Oklahoma Journeys

Week of April 26, 2009

Louisiana Purchase 1803

Have you ever come across an offer so spectacular that you just can’t refuse it? Now imagine that the item for sale is something that you have wanted for years and years. You don’t have a lot of money to spend but it’s a good bargain, so what would you do? This was President Thomas Jefferson’s dilemma, and that’s the topic of this week’s Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma History Center.

From the Oklahoma History Center, this is Oklahoma Journeys. I’m Michael Dean.

It’s been called the greatest real estate deal in the known history of the world, and it happened in this week of 1803. By 1800 the United States was feeling the need to expand it borders. Not by any stretch of the imagination could the young country be called crowded or lacking in elbow room but still the urge to move west was a strong motivator. The concept that it was the divine right of the United States to occupy as much of North America as it could was existent almost with the founding of this country. “Manifest Destiny,” as it was called, was the notion that it was God’s plan for Americans to take over the continent.

Other nations, however, didn’t always agree with our manic desire to conquer their lands. Standing in the way of our mission were the countries of France and Spain as well as several hundred independent American Indian nations. It was the ongoing conflict between France and England that provided the United States with the opportunity to advance closer to its goal of a country spreading from ocean to ocean. French head-of-state Napoleon Bonaparte, facing renewed warfare with England, needed money to support his European armies. Unable to defend, explore or exploit the French holdings in North America he chose in 1803 instead to offer them up for sale to the United States. This put President Thomas Jefferson in a dilemma of sorts.

One of his main theories of the US government was that the president shouldn’t be allowed to do anything not specifically mentioned in the constitution. owhere in that document did it mention that the president could acquire new territory by treaty. Ignoring his own advice Jefferson and then the Senate agreed to go ahead with the purchase of French lands in North America. For $15,000,000.00, the United States acquired what came to be known as the Louisiana Purchase. At the astounding low cost of four cents an acre the United States doubled its land holdings, gained control of the Mississippi River, gained control of the vital port at New Orleans, removed the French from the North American continent, and forever altered the interpretation of what presidents could and could not do. Out of this 828,000 square mile chunk of land was formed either all or part of the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, North Dakota, Texas, South Dakota, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Minnesota, Colorado, Montana, and of course Oklahoma.

You can learn more about the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark corps of discovery that followed that purchase by visiting the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City on NE 23rd just east of the state capitol. Oklahoma Journeys is a production of the Oklahoma History Center, dedicated to the collection, preservation, and sharing of our state’s past. I’m Michael Dean.