Lousiana Purchase Initial Video
THE EFFECTS OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE:
DOCUMENT BASED QUESTION
On April 11, 1803 the United States
government made one of the most significant transactions in American
history. Paying only 15 million dollars for 2,100,000 square
kilometers, the United States purchased the territory of Louisiana.
This decision had substantial effects on American society. Use the
following documents to examine the motivations behind Jefferson's
Louisiana Purchase and discuss the validity of his judgment.
Document A: Thomas Jefferson's letter to
Robert Livingston (early 1802).
Thomas Jefferson. "Letter to Robert
Livingston, American Minister in Paris." Frank Donovan. The Thomas
Jefferson Papers. New York: Dodd, Mead, ~ Company, 1963. pp. 180-182.
"There is on the globe one single spot the
possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New
Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our territory
must pass to market ... France placing herself in that door, assumes
to us the attitude of defiance. Spain right have retained it quietly
for years. Her pacific dispositions, her feeble state, would induce
her to increase our facilities there, so that her possession of the
place~ would be hardly by felt by us . . . N~t so can it ever be in
the hands. Is of France ... circumstances render it impossible that
France and the United States can continue long friends when they meet
in so irratible a position...
We must . . . make the first cannon which
shall be fired in Europe the signal for the tearing up any settlement
she may have made, and for holding the two continents of America in
sequestration for the common purposes of the united British and
American nations . . .
I should suppose that all these
considerations might, in some paper form, be brought into view of the
government of France. Though stated by us it ought not to give us
offense, because we do not bring them forward as a menace but as
consequences not controllable by us, but inevitable~able from the
course of things . . . If France considers Louisiana~, however, as
indispensable for her views, she might perhaps be willing to look
about for arrangements which might reconcile it to our interests. If
anything could do this, it would be the ceding to us the island of
New Orleans and the Florida . . . Every eye in the United States is
now fixed on the affairs on Louisiana. Perhaps nothing since the
Revolutionary War has produced more uneasy sensations through the
body of the nation.
Document B: Representative Roger Griswold,
one of the finest Federalist spokesman in the House, gave an anti-
Louisiana speech in 1803.
Griswold, Roger. Annals of Congress, 8th
Congress, 1st session, vol.l, cols. 461-462, 463, 465. Thomas A.
Bailey and David M. Kennedy. The American Spirit, eight edition, vol.
1. Lexington:D.C.Heath and Company, 1994. pp.216-217.
It is, in my opinion, scarcely possible for
any gentleman on this floor to a~advance an opinion that the
President and Senate may add to the members of the union by treaty
whenever they please, or, in the words of this treaty, may
"incorporate in the union of the United States a foreign nation who,
from interest or ambition, may wish to become a member of our
government. Such a power would be directly repugnant to the original
compact between the states, and a violation of the principles on
which that compact was formed.
The incorporation of a foreign nation into
the Union, so far from tend~g to preserve the Union, is a direct
inroad upon it. It destroys the perfect union contemplated between
the original parties, by interposing an alien and a stranger to share
the powers of government with them . . .
This subject was much considered during the
last session of Congress, but it will not be found . . . that any
individual entertained the least wish to obtain the province of
Louisiana. Our views were then confined to New OrIeans and the
Florida, and, in my judgment, if would have been happy for the
country if they were still confirmed within those limits. The vast
and unmanageable extent which the accession of Louisiana will give to
the United States; the consequent dispersion of our population; and
the destruction of that balance which it is so important to maintain
between the Eastern and Western states, threatens, at no very distant
day, the subversion of our Union.
Document C: An Expansion Song in 1794.
Dwight, Timothy. Greenfield Hill: A Poem.
New York, 1794. Pp. 52-53.
All hail, thou western world! By heaven
designed
Th' example bright, to revote mankind.
Soon shall they sons across the mainland
roam;
And claim on far Pacific shores, their home;
Their rule, religion, manners, arts, convey,
And spread their freedom to the
Asian.
Document D: Meriwether Lewis, Excerpt from
"Report to Thomas Jefferson" (1806).
Lewis, Meriwether.Original Journals of the
Lewis and Clark Expedition.New York, l9O4.7:334.
We view this passage across the continent as
affording immense advantages to the fur trade, but fear that the
advantages which it offers as a communication for the productions of
the East Indies to the United States and thence to Europe will never
be found equal on an extensive scale to that by way of the Cape of
Good Hope; still we believe that many articles not bull~y, brittle
nor of a very perishable nature may be conveyed to the United States
by this route with more facility and at less expense than by that at
present practiced.
If the government will only aid, even if in
a very limited manner, the enterprise of her citizens I am fully
convinced that we shall shortly derive the benefits of a most
lucrative trade from this source, and that in the course of ten or
twelve years a tour across the continent by the route mentioned will
be undertaken by individuals with as little concern as a voyage
across the Atlantic is as present.
Document E: Map of Fur Trading in the
Louisiana Territory.
Bailey, Thomas A., and David M. Kennedy.
The American Pagaent
105.
Document F: Jefferson's letter to John
Breckenridge regarding Louisiana:
Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to John C.
Breckenridge, August 12, 1803. Vol. VIII, p.244.
We have some claims to extend on the
seacoast westwardly to the Rio Norte or Bravo [Rio Grande], and,
better, to go eastwardly to Rio Perdido between Mobile and Pensacola,
the ancient boundary of Louisiana. These claims will be a subject of
negotiation with Spain and if, as soon as she is at war, we push them
strongly with one hand, holding out a price in the other, we shall
certainly obtain the Florida, and all in good time . . . We have
seldom seen neighborhood produce affection among nations. The reverse
is almost the universal truth .
This treaty [purchasing the Louisiana
territory from France] must of course be laid before both houses,
because both have important functions to exercise respecting it.
They, I presume, will see their duty to their country in ratifying
& paying for it, so as to secure a good which would otherwise
probably be never again in their power. But I suppose they must then
appeal to the nation for an additional article to the Constitution,
approving & confirming an act which the nation had not previously
authorized. The constitution has made no provision for our holding
foreign territory, still less for incorporating foreign nations into
our union. The Executive in seizing the fugitive occurrence which so
much advances the good of their country have done an act beyond the
Constitution. The Legislature in casting behind them metaphysical
subtleties, and risking themselves like faithful servants, must
ratify & pay for it, and throw themselves on their country for
doing for them unauthorized what we know they would have done for
themselves had they been in a situation to do it. It is the case of a
guardian, investing the money of his ward in purchasing an important
adjacent territory; & saying to him when of age, I did this for
your good; I pretend to non right to bind you: you may disavow me,
and I must get out of the scrape as I can: I thought it my duty to
risk myself for you. But we shall not be disavowed by the nation, and
their act of indemnity will confirm & not weaken the
Constitution, by more strongly marking our its lines.
Document G: Map of the Louisian
Purchase.
Bailey, Thomas A., and David M. Kennedy.
The American Pagaent
214.
No comments:
Post a Comment