of
West Florida, a strip of land between the
Mississippi and
Perdido Rivers. The United States claimed this area was part of the purchase; Spain said that it was not, and east of the Mississippi only the city of
New Orleans was part of the Louisiana purchase. Spain also held that the entire Louisiana Purchase was illegal, because the
Spanish treaty handing Louisiana to the French had stipulated the French were not allowed to hand it over to a third power, and also because
Napoleon had not adhered to his part of the treaty (giving a kingdom in
Italy to the brother-in-law of King
Carlos IV).
In 1810, after a revolt in West Florida, the United States annexed the region between the Mississippi and
Pearl rivers (known today as the
Florida Parishes of Louisiana). In 1812, the
Mobile District was annexed (the region between the Pearl and Perdido Rivers, which now forms the panhandles of
Alabama and
Mississippi). The matter was not fully settled until the signing of the
Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819, in which Spain ceded all of Florida to the U.S. and the boundary between the Louisiana territory and the Spanish colonies was set along the
Sabine,
Red and
Arkansas rivers and the 42nd parallel.
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The Louisiana Purchase shown on the 2002 Louisiana State Quarter. |
When purchased, the boundaries of "Louisiana" were not defined, and the land itself was generally unknown (which led to the
Lewis and Clark expedition). 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.
Northern boundary
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. This makes the above map inaccurate as the Purchase originally extended just beyond the 50th Parallel. However, territory north of the 49th Parallel was ceded to the UK in 1818 in the
Red River Cession.
Eastern boundary
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. (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.)
Western frontier
The purchase extended westward to the
Rocky Mountains.
Southern boundary
The southern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase was initially unclear; the
Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 began to lay down official dividing lines.
Meinig, D.W.
The Shaping of America: Volume 2, Yale University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-300-06290-7
*
History of the United States*
Historic regions of the United States*
Fulwar Skipwith*
Alaska purchase*
Text of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty*
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
