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Louisiana Purchase Handouts

The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States in 1803. Facing military pressure from Britain and a slave revolt in Haiti, Napoleon decided to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States. Robert Livingston and James Monroe negotiated the purchase of over 800,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million, a deal that more than doubled the size of the young nation. However, the purchase was controversial among Federalists who felt it strengthened the slaveholding South and weakened the central government.

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895 views

Louisiana Purchase Handouts

The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States in 1803. Facing military pressure from Britain and a slave revolt in Haiti, Napoleon decided to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States. Robert Livingston and James Monroe negotiated the purchase of over 800,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million, a deal that more than doubled the size of the young nation. However, the purchase was controversial among Federalists who felt it strengthened the slaveholding South and weakened the central government.

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Hana Song
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© © All Rights Reserved
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The Louisiana Purchase Timeline

1763:  

France gave Louisiana to Spain.


 

March 1801:  
Napoleon wanted a French empire in North America. So, under pressure,
Spain returned Louisiana to France.  
Federalists in the United States were alarmed that France now owned
Louisiana. They wanted to use force against France. But Jefferson (a
Democratic-Republican) sent Robert R. Livingston, the U.S. minister to
France to attempt to buy New Orleans.
 

January 1803​:
U.S. sent James Monroe to join Livingston and try to buy
New Orleans and West Florida from France.  
 

April 1803:  
Napoleon gave up his dream of an American empire because he was
overwhelmed by the slave revolt in Haiti and also wanted to go to war with
Britain.  
The French offered Livingston and Monroe all of Louisiana (not just New
Orleans). Livingston and Monroe signed a treaty. For roughly $15 million,
the U.S. acquired some 828,000 square miles of land, doubling the national
territory of the United States.
 

October 1803:  
The Senate ratified the treaty and in December the United States acquired
the Louisiana Purchase.  
 
Document A: Alexander Hamilton ​(Modified)  
The purchase of New Orleans is essential to the peace and prosperity of
our Western country, and opens a free and valuable market to our
commercial states.  
This purchase will probably make it seem like Mr. Jefferson is brilliant. Any
man, however, who possesses any amount of intelligence, will easily see
that the purchase is the result of lucky coincidences and unexpected
circumstances and not the result of any wise or thoughtful actions on the
part of Jefferson’s administration.  
As to the vast region west of the Mississippi, it is a wilderness with
numerous tribes of Indians. And when we consider the present territory of
the United States, and that not one-sixteenth is yet under occupation, the
possibility that this new purchase will be a place of actual settlement seems
unlikely.  

If our own citizens do eventually settle this new land, it would weaken our
country and central government. On the whole, we can honestly say that
this purchase is at best extremely problematic.  
Source: Alexander Hamilton wrote an editorial called “Purchase of
Louisiana” for the ​New York Evening Post​, July 1803.  
Document B: Letters by Federalists ​(Modified)

Rufus King to Timothy Pickering, November 4, 1803  

According to the Constitution, Congress may admit new states. But can the
President sign treaties forcing Congress to do so?  
According to the Louisiana Treaty, the territory must be formed into states
and admitted into the Union. Will Congress be allowed to set any rules for
their admission? Since slavery is legal and exists in Louisiana, and the
treaty states that we must protect the property of the inhabitants, won’t we
be forced to admit the new states as slave states? Doing so will worsen the
problem of unequal representation from slave and free states.  

Timothy Pickering to Rufus King. March 4, 1804  


I am disgusted with the men who now rule us. The coward at the head
[Jefferson] is like a French revolutionary. While he talks about humanity, he
enjoys the utter destruction of his opponents. We have too long witnessed
his general wickedness—his cruel removals of faithful officers and the
substitution of corruption and immorality for honesty.  

Source: The two letters above are written between two Federalists. Rufus
King was a Senator from New York and Timothy Pickering was a Senator
from Massachusetts.  

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