Every president leaves office and makes decisions we’re still living with today.
Thomas Jefferson certainly did.
He wrote the words “all men are created equal,” yet his own life remains one of the most debated contradictions in American history. He championed individual liberty while enslaving people throughout his lifetime.
But as America’s third president, Jefferson also made one decision that physically changed the country: the Louisiana Purchase.
What problem did Thomas Jefferson inherit?
When Jefferson became president in 1801, the United States was still a young country trying to figure out its place in the world.
European powers still controlled enormous amounts of territory in North America, and one location was especially important to the growing American economy: New Orleans.
The Mississippi River was essentially a commercial highway. Farmers and merchants west of the Appalachian Mountains relied on it to move crops and other goods toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Control of New Orleans and access to the Mississippi was therefore a major economic concern.
Then France, under Napoleon Bonaparte, regained control of Louisiana from Spain.
Suddenly, Jefferson had a powerful European nation controlling a huge territory directly beside the United States.
What did Jefferson actually change?
Jefferson originally wanted to secure New Orleans and American access to the Mississippi.
Instead, France offered something much bigger.
In 1803, the United States agreed to purchase the Louisiana territory from France for $15 million.
The deal added roughly 828,000 square miles to the United States which nearly doubled the America’s size.
That’s often calculated at roughly four cents an acre.
Jefferson then commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the territory, map parts of it, study its geography and natural resources, establish relations with Native nations, and search for practical routes across the continent.
What still affects us today?
Look at a modern map of the United States and you can still see the impact.
All or part of 15 present-day states eventually came from land included in the Louisiana Purchase.
The acquisition dramatically expanded the land available to the United States and accelerated the country’s movement westward.
It also helped make the Mississippi River and New Orleans even more important pieces of America’s growing trade network.
But expansion came with consequences.
As new territories developed, Americans fought increasingly bitter political battles over whether slavery would be allowed to expand westward.
Expansion also brought the U.S. government and settlers into greater conflict with Native American nations already living on those lands.
Those questions would continue long after Jefferson left office.
Did it work the way Jefferson intended?
Yes.
Jefferson wanted to protect American trade and give the growing country room to expand.
The Louisiana Purchase accomplished both on a scale far larger than he originally expected.