8. The Louisiana Purchase and the expansion to the west
The political complexities of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 present enough discussion and debate to last throughout elementary and high school educations, and well beyond. Jefferson did not have specific legal authority to make the purchase. Nor did Napoleon have a clear right to sell it. Its importance to the growth of the United States makes its study mandatory, as it created the circumstances which led to expansion, first to the Rocky Mountains, later to the Pacific Ocean. Younger children should be taught of the purchase by Jefferson, the acquisition of the lands on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and the journey of the Corps of Discovery led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
Older children revisit the Louisiana Purchase and the expansion by Americans into the western lands, led by fur trappers and long hunters. The political machinations of the Purchase, including protests from Congress that Jefferson exceeded his Constitutional authority, are best left to more advanced students. Jefferson’s actions expanded the powers of his office, using the argument that nothing in the Constitution specifically prohibited his exercise of the Purchase. The subject remains in debate among Constitutional scholars and historians. The Louisiana Purchase offers areas of study through all levels of education in the United States, and there are numerous sites offering guidance and information on the subject.