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Louisiana Purchase
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Celebrating the Louisiana Purchase is one of St. Louis Public Library's contributions to Celebrate 2004, a yearlong series of events and activities to mark St. Louis' historic anniversaries and celebrate the region's recent accomplishments. St. Louis Public Library invites you to browse the virtual exhibit and experience the many facets of the 1904 World's Fair. Celebrating the Louisiana Purchase features more than 1,200 images -- photographs, stereographs, lantern slides, and postcards - all drawn from the Library's collections. The originals, along with additional materials related to the 1904 World's Fair, may be viewed at St. Louis Public Library's Special Collection Department at Central Library.
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Like many other major events in world history, the Louisiana Purchase is a fascinating mix of destiny and individual energy and creativity. . . . Thomas Jefferson would have been less than human had he not claimed a major share of the credit. In a private letter . . . the president, reviving a favorite metaphor, said he "very early saw" Louisiana was a "speck" that could turn into a "tornado." He added that the public never knew how near "this catastrophe was." But he decided to calm the hotheads of the west and "endure" Napoleon's aggression, betting that a war with England would force Bonaparte to sell. This policy "saved us from the storm." Omitted almost entirely from this account is the melodrama of the purchase, so crowded with "what ifs" that might have changed the outcome-and the history of the world.
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[O]f the Louisiana Purchase, Arkansas became part of the District of Louisiana and the Territory of Orleans, with territorial status given to its white citizens. Europeans living in Arkansas had to acclimate themselves to the American systems of law, politics, and culture when they took hold of the area in 1804. The French habitants of Louisiana either stayed and accepted these new ways of life or moved to other areas of the former colony; by the 1830s, for example, the only French influence at Arkansas Post (Arkansas County) was its architecture—the families were gone. The American legal system, based on English Common law, was enforced; legal rights were denied to persons of mixed races (of which there were many); slavery, which had existed in French and Spanish Arkansas, was expanded into areas conducive to farming cash crops over time, and rules guiding slave behavior were tightened under Americans; exploration of Arkansas began in order to make way for new settlements; and the U.S. Army established itself in western Arkansas at Fort Smith (Sebastian County) to protect Americans from perceived American Indian threats as tribal members faced the impending removal from their traditional homelands in Arkansas. Resistance by French, Spanish, and American Indians was almost non-existent, as families either embraced the new system voluntarily or were forcefully moved through treaties to other parts of Arkansas or further westward. In short, the Louisiana Purchase signaled the end of European rule in the west and the Americanization of Arkansas.
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The Louisiana Purchase began exploration in the United States. Lewis and Clark were sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson’s chose his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, a Virginian, frontiersman, and soldier to lead the expedition. He had served in the army in Ohio with a former Army captain and friend, William Clark. These two men would work together as partners for President Jefferson. The two were to share joint command as they explored, mapped, and studied a new route to the Pacific.
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The Louisiana Purchase has often been described as one of the greatest real estate deals in history. Despite this, there were some issues that concerned Americans of the day. First, many wondered how or if the United States could defend this massive addition to its land holdings. Many New Englanders worried about the effect the new addition might have on the balance of power in the nation. Further, Jefferson and Monroe struggled with the theoretical implications of the manner in which they carried out the purchase, particularly in light of Jefferson's previous heated battles with Alexander Hamilton concerning the interpretation of limits of constitutional and presidential powers. In the end... the desire to purchase the territory outweighed all of these practical and theoretical objections.
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The Louisiana Purchase has been described as the greatest real estate deal in history. In 1803 the United States paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory--828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River. The lands acquired stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. Thirteen states were carved from the Louisiana Territory. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States, making it one of the largest nations in the world.
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Louisiana Purchase