Editing Louisiana (section)

===Statehood===
{{Main|Admission to the Union|List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union|Seminole Wars|Adams–Onís Treaty}}Louisiana became the eighteenth U.S. state on April 30, 1812; the Territory of Orleans became the State of Louisiana and the Louisiana Territory was simultaneously renamed the [[Missouri Territory]].<ref>{{cite web|title=A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=002/llsl002.db&recNum=738|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105021747/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=002%2Fllsl002.db&recNum=738|archive-date=January 5, 2017|access-date=December 2, 2019|website=Library of Congress}}</ref>

At its creation, the state of Louisiana did not include the area north and east of the Mississippi River known as the [[Florida Parishes]]. On April 14, 1812, Congress had authorized Louisiana to expand its borders to include the Florida Parishes,<ref>{{cite web|title=A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=002/llsl002.db&recNum=745|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202191512/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=002%2Fllsl002.db&recNum=745|archive-date=February 2, 2017|access-date=December 2, 2019|website=Library of Congress}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=An Act to enlarge the limits of the State of Louisiana |work=en.wikisource.org |date=April 14, 1812 |access-date=October 21, 2021 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Act_to_enlarge_the_limits_of_the_State_of_Louisiana |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021231725/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Act_to_enlarge_the_limits_of_the_State_of_Louisiana |url-status=live }}</ref> but the border change required approval of the state legislature, which it did not give until August 4.<ref>{{cite web |title=Giving the Assent of the Legislature to an Enlargement of the Limits of the State of Louisiana |work=en.wikisource.org |date=August 4, 1812 |access-date=October 21, 2021 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Giving_the_Assent_of_the_Legislature_to_an_Enlargement_of_the_Limits_of_the_State_of_Louisiana |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021231724/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Giving_the_Assent_of_the_Legislature_to_an_Enlargement_of_the_Limits_of_the_State_of_Louisiana |url-status=live }}</ref> For the roughly three months in between, the northern border of eastern Louisiana was the course of [[Bayou Manchac]] and the middle of [[Lake Maurepas]] and [[Lake Pontchartrain]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Admission of the State of Louisiana |author=United States Congress |work=en.wikisource.org |date=April 8, 1812 |access-date=October 21, 2021 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Admission_of_the_State_of_Louisiana_(act) |archive-date=October 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021231712/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Admission_of_the_State_of_Louisiana_(act) |url-status=live }}</ref>

From 1824 to 1861, Louisiana moved from a political system based on personality and ethnicity to a distinct two-party system, with Democrats competing first against [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]], then [[Know Nothing]]s, and finally only other [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]].<ref>{{cite book|first = John M.|last = Sacher|title =A Perfect War of Politics: Parties, Politicians, and Democracy in Louisiana, 1824–1861|isbn = 9780807128480|publisher = Louisiana State University Press|date = 2003}}</ref>