Marc Forrester

History 141
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The Ripple Effects of the Louisiana Purchase
About one year into the first term of Thomas Jeffersons administration, a national crisis
reared its head: Napoleon Bonaparte had negotiated with Spain the reacquisition of the Louisiana
territories, including New Orleans. The threat of France controlling American commerce up and
down the Mississippi river was seen as intolerable. (Fraiser, 221) Jefferson had a novel idea to
solve the issue: Offer the cash-strapped Napoleon $6 million for New Orleans. Napoleon replied
with a counter-offer: $15 million for the whole territory. Efforts by the French to silence Haitian
slave revolts were unequivocal failures. This meant the value of the Louisiana Territory, which
had provided Haiti with food and raw materials, was greatly diminished. (Fraiser, 222) The offer
was quickly accepted, and almost overnight, the land area of the young United States had
doubled. However, with new land came new problems. Settlers who were eager to move west to
a better life faced hostilities and the possibility of competition from large plantation slave
owners; to stop this, settlers demanded the protection of their government. Through a series of
bills, legislation, and brute military force, Native American tribes were forced out of their lands.
Though the purchase of the Louisiana Territory meant further western expansion, it also marked
increased tensions between whites and Native Americans, America and England, and America
and Mexico.
In late 1811 and early 1812, a group of Republicans led by Henry Clay and Felix Grundy
argued that a war with England would be beneficial to the United States and that it was the key
to territorial expansion. (Fraiser, 229) Led by Manifest Destiny, a belief that the United States
was destined to rule coast to coast, this group, dubbed the War Hawks, argued that an invasion of
the British held lands in Canada would incite a revolt from the Canadian people, allowing the
United States to clean up the mess by annexing the Northern Territory. It didnt work out as
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planned. Superior British Naval forces dominated the sea, and repeated attempts of land invasion
of Canada were met with little success. During 1814, after another attempt to take Canada,
England went on the offensive, attacking settlements in the Chesapeake Bay region, and
eventually taking Washington, D.C., where the US Capitol and White House were burned.
(Black, 11) During this time, a young Colonel named Andrew Jackson spearheaded movements
in the south-east to quell Native American rebellions with a degree of success, perhaps later
influencing policy decisions about Native peoples. After an unsuccessful attempt to take New
Orleans, the British and the Americans, following Napoleons final defeat at waterloo, were keen
to see an era of peace, as indeed was the rest of the world. (Black, 12) A series of treaties and
conventions in the years following the war helped to cement Anglo-American relations as
peaceful and prosperous, a trend that has continued to this day. (Frasier, 233)
Expansion westward of farmers and free persons following the purchase of Louisiana was
swift, but not without its growing pains; not only did the new settlers claim lands hitherto
untraveled by whites, but they also demanded protection from the government on their new land.
Native Americans, wary of the presence of Americans due to a checkered past, viewed their
expansion as an invasion. In the years leading up to the War of 1812, Native American tribes,
under the spiritual guidance of Tenskwatawa and the military guidance of his half-brother
Tecumseh, unrest between whites and Natives began growing. Tenskwatawa convinced the tribes
that the cause of their misfortune was the Good Spirits unhappiness, which in turn was caused
by allegiance to whites. (Frasier, 228) This gave rise to the feeling that the treaties signed by
their predecessors were unfair, a fact the British government advantageously used to coax the
natives into attacking white settlements. After the US entered into war with the British, they also

