Editing Louisiana Purchase (section)

==Negotiation==
[[File:James Monroe (1758-1831).jpg|thumb|right|upright|The future president [[James Monroe]] as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to France helped [[Robert R. Livingston (chancellor)|Robert R. Livingston]] in negotiating the Louisiana Purchase.]]

While the treaty between Spain and France went largely unnoticed in 1800, fear of an eventual French invasion spread across America when, in 1801, Napoleon sent a military force to nearby [[Saint-Domingue]]. Though Jefferson urged moderation, Federalists sought to use this against Jefferson and called for hostilities against France. Undercutting them, Jefferson threatened an alliance with Britain, although relations were uneasy in that direction.{{sfnp|Herring|2008|p=100}} In 1801, Jefferson supported France in its plan to take back Saint-Domingue (present-day [[Haiti]]), which was then under control of [[Toussaint Louverture]] after a [[slave rebellion]]. However, there was a growing concern in the U.S. that Napoleon would send troops to New Orleans after quelling the rebellion.{{sfnp|Matthewson|1995|pp=221–222}} In hopes of securing control of the mouth of the Mississippi, Jefferson sent Livingston to Paris in 1801 with the authorization to purchase New Orleans.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1801-1829/louisiana-purchase|title=Milestones: 1801–1829 – Office of the Historian|website=history.state.gov|access-date=February 19, 2017 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131010252/https://history.state.gov/milestones/1801-1829/louisiana-purchase|archive-date=January 31, 2017}}</ref>

In January 1802, France sent [[Charles Leclerc (general, born 1772)|General Charles Leclerc]], Napoleon's brother-in-law, on an [[Saint-Domingue expedition|expedition to Saint-Domingue]] to reassert French control over the colony, which had become essentially autonomous under Louverture. Louverture, as a French general, had fended off incursions from other European powers, but had also begun to consolidate power for himself on the island. Before the revolution, France had derived enormous wealth from Saint-Domingue at the cost of the lives and freedom of the enslaved. Napoleon wanted the territory's revenues and productivity for France restored. Alarmed over the French actions and its intention to re-establish an empire in North America, Jefferson declared neutrality in relation to the Caribbean, refusing credit and other assistance to the French, but allowing war contraband to get through to the rebels to prevent France from regaining a foothold.{{sfnp|Matthewson|1995|pp=221–222}}

In 1803, [[Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours]], a French nobleman, began to help negotiate with France at the request of Jefferson. Du Pont was living in the United States at the time and had close ties to Jefferson as well as the prominent politicians in France. He engaged in back-channel diplomacy with Napoleon on Jefferson's behalf during a visit to France and originated the idea of the much larger Louisiana Purchase as a way to defuse potential conflict between the United States and Napoleon over North America.{{sfnp|Duke|1977|pp=77–83}}

Throughout this time, Jefferson had up-to-date intelligence on Napoleon's military activities and intentions in North America. Part of his evolving strategy involved giving du Pont some information that was withheld from Livingston. Intent on avoiding possible war with France, Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris in 1803 to negotiate a settlement, with instructions to go to London to negotiate an alliance if the talks in Paris failed. Spain procrastinated until late 1802 in executing the treaty to transfer Louisiana to France, which allowed American hostility to build. Also, Spain's refusal to cede [[Spanish Florida|Florida]] to France meant that Louisiana would be indefensible.

Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana. Otherwise, Louisiana would be an easy prey for a potential invasion from Britain or the U.S. But in early 1803, continuing war between France and Britain seemed unavoidable. On March 11, 1803, Napoleon began [[Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom|planning an invasion of Great Britain]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Muffat |first=Sophie |date=2022 |title=Building Napoleon's flotillas: An invasion project fraught with difficulties |url=https://www.cairn-int.info/journal-napoleonica-the-journal-2022-4-page-17.htm?contenu=article |journal=Napoleonica: The Journal |language=en |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=17–36 |issn=2100-0123}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gleijeses |first=Piero |date=2017-03-15 |title=Napoleon, Jefferson, and the Louisiana Purchase |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07075332.2016.1196383 |journal=The International History Review |language=en |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=237–255 |doi=10.1080/07075332.2016.1196383 |issn=0707-5332}}</ref>

In Saint-Domingue, Leclerc's forces took Louverture prisoner, but their expedition soon faltered in the face of fierce resistance and disease. By early 1803, Napoleon decided to abandon his plans to rebuild France's New World empire. Without sufficient revenues from sugar colonies in the Caribbean, Louisiana had little value to him. Spain had not yet completed the transfer of Louisiana to France, and war between France and the UK was imminent. Out of anger towards Spain and the unique opportunity to sell something that was useless and not truly his yet, Napoleon decided to sell the entire territory.{{sfnp|Herring|2008|p=101}}

