Jefferson's presidency, like those of Washington and Adams, was dominated by foreign affairs issues because of the wars resulting of the French Revolution. By the time Jefferson became president, Napoleon had risen to power in France and had embarked upon the creation of a worldwide empire. Secretary of State James Madison had long believed that the strength of American commerce could be an influential factor in European affairs. Both he and Jefferson believed that the United States could play Great Britain off against France in order to further their own goals. Napoleon, on the other hand, saw North America and the Caribbean as potential areas he could use in order to develop French power.
The Mississippi River, along with the Ohio and Tennessee, which fed into it, had been seen since the 1780s as perhaps the most important communication avenue in the young nation, at least for the states and territories west of the Appalachians. The key to the commercial use of the Mississippi was New Orleans. Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 (the Treaty of San Lorenzo) had established the right of deposit in New Orleans. When the Louisiana territory was later ceded to France in the secret Treaty of Son Ildefonso in 1800, America's rights were not transferred. Jefferson did not formally learn of the transfer of power until 1803, although he had been getting secret intelligence concerning Napoleon's intentions in North America from friends in France.
Napoleon, meanwhile, had been planning to colonize the Louisiana territory. He would use slaves from Haiti to establish an agricultural venture to support his plans for further conquest. A slave revolt in Haiti led by Toussaint L'Overture, however, upset Napoleon's plans, and he stunned the Americans by offering them the whole Louisiana Territory. Livingston and Monroe had been authorized to purchase only New Orleans; fearing that Napoleon might rescind the offer, however, they agreed to purchase the entire region for $15 million.
Although the Louisiana Purchase was one of the greatest real estate bargains in history, a surprising amount of opposition arose to the treaty. New England-based Federalists feared that adding more territory in the West would reduce their political influence relative to the rest of the nation. The proposed purchase raised a Constitutional question in Jefferson's mind, but he was persuaded to put aside scruple and grab the bargain—over 800,000 square miles at about three cents an acre. The exact boundaries were not clearly delineated, which led to a later controversy with Spain. The purchase, however, doubled the size of the United States.
World History
