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171-504: The United States had acquired vast amounts of land in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase , and since the 1840s Douglas had sought to establish a territorial government in a portion of the Louisiana Purchase that was still unorganized. Douglas's efforts were stymied by Senator David Rice Atchison of Missouri and other Southern leaders who refused to allow the creation of territories that banned slavery; slavery would have been banned because

342-809: A farm or plantation, with labor provided by enslaved African Americans. Atchison's law practice flourished, and his best-known client was Joseph Smith , founder of the Latter Day Saint Movement . Atchison represented Smith in land disputes with non-Mormon settlers in Caldwell County and Daviess County . Alexander William Doniphan joined Atchison's law practice in Liberty in May 1833. The two became fast friends and spent many leisure time hours playing cards, going to horse races, hunting, fishing, and attending social functions and political events. Atchison, already

513-734: A free-soil response, " Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of the United States": We arraign this bill as a gross violation of a sacred pledge; as a criminal betrayal of precious rights; as part and parcel of an atrocious plot to exclude from vast unoccupied region immigrants from the Old World and free laborers from our States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves. Douglas took

684-426: A guardian, investing the money of his ward in purchasing an important adjacent territory; & saying to him when of age, I did this for your good." Jefferson ultimately came to the conclusion before the ratification of the treaty that the purchase was to protect the citizens of the United States therefore making it constitutional. Henry Adams and other historians have argued that Jefferson acted hypocritically with

855-512: A large territory were created. Existing language to affirm the application of all other laws of the United States in the new territory was supplemented by the language agreed on with Pierce: "except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6, 1820 [the Missouri Compromise ], which was superseded by the legislation of 1850, commonly called

1026-533: A lawyer, senator, and soldier. Inauguration Day —March 4—fell on a Sunday in 1849, and so president-elect Zachary Taylor did not take the presidential oath of office until the next day. Even so, the term of the outgoing president, James K. Polk , ended at noon on March 4. On March 2, outgoing vice president George M. Dallas relinquished his position as president of the Senate . Congress had previously chosen Atchison as president pro tempore . In 1849, according to

1197-761: A member of the Liberty Blues, a volunteer militia in Missouri, got Doniphan to join. Atchison was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1834. He worked hard for the Platte Purchase , which required Native American tribes to cede land to the United States and extended the northwestern boundary of Missouri to the Missouri River in 1837. When early disputes broke out into the Mormon War of 1838 , Atchison

1368-509: A mix of sovereign bonds and the assumption of French debts. Earlier in 1803, Francis Baring and Company of London had become the U.S. government's official banking agent in London following the failure of Bird, Savage & Bird . Because of this favored position, the U.S. asked Barings to handle the transaction. Barings had a close relationship with Hope & Co. of Amsterdam, and the two banking houses worked together to facilitate and underwrite

1539-493: A moral debate. Southerners claimed that slavery was beneficent , endorsed by the Bible, and generally good policy, whose expansion must be supported. The publications and speeches of abolitionists , some of them former slaves themselves, were telling Northerners that the supposed beneficence of slavery was a Southern lie, and that enslaving another person was un-Christian, a horrible sin that must be fought. Both battles were "fought with

1710-454: A moral victory. The New York Times , which had earlier supported Pierce, predicted that this would be the last straw for Northern supporters of the slavery forces and would "create a deep-seated, intense, and ineradicable hatred of the institution which will crush its political power, at all hazards, and at any cost". The day after the bill was reintroduced, two Ohioans, Representative Joshua Giddings and Senator Salmon P. Chase , published

1881-618: A northern or a southern route. In early 1853, the House of Representatives passed a bill 107 to 49 to organize the Nebraska Territory in the land west of Iowa and Missouri. In March, the bill moved to the Senate Committee on Territories, which was headed by Douglas. Missouri Senator David Atchison announced that he would support the Nebraska proposal only if slavery were to be permitted. While

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2052-472: A pertinacity, bitterness, and rancor unknown even in Wilmot Proviso days". The freesoilers were at a distinct disadvantage in Congress. The Democrats held large majorities in each house, and Douglas, "a ferocious fighter, the fiercest, most ruthless, and most unscrupulous that Congress had perhaps ever known", led a tightly disciplined party. In the nation at large, the opponents of Nebraska hoped to achieve

2223-467: A platform and nominated candidates under the Republican name was held near Jackson, Michigan , on July 6, 1854. At that convention, the party opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a statewide slate of candidates. The Midwest took the lead in forming state Republican Party tickets; apart from St. Louis and a few areas adjacent to free states, there were no efforts to organize

2394-657: A plot to overthrow the existing order. For two days, Sumner listed crime, after crime, in detail, complete with documentation by newspapers and letters of the time, showing the tortures and violence by Atchison and his men. Two days later, Atchison gave his own speech, totally unaware as yet that he was exposed on the Senate floor in such a fashion. Atchison's speech was to the Texas men he just met, hired and paid for, Atchison reveals in his speech, by "authorities in Washington". They are about to invade Lawrence, Kansas . Atchison makes

2565-572: A population recession of roughly 20 percent between 1830 and 1850. From a political standpoint, the Whig Party had been in decline in the South because of the effectiveness with which it had been hammered by the Democratic Party over slavery. The Southern Whigs hoped that by seizing the initiative on this issue, they would be identified as strong defenders of slavery. Many Northern Whigs broke with them in

2736-538: A population that would vote for or against slavery, resulting in a series of armed conflicts known as " Bleeding Kansas ". Douglas and Pierce hoped that popular sovereignty would help bring an end to the national debate over slavery, but the Kansas–Nebraska Act outraged Northerners. The division between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces caused by the Act was the death knell for the ailing Whig Party, which broke apart after

2907-490: A potential invasion from Britain or the U.S. But in early 1803, continuing war between France and Britain seemed unavoidable. On March 11, 1803, Napoleon began planning an invasion of Great Britain . In Saint-Domingue, Leclerc's forces took Louverture prisoner, but their expedition soon faltered in the face of fierce resistance and disease. By early 1803, Napoleon decided to abandon his plans to rebuild France's New World empire. Without sufficient revenues from sugar colonies in

3078-548: A presidential election. The Kansas–Nebraska Act was the final nail in the Whig coffin. It was also the spark that began the Republican Party , which would take in both Whigs and Free Soilers (as well as sympathetic northern Democrats like Frémont ) to fill the anti-slavery void that the Whig Party had never seemed willing to fill. The changes in the act were viewed by anti-slavery Northerners as an aggressive, expansionist maneuver by

3249-454: A railroad with its eastern terminus in Chicago . Railroad proposals were debated in all subsequent sessions of Congress with cities such as Chicago, St. Louis , Quincy , Memphis , and New Orleans competing to be the jumping-off point for the construction. Several proposals in late 1852 and early 1853 had strong support, but they failed because of disputes over whether the railroad would follow

3420-432: A smiling face and the appearance of friendship", had appealed for a postponement of debate on the ground that he had not yet familiarized himself with the bill. "Little did I suppose at the time that I granted that act of courtesy", Douglas remarked, that Chase and his compatriots had published a document "in which they arraigned me as having been guilty of a criminal betrayal of my trust", of bad faith, and of plotting against

3591-651: A special province under the jurisdiction of the Captaincy General of Cuba , while the vast region to the west was in 1803 still considered part of the Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas . Louisiana had never been considered one of New Spain's internal provinces. If the territory included all the tributaries of the Mississippi on its western bank, the northern reaches of the purchase extended into

