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During the early national period, free trade was seen as a natural complement to republicanism and democracy. When the United States recognized newly independent Latin American countries, it was expected that intrahemispheric free trade would accompany their break from the Spanish empire.
With independence from Britain, Americans pushed westward, but beyond the Mississippi River the French Louisiana Territory blocked their way. Western Americans, who needed to ship their produce down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, agitated for the purchase or even conquest of New Orleans, whose position at the mouth of the river was of great strategic importance.
Robert Livingston of New York and James Monroe of Virginia went to Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans with Napoleon Bonaparte. He surprised the diplomats by offering to sell not only the city of New Orleans but also the entire Louisiana Territory—some 800,000 square miles of land. Although President Thomas Jefferson had only given them instructions to purchase New Orleans, Monroe and Livingston instantly seized on the opportunity to greatly expand the United States. At a stroke, the U.S. became a continental power. Florida was grudgingly ceded by Spain in 1819.
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Sèvres porcelain bowl owned by Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
Sèvres porcelain bowl in the "Cornflower" pattern said to have belonged to Louis XVI and later to Thomas Jefferson.
(Virginia Historical Society) |
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Thomas Jefferson's ivory chessmen
Ivory chessmen, c. 1770–90, from a set brought home by Jefferson from Dieppe, France.
(Courtesy of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., Charlottesville, Virginia) |
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Miniature of James Monroe (1758–1831)
Miniature of James Monroe by Louis Sené (Swiss, working in Paris 1766–1804).
Watercolor on ivory.
(Courtesy of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library, Fredericksburg, Virginia) |
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Cockade worn by James Monroe (1758–1831)
Cockade, a symbol of the French Revolution, worn by James Monroe on his hat while he was minister to France. Cockades were worn by both men and women.
(Courtesy of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library, Fredericksburg, Virginia) |
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Commission appointing James Maury (1746–1840) as U.S. consul
Commission appointing James Maury as U.S. consul to Liverpool, signed by President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, June 7, 1790.
(Virginia Historical Society. Gift of The Reverend Mytton Maury) |
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Silver platter presented to James Maury (1746–1840)
Silver platter presented to James Maury by the merchants of Liverpool after his forty years as U.S. Consul. The inscription reads, "Presented by the merchants and other inhabitants of Liverpool to James Maury, Esq., Late Consul of the United States of America in that Town as a mark of general respect on his removal from an Office which he had honourably held for forty years, 1829."
(Virginia Historical Society. Gift of The Reverend Mytton Maury) |
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Formal suit worn by James Monroe (1758–1831)
Formal suit or habit à la Française, c. 1803–1807, worn by Monroe at the court of Napoleon and possibly during the signing of the Louisiana Purchase documents.
(Courtesy of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library, Fredericksburg, Virginia) |
Next: The Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny, 1823–48
Previous: The Birth of National Self-Interest, 1763–83
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