louisiana purchase, western half of the mississippi river basin purchased in 1803 from france by the united states; at less than three cents per acre for 828,000 square miles (2,144,520 square km), it was the greatest land bargain in u.s. history. the purchase doubled the size of the united states, greatly strengthened the country materially and strategically, provided a powerful impetus to westward expansion, and confirmed the doctrine of implied powers of the federal constitution jefferson had a few motives for the purchase. one was that he wanted to make sure other countries wouldn't have more control over the area. that would not have been as much of a concern if spain was controlling the area because spain was weak. france was a strong nation, though; it controlled much of europe and had a lot of power. a large factor in jefferson's decision to pursue the louisiana purchase was the doctrine of manifest destiny: expansion was the country's natural right. jefferson was a strong believer in the doctrine and, of course, the louisiana purchase would significantly that goal. the u.s. would eventually expand its territory from the east coast to the west coast. his governmental-assumed powers for this made all of the constitutional arguments illegitimate. thomas jefferson was only too eager to take advantage of this unique and unprecedented opportunity to increase the size and power of the united states. however, some people were against the purchase, believing jefferson overstepped his constitutional authority as president in buying the land. this debate over jefferson’s presidential powers as defined by the constitution led to the entire purchase being quite controversial at the time, though it is generally considered to be a good thing today. here is why the louisiana purchase caused controversy and how it was eventually settled. federalists tried to block the purchase by claiming the land belonged to spain and not france. however, they were not able to come up with any records proving this. the house of representatives voted to deny the purchase, but the vote failed by a small majority, with 59 in favor and 57 against. another concern about the louisiana purchase was that the power of the atlantic states would be diminished by new people moving to the western territories opened up by the purchase. the concern was that this would cause westerners to clash with easterners in the original 13 colonies, particularly the people of new england. there was even some concern that the number of states allowing slavery would increase with the additional land acquisition, thus increasing the already existing tensions between northern and southern states over the slavery issue.
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