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3762-651: A sum the Americans could not afford and the financers could not provide. In the final agreement, the value of the U.S. currency was set at ⁠5 + 3333 / 10000 ⁠ francs per U.S. dollar. In 2023 dollars, the $ 15 million purchase price is equivalent to about $ 371 million. As part of the deal, the U.S. assumed responsibility for up to 20 million francs ($ 3.75 million) of French debts owed to U.S. citizens. The remaining 60 million francs ($ 11.25 million) were financed through U.S. government bonds carrying 6% interest, redeemable between 1819 and 1822. In October 1803,

3933-471: A treaty. The Louisiana Purchase was the latter, a treaty. Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution specifically grants the president the power to negotiate treaties, which is what Jefferson did. Madison (the "Father of the Constitution") assured Jefferson that the Louisiana Purchase was well within even the strictest interpretation of the Constitution. Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin added that because

4104-500: A vote to deny the request for the purchase, but it failed by two votes, 59–57. The Federalists even tried to prove the land belonged to Spain, not France, but available records proved otherwise. The Federalists also feared that the power of the Atlantic seaboard states would be threatened by the new citizens in the West, whose political and economic priorities were bound to conflict with those of

4275-485: Is equivalent to $ 418 million in 1803 dollars, so the $ 15 million originally paid to France was roughly 3.5 percent of the total amount paid for this land (to both France and the Indians). David Atchison American Civil War David Rice Atchison (August 11, 1807 – January 26, 1886) was a mid-19th-century Democratic United States Senator from Missouri . He served as president pro tempore of

4446-668: Is now part of Lexington, Kentucky . He was educated at Transylvania University in Lexington. Classmates included five future Democratic senators ( Solomon Downs of Louisiana , Jesse Bright of Indiana , George Wallace Jones of Iowa , Edward Hannegan of Indiana , and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi ). Atchison completed law studies and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1829. In 1830 he moved to Liberty in Clay County in western Missouri, and set up practice there. He also acquired

4617-513: The 49th parallel , the US–Canada border . A large portion of Nebraska Territory would soon be split off into Dakota Territory (1861), and smaller portions transferred to Colorado Territory (1861) and Idaho Territory (1863) before the balance of the land became the State of Nebraska in 1867. Furthermore, any decisions on slavery in the new lands were to be made "when admitted as a state or states,

4788-518: The Blue Lodges and were dubbed border ruffians , a term coined by the opponent and abolitionist Horace Greeley . Abolitionist settlers, known as " jayhawkers ", moved from the East expressly to make Kansas a free state. A clash between the opposing sides was inevitable. Successive territorial governors, usually sympathetic to slavery, attempted to maintain the peace. The territorial capital of Lecompton ,

4959-575: The Central United States . However, France only controlled a small fraction of this area, most of which was inhabited by Native Americans ; effectively, for the majority of the area, the United States bought the preemptive right to obtain Indian lands by treaty or by conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers. The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1682 until it

5130-685: The Compromise of 1850 should apply in Nebraska. In the Compromise of 1850, Utah and New Mexico Territories had been organized without any restrictions on slavery, and many supporters of Douglas argued that the compromise had already superseded the Missouri Compromise. The territories were, however, given the authority to decide for themselves whether they would apply for statehood as either free or slaves states whenever they chose to apply. The two territories, however, unlike Nebraska, had not been part of

5301-571: The French Republican calendar ) at the Hôtel Tubeuf in Paris. The signers were Robert Livingston , James Monroe , and François Barbé-Marbois . After the signing Livingston famously stated, "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives ... From this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank." On July 4, 1803, the treaty was announced, but

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5472-595: The Kansas–Nebraska Act , which embodied this idea, in November 1853. The act was passed and became law in May 1854, establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Both Douglas and Atchison had believed that Nebraska would be settled by Free-State men from Iowa and Illinois , and Kansas by pro-slavery Missourians and other Southerners, thus preserving the numerical balance between free states and slave states in

5643-536: The Louisiana Purchase and had arguably never been subject to the Missouri Compromise. The bill was reported to the main body of the Senate on January 4, 1854. It had been modified by Douglas, who had also authored the New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory Acts, to mirror the language from the Compromise of 1850 . In the bill, a vast new Nebraska Territory was created to extend from Kansas north to

5814-484: The Mexican–American War . The Missouri Compromise , which banned slavery in territories north of the 36°30′ parallel , remained in place for the other U.S. territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase , including a vast unorganized territory often referred to as "Nebraska". As settlers poured into the unorganized territory, and commercial and political interests called for a transcontinental railroad through

5985-658: The Missouri River to reinforce Price, and defeated Union troops that tried to block his force in the Battle of Liberty . Atchison served in the State Guard through the end of 1861. In March 1862, Union forces in the Trans-Mississippi theater won a decisive victory at Pea Ridge in Arkansas and secured Union control of Missouri. Atchison then resigned from the army over reported strategy arguments with Price and moved to Texas for

6156-742: The Missouri River ; the Red River Expedition (1806) explored the Red River basin; the Pike Expedition (1806) also started up the Missouri but turned south to explore the Arkansas River watershed. In addition, the Dunbar and Hunter Expedition (1804–1805) explored the Ouachita River watershed. The maps and journals of the explorers helped to define the boundaries during the negotiations leading to

6327-477: The Presidential Succession Act of 1792, the Senate president pro tempore immediately followed the vice president in the presidential line of succession . As Dallas's term also ended at noon on the 4th, and as neither Taylor nor vice president-elect Millard Fillmore had been sworn in to office on that day, it was claimed by some of Atchison's friends and colleagues that from March 4–5, 1849, Atchison

6498-588: The Seven Years' War , Spain gained control of the territory west of the Mississippi , and the British received the territory to the east of the river. Following the establishment of the United States, the Americans controlled the area east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans. The main issue for the Americans was free transit of the Mississippi out to sea. As the lands were being gradually settled by American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that

6669-674: The Whigs to defeat incumbent Benton for re-election. Benton, intending to challenge Atchison in 1854, began to agitate for territorial organization of the area west of Missouri (now the states of Kansas and Nebraska ) so that it could be opened to settlement. To counter this, Atchison proposed that the area be organized and that the section of the Missouri Compromise banning slavery there be repealed in favor of popular sovereignty . Under this plan, settlers in each territory would vote to decide whether they would allow slavery. At Atchison's request, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois introduced

6840-425: The 1840s. While there were debates over the specifics, especially the route to be taken, there was a public consensus that such a railroad should be built by private interests, and financed by public land grants. In 1845, Stephen A. Douglas , then serving in his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives , had submitted an unsuccessful plan to organize the Nebraska Territory formally, as the first step in building

7011-467: The 18th and early 19th century. During this period, south Louisiana received a large influx of French-speaking refugees fleeing the large slave revolt in Saint-Domingue, including planters who brought their slaves with them. Many Southern slaveholders feared that acquisition of the new territory might inspire American-held slaves to follow the example of those in Saint-Domingue and revolt. They wanted

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7182-508: The 4th, occurring on Sunday, Gen. Taylor was not inaugurated. He was not inaugurated till Monday, the 5th, at 12 noon. It was then canvassed among Senators whether there was an interregnum (a time during which a country lacks a government). It was plain that there was either an interregnum or I was the President of the United States being chairman of the Senate, having succeeded Judge Mangum of North Carolina. The judge waked me up at 3 o'clock in

7353-524: The Act would leave decisions about whether slavery would be permitted in the hands of the people rather than the Federal government. The far more common response was one of outrage, interpreting Douglas's actions as, in their words, "part and parcel of an atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region emigrant from the Old World, and free laborers from our States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves". Especially in

