The great event of Jefferson’s first term was the acquisition of the
Louisiana Territory, that vast tract of land extending from the
Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, from the Canadian border to
the Gulf of Mexico. The purchase of this land from Napoleon was not a
premeditated act but rather the result of seizing an opportunity that
presented itself. President Jefferson started out merely to buy New
Orleans from France but ended up with more than 800,000 square miles.
The agreed-on price was about $15,000,000, or something like two cents
per acre.
Napoleon had forced Spain to give Louisiana back to France after Spain
had held the territory nearly forty years. Just before the letter in the
following account was written, the Spanish Intendant (director) of New
Orleans, who had not yet turned over the city to France, closed the port
to American commerce. Because most of the produce of the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys reached eastern and foreign markets via New Orleans,
closing the port seemed almost an act of war against the United States.
At this point Jefferson sent James Monroe to Europe as special minister
to buy New Orleans. It turned out just then that Napoleon needed money
to renew his war against England, and the entire territory was purchased
within a few weeks. The events which led to the purchase are described
in the following letter that Jefferson wrote on February 3, 1803, to
Robert Livingston, the American minister to France.