Manifest Destiny

Many farmers needed to access the Mississippi River to transport their crops. But they needed free access of it so the the pay would be less. Thomas Jefferson understood this need so he sent James Monroe to France to buy New Orleans. When Monroe got there he found that Napoleon was willing to sell all of Louisiana for 15 million dollars. While stunned buy the better offer, Monroe comes back to the United States and Thomas Jefferson debates about taking the offer. after a long debate he signs a treaty on April 30,1803.While Louisiana doubled the size of the U.S. and most people thought that owning the Louisiana Territory was great , some people disagreed because they thought it cost too much money. Others thought that Jefferson was extending his duty as the President and that it would be too big to govern. They also thought that it was unconstitutional. Thomas Jefferson was greatly worried about this but he was still glad to own the Louisiana Territory. One problem about the Louisiana Territory was that no one knew what the the land was like and if the Indians there were friendly. Because of this Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark, John C Fremont, and Zebulon Pike to check out the land we bought from France and make friends with the indians. they also were to find the North West passage. During Lewis and Clark’s expedition they traveled thousands of miles between 1804 and 1806.Beside Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike and John C Fremont helped prepare the way for settlement in the west. Fremont mapped most of the territory between the Mississippi valley and the Pacific Ocean in the 1840s. Click on the Lewis and Clark expedition to learn more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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