With a swift stroke of the pen, President Thomas Jefferson signed off on a treaty that doubled the size of the country. It added more than 500 million acres and cost $15 million.
The Louisiana Purchase — the largest American real estate purchase — turns 200 this year.
From the Louisiana Purchase Folk Crafts Festival in Madisonville to the Cajun Fun Fest and Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Celebration in New Iberia, this special occasion is being celebrated like all others in Louisiana through music, food and fun.
The bicentennial will be celebrated throughout the entire year, concluding with a re-enactment of the signing of the purchase.
Among the invited guests to this re-enactment will be President George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and King Juan Carlos of Spain.
Baton Rouge already has begun bicentennial celebrations.
The Old State Capitol is a hot spot for bicentennial information. Until May 15 it is the home of the original Louisiana Purchase documents, and “Pens to Parchment,” a tribute to the history of the Louisiana Purchase, will be on display until June 30.
The state is providing these exhibits because Louisiana is where the U.S. flags were raised for the first time, and it was only fitting that it took place in the state’s capitol, said Mary Louise Prudhomme, director of the Louisiana Old State Capitol.
LSU is getting into the bicentennial spirit with a performance of the “Louisiana Purchase” at the Reilly Theater. The musical, which is set during the 1930s, will run from March 27 through April 13.
The purchase “serves as a bridge between Louisiana’s colonial experience and its Anglo-Saxon experience,” said Louis Morris, deputy director of state archives.
Making the deal
The Louisiana territory was founded in 1699 by France, said John Rodrigue, an LSU history associate professor. Following the French and Indian War, Spain gained control of the territory in 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
Louisiana was sent to Spain as compensation for helping fight the British in the French and Indian War, said Andrew Lannen, a history instructor at LSU.
France’s interest in Louisiana changed when Napoleon Bonaparte took over. Napoleon was interested in a Western empire for France in America, Rodrigue said.
With the signing of the Treaty of Ildefonso in 1800, France re-obtained Louisiana from Spain. Napoleon’s idea of a Western empire came to a halt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which is present-day Haiti. The colony was in the midst of a slave revolt, and Napoleon sent 25,000 men to diffuse the situation.
Of those 25,000 soldiers, only 2,000 returned to France. Of those that died, more than 21,000 died from yellow fever, Lannen said.
“Napoleon slowly came to the realization that this whole notion of the New World French Empire was not going to work. If he can’t control Haiti, how is he going to control Louisiana?” Rodrigue said. This realization led to Louisiana’s expendability.
Sealing the deal
In 1801, America got wind of the Treaty of Ildefonso. President Thomas Jefferson, looking to acquire New Orleans, sent U.S. ambassador Robert Livingston to Paris.
“New Orleans was the key to controlling the Mississippi River. If you controlled New Orleans, you controlled access to and from the Gulf of Mexico,” Lannen said.
The Mississippi River was huge to the nation, and in particular American farmers. It was a main access route to foreign nations, and if France controlled the river, American farmers would have a tough time getting their crops to the markets, Lannen said.
In Paris, Livingston got the run-around from France, and Jefferson grew impatient. In April 1803, James Monroe was sent to Paris to try to close the negotiations.
A day before Monroe’s arrival, Charles Maurice de Tallyrand, the French foreign minister, asked Livingston what price the United States would pay for all of Louisiana.
One reason Napoleon decided to sell the whole territory was his concern for upcoming war with England, Rodrigue said. France was hoping to make money to support the war.
Monroe and Livingston, who were originally allocated $2 million for the purchase of New Orleans, knew this deal was too good to pass up.
“One thing that panicked Livingston and Monroe when they finally got the offer was that they did not have the money to buy Louisiana,” Lannen said.
The treaty was signed and dated April 30, 1803. The price for Louisiana was negotiated to $15 million. The United States agreed to pay $11.25 million up front in cash, and the rest of the payment would go toward debts that France owed America.
The United States was only 26 years old and did not have the type of money on hand to make this purchase, Lannen said. So America acted like any other 20-year-old would act in that situation — they borrowed it, not from mom and dad, but from England.
In essence, England funded a war against themselves, Rodrigue said.
On October 20, 1803, the Senate voted to ratify the treaty, and the American flag was flown over Louisiana on December 20, 1803.
The deal brought in part of or all of 15 states. It obtained 828,000 square miles and all the land from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to British North America.
Because of the new land, America was able to move westward. From 1803 to 1810, Louisiana’s population doubled from 36,000 to 76,000, Rodrigue said
The Louisiana Purchase “turned America overnight from a small country into a major player in terms of territory; it doubled the size of the country,” Lannen said.
Some students plan on participating in the celebration once events get underway.
“I probably will not do anything for the bicentennial, but I might when the events become more publicized,” said Lorin Casse, a math senior.
Marshall Sellers, an accounting freshman, does not really care about the celebration, but thinks it is very important that the event is celebrated.
Neither Lannen nor Rodrigue have indulged in bicentennial celebrations, but both plan on it.
Prudhomme thinks Louisianians do not really understand the significance of this event. “It made us a powerful country,” she said.