Expansion of the Nation

In the mid-1790s, the eastern boundary of the vast region then known as Louisiana ran along the Mississippi River from the settlement and port of New Orleans in the South to what is now the border of Canada. Louisiana's western boundary was not well defined but extended from New Orleans northwest through present-day northern Texas to the Rocky Mountains and then northward along the Rockies to Canada. Louisiana included more than 800,000 square miles. With the Treaty of Fontainebleau in 1762, France ceded, or formally surrendered, Louisiana to Spain.

At the end of the American Revolution in 1783, the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris. In the treaty, Britain granted independence to the United States; Britain also granted to the United States all land west of the original colonies to the Mississippi River. The new nation stretched north to Canada (a poorly defined boundary that ran along the Great Lakes) and south to Spanish-held Florida. Spanish Florida included the peninsula and western Florida. The northern boundary of Spanish Florida ran from the Saint Marys River on the Atlantic coast all the way to the Mississippi River.

Americans had begun settling the western lands of the United States in the 1780s. At that time, western lands meant the region west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River and west of the state of Georgia to the Mississippi. Native American hostilities prevented substantial settlement until the mid-1790s, when the United States signed the Jay Treaty (1794) with Britain and the Treaty of San Lorenzo (1795) with Spain. As part of these treaty agreements, Britain and Spain promised to stop supporting Native American resistance to American settlers in the West. Confident that the lands were more secure, pioneers flooded westward.

In the 1780s, the Americans who managed to settle in the West depended on the Mississippi River to transport their goods to market. Boats traveled down the Spanish-controlled Mississippi to the port of New Orleans, through the Gulf of Mexico, and around Florida; from there, some went to the U.S. east coast, while others went on to European markets. As settlement expanded rapidly in the 1790s, the goods transported down the Mississippi grew to include flour, tobacco, bearskins and deerskins, feathers, whiskey made from corn, apples, cider, butter and cheese, and pork, bacon, and lard. From sale of the goods, Western pioneer farmers earned a living. At the port of New Orleans, Spain charged fees, called duties, on products traveling up and down the river. Spain also charged a fee for the right of deposit. The right of deposit was the right to store cargo or deposit cargo on docks until it could be loaded onto oceangoing ships. These fees were a constant source of friction between American settlers, the U.S. government, and Spain.

The Treaty of San Lorenzo, signed in 1795 and ratified in 1796, withdrew the fees for the right of deposit at New Orleans. The treaty allowed Americans to freely navigate the Mississippi and export (send out) and import (bring in) goods through New Orleans without fees. The treaty granted American ships free right of deposit for three years, and the two nations had informally agreed that the right would be extended after that. The free navigation of the Mississippi River and the right of deposit improved the economic environment of the western lands. Following the defeat of a major Native American alliance that had been fighting against U.S. expansion into the region, the Ohio River valley was settled extensively after 1794. The treaty proved very timely for providing safe shipment of goods from western settlement down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River to New Orleans.

Soon after Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826; served 1801–9) was inaugurated as president of the United States on March 4, 1801, he received news that France and Spain had signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso, an agreement that involved the exchange of a significant piece of land in North America. The Spanish had controlled the region called Louisiana and the Mississippi River throughout the American Revolution (1775–83) and for the entire life of the young U.S. nation. Now Spain had apparently been forced to cede the territory to France.

The Treaty of San Ildefonso was troubling for U.S. leaders. They knew that France was more powerful than Spain, and they feared the French might challenge U.S. interests in North America. Hoping to prevent this, President Jefferson took quick action. In April 1802, he wrote to Robert R. Livingston (1746–1813), his appointed ambassador in France. The first excerpt, "To the U.S. Minister to France," is taken from Jefferson's letter. In the letter, Jefferson expressed grave concern over France taking control of Louisiana and therefore the port of New Orleans. He instructed Livingston to immediately open negotiations with France. If the offer of several million dollars would not be enough to entice France to sell New Orleans, then Livingston was to threaten a possible stronger alliance between the United States and Britain, France's chief enemy. Jefferson believed that French leader Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821) would not stand for that.

Napoléon wound up offering the United States much more than expected. The result was the Louisiana Purchase, a real estate transaction that more than doubled the size of the young nation. The second excerpt, "The Cession of Louisiana," comes from the cession treaty signed by France and the United States in April 1803. In the third excerpt, "Jefferson's Instructions to Lewis," the president gives detailed orders to Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809), the man he selected to explore the territory included in the Louisiana Purchase and the unknown western lands beyond.