Louisiana Purchase Dbq Analysis

Thomas Jefferson is remembered by a majority of Americans as the man who made the Louisiana Purchase. While this is true and a substantial part of Jefferson’s mark on American history, there is something more peculiar and more interesting about his presidency. Those who have knowledge of Jefferson’s political policies and historians who have studied them extensively have noted a strange discrepancy between his pre-presidential policies and his actions as the third president. For better or for worse, Jefferson appears to have altered his diplomatic, states’ rights beliefs and taken on, at least to a certain degree, Federalist policies and exercised federal powers. Aside from a few, smaller incidents where he did retain his earlier philosophies, Thomas Jefferson’s actions during his presidency …show more content…
The Louisiana Purchase is a great example. Jefferson’s administration purchased the Louisiana Territory using 15 million dollars of federal funds, an action that was not explicitly permitted by the Constitution. Although he expressed concern at the purchase and how it overstepped the bounds of the federal government’s power, Jefferson still went through with the purchase (Document C). His actions in this particular instance are directly contrary to his previous beliefs that the federal government be limited and no actions be taken by the national government that were not specifically delegated to it (Document B). Another instance of change in his domestic policy comes from the national bank. Jefferson was previously no supporter of the bank, a point of contention between him and Federalist John Adams, but during his presidency Jefferson both empowered the bank and increased tariffs, exercising the power of the federal government like Adams would have. His domestic policy was riddled with examples of his change of heart regarding Federalist

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