Part 27 (2/2)
[Sidenote: France secures Louisiana.]
241. Louisiana again a French Colony.--Spanish territory now bounded the United States on the south and the west. The Spaniards were not good neighbors, because it was very hard to make them come to an agreement, and next to impossible to make them keep an agreement when it was made. But this did not matter very much, because Spain was a weak power and was growing weaker every year. Sooner or later the United States would gain its point. Suddenly, however, it was announced that France had got back Louisiana. And almost at the same moment the Spanish governor of Louisiana said that Americans could no longer deposit their goods at New Orleans (p. 170). At once there was a great outcry in the West. Jefferson determined to buy from France New Orleans and the land eastward from the mouth of the Mississippi.
[Ill.u.s.tration: JACKSON SQUARE, NEW ORLEANS.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.]
[Sidenote: Napoleon's policy.]
[Sidenote: He offers to sell Louisiana.]
242. The Louisiana Purchase, 1803.--When Napoleon got Louisiana from Spain, he had an idea of again founding a great French colony in America. At the moment France and Great Britain were at peace. But it soon looked as if war would begin again. Napoleon knew that the British would at once seize Louisiana and he could not keep it anyway. So one day, when the Americans and the French were talking about the purchase of New Orleans, the French minister suddenly asked if the United States would not like to buy the whole of Louisiana. Monroe and Livingston, the American ministers, had no authority to buy Louisiana. But the purchase of the whole colony would be a great benefit to the United States. So they quickly agreed to pay fifteen million dollars for the whole of Louisiana.
[Sidenote: Louisiana purchased, 1803. _Higginson_, 244-245; _Eggleston_, 234; _Source-Book_, 200-202.]
[Sidenote: Importance of the purchase.]
243. The Treaty Ratified.--Jefferson found himself in a strange position. The Const.i.tution nowhere delegated to the United States power to acquire territory (p. 164). But after thinking it over Jefferson felt sure that the people would approve of the purchase. The treaty was ratified. The money was paid. This purchase turned out to be a most fortunate thing. It gave to the United States the whole western valley of the Mississippi. It also gave to Americans the opportunity to explore and settle Oregon, which lay beyond the limits of Louisiana.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1803.]
[Sidenote: Lewis and Clark, 1804-6. _Higginson_, 245-247; _McMaster_, 219-221;_Source-Book_, 206-209.]
[Sidenote: The mouth of the Oregon.]
244. Lewis and Clark's Explorations.--Jefferson soon sent out several expeditions to explore the unknown portions of the continent.
The most important of these was the expedition led by two army officers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, brother of General George Rogers Clark (p. 116). Leaving St. Louis they slowly ascended the muddy Missouri. They pa.s.sed the site of the present city of Omaha. They pa.s.sed the Council Bluffs. The current of the river now became so rapid that the explorers left their boats and traveled along the river's bank. They gained the sources of the Missouri, and came to a westward-flowing river. On, on they followed it until they came to the river's mouth. A fog hung low over the water. Suddenly it lifted. There before the explorers' eyes the river ”in waves like small mountains rolled out in the ocean.” They had traced the Columbia River from its upper course to the Pacific. Captain Gray in the Boston s.h.i.+p _Columbia_ had already entered the mouth of the river. But Lewis and Clark were the first white men to reach it overland.
[Sidenote: Amendment as to the election of President.]
[Sidenote: The Twelfth Amendment, 1804.]
245. The Twelfth Amendment, 1804.--Four presidential elections had now been held under the method provided by the Const.i.tution. And that method had not worked well (pp. 171, 176). It was now (1804) changed by the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment which is still in force. The old machinery of presidential electors was kept. But it was provided that in the future each elector should vote for President and for Vice-President on separate and distinct ballots. The voters had no more part in the election under the new system than they had had under the old system. The old method of apportioning electors among the states was also kept. This gives to each state as many electors as it has Senators and Representatives in Congress. No matter how small its territory, or how small its population, a state has at least two Senators and one Representative, and, therefore, three electors. The result is that each voter in a small state has more influence in choosing the President than each voter in a large state. Indeed, several Presidents have been elected by minorities of the voters of the country as a whole.
[Sidenote: Jefferson reelected, 1804.]
[Sidenote: Strength of the Republicans.]
246. Reelection of Jefferson, 1804.--Jefferson's first administration had been most successful. The Republicans had repealed many unpopular laws. By the purchase of Louisiana the area of the United States had been doubled and an end put to the dispute as to the navigation of the Mississippi. The expenses of the national government had been cut down, and a portion of the national debt had been paid. The people were prosperous and happy. Under these circ.u.mstances Jefferson was triumphantly reelected. He received one hundred and sixty-two electoral votes to only fourteen for his Federalist rival.
[Ill.u.s.tration: STEPHEN DECATUR.]
CHAPTER 24
CAUSES OF THE WAR OF 1812
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