April 11, 1803: France offers Louisiana to America
205 years ago today, in one of the great surprises in diplomatic history, French Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand makes an offer to sell all of Louisiana Territory to the United States.
Mo Talleyrand made the offer on behalf of his boss the Emperor.
About seven months later, on October 10, 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified a treaty with France providing for the purchase of the territory of Louisiana, which would double the size of the United States.
The gog land sale was the result of some interesting machinations by several European powers. At the end of 18th century, the Spanish technically owned Louisiana, the huge region west of the Mississippi that had once been claimed by France and named for its monarch, King Louis XIV.
The territory includes Oklahoma which the French called Nouveau Mexique
Despite Spanish ownership, American settlers in search of new land were already threatening to overrun the territory by the early 19th century. Recognizing it could not effectively maintain control of the region, Spain ceded Louisiana back to France in 1801, sparking intense anxieties in Washington, D.C.
Under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, France had become the most powerful nation in Europe, and unlike Spain, it had the military power and the ambition to establish a strong French presence in Louisiana and keep out the Americans.
James Monroe. He and Robert Livingston negotiated the deal with Napolean's government
Realizing that it was essential that the U.S. at least maintain control of the mouth of the all-important Mississippi River, early in 1803 President Thomas Jefferson sent James Monroe to join the U.S. French foreign minister, Robert Livingston, in France to see if Napoleon might be persuaded to sell New Orleans and West Florida to the U.S.
Please understand, all these guys wanted to do was buy NOLA and the Florida Panhandle...little did they know they would end up acquiring the rights to much more!
By that spring, the European situation had changed radically. Napoleon, who had previously envisioned creating a mighty new French empire in America, was now facing war with Great Britain and he needed bucks to fund the fight.
Rather than risk the strong possibility that Great Britain would quickly capture Louisiana and leave France with nothing, Napoleon decided to raise money for his war and simultaneously deny his enemy the North American territory by having his boy Talleyrand offer to sell the entire territory to the U.S. for a mere $15 million on this day in 1803.
Monroe, Livingston and Napolean's boy Talleyrand negotiate the deal
Flabbergasted, Monroe and Livingston decided that they couldn't pass up such a golden opportunity, and they wisely overstepped the powers delegated to them and accepted Napoleon's offer. IOW, the accepted the offer although technically, that authority had not been invested in them by their commissions to do more than buy NOLA and West Florida.
Robert Livingston did most of the talking, because at the time, Monroe was plagued by severe back pain...it may have been a kidney stone.
Despite his misgivings about the constitutionality of the purchase (the Constitution made no provision for the addition of vast territory by treaty), Jefferson finally agreed to send the treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification, noting privately, "The less we say about constitutional difficulties the better."
Signature page of the treaty sent to the Senate for ratification. Note Monroe and Livingstone's signatures on the left side of the page (the French guy's sig. is on the right.) Also note, the red wax "seals" under the sigs. You've seen this in the movies. The signer poured a bit of hot "sealing wax" under his signature, then mashed his signet ring into the warm puddle of wax, thus "sealing it" to help lend veracity to the notion the signature was genuine. Thus, the phrase, "signed, sealed and delivered" when talking about an executed contract.
Despite his concerns, the treaty was ratified and the Louisiana Purchase now ranks as the greatest achievement of Jefferson's presidency.
Tom Jefferson. He wrote the Declaration of Independence, but more importantly, bought Oklahoma from France.
Originally Posted by soonervegas
