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Jefferson's greatest foreign policy victory is introduced through the Louisiana Purchase, including the negotiations with Napoleon and the unexpected chance to buy all of Louisiana. The chapter also explains why the deal mattered for trade, territorial growth, and constitutional debate.
we're gonna look at Jefferson's foreign policy now and there's a lot of it in fact that's where we're going to spend pretty much all of our rest of our time with Jefferson uh we're going to start with theLouisiana Purchase this was the background here was Jefferson's greatest Victory while in office in particular Jefferson and Americans were worried about losing rights to navigate the Mississippi River which was the Western border of the U.S and bordered theFrench Louisiana territory the French also controlled New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River and therefore they controlled all River traffic and trade from the river to outside of the continent essentially all U.S Trade West of theAppalachians relied on the Mississippi River and Jefferson was worried about losing this trade so he sent some negotiators to France and they were instructed to purchase New Orleans for five million dollars just the City of New Orleans and
but they could offer up to 10.so up to 10 million dollars to buy New Orleans so offer five you can go up to 10.they arrive in France and Paris they work through the system they go to meet and they meet with Napoleon who we last talked about with the convention of eighteen hundred Napoleon immediately countered their offer with saying that ifthey paid 15 million they could have the whole Louisiana territory Napoleon had no use for it after the loss of Haiti in a slave rebellion so he preferred to sell off the Louisiana territory to the U.S rather thanlose it to the British in a war or risk having it fall into their hands this surprised the delegation who had had had no authority to spend that much money and legally honestly they could not make that decisionwithout Jefferson's approval uh conversely on the other hand it would take months to hear back from Jefferson and if they waited there was no telling if the offer would still exist when his response arrived so despite not having
the Authority or the authorization they agreed to the deal Jefferson couldn't really be mad and there was some opposition but not too muchthe significance of thisfirst it secured New Orleans and the Mississippi River to protect American trade that was the whole point you see New Orleans down here at the bottom of the map you control this you control the Mississippi River so allof this in Green Louisiana Purchase was French and so any trade basically in this region of the US particularly Kentucky Tennessee Ohio if they wanted to trade outside of the U.S they had to ship it down the riverbut New Orleans is solidly within French territory so now by buying all of this they secure the Mississippi River New Orleans to protect American Trade second it doubled the size of the United States you can see that Idon't care how many acres there are it just doubles the size of the U.S right that's all that's what you need to know for that third the cost is the third significance how cheap it was
it was less than three cents an acre if you move that to prices today adjust for inflation that would be 42 cents an acre that's an insanely cheap price to give you an idea the average price per acrein Texas in 2021 last year from when I'm recording this was three thousand seven hundred dollars an acre Louisiana Purchase adjusted today would be 42 cents an acre versus three thousand seven hundred dollars an acre in its owntime in 1803 it was only three cents an acre this is the greatest land deal in American history the resources everything that came out of this versus the price the only deal that comes close is Alaska fourth andfinal significance this is an excellent case study or example of how a party or people act when they're in and out of power specifically this is a prime example of these strict and loose construction debate the Constitution does
not give the president the power to buy land from another country
and think when the Democratic Republicans were out of power would they have approved of this I mean they were against the National Bank for example that was loose construction they were against although gonna remember I was say assumptionbut that's not really loose construction now that they're in power they realize that sometimes hard decisions have to be made and I did say there was opposition the Federalists did put up some opposition to the purchase and whenthe Federalists were in power they were loose construction on the bank but suddenly their strict construction when they're out of power this is one of many examples but it shows how that debate continued to be relevant but alsoit shows how people act differently when they're in the seat of power or when and when they're not and again particularly the strict and loose construction debate
The focus shifts to renewed tensions with Britain over neutral trade, including restrictions on American commerce and continued impressment. These recurring problems set up the next major crisis.
