Thomas Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris to buy New Orleans and got half a continent instead. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the size of the United States overnight, and Jefferson authorized it despite his own constitutional scruples telling him he had no authority to do so. The strict constructionist who insisted on limited federal power made the single largest exercise of executive authority in American history to that point.
This episode traces the Louisiana Purchase from Jefferson's vision of an agrarian republic through Napoleon's surprise offer, the constitutional crisis it created, and the Lewis and Clark expedition that mapped what America had just bought.
Jefferson's agrarian vision and why controlling the Mississippi was essential to his idea of America
Napoleon's surprise decision to sell the entire territory and the frantic negotiation that followed
The constitutional crisis — how a strict constructionist justified the biggest presidential power grab in history
The Lewis and Clark expedition and the transformation of the United States into a continental power
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