Louisiana Purchased.-Acting on this belief,but apparently seeing only the Mississippi outlet at stake,Jefferson sent his friend,James Monroe,to France with the power to buy New Orleans and West Florida.Before Monroe arrived,the regular minister,Livingston,had already convinced Napoleon that it would be well to sell territory which might be wrested from him at any moment by the British sea power,especially as the war,temporarily stopped by the peace of Amiens,was once more raging in Europe.Wise as he was in his day,Livingston had at first no thought of buying the whole Louisiana country.He was simply dazed when Napoleon offered to sell the entire domain and get rid of the business altogether.Though staggered by the proposal,he and Monroe decided to accept.On April 30,they signed the treaty of cession,agreeing to pay $11,250,000in six per cent bonds and to discharge certain debts due French citizens,****** in all approximately fifteen millions.Spain protested,Napoleon's brother fumed,French newspapers objected;but the deed was done.
Jefferson and His Constitutional Scruples.-When the news of this ex-traordinary event reached the United States,the people were filled with as-tonishment,and no one was more surprised than Jefferson himself.He had thought of buying New Orleans and West Florida for a small sum,and now a vast domain had been dumped into the lap of the nation.He was puzzled.On looking into the Constitution he found not a line authorizing the purchase of more territory and so he drafted an amendment declaring "Louisiana,as ceded by France,-a part of the United States."He had belabored the Federalists for piling up a big national debt and he could hardly endure the thought of issuing more bonds himself.
In the midst of his doubts came the news that Napoleon might withdraw from the bargain.Thoroughly alarmed by that,Jefferson pressed the Senate for a ratification of the treaty.He still clung to his original idea that the Constitution did not warrant the purchase;but he lamely concluded:"If our friends shall think differently,I shall certainly acquiesce with satisfaction;confident thatthe good sense of our country will correct the evil of construction when it shall produce ill effects."Thus the stanch advocate of "strict interpretation"cut loose from his own doctrine and intrusted the construction of the Constitution to "the good sense"of his countrymen.
The Treaty Ratified.-This unusual transaction,so favorable to the West,aroused the ire of the seaboard Federalists.Some denounced it as unconstitu-tional,easily forgetting Hamilton's masterly defense of the bank,also not men-tioned in the Constitution.Others urged that,if "the howling wilderness"ever should be settled,it would turn against the East,form new commercial connec-tions,and escape from federal control.Still others protested that the purchase would lead inevitably to the dominance of a "hotch potch of wild men from the Far West."Federalists,who thought "the broad back of America"could read-ily bear Hamilton's consolidated debt,now went into agonies over a bond issue of less than one-sixth of that amount.But in vain.Jefferson's party with a high hand carried the day.The Senate,after hearing the Federalist protest,ratified the treaty.In December,1803,the French flag was hauled down from the old government buildings in New Orleans and the Stars and Stripes were hoisted as a sign that the land of Coronado,De Soto,Marquette,and La Salle had passed forever to the United States.
The United States in 1805
By a single stroke,the original territory of the United States was more than doubled.While the boundaries of the purchase were uncertain,it is safe to say that the Louisiana territory included what is now Arkansas,Missouri,Iowa,Oklahoma,Kansas,Nebraska,South Dakota,and large portions of Louisiana,Minnesota,North Dakota,Colorado,Montana,and Wyoming.The farm lands that the friends of "a little America"on the seacoast declared a hopeless wilderness were,within a hundred years,fully occupied and valued at nearly seven billion dollars-almost five hundred times the price paid to Napoleon.
Western Explorations.-Having taken the fateful step,Jefferson wisely be-gan to make the most of it.He prepared for the opening of the new country by sending the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore it,discover its resources,and lay out an overland route through the Missouri Valley and across the Great Di-vide to the Pacific.The story of this mighty exploit,which began in the spring of 1804and ended in the autumn of 1806,was set down with skill and pains in the journal of Lewis and Clark;when published even in a short form,it invited the forward-looking men of the East to take thought about the western empire.At the same time Zebulon Pike,in a series of journeys,explored the sources of the Mississippi River and penetrated the Spanish territories of the far Southwest.Thus scouts and pioneers continued the work of diplomats.
The Republican War for Commercial IndependenceThe English and French Blockades.-In addition to bringing Louisiana to the United States,the reopening of the European War in 1803,after a short lull,renewed in an acute form the commercial difficulties that had plagued the country all during the administrations of Washington and Adams.The Repub-licans were now plunged into the hornets'nest.The party whose ardent spir-its had burned Jay in effigy,stoned Hamilton for defending his treaty,jeered Washington's proclamation of neutrality,and spoken bitterly of "timid traders,"could no longer take refuge in criticism.It had to act.