Step 1: The Louisiana Purchase Timeline
France gave Louisiana to Spain.
March 1801:
Napoleon wanted a French empire in North America. So, under pressure, Spain returned Louisiana to France.
Federalists in the United States were alarmed that France now owned Louisiana. They wanted to use force against France. But Jefferson (a Democratic-Repulican) sent Robert R. Livingston, the U.S. minister to France to attempt to buy New Orleans.
January 1803: U.S. sent James Monroe to join Livingston and try to buy New Orleans
and West Florida from France.
April 1803:
Napoleon gave up his dream of an American empire because he was overwhelmed by the slave revolt in Haiti and also wanted to go to war with Britain.
The French offered Livingston and Monroe all of Louisiana (not just New Orleans). Livingston and Monroe signed a treaty. For roughly $15 million, the U.S. acquired some 828,000 square miles of land, doubling the national territory of the United States.
October 1803:
The Senate ratified the treaty and in December the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase.
Step 2: Document A: Alexander Hamilton (Modified)
The purchase of New Orleans is essential to the peace and prosperity of our Western country, and opens a free and valuable market to our commercial states.
This purchase will probably make it seem like Mr. Jefferson is brilliant. Any man, however, who possesses any amount of intelligence, will easily see that the purchase is the result of lucky coincidences and unexpected circumstances and not the result of any wise or thoughtful actions on the part of Jefferson’s administration.
As to the vast region west of the Mississippi, it is a wilderness with numerous tribes of Indians. And when we consider the present territory of the United States, and that not one-sixteenth is yet under occupation, the possibility that this new purchase will be a place of actual settlement seems unlikely.
If our own citizens do eventually settle this new land, it would weaken our country and central government. On the whole, we can honestly say that this purchase is at best extremely problematic.
Source: Alexander Hamilton wrote an editorial called “Purchase of Louisiana” for the New York Evening Post, July 1803.
Document B: Letters by Federalists (Modified) Rufus King to Timothy Pickering, November 4, 1803
According to the Constitution, Congress may admit new states. But can the President sign treaties forcing Congress to do so?
According to the Louisiana Treaty, the territory must be formed into states and admitted into the Union. Will Congress be allowed to set any rules for their admission? Since slavery is legal and exists in Louisiana, and the treaty states that we must protect the property of the inhabitants, won’t we be forced to admit the new states as slave states? Doing so will worsen the problem of unequal representation from slave and free states.
Timothy Pickering to Rufus King. March 4, 1804
I am disgusted with the men who now rule us. The coward at the head [Jefferson] is like a French revolutionary. While he talks about humanity, he enjoys the utter destruction of his opponents. We have too long witnessed his general wickedness—his cruel removals of faithful officers and the substitution of corruption and immorality for honesty.
Source: The two letters above are written between two Federalists. Rufus King was a Senator from New York and Timothy Pickering was a Senator from Massachusetts.
Tuesday
John Melish subtext
“Manifest Destiny” and the Writing of John O’Sullivan (Modified)
John O’Sullivan, "The Great Nation of Futurity," 1839.
Our national birth (and the Declaration of Independence) was the beginning of a new history, which separates us from the past and connects us only with the future.
We are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement. Our future history will be to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man -- the undeniable truth and goodness of God. America has been chosen for this mission among all the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth. Her high example shall put an end to the tyranny of kings, and carry the happy news of peace and good will to millions who now endure an existence hardly better than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of the future?
John O’Sullivan, “Annexation,” 1845.
It is time now for all opposition to annexation of Texas to stop. . . Texas is now ours. She is no longer to us a mere geographical space. She is no longer to us a mere country on the map....
The time has come for everyone to stop treating Texas as an alien, and to stop thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.
Source: John O’Sullivan was a writer and editor of a well-known newspaper around the time of the Mexican-American war. Most people give him the credit for coining the term “Manifest Destiny.”
Vocabulary
Enfranchisement: the right to vote Tyranny: cruel and oppressive government Endure: suffer Thwarting: opposing Hampering: slowing down Allotted: given Providence: God
Manifest DestinyGuiding Questions Name__________
John O’Sullivan, "The Great Nation of Futurity," 1839.
1. What does John O’Sullivan think America stands for?
2. What, according to John O’Sullivan, is America’s mission?
John O’Sullivan, “Annexation,” July 1845.
1. What do you think John O’Sullivan means by “our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions”?
2. Based on these two documents, how did Americans feel about expanding westward?
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