The Louisiana Purchase

The Continental Divide

The Nation Looks West

• By 1800 about 1,000,000 farmers lived between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River– Cheapest way to get

supplies to Atlantic Coast was Mississippi River

– Stored supplies in New Orleans while waiting for ships

• Who controlled the Mississippi?

• Spain and US on good terms

• Pinckney Treaty gave us use of the Mississippi River and New Orleans (“right of deposit”)

Seriously, Senor?• Meanwhile…Spain signs a secret treaty

agreeing to sell Louisiana Territory to France – Right of deposit denied to US– Napoleon poised to conquer Europe– Looking to expand French empire into North

American– Jefferson becomes fearful…• Spain was weak• France was not weak

Jefferson’s Response

• Sends James Monroe and Robert Livingston to Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans and the immediately surrounding areas.

• I see you have no chance:– Haiti (French colony) stages a

successful revolution and overthrows French colonial rule

– Haiti is no longer a springboard into N. Amer.

– France needs money to fight war in Europe (Britain)

– Result: Napoleon looks to “dump” Louisiana

I See London, I See France…

Such a Deal!

• Jefferson wants to buy west Florida and New Orleans for $10,000,000

• France sells Louisiana to the U.S.A. for $15,000,000– Less than 4 cents/acre– 2011: $233 million, 43 cents/acre– The U.S.A. doubles in size– Spans Mississippi River – Rocky Mountains

• Big Question: IS THIS CONSTITUTIONAL?– Remember, T. Jeff was highly opposed to these

sorts of actions – undermined states rights and led to “big government” and not strictly aligned with the constitution!

How did Jefferson justify the purchase of Louisiana Territory?

Review…

1. What country controlled the Mississippi in 1800? – Why was this significant?

2. Why did the treaty between Spain and France scare T. Jeff?

3. What did Jefferson authorize James Monroe and Robert Livingston to offer France $10 million for?

4. Why did Napoleon eventually decide to sell the entire Louisiana Territory to us? – For how much?

Lewis and Clark Expedition•Even before the purchase occurred, Jefferson had planned to send an expedition west.

•Named his private secretary and Virginia neighbor, Meriwether Lewis who chose William Clark as his colleague.

•The Louisiana Purchase was not publicly announced until July 3, just two days before Meriwether Lewis left Washington, D.C., for Pittsburgh to begin purchasing supplies and hiring men for the expedition.

•For Lewis, the purchase changed what would have been a semi-covert mission through foreign territory into a bold survey of American-owned land.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition1804-1806

• Congress provided money ($2,500) for a team of explorers to study the new lands– 2 captains – Meriwether Lewis

& William Clark– 38 enlisted men– Handful of civilians (French

fur traders– Sacagawea serves as

interpreter of the Shoshone language

The Main Players•Meriwether Lewis ( August 18, 1774-October 11, 1809

Served in armyCaptain on ExpeditionEarned $1,228 and 1600 acres of landAppointed governor of Louisiana TerritoryPersonal secretary to JeffersonCommitted suicide

•William Clark( August 1, 1770- September 1, 1838 served in armycaptaincartographer on expeditionTook York his childhood slave with him on the expeditionReturned to Missouri and owned 1600 acres of landBecame governor of Missouri

Objectives of the Expedition

1.Map a route to the Pacific2.Develop friendly relationships with Indians3.Study resources, climate, animals, etc.

• In 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led one of the most historic American Expeditions

Map a route to the Pacific

Supplies for the Expedition• Mathematical Instruments:

– surveyor’s compass – hand compass – telescope

• Camp Supplies:– hatchets – two dozen tablespoons – mosquito curtains – 10 1/2 pounds of fishing hooks and fishing

lines – 12 pounds of soap – 193 pounds of "portable soup"

• Presents for Indians:– 12 dozen pocket mirrors – 4,600 sewing needles – tomahawks that doubled as pipes – vermilion face paint – 33 pounds of tiny beads of assorted colors

• Clothing:– 45 flannel shirts

• Arms and Ammunition:– 15 prototype Model 1803 muzzle-loading .54

caliber rifles – 500 rifle flints – 176 pounds of gunpowder packed in 52 lead

canisters – 1 long-barreled rifle that fired its bullet with

compressed air, rather than by flint, spark and powder

• Medicine and Medical Supplies:– 50 dozen Dr. Rush’s patented "Rush’s pills" – 1,300 doses of physic – 3,500 doses of diaphoretic (sweat inducer)

