Page "Thomas Jefferson" Paragraph 49

Jefferson had sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to Paris in 1802 to try to buy the city of New Orleans and adjacent coastal areas.

At Jefferson's request, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a French nobleman who had close ties with both Jefferson and Napoleon, also helped negotiate the purchase with France.

Napoleon offered to sell the entire Territory for a price of $ 15 million, which Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin financed easily.

Seizing the opportunity Jefferson acted contrary to the lack of an explicit Constitutional authority, and the Federalists criticized him for acting without that authority, but most thought that this opportunity was exceptional and could not be missed.

On December 20, 1803 the French flag was lowered in New Orleans and the U. S. flag raised, symbolizing the transfer of the Louisiana territory from France to the United States.