Interpretive Essays

Essays about the events that lead up to and including the Louisiana Purchase

1. A History of Colonial and International Relations in Louisiana, 1762-1801.
2. The Lead-Up to the Louisiana Purchase, 1802-3.
3. What was Louisiana Like After the Purchase?

What was Louisiana Like After the Louisiana Purchase?

'And when we consider the present extent of the US, and that not 1/16 part of its territory is yet under occupation, the advantage of the acquisition, as it relates to actual settlement, appears too distant and remote to strike the mind of a sober politician with much force.'

'Should our own citizens, more enterprising than wise, become desirous of settling this country, and emigrate thither, it must not only be attended with all the injuries of a too widely dispersed population, but, by adding to the great weight of the western part of our territory, must hasten the dismemberment of a large portion of our country, or a dissolution of the government.'

excerpt from New York Herald editorial, July 6, 1803. ¹

'In 1890, it was officially declared the government of the US that it had no frontier. Not that all land was sold, but all that was immediately valuable.' ² With the purchase of Louisiana from France in 1803, the US would once again have frontier country to explore. I am borrowing the meaning of 'frontier' from Jerry Adelman and Stephen Aron who define a frontier as 'a meeting place of peoples in which geographic and cultural borders were not clearly defined.' ³

This is certainly true of Louisiana in 1803. Spanish, French, Native Americans Indians and Americans all lived in the newly-acquired American territory. Immigration into the new American territory increased exponentially following the Purchase. 'An official report indicated that the total population in 1803 was in the neighbourhood of 43,000. Four years later, a local census put the figure at 53,000, and by 1810 the number had climbed to 76, and increase of over 75 percent in seven years.' ⁴ 'American settlers were the largest single group, but newcomers from the West Indies, and even some German redemptioners, also arrived between 1803 and 1806. In the spring and summer of 1809 some 5,700 mostly French-speaking refugees - whites, free blacks, and slaves - poured into the territory, the last major French migration to Lower Louisiana.' ⁵ Large family size also added to the population boom. ⁶ With this great diversity of influences, the culture of Louisiana was in itself inherently mixed and colourful, with no clear set boundaries.

The physical boundaries of the territory were not fully settled until as later as 1819 in treaties with England and Spain at the end of the War of 1812. Richard W. Van Alstyne relates that 'Delineation of the boundaries followed in 1818-1819, the convention of Great Britain significantly coming first. The Lakes Agreement of 1817 disposed of the security problem of the Canadian frontier; and the Convention of 1818 extended the system, begun in 1783, of dividing the continent crosswise as far west as the Rockies.' ⁷ Furthermore, 'According to the letter of both the treaties with Britain and Spain, the US was to have fixed boundaries.' ⁸

With all of these cultural and physical frontiers so indistinctly defined at the time of the Louisiana Purchase, it was necessary for the US to create a sense of stability as soon as possible. There were two main ways in which the US sought to put its stamp on Louisiana. The first measure addressed the cultural question with the creation of a governmental body and judicial system for Louisiana, based on American models and replacing the existing model (based on French and Spanish influences). The legislative council established by Congress for the territory consisted 'of thirteen notables', of which Jefferson insisted at least six must be American citizens. ⁹ The second measure had two parts - sending the Lewis and Clark expedition team on an exploratory mission of the territory; and, as part of the governmental structure, the split of Louisiana into the states of Louisiana and the Territory of Orleans. ¹⁰ The implementation of measures to address the latter boundary issues, however, did not all run smoothly.

Changes to the structure of government and the judicial system did not agree with the majority of residents of Louisiana who were Spanish and French, with 'the American population [in 1807] ... outnumbered about seven to one.' ¹¹ George Dargo notes that 'In the absence of organized political parties, ethnic identity supplied the most meaningful orientation to political life,' manifesting itself in the differing political and judicial traditions. ¹² Dargo argues that this was because 'legal traditions encompassed the interests, the value system, and the very identity of a diverse people who now, for the first time in their history, had to unite in a defense of the common elements of their heritage.' ¹³

On March 26, 1804, Congress created the government for the territory of Louisiana. Jefferson wrote to Horatio Gates (the Revolutionary War general) in the summer of 1803 that 'We shall endeavour to introduce American laws there and that cannot be done but by amalgamating the people with such a body of Americans as may take the lead in legislation and government.' ¹⁴ The government, however, failed in the eyes of many residents of the territory. They were very unhappy with the embargo placed on the entry of slaves, imported from overseas after May 1st, 1798, into New Orleans. They felt that 'this violated the spirit of the third article of the treaty of cession, which had guaranteed to the original inhabitants of Louisiana "the free enjoyment of their ... property".' ¹⁵ The government of Louisiana was also fettered in truly representing its people by the fact that Congress maintained its 'right to disallow local statutes.' ¹⁶ Opposition manifested itself in political terms, with the Louisiana Remonstrance presented to Congress on December 31, 1807. The Louisiana Remonstrance 'condemned the suspension of the forms of law to which Louisianans had been accustomed and the failure of the present government to substitute an acceptable system in its place. Objection was voiced to the use of English in the courts and to the necessity of employing interpreters for the simplest legal communications, a requirement which increased court costs substantially.' ¹⁷

Addressing the physical boundaries of Louisiana was a relatively easier process than that of addressing the cultural issues. Indeed, Jefferson seems to have given this issue a great deal even before the US was in possession of the territory. Richard W. Van Alstyne notes that 'The plans for the Lewis and Clark expedition were completed over three months before the bargain [of the Louisiana Purchase] was concluded in Paris, and the expedition itself was organized and ready to go before Congress had agreed to the treaty.' ¹⁸ The importance of the Lewis and Clark expedition was not limited to its opening up of America's newly acquired territory but also that of the Pacific Northwest. This enabled America to reach right across the continent, giving her undisputed dominance and enabled her emergence as a world power in her own right, as Napoleon had envisaged when he had decided to sell Louisiana to America.