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Effects Of The Purchase Of Louisiana

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The purchase of Louisiana was both beneficial to President Thomas Jefferson as well as detrimental in many ways. The ordeal started in October of 1802, where Joseph Harris of smithsonianmag.com states that the Spanish administrator, Juan Ventura Morales, who was administering New Orleans until the French administrator Laussat arrived, said that the terms of 1795 treaty had expired and the Americans had lost their right to store American merchandise in warehouses located in New Orleans. Another right lost to the Americans was free access to pass through the Spanish territory on the Mississippi River. The United States depended on New Orleans and the Mississippi River for trading, as Jefferson wrote “There is on the globe one single spot,…show more content…
Joseph Harris of smithsonianmag.com goes on to state that despite his brothers wishes, Napoleon had decided to sell all of Louisiana to the United States as he was in need of money for his war with Britain, as well as the fact Louisiana was not as important to him as Saint Domingue was. After battering about the price, the purchase of Louisiana was agreed to cost $15 million from the United States. While some Americans rejoiced in this purchase, not all agreed with the price paid, even if it was less than four cents an acre. Smithsonianmag.com writes that The Boston Columbian Centinel published that “We are to give money of which we have too little for land of which we already have too much.” Schmoop.com states that the constitution does not authorize anywhere for the executive branch to use the public funds to pay for the expansion of the United States. The purchase of Louisiana was the opposite of the political philosophy that the Americans Elected President Thomas Jefferson for. Jefferson “emphasized small government, low taxes, and ‘strict construction’ of the constitution.” Therefore, the purchase of the territory was unconstitutional by President Jefferson’s standards himself. At first, Jefferson wanted to draft a new amendment to the constitution that would make his actions legal, but he did not know if this process would be finished in time. Not wanting to miss the opportunity,
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