In 1803, Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from France. Jefferson original plan was to purchase New Orleans and West Florida from France, but things took a twist and he purchased all of Louisiana instead. When Jefferson first wanted to purchase New Orleans and West Florida, he sent Robert R. Livingston to make a deal with France. But there was a complication and France soon realized that Louisiana was meaningless for them. They soon decided to sell the whole territory to the United States. It was sold for about $15 million dollars [ CITATION Mar l 1033 ], the cheapest land ever. This was known as the Louisiana Purchase. There were advantages and disadvantages to the Louisiana Purchase for President Jefferson, which were: more land but more people, what congress said and what the constitution said, in debt or not, and what the Indians wanted and what the United States wanted.
Jefferson wanted to make to expand the United States. When the opportunity came up, he did not think twice and took the deal. The more land the United States has the better. He wanted more farmland, but also wanted the country to be independence from everyone. Before the opportunity came to purchase the whole territory of Louisiana, he wanted to purchase New Orleans and West Florida for different reasons. First, he wanted to make money to finance other wars the United States was in at the time. Second, Jefferson wanted accesses to the month of the Mississippi River, which was located in New Orleans [ CITATION Mar l 1033 ]. Finally, Jefferson thought it would be a great investment for the United States and it would help improved issues in the country. Some Americans were not onboard with Jefferson's decisions of purchasing Louisiana. Some were worries about slavery; some were worried about all the people living in the lands just becoming Americans citizens automatically. There were many arguments about it, but there was nothing to be done but just listen and have an option about the issue.