7524-476: The Act. The American party system had been dominated by Whigs and Democrats for decades leading up to the Civil War. But the Whig party's increasing internal divisions had made it a party of strange bedfellows by the 1850s. An ascendant anti-slavery wing clashed with a traditionalist and increasingly pro-slavery southern wing. These divisions came to a head in the 1852 election , where Whig candidate Winfield Scott

7695-645: The Act. Its Northern remnants would give rise to the anti-slavery Republican Party . The Act, and the tensions over slavery it inflamed, were key events leading to the American Civil War . In his 1853 inaugural address, President Franklin Pierce expressed hope that the Compromise of 1850 had settled the debate over the issue of slavery in the territories . The compromise had allowed slavery in Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory , which had been acquired in

7866-747: The Adams–Onís Treaty, which set the western boundary as follows: north up the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to its intersection with the 32nd parallel , due north to the Red River , up the Red River to the 100th meridian , north to the Arkansas River , up the Arkansas River to its headwaters, due north to the 42nd parallel and due west to its previous boundary. Governing the Louisiana Territory

8037-517: The American right to deposit goods. However, in 1800, Spain had ceded the Louisiana territory back to France as part of Napoleon's secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso . The subsequent 1801 Treaty of Aranjuez established that Spain's cession of Louisiana was a "restoration" of the territory to France, not a retrocession. The territory nominally remained under Spanish control, until a transfer of power to France on November 30, 1803, just three weeks before

8208-484: The British. Throughout the second half of the 18th century, the French colony of Louisiana became a pawn for European political intrigue. The colony was the most substantial presence of France's overseas empire , with other possessions consisting of a few small settlements along the Mississippi and other main rivers. France ceded the territory to Spain in 1762 in the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau . Following French defeat in

8379-517: The Caribbean, Louisiana had little value to him. Spain had not yet completed the transfer of Louisiana to France, and war between France and the UK was imminent. Out of anger towards Spain and the unique opportunity to sell something that was useless and not truly his yet, Napoleon decided to sell the entire territory. Although the foreign minister Talleyrand opposed the plan, on April 10, 1803, Napoleon told

8550-477: The Democrats and the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Pierce deplored the new Republican Party, because of its perceived anti-southern, anti-slavery stance. To Northerners, the President's perceived Southern bias did anything but de-escalate public mood and helped inflame abolitionist anger. Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase ( French : Vente de la Louisiane , lit.   'Sale of Louisiana')

8721-404: The Democrats in the Missouri legislature were split between him and Benton, while the Whig minority put forward their own man. No senator was elected until January 1857, when James S. Green was chosen. When the first transcontinental railroad was proposed in the 1850s, Atchison called for it to be built along the central route (from St. Louis through Missouri, Kansas, and Utah ), rather than

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8892-400: The French actions and its intention to re-establish an empire in North America, Jefferson declared neutrality in relation to the Caribbean, refusing credit and other assistance to the French, but allowing war contraband to get through to the rebels to prevent France from regaining a foothold. In 1803, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours , a French nobleman, began to help negotiate with France at

9063-426: The House by Philip Phillips of Alabama. With the encouragement of the "F Street Mess", Douglas met with them and Phillips to ensure that the momentum for passing the bill remained with the Democratic Party. They arranged to meet with President Franklin Pierce to ensure that the issue would be declared a test of party loyalty within the Democratic Party. Pierce was not enthusiastic about the implications of repealing

9234-415: The House into a war of more than words. Campbell, joined by other antislavery northerners, exchanged insults and invectives with southerners, neither side giving quarter. Weapons were brandished on the floor of the House. Finally, bumptiousness gave way to violence. Henry A. Edmundson , a Virginia Democrat , well oiled and well-armed, had to be restrained from making a violent attack on Campbell. Only after

9405-409: The Judiciary Committee). When Congress reconvened on December 5, 1853, the group, termed the F Street Mess , along with Virginian William O. Goode , formed the nucleus that would insist on slaveholder equality in Nebraska. Douglas was aware of the group's opinions and power and knew that he needed to address its concerns. Douglas was also a fervent believer in popular sovereignty —the policy of letting

9576-433: The Kansas Territorial legislature to be elected in March 1855 would be controlled by free-soilers and ban slavery. This was viewed as a breach of faith by Atchison and his supporters. An angry Atchison called on pro-slavery Missourians to uphold slavery by force and "to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the district" if necessary. He recruited an immense mob of heavily armed Missourians, the infamous " Border Ruffians ". On

9747-484: The Kansas–Nebraska Act in seven public speeches during September and October 1854. Lincoln gave his most comprehensive argument against slavery and the provisions of the act in Peoria, Illinois , on October 16, in the Peoria Speech . He and Douglas both spoke to the large audience, Douglas first and Lincoln in response, two hours later. Lincoln's three-hour speech presented thorough moral, legal, and economic arguments against slavery and raised Lincoln's political profile for

9918-550: The Louisiana Purchase was primarily economic self-interest, not any legitimate concern over constitutionality or whether France indeed owned Louisiana or was required to sell it back to Spain should it desire to dispose of the territory. The Northerners were not enthusiastic about Western farmers gaining another outlet for their crops that did not require the use of New England ports. Also, many Federalists were speculators in lands in upstate New York and New England and were hoping to sell these lands to farmers, who might go west instead if

10089-502: The Louisiana Purchase went through. They also feared that this would lead to Western states being formed, which would likely be Republican, and dilute the political power of New England Federalists. Another concern was whether it was proper to grant citizenship to the French, Spanish, and free black people living in New Orleans, as the treaty would dictate. Critics in Congress worried whether these "foreigners", unacquainted with democracy, could or should become citizens. Spain protested

10260-512: The Louisiana Purchase, because of his position as a strict constructionist regarding the Constitution, by stretching the intent of that document to justify his purchase. The American purchase of the Louisiana territory was not accomplished without domestic opposition. Jefferson's philosophical consistency was in question and many people believed he and others, including James Madison, were doing something they surely would have argued against with Alexander Hamilton . The Federalists strongly opposed

10431-424: The Louisiana Territory contributed to the American Civil War a half century later. As states organized within the territory, the status of slavery in each state became a matter of contention in Congress, as southern states wanted slavery extended to the west, and northern states just as strongly opposed new states being admitted as " slave states ". The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a temporary solution. After

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10602-404: The Louisiana Territory led to debates over the idea of indigenous land rights that persisted into the mid 20th century. The many court cases and tribal suits in the 1930s for historical damages flowing from the Louisiana Purchase led to the Indian Claims Commission Act (ICCA) in 1946. Felix S. Cohen , Interior Department lawyer who helped pass ICCA, is often quoted as saying, "practically all of

10773-400: The Louisiana purchase was the Mississippi River, from its source to the 31st parallel , though the source of the Mississippi was, at the time, unknown. The eastern boundary below the 31st parallel was unclear. The U.S. claimed the land as far as the Perdido River , and Spain claimed that the border of its Florida Colony remained the Mississippi River. The Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain resolved

10944-424: The Mississippi River; and small portions of land within Alberta and Saskatchewan . At the time of the purchase, the territory of Louisiana's non-native population was around 60,000 inhabitants, of whom half were enslaved Africans . The western borders of the purchase were later settled by the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain , while the northern borders of the purchase were adjusted by the Treaty of 1818 with

11115-535: The Missouri Compromise and had barely referred to Nebraska in his State of the Union message delivered December 5, 1853, just a month before. Close advisors Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan, a proponent of popular sovereignty as far back as 1848 as an alternative to the Wilmot Proviso , and Secretary of State William L. Marcy both told Pierce that repeal would create serious political problems. The full cabinet met and only Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and Secretary of Navy James C. Dobbin supported repeal. Instead,

