LOUISIANA PURCHASE D1

• During the 19th century, the nation rapidly expanded through Congress' purchase and acquisition of new land
• Quickly skim Article I, Section 8

  Read and underline any areas of the Constitution that show Congress's power to acquire new land
• Article I, Section 8 does not explicitly give Congress the power to purchase land, but according to the last line in the document, Congress has the power "to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper"
• Necessary and proper clause has been used to give government additional powers, but has always been controversial
• In order to purchase land and expand, the President and Congress had to assume that the Constitution implied they had certain powers
• In 1803, President Jefferson authorized the purchase of 828,000 square miles of land for $15 million from France, doubling the size of our nation
• Initially, Jefferson only wanted to purchase New Orleans and the land around it from the French emperor Napoleon in order to secure access to this critical port
• In a shocking turn of events, Napoleon decided to increase his offer to include the entire Louisiana Territory because he was in an urgent need for funds to help deal with the slave revolution unfolding in Haiti, which was a French colony at that time
• The United States quickly, but with hesitation, accepted