• Traveling Library:– Barton’s Elements of Botany – Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz’s History of

Louisiana – Richard Kirwan’s Elements of Mineralogy – A map of the Great Bend of the Missouri River

The Lewis and Clark Expedition1804-1806

Summer of 1803 Lewis oversees construction of keelboat in Pittsburgh and buys Seaman; takes boat down Ohio and meets Clark and York( Clarks’ slave)March 10Lewis and Clark attend ceremonies in St. Louis formally transferring Louisiana Territory from France to United States.May 14Leaves Camp Woods sails up Missouri July 4Expedition marks first Fourth of July ever naming a creek (near what is now Atchinson, Kansas) Independence CreekOctober 24Build Fort Mandan across the river from the main Mandan and Hidastas

November 4 Hire Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian fur trader living and his wife Sacagawea, as interpreters. Having been told that the Shoshones live at the headwaters of the Missouri and have many horses, the captains believe the two will be helpful when the expedition reaches the mountains.

February 11Sacagawea gives birth to a baby boy, Jean Baptiste. Lewis assists in speeding the delivery by giving her a potion made by crushing the rings of a rattlesnake’s rattle into powder.

April 7Lewis and Clark dispatch the big keelboat and roughly a dozen men back downriver, along with maps, reports, Indian artifacts, and boxes of scientific specimens for Jefferson (Indian corn, animal skins and skeletons, mineral samples, and five live animals including the prairie dog).

May 20The captains name a river “Sah-ca-gah-we-a or bird woman’s River, after our interpreter the Snake [Shoshone] woman.” As they map new territory, the captains eventually give the names of every expedition member to some landmark.

May 29Clark comes across a stream he considers particularly clear and pretty, and names it the Judith River, in honor of a young girl back in Virginia he hopes will one day marry him.August 12The shipment sent from Fort Mandan finally arrives in the East. Jefferson will plant the Indian corn in his Monticello garden, hang elk antlers in his foyer, and send the surviving animals – a magpie and the prairie dog – to a natural science museum located in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. Reading Lewis’s confident letter, he would imagine the expedition having already reached the Pacific. That same day, Lewis ascends the final ridge toward the Continental Divide August 17Having discovered a village of Shoshones. Sacagawea is brought in to help translate. Remarkably, the Shoshone chief, Cameahwait, turns out to be her brother.September 11The Corps of Discovery ascends into the Bitterroot Mountains,November 24To make the crucial decision of where to spend the winter, the captains decide to put the matter to a vote. Significantly, in addition to the others, Clark’s slave, York, is allowed to vote – nearly 60 years before slaves in the U. S. would be emancipated and enfranchised. Sacagawea, the Indian woman, votes too – more than a century before either women or Indians are granted the full rights of citizenship. The majority decides to cross to the south side of the Columbia, near modern-day Astoria, Oregon, to build winter quarters.

January 4In the East, President Jefferson welcomes a delegation of Missouri, Oto, Arikara, and Yankton Sioux chiefs who had met Lewis and Clark more than a year earlier. Jefferson thanks them for helping the expedition and tells them of his hope “that we may all live together as one household.” The chiefs respond with praise for the explorers, but doubts about whether Jefferson’s other “white children” will keep his word. July 3After re-crossing the Bitterroots, the expedition splits into smaller units, in order to explore more of the Louisiana Territory.August 14They arrive back at the Mandan villages. John Colter is given permission to leave the expedition and return to the Yellowstone to trap beaver (and become one of the first American “mountain men”). The captains say good-bye to Charbonneau, Sacagawea, and Baptiste.September 23Their last day as the Corps of Discovery. They reach St. Louis. Having been gone nearly two and a half years, they had been given up for dead by the citizens, who greet the explorers enthusiastically. “Now,” young John Ordway writes, “we intend to return to our native homes to see our parents once more, as we have been so long from them.”

Zebulon Pike 1805-1807Explored the upper Mississippi River, Arkansas River, and present-day Colorado and New Mexico