Although the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (France)|foreign minister]] [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord|Talleyrand]] opposed the plan, on April 10, 1803, Napoleon told the Treasury Minister François Barbé-Marbois that he was considering selling the Louisiana Territory to the United States. On April 11, 1803, just days before Monroe's arrival, Barbé-Marbois offered Livingston all of Louisiana for $15&nbsp;million,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1012/3-of-the-most-lucrative-land-deals-in-history.aspx|title=3 Of The Most Lucrative Land Deals In History|first=Justin |last=Kuepper|date=October 8, 2012|access-date=April 12, 2015 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423185552/http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1012/3-of-the-most-lucrative-land-deals-in-history.aspx|archive-date=April 23, 2015}}</ref> which averages to less than three cents per acre (7¢/ha).{{sfnp|Burgan|2002|p=36}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Primary Documents of American History: Louisiana Purchase|work=Web Guides |publisher=Library of Congress|date=March 29, 2011 |url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Louisiana.html|access-date=March 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302232522/http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Louisiana.html |archive-date=March 2, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> The total of $15&nbsp;million is equivalent to about ${{Inflation|US-GDP|15|1803|fmt=c}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}} dollars, or {{#expr:({{Inflation|US-GDP|15000000|1803}} / {{Convert|828000|sqmi|acre|comma=off|disp=number}} * 100) round 0}} cents per acre. The American representatives were prepared to pay up to $10&nbsp;million for New Orleans and its environs but were dumbfounded when the vastly larger territory was offered for $15&nbsp;million. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans. However, Livingston was certain that the United States would accept the offer.{{sfnp|Malone|Roeder|Lang|1991|p=30}}

The Americans thought that Napoleon might withdraw the offer at any time, preventing the United States from acquiring New Orleans, so they agreed and signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803 (10 Floréal XI in the [[French Republican calendar]]) at the [[Hôtel Tubeuf]] in Paris.<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Louisiana Purchase Treaty}}</ref> The signers were [[Robert R. Livingston (chancellor)|Robert Livingston]], [[James Monroe]], and [[François Barbé-Marbois]].<ref>Alain Chappet, Roger Martin, Alain Pigeard, ''Le guide de Napoleon: 4000 lieux de mémoire pour revivre l'épopée'' (Paris: Tallandier, 2005), p. 307. {{ISBN|978-2847342468}}</ref> After the signing Livingston famously stated, "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives&nbsp;... From this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank."<ref>{{cite web|title=America's Louisiana Purchase: Noble Bargain, Difficult Journey|publisher=LPB |access-date=June 11, 2010 |url=http://www.lpb.org/education/tah/lapurchase/quotes.cfm|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610092750/http://www.lpb.org/education/tah/lapurchase/quotes.cfm |archive-date=June 10, 2010}}</ref> On July 4, 1803, the treaty was announced,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-louisiana-purchase-jeffersons-constitutional-gamble |title=The Louisiana Purchase: Jefferson's constitutional gamble |date=October 20, 2017 |website=National Constitution Center |access-date=April 29, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180430050035/https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-louisiana-purchase-jeffersons-constitutional-gamble |archive-date=April 30, 2018}}</ref> but the documents did not arrive in [[Washington, D.C.]] until July 14.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-26-02-0001-0101 |title=Purchase of Louisiana, [5 July 1803] |at=Footnote 2 |website=Founders Online |publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]] |access-date=April 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180430045616/https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-26-02-0001-0101 |archive-date=April 30, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Louisiana Territory was vast, stretching from the [[Gulf of Mexico]] in the south to [[Rupert's Land]] in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the [[Rocky Mountains]] in the west. Acquiring the territory nearly doubled the size of the United States.

In November 1803, France withdrew its 7,000 surviving troops from Saint-Domingue (more than two-thirds of its troops died there) and gave up its ambitions in the Western Hemisphere.{{sfnp|Matthewson|1995|p=209}} In 1804, Haiti declared its independence; but fearing a [[Slave rebellion|slave revolt]] at home, Jefferson and the rest of Congress refused to recognize the new republic, the second in the Western Hemisphere, and imposed a trade [[Economic sanctions|embargo]] against it. This, together with the [[Haiti indemnity controversy|successful French demand for an indemnity]] of 150 million francs in 1825, severely hampered Haiti's ability to repair its [[Economy of Haiti|economy]] after decades of war.{{sfnp|Matthewson|1996|pp=22–23}}