preview

Dbq Louisiana Purchase

Satisfactory Essays

The Louisiana Purchase was a portion of land west of the mississippi. It was purchased from Napoleon (French) by the U.S. for 15 million dollars in 1803. The U.S. wanted new orleans because then The United States would have a faster route to get to the coastal states. The federalist had legitimate problems with the Purchase and expressed them openly. One problem that the federalist had with the purchase was that they already had enough land and not enough people to fill in the land. Expanding would not help population and would cause people to become more spread and expanded. A famous Federalist, named Alexander Hamilton, said, “ And when we consider the present territory of the United States, and that not one-sixteenth is yet under occupation, the possibility that this new purchase will be a place of actual settlement seems unlikely”(document A). He said this because if we add this to our already big landscape, we will create an area of people spread over an area. It will provide the government to set up more states and …show more content…

Also if purchased it will be admitted into the union, but as a slave state. As stated in a letter from Rufus King to Timothy pickering, “Congress may admit new states, But can the President sign treaties forcing Congress to do so?[...] Since slavery is legal and exists in Louisiana,... Won’t we be forced to admit the new states as slave states[…] Doing so would worsen the problem of unequal representation”(Document B). Because the new states will be slave states, it will cause unequal representation to occur at an even greater scale. Also it is not right for the treaty to be forced upon the congress to sign. The Federalist problems with the new purchase that was being signed were practical reasons and not just because Jefferson had made the

Get Access