Louisiana Purchase

 

"Let the Land rejoice, for you have bought Louisiana for a Song."

                Gen. Horatio Gates to President Thomas Jefferson, July 18, 1803

“Robert Livingston and James Monroe closed on the sweetest real estate deal of the millennium when they signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty in Paris on April 30, 1803. They were authorized to pay France up to $10 million for the port of New Orleans and the Floridas. When offered the entire territory of Louisiana–an area larger than Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal combined–the American negotiators swiftly agreed to a price of $15 million.

Although President Thomas Jefferson was a strict interpreter of the Constitution who wondered if the U.S. Government was authorized to acquire new territory, he was also a visionary who dreamed of an "empire for liberty" that would stretch across the entire continent. As Napoleon threatened to take back the offer, Jefferson squelched whatever doubts he had, submitted the treaty to Congress, and prepared to occupy a land of unimaginable riches.

The Louisiana Purchase added 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River to the United States. For roughly 4 cents an acre, the United States had purchased a territory whose natural resources amounted to a richness beyond anyone's wildest calculations” (Miller, 1931, para. 1 - 3).

France claimed a large chunk of land that ran from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Land in which many indigenous people resided. The land exchanged hands between Spain and France and ended up in France’s possession much to the surprise of President Jefferson. At the same time, tension rose between France and Britain. The Island of Saint Dominique lost appeal for Napolean Bonapart after slave rebellions and British interference. After negotiations, France sold a young United States the Louisiana territory. End results of the sale was the migration of many white settlers, battles between Native Americans and pioneers, the ravages of disease and a huge loss of land and its valuable resources for the indigenous people. The Louisiana Purchase was the largest land takeover in the history of this country without the act of war playing a part.

            In April of 1682, Robert Cavelier, Sieur (Lord) de La Salle, a French Explorer, made claim to land near the mouth of the Mississippi River when he read a declaration before a group of confused Indian people. He pronounced his claim, for his country, the entire Mississippi basin. Cavelier named the area for Prince Louis the Great. Hence the name Louisiana which was in honor of Louis XIV.

            The French explorer Jean-Baptise le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville later founded a settlement near the site of La Salle’s claim named it Nouvelle Orleans for Philippe, Duke of Orleans and Regent of France. By the time of the Louisiana Purchase, the population of whites, slaves of African American descent and Native Americans numbered approximately 8,000 within the Louisiana Territory (Harris, 2003).

           

            Ownership of Louisiana went back and forth between France and Spain. Spain took over and had control of the territory of Louisiana in October 1800 when Napolean made a secret deal to take back New Orleans and Louisiana from Spain. He wished to amass and send an army to protect his land holdings. Jefferson did not learn until 1801 that Napolean had reclaimed Louisiana. Faced with trepidation about how powerful France became, he did not want France to have control of the United State’s trade routes. Jefferson made plans about how he was going to purchase Louisiana from France. He equated France’s ownership of Louisiana as big of threat as the Revolutionary War (Cerami, 2003).

            Napolean pondered his hold of the island of Saint Domingue which could provide France and other countries with a vast amount of sugar, cotton, cocoa and coffee. France could use the port of New Orleans to ship the crops to Europe. The residents of Saint Domingue believed the French were going to reinstate slavery like what happened on Guadeloupe. Slavery was reinstated. The slave population suffered from food shortages and brutally forced hard labor. The slaves revolted which forced Napolean to sends more troops. More than half of the French army died from diseases, mostly Yellow Fever while at Saint Domingue. Napolean’s interest in the island diminished severely (Cerami, 2003).

Napolean feared a war with Britain may ensue and he did not have the funds to pay for such a war. He thought Britain may attack Louisiana from Canada and he would rather fight Britain from France and not Canada.

            The treaty which permitted the U.S. to use Spanish territory on the Mississippi had expired. American shipments could not be stored in New Orleans warehouses. Merchandise and produce had to be left on open wharfs while awaiting shipment to the other locations which risked exposure to weather and theft. The U.S. economy was in jeopardy.

            Senator James Ross of Pennsylvania drafted a resolution which requested Jefferson to form a 50,000 man army to take over the city of New Orleans. France and the U.S. definitely had a stake in the outcome of the ownership of Louisiana.

            French Minister, Francois de Barbe-Marbois, Robert Livingston, a New Yorker and the American Minster of France and James Monroe, former member of Congress and former governor of Virginia met in Paris on April 12^th to discuss the sale of Louisiana. Much to their surprise Napolean, was more than ready to sell and confirmed and stated his asking price of $22,500,000. Livingston told him the price needed to be lowered considerably.

            Barbe-Marbois stalled pretending that Napolean lost interest in the sale. By April 27^th he told Americans that Napolean firmly agreed to a selling price of $15,000,000. The treaty was signed by the three men on May 2 but was backdated to April 30. Livingston did not have permission to carry out the land deal but they needed to act fast. Nearly doubling the size of America could help make it a world power in the future.

Jefferson approved the purchase and requested the Senate to ratify the Louisiana Purchase Treaty in which they voted 24 to 7 on October 20, 1803. Congress approved the treaty. Money needed to be borrowed in the form of bonds from European countries which had to be paid back in 15 years. Business took time to be carried out because transatlantic mail took weeks and sometimes months. Finally, Louisiana belonged to the United States (Harris, 2003).

Fifteen states joined the union as the result of the Louisiana Purchase: Louisiana; Missouri; Arkansas; Texas; Iowa; Minnesota; Kansas; Nebraska; Colorado; North Dakota; South Dakota; Montana; Wyoming; Oklahoma; and New Mexico. Some of the aforementioned states were entirely within the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase and others were also a part of the deal struck with Mexico after the Mexican/American War (Raum, 2014). States developed statehood as a result of the 1787 Northwest Ordinance in which land was considered a territory that had a population of at least five thousand and full-fledged statehood would occur when the population reached 60,000. Self-governance applied for territories and states according to the ordinance (Cerami, 2003).

The Louisiana Purchased with an accumulated land mass of approximately 828,000 square miles led to a great westward migration. White settlers believed they had a right to move  to the uncharted territories. The Indian population did not fare well after the purchase. Much of the game, land and other valuable resources were taken over by white settlers. They faced starvation and died from diseases such as small pox. Many Native Americans lost their lives when they fought against white settlers or American armies while they tried to hold onto their land. The Louisiana Purchase represented land purchased from a country by a country who were not the original inhabitants.