Launching a New Nation - Louisiana Purchase

It was April of 1803 and the treaty was signed giving the United States the Louisiana Territory. This territory included more than two million square miles of land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. We only paid the French $15 million, which was about 60 million francs at the time. We got this land by sending over James Monroe and Robert Livingston to Paris to negotiate the purchase some land on the lower Mississippi, or a guarantee of free navigation on the Mississippi River. The French offered the whole territory, delighted the men immediately negotiated the treaty. Jefferson was very pleased with this treaty. The nation had double in size, there was more land to settle, and there was free navigation of the Mississippi River. There was some thought that the Constitution did not give the power to the federal government to acquire new territory by treaty. But Jefferson decided that the benefits to the nation outweighed a possible violation of the Constitution.

This new land gave the Americans a chance to broaden there borders. Now they had somewhere to go and to expand to. This was a great moment in history for the United States. Not only was there a lot of land gained by the treaty but it was fairly cheap for that amount. This acquirement of new territory also made it easier for Americans to sail there vessels down the Mississippi River through what use to be Spanish territory and unload goods at New Orleans for shipment to the Atlantic coast and Europe. This also gave the nation a chance to spread there diverse interest and concerns and bring tem to one with the though of new land and what the nation should do with it.