Why did president Jefferson want to buy Louisiana from France? Why did the purchase pose a dilemma for him?

Question

How did he justify the purchase? what was the significance of the purchase?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Jefferson Louisiana Purchase

Answer 4

Well I live in Louisiana and am some what a history buff. But it has been a long time since i looked at this question critically.

All of the answer given so far are correct to some extent. But expansion and the bargain nature of the deal was not Jefferson's driving force. At the time the U S was in a big dispute with Spain over Florida and other areas. And Spain and France were going at each other. Jefferson saw the Louisiana Purchase as a way to one up the Spanish. In short he was hedging his bets in the event Spain won out in their fight with France. It was this advantage over Spain that allowed Jefferson to rationalize his conflict over increasing the size of Government figuring the Purchase of Louisiana Territories was much cheaper in the long run than a major battle with Spain if they got that territory. From that point of view the purchase presented no real dilemma for him in spite of his limited government outlook. It was in his view the prudent thing to do.

Answer 5

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RE:
Why did president Jefferson want to buy Louisiana from France? Why did the purchase pose a dilemma for him?
How did he justify the purchase? what was the significance of the purchase?

Answer 6

As previously mentioned, the Jefferson's dilemma was that his political ideology was founded on the idea of "small government." He hated the idea of a strong federal government. The bigger the country, the bigger the government.

However, to Jefferson and many American thinkers after him, this did not pose a significant obstacle. To understand why, you have to look at Jefferson's philosophy. Above all, he believed in the importance of populating the country with small and independent land owners. This is the idea of "yeomanry," and it's at the heart of what many historians call the agrarian myth. Simple people who made their living through farming their own soil. That was Jefferson's ideal America.

He believed that this lifestyle would keep Americans democratic because it would invest political power in the hands of simple farmers instead of elite business interests. There was also a wide array of beliefs which held that working the land had an almost magical effect on people. It shaped their character -- it made people hard-working, honest, and strong.

This is the same idea probed by Frederick Jackson Turner in his famous essay, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." The strongest force in American history was expansion. To Turner, expansion made Americans democratic, and gave them a uniquely beneficial character. This effectively countered the argument that expansion led to big government. That may have been true (the evidence suggests that's exactly what happened), but that's not what Americans tended to believed.

The Louisiana Purchase was part of that story of expansion, and therefore it was an easy position to endorse. Americans believed they needed the room to save their democracy, and so they took it.

Answer 7

Thomas Jefferson and several of his cronies were overly fond of France and they also had huge debts in Paris and so they concocted a land swindle called the Lousianna Purchase. Think about it - - - - eventually America seized Texas and the American Southwest. They could have done the same with the Lousianna Territory. The land actually belonged to the Natives. But in order to funnel funds to his friends & creditors in France, Thomas Jefferson dazzled Congress with a Song & Dance act that convinced them of the value of 'purchasing' the Lousianna Territory.

Now note I am not saying that it was bad that America acquired the territory I just wish to point out that it could have been seized rather than purchased and that the purchase intself was a swindle. A great bargain but still a swindle.

Peace.....

Answer 8

At first he didn't want to buy it. All he wanted to buy was the little piece of land owned by Napolean that was by the Mississippi River. France was using that land to control the Mississippi and was charging the American colonists fees to use the River for trade. Jefferson sent two men to France to try to buy the land.

At this time Haiti was one of Napoleans little countries. Haiti had an uprising; Napolean saw that he couldn't control it. He figured if he couldn't control Hait why would he be able to control Lousiana, all the way in America?

He offered the entire are of Lousiana to America for basically nothing. He gave them no time to consult with Jefferson. The two representatives of Jefferson accepted.

The American population didn't like this very much. Here they had just signed a constitution assuring equal rights and all that and now two men on their own bought double the land the USA was until now. Jefferson looked somewhat like a dictator!

Jefferson skillfully showed them this was the only way to do it. He showed them all the benefits and just why the congress wasn't consulted. The uproar died down.

Answer 9

The significance was that it doubled the size of the US and gave it one of the main trading ports on the Western Hemisphere (New Orleans). The purchased posed a dilemma because this was still only about 15 years after the Constitution was ratified and people still werent sure if the President had the right to purchase land.

Answer 10

Thomas Jefferson had a dream of expanding the US from ocean to ocean. Gaining the LA purchase helped in that dream that was based off the American principle of manifest destiny and how we are the chosen ppl. The dilemma was that he did not have the right to do so written in the Constitution. He went with a loose interpretation of the document, which meant that he justified it by saying that the Constitution did not say specifically that he couldn't, so therefore it was within his power. That was the first time that a president acted before gaining the agreement of the Congress before acting.

Answer 11

Americans had a natural fascination for westward expansion, and the Louisiana Purchase provided plenty of room for our new country to grow. However, Jefferson knew that a big country means a bigger government, and a harder to control border, to name a few problems. However, in the end, it was too good of a deal to pass up.

It is interesting to note that dividing up the purchase into states would become such a big problem that it would be one of the underlying causes of the Civil War.