Thomas Jefferson

            In 1797 I became the 2nd vice president. John Adams was the president at the time and in 1800 I defeated John Adams for the Presidency. On March 4, 1801 I was inaugurated in the village of Washington. Which later became Washington D.C. My first action as president was to reduce the military to 2,500 officers and men. I thought this would help the United States cut back on spending. The most significant event of my presidency was the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Territory first belonged to France. In 1762 all French Territory west of the Mississippi River was given to Spain. In the treaty of 1783 the United States was given the right to a free navigation of the Mississippi. This allowed farmers to get there goods on vessels in the ocean with out having to travel to the east coast. The right of deposit at New Orleans was guaranteed to America by the treaty of 1795. In 1802 Spain gave back to France the trans-Mississippi region of Louisiana without telling the United States. The privileges established in1795 were now taken away because France and the United States were not at good relations. The right of deposit was vital to farmers who floated their goods down the Mississippi River to vessels in the waters of the Gulf. This was very nerve racking for me because of the tensions that the United States had with France, it would be easy for France to move into U.S. Territory and attack the states. I felt that if I established the water route and set my southern boundaries it would be less likely that there would be an attack on the United States. In early 1803 I sent James Monroe to Paris to join forces with Robert Livingston who was a citizen of France at the time. The two gentlemen were instructed to buy New Orleans so the United States could gain the right of deposit back and as much of Florida as they could get to set the southern boundary for no more then ten million dollars. Robert Livingston agreed on April 30, 1803 that the United Stated would purchase all of Louisiana for fifteen million dollars.