11286-425: The Missouri Compromise and organize Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory won approval by a wide margin in the Senate , but faced stronger opposition in the House of Representatives . Though Northern Whigs strongly opposed the bill, it passed the House with the support of almost all Southerners and some Northern Democrats. After the passage of the act, pro- and anti-slavery elements flooded into Kansas to establish

11457-486: The Missouri Compromise and spurred interest in the territory. Immediate responses to the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act fell into two classes. The less common response was held by Douglas's supporters, who believed that the bill would withdraw "the question of slavery from the halls of Congress and the political arena, committing it to the arbitration of those who were immediately interested in, and alone responsible for, its consequences". In other words, they believed that

11628-475: The Missouri Compromise outlawed slavery in the territory north of latitude 36° 30′ north (except for Missouri). To win the support of Southerners like Atchison, Pierce and Douglas agreed to back the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, with the status of slavery instead decided based on " popular sovereignty ". Under popular sovereignty, the citizens of each territory, rather than Congress, would determine whether slavery would be allowed. Douglas's bill to repeal

11799-405: The Missouri River in western present-day Missouri and Fort Madison along the Upper Mississippi River in eastern present-day Iowa. With tensions increasing with Great Britain, in 1809 Fort Bellefontaine was converted to a U.S. military fort and was used for that purpose until 1826. During the War of 1812 , aided by their Indian allies, the British defeated U.S. forces in the Upper Mississippi;

11970-426: The Missouri act". In other words, popular sovereignty was being established by ignoring, rather than addressing, the problem presented by the Missouri Compromise. Douglas's attempt to finesse his way around the Missouri Compromise did not work. Kentucky Whig Archibald Dixon believed that unless the Missouri Compromise was explicitly repealed, slaveholders would be reluctant to move to the new territory until slavery

12141-431: The Party in the southern states. So was born the Republican Party—campaigning on the popular, emotional issue of "free soil" in the frontier—which would capture the White House just six years later. The Kansas–Nebraska Act divided the nation and pointed it toward civil war. Congressional Democrats suffered huge losses in the mid-term elections of 1854, as voters provided support to a wide array of new parties that opposed

12312-594: The Spanish government had ordered Louisiana to be transferred in October 1802 despite knowing for months that Britain had not recognized the King of Etruria in the Treaty of Amiens . Madison, in response to Spain's objections, noted that the United States had first approached Spain about purchasing the property, but had been told by Spain itself that the U.S. would have to deal with France for

12483-592: The Spanish prime minister had authorized the U.S. to negotiate with the French government regarding "the acquisition of territories which may suit their interests." Spain turned the territory over to France in a ceremony in New Orleans on November 30, a month before France turned the city over to American officials. Other historians counter the above arguments regarding Jefferson's alleged hypocrisy by asserting that countries change their borders in two ways: (1) conquest, or (2) an agreement between nations, otherwise known as

12654-634: The Treasury Minister François Barbé-Marbois that he was considering selling the Louisiana Territory to the United States. On April 11, 1803, just days before Monroe's arrival, Barbé-Marbois offered Livingston all of Louisiana for $ 15 million, which averages to less than three cents per acre (7¢/ha). The total of $ 15 million is equivalent to about $ 371 million in 2023 dollars, or 70 cents per acre. The American representatives were prepared to pay up to $ 10 million for New Orleans and its environs but were dumbfounded when

12825-498: The U.S. Treasury had some $ 5.86 million in specie on hand, $ 2 million of which would be used to pay a portion of the debts assumed from France as part of the purchase. Because Napoleon wanted to receive his money as quickly as possible, Barings and Hopes purchased the bonds for 52 million francs, agreeing to an initial 6 million franc payment upon issuance of the bonds followed by 23 monthly payments of 2 million francs each. The first group of bonds were issued on January 16, 1804, but

12996-816: The U.S. abandoned Forts Osage and Madison, as well as several other U.S. forts built during the war, including Fort Johnson and Fort Shelby . U.S. ownership of the whole Louisiana Purchase region was confirmed in the Treaty of Ghent (ratified in February 1815). The U.S. later built or expanded forts along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, including adding to Fort Bellefontaine, and constructing Fort Armstrong (1816) and Fort Edwards (1816) in Illinois, Fort Crawford (1816) in Wisconsin, Fort Snelling (1819) in Minnesota, and Fort Atkinson (1819) in Nebraska. The Louisiana Purchase

13167-439: The U.S. government to establish laws allowing slavery in the newly acquired territory so they could be supported in taking their slaves there to undertake new agricultural enterprises, as well as to reduce the threat of future slave rebellions. The Louisiana Territory was broken into smaller portions for administration, and the territories passed slavery laws similar to those in the southern states but incorporating provisions from

13338-538: The US Senate in December 1845, they chose Atchison as president pro tempore, placing him second in succession for the presidency. He also was responsible for presiding over the Senate when the vice president was absent. At 38, he was a young man with low seniority in the Senate after two years to gain such a position. In 1849 Atchison stepped down as president pro tempore in favor of William R. King . King in turn yielded

13509-512: The United States . This belief, however, is dismissed by most scholars. Atchison, owner of many slaves and a plantation , was a prominent pro-slavery activist and Border Ruffian leader, deeply involved with violence against abolitionists and other free-staters during the " Bleeding Kansas " events that preceded admission of the state to the Union. Atchison was born to William Atchison and his wife in Frogtown (later Kirklevington), which

13680-613: The United States Senate for six years. Atchison served as a major general in the Missouri State Militia in 1838 during Missouri's Mormon War and as a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War under Major General Sterling Price in the Missouri Home Guard. Some of Atchison's associates claimed that for 24 hours—Sunday, March 4, 1849, through noon on Monday—he may have been acting president of

13851-494: The United States regarding the extent of Louisiana. The territory's boundaries had not been defined in the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau that ceded it from France to Spain, nor in the 1801 Third Treaty of San Ildefonso ceding it back to France, nor the 1803 Louisiana Purchase agreement ceding it to the United States. The U.S. claimed that Louisiana included the entire western portion of the Mississippi River drainage basin to

14022-404: The United States. Acquisition of Louisiana was a long-term goal of President Thomas Jefferson , who was especially eager to gain control of the crucial Mississippi River port of New Orleans . Jefferson tasked James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston with purchasing New Orleans. Negotiating with French Treasury Minister François Barbé-Marbois , the U.S. representatives quickly agreed to purchase

14193-567: The Western Hemisphere. In 1804, Haiti declared its independence; but fearing a slave revolt at home, Jefferson and the rest of Congress refused to recognize the new republic, the second in the Western Hemisphere, and imposed a trade embargo against it. This, together with the successful French demand for an indemnity of 150 million francs in 1825, severely hampered Haiti's ability to repair its economy after decades of war. After Monroe and Livingston had returned from France with news of

14364-562: The admittance of Kansas and, to a lesser extent, Nebraska to the United States. To avoid and/or alleviate the reservation-settlement problem, further treaty negotiations were attempted with the tribes of Kansas and Nebraska. In 1854 alone, the U.S. agreed to acquire lands in Kansas or Nebraska from several tribes including the Kickapoo, Delaware, Omaha , Shawnee, Otoe and Missouri , Miami, and Kaskaskia and Peoria. In exchange for their land cessions,

14535-441: The appeal personally and responded in Congress, when the debate was opened on January 30 before a full House and packed gallery. Douglas biographer Robert W. Johanssen described part of the speech: Douglas charged the authors of the "Appeal", whom he referred to throughout as the "Abolitionist confederates", with having perpetrated a "base falsehood" in their protest. He expressed his sense of betrayal, recalling that Chase, "with

