Louisiana Purchase Doubles Nation: America Claims the West

The United States doubled in size for about four cents an acre. On December 20, 1803, the French tricolor was lowered and the American flag raised in the Place d'Armes in New Orleans, completing the formal transfer of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States. The 828,000 square miles of land, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, represented the largest peaceful acquisition of territory in history. The purchase was Napoleon Bonaparte's decision, and it stunned everyone involved. President Thomas Jefferson had sent James Monroe and Robert Livingston to Paris with instructions to buy New Orleans and possibly West Florida for up to ten million dollars. Napoleon, facing renewed war with Britain and the collapse of his Caribbean empire after the Haitian Revolution, offered the entire Louisiana Territory for fifteen million dollars. The American negotiators, exceeding their authority by an enormous margin, agreed within days. Jefferson faced a constitutional dilemma. Nothing in the Constitution explicitly authorized the president to acquire foreign territory. The strict constructionist who had argued for limited federal power found himself exercising power that would have horrified him if wielded by anyone else. He briefly considered a constitutional amendment but abandoned the idea when advisors warned that delay might cause Napoleon to change his mind. The Senate ratified the treaty on October 20, 1803, by a vote of twenty-four to seven. Spain transferred Louisiana back to France on November 30, and France transferred it to the United States twenty days later. The French prefect who presided reportedly wept as the tricolor came down. The purchase added territory that would eventually comprise all or part of fifteen states. Jefferson dispatched Lewis and Clark the following spring. The acquisition ensured that the United States would become a continental power stretching to the Pacific within half a century.