page_title: Louisiana Purchase
section_title: Treaty signing
hierarchical_section_title: Louisiana Purchase / Treaty signing
caption_attribution_description: English: Postage stamp, 1953 Issue, Louisiana Purchase
context_page_description: The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from France in 1803. 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. However, France only controlled a small fraction of this area, with most of it inhabited by Native Americans; for the majority of the area, what the United States bought was the "preemptive" right to obtain Native American lands by treaty or by conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers. The total cost of all subsequent treaties and financial settlements over the land has been estimated to be around 2.6 billion dollars.
  The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762. In 1800, Napoleon, then the First Consul of the French Republic, regained ownership of Louisiana as part of a broader project to re-establish a French colonial empire in North America. However, France's failure to put down a revolt in Saint-Domingue, coupled with the prospect of renewed warfare with the United Kingdom, prompted Napoleon to consider selling Louisiana to the United States.
context_section_description: The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed on April 30, 1803, by Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and François Barbé-Marbois at the Hôtel Tubeuf in Paris. Jefferson announced the treaty to the American people on July 4. After the signing Livingston made this famous statement, "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."
  The United States Senate advised and consented to ratification of the treaty with a vote of twenty-four to seven on October 20. The Senators who voted against the treaty were: Simeon Olcott and William Plumer of New Hampshire, William Wells and Samuel White of Delaware, James Hillhouse and Uriah Tracy of Connecticut, and Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts.
  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 the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
  A timeline of legislation can be found at the Library of Congress, in American Memory: The Louisiana Purchase Legislative Timeline—1803–1804.
caption: Issue of 1953, commemorating the 150th Anniversary of signing
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