14706-586: The area Colonel Alfred Cumming reported at least more deaths than births in most tribes in the area. While noting intemperance, or alcoholism , as a leading cause of death, Cumming specifically cited cholera , smallpox , and measles , none of which the Native Americans were able to treat. The disastrous epidemics exemplified the Osage people, who lost an estimated 1300 lives to scurvy , measles, smallpox, and scrofula between 1852 and 1856, contributing, in part, to

14877-464: The banks had already provided a 10 million franc advance to France in July 1803. In need of funds, Napoleon pressed the banks to complete their purchase of the bonds as quickly as possible, and by April 1804 the banks transferred an additional 40.35 million francs to fully discharge their obligations to France. In the end, Barings and Hopes acquired the $ 11.25 million in bonds for just $ 9.44 million. The last of

15048-503: The best efforts of Atchison and the Ruffians, Kansas rejected slavery and finally became a free state in 1861. Charles Sumner, in the epic "Crimes Against Kansas" speech on May 19, 1856, exposed Atchison's role in the invasion, tortures, and killings in Kansas. Speaking in the flamboyant style he and others used, lacing his prose with references to Roman history, Sumner compared Atchison to Roman Senator Catiline , who betrayed his country in

15219-401: The bill was essential to the party and would dictate how federal patronage would be handled. Davis and Cushing, from Massachusetts, along with Douglas, spearheaded the partisan efforts. By the end of April, Douglas believed that there were enough votes to pass the bill. The House leadership then began a series of roll call votes in which legislation ahead of the Kansas–Nebraska Act was called to

15390-404: The bill was silent on this issue, slavery would have been prohibited under the Missouri Compromise in the territory north of 36°30' latitude and west of the Mississippi River. Other Southern senators were as inflexible as Atchison. By a vote of 23 to 17, the Senate voted to table the motion, with every senator from the states south of Missouri voting to the table. During the Senate adjournment,

15561-428: The bill would be "a test of Democratic orthodoxy". On January 23, a revised bill was introduced in the Senate that repealed the Missouri Compromise and split the unorganized land into two new territories: Kansas and Nebraska. The division was the result of concerns expressed by settlers already in Nebraska as well as the senators from Iowa, who were concerned with the location of the territory's seat of government if such

15732-632: The bonds were paid off by the United States Treasury in 1823; with interest, the total cost of the Louisiana Purchase bonds amounted to $ 23,313,567.73. Although the War of the Third Coalition , which brought France into a war with the United Kingdom, began before the purchase was completed, the British government initially allowed the deal to proceed as it was better for the neutral Americans to own

15903-503: The cause of free government. While other Senators were attending divine worship, they had been "assembled in a secret conclave", devoting the Sabbath to their own conspiratorial and deceitful purposes. The debate would continue for four months, as many Anti-Nebraska political rallies were held across the north. Douglas remained the main advocate for the bill while Chase, William Seward , of New York, and Charles Sumner , of Massachusetts, led

16074-447: The colony, which had become essentially autonomous under Louverture. Louverture, as a French general, had fended off incursions from other European powers, but had also begun to consolidate power for himself on the island. Before the revolution, France had derived enormous wealth from Saint-Domingue at the cost of the lives and freedom of the enslaved. Napoleon wanted the territory's revenues and productivity for France restored. Alarmed over

16245-399: The compromise measures [the Compromise of 1850 ], and is declared inoperative." Identical legislation was soon introduced in the House. Historian Allan Nevins wrote that the country then became convulsed with two interconnected battles over slavery . A political battle was being fought in Congress over the question of slavery in the new states that were coming. At the same time, there was

16416-602: The crest of the Rocky Mountains and land extending to the Rio Grande and West Florida . Spain insisted that Louisiana comprised no more than the western bank of the Mississippi River and the cities of New Orleans and St. Louis. The dispute was ultimately resolved by the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, with the United States gaining most of what it had claimed in the west. The relatively narrow Louisiana of New Spain had been

16587-649: The documents did not arrive in Washington, D.C. until July 14. The Louisiana Territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert's Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Acquiring the territory nearly doubled the size of the United States. In November 1803, France withdrew its 7,000 surviving troops from Saint-Domingue (more than two-thirds of its troops died there) and gave up its ambitions in

16758-561: The duration of the war. After the war he retired to his farm near Gower . He denied many of his pro-slavery public statements made prior to the Civil War. Then, his retirement cottage outside of Plattsburg, Missouri burned to the ground before his death in 1886. This entailed the complete loss of his library containing books, documents, and letters which documented his role in the Mormon War, Indian affairs, pro-slavery activities, Civil War activities, and other legislation covering his career as

16929-581: The early explorations, the U.S. government sought to establish control of the region, since trade along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers was still dominated by British and French traders from Canada and allied Indians, especially the Sauk and Fox . The U.S. adapted the former Spanish facility at Fort Bellefontaine as a fur trading post near St. Louis in 1804 for business with the Sauk and Fox. In 1808, two military forts with trading factories were built, Fort Osage along

17100-598: The election day, March 30, 1855, Atchison led 5,000 Border Ruffians into Kansas. They seized control of all polling places at gunpoint, cast tens of thousands of fraudulent votes for pro-slavery candidates, and elected a pro-slavery legislature. The outrage was nonetheless accepted by the Federal government. When Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder objected, he was fired by President Franklin Pierce . Despite this show of force, far more free-soilers than pro-slavery settlers migrated to Kansas. There were continual raids and ambushes by both sides in " Bleeding Kansas ". In spite of

17271-518: The entire territory of Louisiana after it was offered. Overcoming the opposition of the Federalist Party , Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison persuaded Congress to ratify and fund the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase extended United States sovereignty across the Mississippi River, nearly doubling the nominal size of the country. The purchase included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces , including

17442-484: The entirety of Arkansas , Missouri , Iowa , Oklahoma , Kansas , and Nebraska ; large portions of North Dakota and South Dakota ; the area of Montana , Wyoming , and Colorado east of the Continental Divide ; the portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River; the northeastern section of New Mexico ; northern portions of Texas ; New Orleans and the portions of the present state of Louisiana west of

17613-623: The equally ill-defined British possession— Rupert's Land of British North America , now part of Canada. The purchase originally extended just beyond the 50th parallel . However, the territory north of the 49th parallel (including the Milk River and Poplar River watersheds) was ceded to the UK in exchange for parts of the Red River Basin south of 49th parallel in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 . The eastern boundary of

17784-407: The eyes of northerners, the Kansas–Nebraska Act was aggression and an attack on the power and beliefs of free states. The response led to calls for public action against the South, as seen in broadsides that advertised gatherings in northern states to discuss publicly what to do about the presumption of the Act. Douglas and former Illinois Representative Abraham Lincoln aired their disagreement over

17955-615: The first time. The speeches set the stage for the Lincoln-Douglas debates four years later, when Lincoln sought Douglas's Senate seat. Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 involving anti-slavery " Free-Staters " and pro-slavery " Border Ruffian ", or "Southern" elements in Kansas . At

18126-458: The floor and tabled without debate. Thomas Hart Benton was among those speaking forcefully against the measure. On April 25, in a House speech that biographer William Nisbet Chambers called "long, passionate, historical, [and] polemical", Benton attacked the repeal of the Missouri Compromise , which he "had stood upon ... above thirty years, and intended to stand upon it to the end—solitary and alone, if need be; but preferring company". The speech

18297-636: The formal cession of the territory to the United States on December 20, 1803. While the treaty between Spain and France went largely unnoticed in 1800, fear of an eventual French invasion spread across America when, in 1801, Napoleon sent a military force to nearby Saint-Domingue . Though Jefferson urged moderation, Federalists sought to use this against Jefferson and called for hostilities against France. Undercutting them, Jefferson threatened an alliance with Britain, although relations were uneasy in that direction. In 1801, Jefferson supported France in its plan to take back Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti ), which

18468-491: The heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would allow or outlaw slavery, and thus enter the Union as a slave state or a free state . Pro-slavery settlers came to Kansas mainly from neighboring Missouri , successfully vote stacking to form a temporary pro-slavery government prior to statehood. Their influence in territorial elections was often bolstered by resident Missourians who crossed into Kansas solely for voting in such ballots. They formed groups such as

18639-569: The issue upon ratification in 1821. Today, the 31st parallel is the northern boundary of the western half of the Florida Panhandle , and the Perdido is the western boundary of Florida. Because the western boundary was contested at the time of the purchase, President Jefferson immediately began to organize four missions to explore and map the new territory. All four started from the Mississippi River. The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804) traveled up

18810-522: The issues of the railroad and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise became entangled in Missouri politics, as Atchison campaigned for re-election against the forces of Thomas Hart Benton . Atchison was maneuvered into choosing between antagonizing the state's railroad interests or its slaveholders. Finally, he took the position that he would rather see Nebraska "sink in hell" before he would allow it to be overrun by free soilers . Representatives then generally found lodging in boarding houses when they were in

18981-551: The massive decline in population, from 8000 in 1850 to just 3500 in 1860. The Osage had already encountered epidemics associated with relocation and white settlement. The initial removal acts in the 1830s brought both White American settlers and foreign Native American tribes to the Great Plains and into contact with the Osage people. Between 1829 and 1843, influenza , cholera, and smallpox killed an estimated 1242 Osage Indians, resulting in

19152-453: The men are to kill and draw blood, told the men they will be "well paid," and encouraged them to plunder from the homes that they invaded. That was after the hundreds of dozens of tortures and killings that Sumner had detailed in his Crimes Against Kansas speech. In other words, things were about to get much worse since Atchison had his hired men from Texas. Atchison's Senate term expired on March 3, 1855. He sought election to another term, but

19323-503: The men promise to kill and "draw blood," and boasts of his flag, which was red in color for "Southern Rights" and the color of blood. They would press "to blood" the spread of slavery into Kansas. He revealed in this speech that the immediate goal of the invasion was to stop the newspaper in Lawrence from publishing anti-slavery material. Atchison's men had made it a crime to publish anti-slavery newspapers in Kansas. Atchison made it clear

19494-409: The merchants and bankers of New England . There was also concern that an increase in the number of slave-holding states created out of the new territory would exacerbate divisions between North and South. A group of Northern Federalists led by Senator Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts went so far as to explore the idea of a separate northern confederacy. The opposition of New England Federalists to

19665-487: The morning and said jocularly that as I was President of the United States he wanted me to appoint him as secretary of state. I made no pretense to the office, but if I was entitled in it I had one boast to make, that not a woman or a child shed a tear on account of my removing any one from office during my incumbency of the place. A great many such questions are liable to arise under our form of government. Atchison died on January 26, 1886, at his home near Gower, Missouri at

19836-488: The most damaging violation by white American settlers was the mistreatment of Native Americans and their properties. Personal maltreatment, stolen property, and deforestation have all been cited. Furthermore, the squatters' premature and illegal settlement of the Kansas Territory jeopardized the value of the land, and with it the future of the Indian tribes living on them. Because treaties were land cessions and purchases,

20007-596: The nation's capital to perform their legislative duties. Atchison shared lodgings in an F Street house shared by the leading Southerners in Congress. He was the Senate's President pro tempore . His housemates included Robert T. Hunter (from Virginia, chairman of the Finance Committee), James Mason (from Virginia, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee) and Andrew P. Butler (from South Carolina, chairman of

20178-612: The nation. In 1854 Atchison helped found the town of Atchison, Kansas , as a pro-slavery settlement. The town (and county) were named for him. While Southerners supported the idea of settling Kansas, few migrated there. Most free-soilers preferred Kansas to Nebraska. Furthermore, anti-slavery activists throughout the North came to view Kansas as a battleground and formed societies to encourage free-soil settlers to go to Kansas, to ensure there would be enough voters in both Kansas and Nebraska to approve their entry as free states. It appeared as if

20349-537: The oath of office before any official acts, the prevailing view is that presidential succession does not depend on the oath. Even supposing that an oath were necessary, Atchison never took it, so he was no more the president than Taylor. In September 1872, Atchison, who never himself claimed that he was technically president, told a reporter for the Plattsburg Lever : It was in this way: Polk went out of office on March 3, 1849, on Saturday at 12 noon. The next day,

20520-530: The office back to Atchison in December 1852, after being elected Vice President of the United States. Atchison continued as president pro tempore until December 1854. As a senator, Atchison was a fervent advocate of slavery and territorial expansion. He supported the annexation of Texas and the U.S.-Mexican War . Atchison and Thomas Hart Benton , Missouri's other senator, became rivals and finally enemies, although both were Democrats. Benton declared himself to be against slavery in 1849. In 1851 Atchison allied with

20691-416: The opposition. The New-York Tribune wrote on March 2: The unanimous sentiment of the North is indignant resistance. ... The whole population is full of it. The feeling in 1848 was far inferior to this in strength and universality. The debate in the Senate concluded on March 4, 1854, when Douglas, beginning near midnight on March 3, made a five-and-a-half-hour speech. The final vote in favor of passage

20862-738: The organization of the Kansas–Nebraska territory in 1854, the Kansas and Nebraska Territories were consolidated as part of the Indian Territory . Throughout the 1830s, large-scale relocations of Native American tribes to the Indian Territory took place, with many Southeastern nations removed to present-day Oklahoma , a process ordered by the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and known as the Trail of Tears , and many Midwestern nations removed by way of

21033-453: The port to store goods for export. The treaty also recognized American rights to navigate the entire Mississippi, which had become vital to the growing trade of the western territories. In 1798, Spain revoked the treaty allowing American use of New Orleans, greatly upsetting Americans. In 1801, Spanish Governor Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo took over from the Marquess of Casa Calvo , and restored

21204-410: The power to negotiate treaties was specifically granted to the president, the only way extending the country's territory by treaty could not be a presidential power would be if it were specifically excluded by the Constitution (which it was not). Jefferson, as a strict constructionist, was right to be concerned about staying within the bounds of the Constitution, but felt the power of these arguments and

21375-534: The preceding French and Spanish rule (for instance, Spain had prohibited slavery of Native Americans in 1769, but some slaves of mixed African–Native American descent were still being held in St. Louis in Upper Louisiana when the U.S. took over). In a freedom suit that went from Missouri to the U.S. Supreme Court , slavery of Native Americans was finally ended in 1836. The institutionalization of slavery under U.S. law in

21546-519: The president and cabinet submitted to Douglas an alternative plan that would have sought out a judicial ruling on the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise. Both Pierce and Attorney General Caleb Cushing believed that the Supreme Court would find it unconstitutional. Douglas's committee met later that night. Douglas was agreeable to the proposal, but the Atchison group was not. Determined to offer

21717-406: The purchase, an official announcement of the purchase was made on July 4, 1803. This gave Jefferson and his cabinet until October, when the treaty had to be ratified, to discuss the constitutionality of the purchase. Jefferson considered a constitutional amendment to justify the purchase; however, his cabinet convinced him otherwise. Jefferson justified the purchase by rationalizing, "it is the case of

21888-418: The purchase, because of the cost involved, their belief that France would not have been able to resist U.S. and British encroachment into Louisiana, and Jefferson's perceived hypocrisy. Both Federalists and Jeffersonians were concerned over the purchase's constitutionality. Many members of the House of Representatives opposed the purchase. Majority Leader John Randolph led the opposition. The House called for

22059-489: The purchase. Hopes brought to the transaction experience with issuing sovereign bonds and Barings brought its American connections. Francis Baring 's son Alexander and Pierre Labouchère from Hopes arrived in Paris in April 1803 to assist with the negotiations. With the bankers' help, the French and American negotiators settled on a price of 80 million francs ($ 15 million), down from an initial price of 100 million francs,

22230-417: The real estate acquired by the United States since 1776 was purchased not from Napoleon or any other emperor or czar but from its original Indian owners". More recently, the total cost to the U.S. government of all subsequent treaties and financial settlements up to the year 2012 for the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase has been estimated to be around $ 2.6 billion, or $ 11.2 billion in 2023 dollars. This

22401-475: The recent acquisition of Mexican territory. They were designed to establish certain great principles, which would not only furnish adequate remedies for existing evils, but, in all times to come, avoid the perils of a similar agitation, by withdrawing the question of slavery from the halls of Congress and the political arena, and committing it to the arbitrament of those who were immediately interested in, and alone responsible for its consequences. The report compared

22572-473: The region, pressure mounted for the organization of the eastern parts of the unorganized territory. Though the organization of the territory was required to develop the region, an organization bill threatened to re-open the contentious debates over slavery in the territories that had taken place during and after the Mexican–American War. The topic of a transcontinental railroad had been discussed since

22743-409: The repeal to Congress on January 23 but reluctant to act without Pierce's commitment, Douglas arranged through Davis to meet with Pierce on January 22 even though it was a Sunday when Pierce generally refrained from conducting any business. Douglas was accompanied at the meeting by Atchison, Hunter, Phillips, and John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Douglas and Atchison first met alone with Pierce before

22914-725: The request of Jefferson. Du Pont was living in the United States at the time and had close ties to Jefferson as well as the prominent politicians in France. He engaged in back-channel diplomacy with Napoleon on Jefferson's behalf during a visit to France and originated the idea of the much larger Louisiana Purchase as a way to defuse potential conflict between the United States and Napoleon over North America. Throughout this time, Jefferson had up-to-date intelligence on Napoleon's military activities and intentions in North America. Part of his evolving strategy involved giving du Pont some information that

23085-430: The right to govern themselves in their domestic matters as they please", would be honored. The final House vote in favor of the bill was 113 to 100. Northern Democrats supported the bill 44 to 42, but all 45 northern Whigs opposed it. Southern Democrats voted in favor by 57 to 2, and southern Whigs supported it by 12 to 7. President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas–Nebraska Act into law on May 30, 1854. This act repealed

23256-452: The said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission." In a report accompanying the bill, Douglas's committee wrote that the Utah and New Mexico Acts: ... were intended to have a far more comprehensive and enduring effect than the mere adjustment of the difficulties arising out of

23427-505: The secession crisis in Missouri at the beginning of the American Civil War , Atchison sided with Missouri's pro-Confederate governor, Claiborne Jackson . He was appointed a major general in the Missouri State Guard . Atchison actively recruited State Guardsmen in northern Missouri and served with Guard commander General Sterling Price in the summer campaign of 1861. In September 1861, Atchison led 3,500 State Guard recruits across

23598-410: The sergeant at arms arrested him, the debate was cut off, and the House adjourned did the melee subside. The floor debate was handled by Alexander Stephens , of Georgia, who insisted that the Missouri Compromise had never been a true compromise but had been imposed on the South. He argued that the issue was whether republican principles, "that the citizens of every distinct community or State should have

23769-481: The situation in New Mexico and Utah with the situation in Nebraska. In the first instance, many had argued that slavery had previously been prohibited under Mexican law , just as it was prohibited in Nebraska under the Missouri Compromise. Just as the creation of New Mexico and Utah territories had not ruled on the validity of Mexican law on the acquired territory, the Nebraska bill was neither "affirming nor repealing ...

23940-462: The slave-owning South. Opponents of the Act were intensely motivated and began forming a new party. The party began as a coalition of anti-slavery Conscience Whigs such as Zachariah Chandler and Free Soilers such as Salmon P. Chase . The first anti-Nebraska local meeting where "Republican" was suggested as a name for a new anti-slavery party was held in a Ripon, Wisconsin schoolhouse on March 20, 1854. The first statewide convention that formed

24111-458: The southern route (from New Orleans through Texas and New Mexico ). Naturally, his suggested route went through Atchison. Atchison and his law partner Doniphan fell out over politics in 1859–1861, disagreeing on how Missouri should proceed. Atchison favored secession, while Doniphan was torn and would remain for the most part non-committal. Privately Doniphan favored the Union, but found it difficult to oppose his friends and associates. During

24282-400: The squatters, both the military and the squatters refused to comply, undermining both Federal authority and the treaties in place with Delaware. In addition to the violations of treaty agreements, other promises made were not being kept. Construction and infrastructure improvement projects dedicated to nearly every treaty, for example, took a great deal longer than expected. Beyond that, however,

24453-696: The state of Louisiana) and the District of Louisiana , which was temporarily under control of the governor and judicial system of the Indiana Territory . The following year, the District of Louisiana was renamed the Territory of Louisiana . New Orleans was the administrative capital of the Orleans Territory, and St. Louis was the capital of the Louisiana Territory. To pay for the land, the American government used

24624-497: The target of much agitation, became such a hostile environment for Free-Staters that they set up their own, unofficial legislature at Topeka . John Brown and his sons gained notoriety in the fight against slavery by murdering five pro-slavery farmers with a broadsword in the Pottawatomie massacre . Brown also helped defend a few dozen Free-State supporters from several hundred angry pro-slavery supporters at Osawatomie . Before

24795-487: The territory than the hostile French. However, by December 1803, the British directed Barings to halt future payments to France. Barings relayed the order to Hopes, which agreed but under the condition that Baring bear the costs of the change and that its' Louisiana stock be reallocated to Hopes. Hopes also required Baring to refrain from trading in Louisiana stock without its consent. The final payments were made to France in April 1804. A dispute soon arose between Spain and

24966-517: The territory would be acquired "piece by piece". The risk of another power taking it from a weakened Spain made a "profound reconsideration" of this policy necessary. New Orleans was already important for shipping agricultural goods to and from the areas of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains . Pinckney's Treaty , signed with Spain on October 27, 1795, gave American merchants "right of deposit" in New Orleans, granting them use of

25137-620: The territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition . France turned over New Orleans, the historic colonial capital, on December 20, 1803, at the Cabildo , with a flag-raising ceremony in the Plaza de Armas, now Jackson Square . Just three weeks earlier, on November 30, 1803, Spanish officials had formally conveyed the colonial lands and their administration to France. On March 9 and 10, 1804, another ceremony, commemorated as Three Flags Day ,

25308-499: The territory. Henry Adams claimed "The sale of Louisiana to the United States was trebly invalid; if it were French property, Bonaparte could not constitutionally alienate it without the consent of the French Chambers ; if it were Spanish property, he could not alienate it at all; if Spain had a right of reclamation, his sale was worthless." The sale, of course, was not "worthless"—the U.S. actually did take possession. Furthermore,

25479-504: The transfer on two grounds: First, France had previously promised in a note not to alienate Louisiana to a third party and, second, France had not fulfilled the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso by having the King of Etruria recognized by all European powers. The French government replied that these objections were baseless as the promise not to alienate Louisiana was not in the treaty of San Ildefonso itself and therefore had no legal force, and

25650-527: The treaty to present-day Kansas. Among the latter were the Shawnee , Delaware , Kickapoo , Kaskaskia and Peoria , Ioway , and Miami . The passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act came into direct conflict with the relocations. White American settlers from both the free-soil North and pro-slavery South flooded the Northern Indian Territory, hoping to influence the vote on slavery that would come following

25821-498: The treaty with a vote of 24 to seven on October 20. On the following day, October 21, 1803, the Senate authorized Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. In legislation enacted on October 31, Congress made temporary provisions for local civil government to continue as it had under French and Spanish rule and authorized the president to use military forces to maintain order. Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart

25992-563: The tribes largely received small reservations in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma or Kansas in some cases. For the nations that remained in Kansas beyond 1854, the Kansas–Nebraska Act introduced a host of other problems. In 1855, white " squatters " built the city of Leavenworth on the Delaware reservation without the consent of either Delaware or the US government. When Commissioner of Indian Affairs George Manypenny ordered military support in removing

26163-501: The value of the land handed over to the Federal government was critical to the payment received by a given Native nation. Deforestation, destruction of property, and other general injuries to the land lowered the value of the territories that were ceded by the Kansas Territory tribes. Manypenny's 1856 "Report on Indian Affairs" explained the devastating effect on Indian populations of diseases that white settlers brought to Kansas. Without providing statistics, Indian Affairs Superintendent to

26334-500: The vastly larger territory was offered for $ 15 million. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans. However, Livingston was certain that the United States would accept the offer. The Americans thought that Napoleon might withdraw the offer at any time, preventing the United States from acquiring New Orleans, so they agreed and signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803 (10 Floréal XI in

26505-492: The voters, almost exclusively white males, of a territory decide whether or not slavery should exist in it. Iowa Senator Augustus C. Dodge immediately reintroduced the same legislation to organize Nebraska that had stalled in the previous session; it was referred to Douglas's committee on December 14. Douglas, hoping to achieve the support of the Southerners, publicly announced that the same principle that had been established in

26676-427: The whole group convened. Pierce was persuaded to support repeal, and at Douglas' insistence, Pierce provided a written draft, asserting that the Missouri Compromise had been made inoperative by the principles of the Compromise of 1850. Pierce later informed his cabinet, which concurred with the change of direction. The Washington Union , the communications organ for the administration, wrote on January 24 that support for

26847-462: Was acting president of the United States . Historians, constitutional scholars and biographers dismiss the claim. They point out that Atchison's Senate term had also ended on March 4. When the Senate of the new Congress convened on March 5 to allow new senators and the new vice president to take the oath of office, the secretary of the Senate called members to order, as the Senate had no president pro tempore. Although an incoming president must take

27018-609: Was 37 to 14. Free-state senators voted 14 to 12 in favor, and slave-state senators supported the bill 23 to 2. On March 21, 1854, as a delaying tactic in the House of Representatives, the legislation was referred by a vote of 110 to 95 to the Committee of the Whole , where it was the last item on the calendar. Realizing from the vote to stall that the act faced an uphill struggle, the Pierce administration made it clear to all Democrats that passage of

27189-612: Was appointed a major general in the state militia . He took part in suppressing violence by both sides. Active in the Democratic Party, in 1838 Atchison was re-elected to the Missouri State House of Representatives. In 1841, he was appointed a circuit court judge for the six-county area of the Platte Purchase. In 1843 he was named a county commissioner in Platte County , where he then lived. In October 1843, Atchison

27360-404: Was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy left by the death of Lewis F. Linn . He was the first senator from western Missouri to serve in this position. At age 36, he was the youngest senator from Missouri up to that time. Atchison was re-elected to a full term on his own account in 1849. Atchison was very popular with his fellow Senate Democrats. When the Democrats took control of

27531-411: Was approved by the settlers, who would most likely oppose slavery. On January 16 Dixon surprised Douglas by introducing an amendment that would repeal the section of the Missouri Compromise that prohibited slavery north of the 36°30' parallel. Douglas met privately with Dixon and in the end, despite his misgivings on Northern reaction, agreed to accept Dixon's arguments. A similar amendment was offered in

27702-676: Was ceded to Spain in 1762. In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte , the First Consul of the French Republic , regained ownership of Louisiana in exchange for territories in Tuscany as part of a broader effort to re-establish a French colonial empire in North America. However, France's failure to suppress a revolt in Saint-Domingue , coupled with the prospect of renewed warfare with the United Kingdom , prompted Napoleon to consider selling Louisiana to

27873-452: Was conducted in St. Louis , to transfer ownership of Upper Louisiana from Spain to France, and then from France to the United States. From March 10 to September 30, 1804, Upper Louisiana was supervised as a military district, under its first civil commandant , Amos Stoddard , who was appointed by the War Department. Effective October 1, 1804, the purchased territory was organized into the Territory of Orleans (most of which would become

28044-446: Was distributed afterward as a pamphlet when opposition to the action moved outside the walls of Congress. It was not until May 8 that the debate began in the House. The debate was even more intense than in the Senate. While it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that the bill would pass, the opponents went all out to fight it. Historian Michael Morrison wrote: A filibuster led by Lewis D. Campbell , an Ohio free-soiler , nearly provoked

28215-474: Was more difficult than acquiring it. Its European peoples primarily of ethnic French, Spanish and Mexican descent were largely Catholic ; in addition, there was a large population of enslaved Africans , as Spain had continued the transatlantic slave trade . This was particularly true in the area of the present-day state of Louisiana, which also contained a large number of free people of color . Both present-day Arkansas and Missouri already had some slaveholders in

28386-412: Was negotiated between France and the United States, without consulting the various Indian tribes who lived on the land and who had not ceded the land to any colonial power. The four decades following the Louisiana Purchase was an era of court decisions removing many tribes from their lands east of the Mississippi for resettlement in the new territory, culminating in the Trail of Tears . The purchase of

28557-426: Was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River's drainage basin west of the river. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mi (2,140,000 km ; 530,000,000 acres) now in

28728-510: Was then under control of Toussaint Louverture after a slave rebellion . However, there was a growing concern in the U.S. that Napoleon would send troops to New Orleans after quelling the rebellion. In hopes of securing control of the mouth of the Mississippi, Jefferson sent Livingston to Paris in 1801 with the authorization to purchase New Orleans. In January 1802, France sent General Charles Leclerc , Napoleon's brother-in-law, on an expedition to Saint-Domingue to reassert French control over

28899-465: Was trounced by Franklin Pierce . Southern Whigs, who had supported the prior Whig president Zachary Taylor , had been burned by Taylor and were unwilling to support another Whig. Taylor, who despite being a slave owner, had proved notably anti-slave despite campaigning neutrally on the issue. With the loss of Southern Whig support and the loss of votes in the North to the Free Soil Party , Whigs seemed doomed. So they were, as they would never again contest

29070-458: Was willing to "acquiesce with satisfaction" if the Congress approved the treaty. The Senate quickly ratified the treaty, and the House , with equal readiness, authorized the required funding. The fledgling United States did not have $ 15 million in its treasury; instead, it borrowed the sum from British and Dutch banks, at an annual interest rate of six percent. (See § Financing below.) The United States Senate consented to ratification of

29241-583: Was withheld from Livingston. Intent on avoiding possible war with France, Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris in 1803 to negotiate a settlement, with instructions to go to London to negotiate an alliance if the talks in Paris failed. Spain procrastinated until late 1802 in executing the treaty to transfer Louisiana to France, which allowed American hostility to build. Also, Spain's refusal to cede Florida to France meant that Louisiana would be indefensible. Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana. Otherwise, Louisiana would be an easy prey for

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