The Louisiana Purchase

Louisiana Purchase Treaty

Louisiana Purchase Map

To complete this purchase, I had to put aside my principles. The reasoning for this was because the allowance of this was not listed in the constitution. I didn’t want to wait for a constitutional amendment because if I did, the deal might have been called off. I knew my decision was right because a secret treaty had been signed between Spain and France which gave Louisiana to France. France then threatened America. I feared that if I did not make this purchase, it would lead to war. I had sent men to France to try to secure my purchase but got an agreement to buy all of Louisiana. I did have reservations about my authority to purchase Louisiana and became silent on my action before laying it before Congress.This is 800,000 square miles of land.  We did not have the money to buy it at the time so we borrowed it from Great Britain at a 6% interest. It made the land area double. I felt as if I had made a good choice. Luckily, so did the majority of American citizens. The southern and western boundaries were not defined in this purchase. We will soon have to work with Spain to figure out these boundaries.