Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase
Louisiana Purchase BackgroundThomas Jefferson read the powers of the Constitution narrowly. As Secretary of State under President Washington, Jefferson argued, unsuccessfully, that Constitution prohibited the establishment of a national bank or federal assumption of state debts.
A decade later as President,Jefferson worried whether the Constitution provided him the power to annex new territory--specifically, the Territory of Louisiana, which France offered to the United States for purchase. Writing to a friend at the time, Jefferson expressed doubts about whether the Constitution enabled him to acquire the extensive new lands stretching across the vast middle of the continent. |
Go to Constitutionality of the Louisiana Purchase (1803)
Answer the following questions:
Answer the following questions:
- What issues does Jefferson cite in his first letter to John C. Breckinridge?
- What issues does Jefferson cite in his first letter to Wilson Cary Nicholas?
- What other countries might question Jefferson's territorial claims in the Louisiana Purchase?
Go to Thomas Jefferson View on the Louisiana Purchase; Look at the sections entitled
- Strict Construction
- Jefferson and Power
- Reaction
- The Constitution
- Why was the Louisiana Purchase controversial?
- Why did Jefferson have concerns about the constitutionality of the Louisiana Purchase?
constitutionality_of_the_louisiana_purchase_1803.pdf | |
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thomas_jefferson_view_on_louisiana_purchase.pdf | |
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In the end, however, the Louisiana Purchase was too great an opportunity to pass up. Jefferson's view of federal power became somewhat more expansive: he concluded that the Constitution implicitly allowed the United States to acquire territory.
Further Reading:
The Letter That Bought An Empire Written in haste, on an April midnight in 1803, the unedited text of the message that led to the Louisiana Purchase is printed for the first time.
The Bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase
The Letter That Bought An Empire Written in haste, on an April midnight in 1803, the unedited text of the message that led to the Louisiana Purchase is printed for the first time.
The Bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase