By a treaty signed on Apr. 30, 1803, the United
States purchased from France the Louisiana Territory, more than 2
million sq km (800,000 sq mi) of land extending from the Mississippi
River to the Rocky Mountains. The price was 60 million francs, about
$15 million; $11,250,000 was to be paid directly, with the balance to
be covered by the assumption by the United States of French debts to
American citizens.
In 1762, France had ceded Louisiana to Spain, but by the secret
Treaty of San Ildefonso (1800) the French had regained the area.
Napoleon Bonaparte (the future Emperor Napoleon I) envisioned a great
French empire in the New World, and he hoped to use the Mississippi
Valley as a food and trade center to supply the island of Hispaniola,
which was to be the heart of this empire. First, however, he had to
restore French control of Hispaniola, where Haitian slaves under
TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE had seized power (1801; see HAITI). In 1802 a
large army sent by Napoleon under his brother-in-law, Charles
Leclerc, arrived on the island to suppress the Haitian rebellion.
Despite some military success, the French lost thousands of soldiers,
mainly to yellow fever, and Napoleon soon realized that Hispaniola
must be abandoned. Without that island he had little use for
Louisiana. Facing renewed war with Great Britain, he could not spare
troops to defend the territory; he needed funds, moreover, to support
his military ventures in Europe. Accordingly, in April 1803 he
offered to sell Louisiana to the United States.
Concerned about French intentions, President Thomas
Jefferson had already sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to
Paris to negotiate the purchase of a tract of land on the lower
Mississippi or, at least, a guarantee of free navigation on the
river. Surprised and delighted by the French offer of the whole
territory, they immediately negotiated the treaty.
Jefferson was jubilant. At one stroke the United States would double
its size, an enormous tract of land would be open to settlement, and
the free navigation of the Mississippi would be assured. Although the
Constitution did not specifically empower the federal government to
acquire new territory by treaty, Jefferson concluded that the
practical benefits to the nation far outweighed the possible
violation of the Constitution. The Senate concurred with this
decision and voted ratification on Oct. 20, 1803. The Spanish, who
had never given up physical possession of Louisiana to the French,
did so in a ceremony at New Orleans on Nov. 30, 1803. In a second
ceremony, on Dec. 20, 1803, the French turned Louisiana over to the
United States.
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Bibliography:
Barry, James P., The Louisiana Purchase, April 1
803 (1973); Chidsey, Donald B., The Louisiana Purchase (1972);
DeConde, Alexander, This Affair of Louisiana (1976); Lyon, Elijah
Wilson, Louisiana in French Diplomacy (1934); Sprague, Marshall, So
Vast So Beautiful a Land: Louisiana and the Purchase (1974);
Whitaker, Arthur P., The Mississippi Question, 1795-1803 (1934; repr.
1962)
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