The Louisiana Purchase

The Louisiana Purchase was purchased from France in 1803 for about 4 cents an acre. It is, to this day, the best real estate deal ever to be made. The full size of the land was a little larger than the size of France, Italy, Holland, Britain, the British isles, and Spain combined. The discussions between America and France were somewhat short, but the journey to get to those discussions took two decades. France wanted to get rid of the Louisiana Purchase because it was a liability since it was unguarded and was surrounded by powerful nations that could invade. An argument that I would present in favor of the purchase would be that it expanded the U.S. territory by twice its size. However, I would not be in favor of the purchase because the land was currently inhabited by many different Indian tribes. The Louisiana Purchase was also not technically constitutional and, since Jefferson based his entire campaign on the constitution, the administration got of to a rough start.

The Louisiana Purchase was bought cheaply for $15 million dollars and it nearly doubled the size of the land(back in those times). This newly bought land was inhabited by Indians but the French and Spanish were the main people who had control of the area. I would favor the purchase because with the exploration of Lewis and Clark, the nation now understood how large America could be in the nearby future. (Quotes)

Unfortunately, Lewis and Clark came across many strong Indian tribes that had already been inhabiting that land. For a newly founded nation to go into a black void of possibilities beyond the Appalachian mountains was very risky. First of all, their military was very small relative to the number of Indians prepared to defend their territory. Second, there was no way for the U.S. to predict how many supplies and people they would need to proceed on this journey. If Lewis and Clark made the journey with a small group and experienced many predicaments along the way then a group of an entire army with limiting supplies would definitely undergo some serious situations. (Quotes)

Since this cheap unknown land was bought by Jefferson during his campaign, it produced a lot of moral uneasiness among the U.S. people. It also instigated a lot of discussion on whether the purchase was constitutional or not. The transaction regarding the Louisiana Purchase was not expressly mentioned in the Constitution and waiting for a Constitutional Amendment would possibly cause the deal to fall through. However, settlement began immediately and "A territorial government was established in 1804, and in 1812 the first of thirteen states to be carved from the territory - Louisiana - was admitted to the Union" (The Reader's Companion to American HIstory 682). Whether or not America had a "manifest destiny" the desire of the American people to control this land could not be denied.

After analyzing the information above, I believe