so that is the Louisiana Purchase Jefferson's greatest Victory and of course as you see on the on the map you know that's where we get the famous uh Expeditions of Lewis and Clark there's plenty interesting of stories aboutabout all of them but that's something you've heard and honestly we've got other things to deal with we're going to continue on with Thomas Jefferson's foreign policy
tell me if this sounds familiar there were problems with the British and them violating American neutral trade remember Jay's Treaty had led to that favored trade status but the British had started passing laws to try to limit U.Strade with France as there was still a war raging between France and Britain American Merchants got around this by stopping in the Caribbean first trying to make it look like their shipments were from there instead of from theUS the British didn't care and as the war continued between Britain and France they started uh they started a oh sorry they resumed stopping American ships and they continued the practice of impressment remember the British had made nopromise to stop either of those especially the latter impressment Jace treaty did not include anything about the British stopping impressment they just happened to stop afterwards so this all over again in fact I'm using the exact same slide
or picture I used before back you know several videos or lectures ago uh so there's more of these events they keep happening
The Chesapeake affair nearly pushes the U.S. toward war after a British warship attacks an American vessel and impresses sailors. Jefferson responds not with war, but with the Embargo Act of 1807, which shuts down foreign shipping and hurts the American economy.
the most significant example of this we have a specific example this time is something called the Chesapeake affair uh War nearly began between the U.S and Britain over the stoppage of a U.S ship called the USS Chesapeake USSstands for United States ship it was stopped by a British warship which fired a warning shot at the at the Chesapeake the Chesapeake tried to escape tried to sail away and the British ship broadsided one word broadside broadsidedthe Chesapeake now contrary to movies any movie you've seen with sailing ships or video game you've seen with sailing ships a broadside is not where the ships sail directly next to each other and fire all their cannons asthat would be that would lead to damage for both and be incredibly stupid what you did is you sail is what the the drawing here shows you sailed at an angle so you could fire all of your guns
and not be fired upon so this being the Chesapeake here in front can they fire back at the British ship No but the British ship which is sailing from basically behind the Chesapeake at an angle here can fireall of their guns and hit the Chesapeake that's what a broadside is is where instead of getting right up next to you sail at an angle right uh basic geometry here to be honest uh the results three AmericanSailors were killed 18 were wounded and four Sailors on the Chesapeake were impressed now the British claimed that those four Sailors were deserters which actually was technically true regardless they still attacked a U.S ship to capture them againthis wasn't stopping the ship this was firing upon it an act of War the American people regardless of party affiliation were Furious and now Jefferson the third president is the third president to face a possible war with a
European country but Jefferson refused to declare war just like Adams and Washington before him and despite the near Universal desire for it but instead of declaring war and instead of trying another treaty like Jay's Treaty or Adam's attemptsthat failed the XYZ Affair he's going to try something different he's going to work with Congress to get Congress to pass something called the Embargo Act of 1807.
again working with Congress the Embargo Act was a total shutdown of all foreign shipping now more specifically no shipping from the US was allowed but other countries could come to the U.S all they wanted this is actually sortof a reverse embargo the idea that cargo and sailors could not be taken if the ships were not out and available to be attackedhe hoped to put pressure on Europe and Britain in particular but they were preoccupied with Napoleon and all of those Wars in fact in in summer of 1807 Napoleon had just gotten done winning his fourth straight major conflictuh and had had handily defeated two of the big Powers Prussia in Russia many the mo the people and Country most hurt by this war were the Americans and the economy goes into a recession much of the countrystarted to turn against the ACT I didn't ever find that map okay I used to have a map showing people for and against and I don't know what happened to it and I thought I'd put it in here
but I guess not so here we are much of the country started to turn against the act and Jefferson backed the Embargo in the name of safety because yes it hurts the US economy yes it's it's leading toa depression however no American Sailors are are being captured ships aren't being taken over none of that but it was repealed by Congress in 1809.
The embargo is judged as controversial but effective in reducing conflict with Britain and preventing war. The speaker then transitions away from foreign policy and back to Jefferson's domestic presidency.
uh right as Jefferson was leaving office though it created much economic strain it did technically prevent and reduce impressment and the harassment by the British and in its brief existence it did prevent War that was incredibly likely thatthe U.S and Britain were going to go to war here but it didn't happen so controversial perhaps the wrong move honestly this is the kind of thing that British would have done to the 13 colonies but it workedpeople didn't like it but it worked what we're going to look at next is to change gears a little bit move away from foreign policy and look back inward we're going to go back to the political side ofthis so let's look at the rest of Jefferson's presidency but here at home