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declared war on the Native tribes who had aligned themselves with England, notably the
Shawnee and the Creeks, who were subsequently crushed. (Frasier, 232)
This did little to quell the tensions between the two groups, however; animosity towards
Natives continued for years afterward, challenging even rulings from the Supreme Court. Under
the administration of Andrew Jackson, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was passed, allowing the
reallocation of lands from the Five civilized tribes in exchange for land west of the
Mississippi. (Fraiser, 274) Through the use of unscrupulous tactics, and with manifest destiny
firmly on their minds, the government was able to force most tribes to leave; a notable exception:
the Cherokee, who claimed independence from the United States on the basis of their
constitution. (McGill, 1) This was affirmed in a Supreme Court ruling in January 1831, The
Cherokee Nation V. The State of Georgia. In his writing of the majority opinion, Chief Justice
John Marshall argues that the Cherokee nation is not subject to the rules and laws of the US, and
that The bill requires us to control the legislature of Georgia, and to restrain the exertion of its
physical force. (Cherokee Nation)Andrew Jackson promptly refused to enforce this decision,
instead ousting the Cherokee by force, requiring them to march on foot to Oklahoma on what
became known as the Trail of Tears. (Fraiser, 279) Poor weather conditions and inadequate
supplies lead to 1/3 of the marchers to perish before reaching Oklahoma, forever establishing the
Trail of Tears as a preventable tragedy at the hands of a broken government.
Other issues arose as people moved further and further west, outside of the Louisiana
Purchase Territory; when the US government rejected a petition to annex a new area of land in
the south, disillusioned settlers accepted the offer of Mexico to come live and farm in their
territory of Tejas, establishing settlements and farms near the US-Mexico border. This proved to
be a mistake; Sam Houston, governor of the territory now called Texas, petitioned the US to
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annex the territory in 1836 following the fall of the Alamo. (Lengel) Martin Van Buren, recently
elected president, refused on the grounds that a war with Mexico would be detrimental to the
United States. In response, Texas declared independence, using its established Texas Rangers as
law enforcement to drive Native Americans out of the country. (Nelson, 75-79)
Though the US acknowledged Texas independence, Mexico did not. (Jackson) Over the
next few years, Texas continued as an independent country, staving off attacks from Mexico, a
country weakened by civil strife. (Mexican War) In 1845, the annexation of Texas was seen as a
beneficial action to the US, though the question of whether or not Texas would be a slave state
rung loud in the heads of abolitionists. Eventually, then-president James K. Polk approached
Mexico with an offer to purchase California and New Mexico, part of which was already claimed
by Texas. Mexico refused to negotiate, and rather than backing down, the US went to war with
Mexico in 1846. Mexico was defeated in 1848, losing an estimated 525,000 square miles of land
to the United States, not counting Texas. (Lengel)
There exists a pattern in American history that progress, and with it, growing pains occur
in a decisively western direction. In retrospect, it is easy to indicate points in time that the
American Government acted in a manner that today would be deplorable, but it cannot be denied
that said actions helped shape the current state of our country. Manifest destiny, whether it is for
better or for worse, was a defining aspect of the American existence in the 1800s, and though it
cost many thousands of lives, the groundwork it laid allowed our country to prosper and,
eventually, dominate the world in many aspects. Though it may be in poor taste, I cannot help
but recall words sung by one James Douglas Morrison, The West is the best. I tend to agree.

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Works Cited
Black, Jeremy. "The War Of 1812." History Today 62.10 (2012): 10-12. History
Reference Center. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
Fraser, James W. "Creating a Nation, People, Land, and a National Identity, 18001848." By The People: A History of the United States. Prentice Hall, 2015. Print.
Jackson, Andrew. "The Independence Of Texas." Independence Of Texas (2009):
98. History Reference Center. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
Lengel, Edward G. "Polk's Mexican War." Military History 30.2 (2013): 21. History
Reference Center. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
McGill, Sara Ann. "Indian Removal & The Trail Of Tears." Indian Removal & The Trail
Of Tears (2009): 1-2.History Reference Center. Web. 20 Oct. 2015
"Mexican War." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2015): 1-2. History
Reference Center. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
Nelson, Shiela. "The Texas Republic And United States Annexation." A Proud & Isolated
Nation: Americans Take A Stand In Texas (1820-1845) (2004): 74-85. History Reference Center.
Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
"The Cherokee Nation Vs. The State Of Georgia." Cherokee Nation Vs. The State Of
Georgia (2009): 1. History Reference Center. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.