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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LOB-LUP |
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LOUISIANA PURCHASE , a large portion of the area of the United States of America, purchased from the. French Republic in 1803. The territory to which France held explorer's title originally included the entire valley of the Mississippi (see LOUISIANA) ; but the " Louisiana " which was ceded by her to Spain in 1762 (England refusing it, preferring the Floridas), retroceded to France in 1800,1 and ceded by Napoleon to the United Statesin violation of his pledge to Spain that he would not alienate the provinceembraced only the portion W. of the river and the island of New Orleans on the E. (and, as might be claimed with some show of argument, West Florida to the Perdido river). With the settlement of the trans-Alleghany region, the freedom of the Mississippi had become of vital importance to the western settlements, and Spain had recognized these interests in her treaty with the United States of 1795, by guaranteeing freedom of navigation and the privilege of deposit at New Orleans. The transfer of Louisiana from a weak neighbour to so powerful and ambitious a state as France was naturally unwelcome to the United States, and Robert R. Livingston, the American minister in Paris, was instructed by Secretary-of-State Madison to endeavour to prevent the consummation of the retrocession; or, should that be irrevocable, to endeavour to buy the Floridas (either from France, if they had passed with Louisiana, or through her goodwill from Spain)or at least West Floridaand if possible New Orleans, so as to give the United States a secure position on the Mississippi, and insure the safety of her commerce. The United States was also trying to collect claims of her merchants for spoliations by French cruisers during the late war between France and Great Britain. In his preliminary propositions Livingston lightly suggested to Talleyrand a cession of Louisiana to satisfy these claims; following it with the more serious demand that France should pledge observance of the Spanish concession to the Mississippi trade. This pledge Napoleon readily gave. But during these negotiations a sus-pension by the Spanish governor of the right of deposit aroused extreme apprehension in America and resulted in warlike votes in Congress. Of these, and of London reports of a British expedition against New Orleans preparing in anticipation of the imminent rupture of the peace of Amiens, Livingston made most capable use; and pressed for a cession of West Florida, New Orleans and Louisiana north of the Arkansas river. But without New Orleans Louisiana was of little present worth, and Napoleonthe collapse of whose American colonial schemes seemed involved in his failure in Santo Domingo, who was persuaded he could not hold Louisiana against Great Britain, and who was already turning from projects of colonial empire1By the treaty of San. Ildefonso, signed the 1st of October 1800. This was never ratified by Charles IV. of Spain, but the treaty of Madrid of the 21st of March 1801, which confirmed it, was signed by him on the 15th of October 1802.toward his later continental policysuddenly offered to Livingston the whole of the province. Livingston disclaimed wanting the part below the Arkansas. In even mentioning Louisiana he had gone outside his instructions. At this stage James Monroe became associated with him in the negotiations. They were quickly closed, Barbe Marbois acting for Napoleon, and by three conventions signed on the 3oth of April 1803 the American ministers, without instructions, boldly accepted for their country a territory approximately 1,000,000 sq. m. in areaabout five times the area of continental France. For this imperial domain, perhaps the richest agricultural region of the world, the United States paid 6o,000,000 francs ($11,250,000) outright, and assumed the claims of her citizens against France to the extent of 20,000,000 francs ($3,750,000) additional; the interest
Different writers have emphasized differently the various factors in this extraordinary diplomatic episode. Unquestionably the western people were ready to war for the navigation of the Mississippi; but, that being guaranteed, it seems certain that France might peaceably have taken and held the western shore. The acquisition was not a triumph of American diplomacy, but a piece of marvellous diplomatic good fortune; for the records abundantly prove, as Madison said, that the cause of success was a sudden policy of Napoleon, forced by European contingencies. Livingston alone of the public men concerned showed indubitably before the event a conception of the feasibility and desirability of the acquisition of a vast territory beyond the Mississippi. Jefferson had wished to buy the Floridas, but alarmed by the magnitude of the cession, declared his belief that the United States had no power to acquire Louisiana. Though such strict construction of the constitution was a cardinal dogma of the Democratic party, this dogma was abandoned outright in practice, Jefferson finding " but one opinion as to the necessity of shutting up the constitution " (or amending it, which was not done) and seeking justification
establishment of the doctrine of " implied powers " in interpreting the constitution; a doctrine under which the Supreme Court presently found power to acquire territory implied in the powers to wage war and make peace, negotiate treaties, and " dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States."The exact limits of the acquisition were not definitely drawn
Texas
Mexico to the parallel of 32 N., ran thence due N. to the Red river, followed this to the meridian of roo W. and this line N. to the Arkansas river, thence along this to its source, thence N. to the parallel of 42, and along this line to the Pacific. Such is the accepted description of the W. boundary of the Louisiana Purchasewaiving Texasthus retrospectively deter-mined, except that that boundary ran with the crest of the Rocky Mountains N. of its intersection with the parallel of 42. No portion of the Purchase lay west of the mountains, although for some years after 1870 the official maps of the United States government erroneously included Oregon as so acquiredan error finally abandoned by 'goo.On the 20th of December 1803, at New Orleans, the United States took possession of the lower part of the province, and on the 9th of March 1804, at St Louis, of the upper. The entire region then contained possibly 8o,000 residents. The treaty of cession required the incorporation of Louisiana in the Union, and the admission of its inhabitants, " as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States." By act of the 26th of March 1804 the region below 330 N. was organized as the Territory of Orleans (see LOUISIANA), and that above as the District of Louisiana. The region above 330, renamed in 18o5 the Territory of Louisiana, and in 1812 the Territory of Missouri, was divided as time went on into many Indian reservations, territories and states. Thus were carved from the great domain of the Purchase Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma in their entirety, and much the greatest part of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. There is justification
Thiers
It is generally agreed that after the Revolution and the Civil War, the Louisiana Purchase is the greatest fact in American history. In 1904 a world's fair, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, was held at St Louis in commemoration of the cession. After one hundred years the wilderness then acquired had become the centre of the power and wealth of the Union. It contained in 1903 15,000,000 inhabitants, and its taxable wealth alone was four hundred times the fifteen millions given to Napoleon. Turner and others. Reference may be made to B. Hermann, The Louisiana Purchase (Washington, 1898), and Theodore Roosevelt's Winning of the West, vol. 4. Of the various special
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