As we celebrate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition,
we need to be reminded of the unique diplomatic coup that prompted and
legitimized America's westward expansion: the Louisiana Purchase.
At his inaugural address on March 4, 1801, President Jefferson proposed
a foreign policy of "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with
all nations, entangling alliances with none." Americans were beginning
to settle along the Mississippi but did not have access to the vital
territory where the river leads into the Gulf of Mexico.
To tackle this problem peaceably, the president and his secretary of
state, James Madison, agreed that they should try to acquire access
to the Gulf by purchasing at least the harbor of New Orleans and Louisiana
east of the Mississippi. In 1762 France had ceded the large but vaguely
defined area of Louisiana to Spain, but in a secret treaty in 1800 Napoleon
had regained the territory, at least on paper. When Jefferson heard
of this turn of events, he feared that Napoleon would try to develop
Louisiana into a French empire and close the harbor of New Orleans to
American commerce.
On April 18, 1802, the president wrote to Robert Livingston, the U.S.
minister to France: "The day that France takes New Orleans …
we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation." On January
12, 1803, Jefferson named James Monroe minister plenipotentiary to France
with instructions to purchase New Orleans and West Florida with the
$2 million that, for this purpose, Congress had appropriated. If need
be, Jefferson suggested, Monroe should offer Napoleon as much as $10
million.
When Monroe arrived in Paris on April 12, however, he learned that Talleyrand,
Napoleon's foreign minister, had already asked Livingston, how much
the United States was willing to pay for all of the Louisiana territory,
bounded by the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains
and Canada's southern border. Napoleon had lost his imperial ambitions
in the New World when his troops failed to suppress the costly slave
revolt in Haiti. Besides, he anticipated further hostilities with the
British.
Napoleon's negotiator, treasury secretary François Barbé-Marbois,
knew well how eagerly most Americans wanted to control the mouth of
the Mississippi. So he offered the roughly 828,000 square miles of the
Louisiana Territory for 100 million francs, or about $25 million, and
the cancellation of all American financial claims against France. That
was far more than Livingston and Monroe had been instructed to pay.
On April 30, however, the two sides agreed on a compromise: 60 million
francs, or about $15 million--$11,250,000 for the whole Louisiana Territory
and the remainder for outstanding claims. That was $13 million more
than Congress had authorized and $5 million more than the President
had allowed.
Yet, Livingston and Monroe had no way of consulting with either the
President or Congress. Clearly, in signing the agreement, they exceeded
their instructions. Yet, they obviously recognized that this huge real
estate transaction was so favorable and significant for the future of
the United States that they had to take the risk of potential objections
back home.
There also was no clear understanding concerning the ownership of West
Florida and Texas. Even though, by purchasing this vast territory at
four cents per acre, Livingston and Monroe had doubled the area of United
States.
When the treaty arrived in Washington, the President convened Congress
at the earliest day practicable for its ratification and execution.
The Federalist minority in both houses voted against the deal but lacked
the votes to block it. The question on its ratification in the Senate
was decided by 24 to 7. In the House, it carried by 89 to 23. As soon
as the ratification documents were exchanged, the President sent two
commissioners to New Orleans to take formal possession of the territory
on December 20, 1803.
Incidentally, neither the U.S. Treasury nor any American bank could
come up with $11.25 million. The Louisiana Purchase could have fallen
flat, had not two European banks arranged for the issuance of the $11.25
million in stock certificates.