Topic: Westward Expansion
By Anne Klingle
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Last updated almost 3 years ago
4 Questions
Learning Intention: I can evaluate the causes of the Westward Expansion by analyzing multiple resources.
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Warm Up: Key Ideas and Vocabulary
Information Text
Thomas Jefferson's ideal government was an agrarian democracy, whose economy is based on the production of crops and farmland. During his presidency from 1801 to 1809, Jefferson felt that agrarian society was at risk. The growth of urban industry and the transition from farming to factory work threatened to rob men of the financial independence that they maintained as farmers.
Jefferson's vision was not anti-modern. He had too brilliant a scientific mind to fear technological change. He supported global commerce that would benefit farmers, and he wanted to see new technology incorporated into ordinary farms to make them more productive.
Yet Jefferson had pinpointed a troubling problem. America's new government promised its citizens democratic equality. How could this be maintained in the face of economic and social changes that threatened to increase inequality? The awful working conditions in early industrial England loomed as a terrifying example.
Expanding westward
For President Jefferson, western expansion was an alternative to the British model. As long as hardworking farmers could acquire land at reasonable prices, then America could succeed as a republic of equal and independent citizens.
Jefferson's plans for the nation depended upon the country growing toward the West, and also selling American farm products internationally.
This vision was threatened when France regained control of Louisiana. French leader Napoleon Bonaparte had risen to power in the French Revolution. He threatened to block American access to the important port city of New Orleans, which sits on the Mississippi River. New American settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains depended upon river transport to get their goods to market. Transporting these goods by land to the east was expensive and impractical.
Blocking American access to New Orleans was a grave threat to American interests. President Jefferson considered changing his traditional foreign policy to an anti-French alliance with the British. At the same time that he sent diplomats to France to bargain for continued trade access along the Mississippi, he also sent diplomats to Britain to pursue other policy options. James Monroe, the top person negotiating in Paris, wanted to purchase New Orleans and West Florida for between $2 million and $10 million.
Napoleon offers land for $15 million
Surprisingly, Napoleon offered much more. His military was overextended and he needed money to continue his war against Britain. Knowing full well that he could not force Americans out of the land France possessed in North America, Napoleon offered all of Louisiana to the U.S. for $15 million. The massive territory stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and more than doubled the size of the United States.
Napoleon's asking price worked out to be about four cents an acre.
The decision to move forward with the purchase was not easy for Jefferson, who felt strongly that the central government should be "rigorously frugal and simple." As president he reduced the size and scope of the federal government by ending internal taxes and reducing the size of the army and navy. Limiting the federal government flowed from his strict interpretation of the Constitution. An enormous expenditure on land was in direct opposition to Jefferson's long-held principles.
Political controversy over deal
Nevertheless, the deal was struck in April 1803. It brought a good deal of controversy and raised issues that threatened to lead to the breakup of the new United States.
Some New England Federalists, for example, began to talk of breaking away from the U.S. because their political power was lessened by the Louisiana Purchase. Federalists believed in a strong central government. They were in opposition to Jefferson's political party, the Democratic-Republican Party.
Federalist critics complained that the Constitution didn't allow the federal government to purchase new land, and that Jefferson had not followed his own strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Jefferson was troubled by the inconsistency, but in the end decided that the Constitution's treaty-making provisions allowed him to make the purchase. Most of the Senate agreed and the Louisiana Purchase easily passed, with 26 votes in favor of the purchase and 6 against.
The dramatic growth of the country's size also contradicted Jefferson's commitment to reduce the national debt as swiftly as possible. Though $15 million was a relatively small sum for such a large amount of land, it was still an enormous price tag for the modest federal budget back then.
13 states added to the country
The Louisiana Purchase demonstrates Jefferson's ability to make practical political decisions. Although contrary to some of his central principles, guaranteeing western growth was so important to Jefferson's overall vision that he took bold action. The gains were dramatic, as the territory acquired would in time add 13 new states to the union.
In 1812, Louisiana became the first state to join the country from land bought in the purchase. Louisiana was allowed to enter the United States with its French legal traditions largely in place.Even today, Louisiana's legal code retains many elements that do not follow English common law traditions. The federal system can be remarkably flexible.
