Posted
on July 4, 2014
The
American people started celebrating Independence Day on July 4 from
the country's earliest days (even though Congress voted to declare
independence onJuly 2, and most scholars believe that the Declaration of Independence was signed in August). In a way, people looked on the Fourth as the nation's birthday.
And
on the Fourth of 1803, President Thomas Jefferson – the very fellow
who wrote the Declaration of Independence – was able to give a big
present to the American people:
The
new nation had suddenly doubled in size!
In
1802, the king of Spain had given over the huge territory called
Louisiana to France (led by Napoleon Bonaparte) in return for the
king's son-in-law gaining power over Tuscany.
Americans
greeted the land transfer with very negative feelings. They had had a
treaty with Spain giving them rights to use the Mississippi River for
transport of goods plus the right to store goods in New Orleans until
they could be loaded onto oceangoing ships. But as soon as France
gained the Louisiana Territory—which included the important port
city of New Orleans—they alerted the Americans to the fact that
they no longer could store goods in the port's warehouses.
And
when I say “negative feelings,” I mean outrage! Some Americans
called for war. When Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison
worked to resolve the issue through peaceful diplomacy rather than
war, some Americans called for secession by the western territories
that were most dependent on the Mississippi! That's right, they
wanted to leave the new nation, and create their own nation, so that
they could fight for—and hopefully grab control of—New Orleans.
Jefferson
responded to the warmongers in two fairly visible ways. First, he
sent James Monroe to Paris, France, to help with negotiations – and
although Monroe was a trusted friend of Jefferson's, Monroe did own
land in Kentucky (which was “the west” back then!), and he had
been vocal about the need to safeguard the rights of those living in
the western territories.
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| James Madison - Thomas Jefferson - James Monroe |
The
second thing Jefferson did was to work to create an expedition that
could explore the vast Louisiana Territory, no matter who owned it.
You probably know that the exploratory mission became known as the
Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Here's
the deal: Monroe was given instructions to purchase New Orleans and
maybe West Florida, and he was authorized to spend up to ten million
dollars for that land.
But
(travel time back in the early 1800s being what it was) by the time
Monroe landed in France, France's minister of finance had convinced
Napoleon that Louisiana would be less valuable without Haiti (which
France was losing to a rebellion by former slaves) and that France
couldn't afford to send enough soldiers to keep control of the whole
Mississippi Valley, anyway.
So,
by the time Monroe arrived, Napoleon had decided to sell the whole
thing. A huge amount of territory—obviously worth more than the
authorized ten million dollars!
Monroe
jumped on the chance, and alongside the other US diplomat in France,
Robert Livingston, ended up negotiating the sale price for all of
that property at just 15 million dollars!
Making
this sale exceeded Monroe's and Livingson's authority – and their
spending limit – but it was such a great deal for the United
States, nobody complained!
If
you want to know how good a deal – it was about four cents per
acre!
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