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Party Politics during the Louisiana Purchase

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Sean M. Theriault
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Abstract

The powerful personalities of Thomas Jefferson and Napoléon dominateLouisiana Purchase narratives. Such a focus obscures the importantinstitutional, electoral, and partisan dynamics that help explain the transferof Louisiana to the United States. This article offers new insight intorelationships between the Federalists and the Republicans as well as theinstitutional relationship between Congress and the president. During thepurchase, both political parties at times sacrificed the consistency of theirissue positions on the altar of electoral politics. The politicians’actions were based not only on their personalities and partisan affiliations butalso on their institutional contexts. By additionally considering the partisanand institutional dynamics of the early 1800s, this article provides a morecomplete understanding of the Louisiana Purchase.

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Social Science History , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , Summer 2006 , pp. 293 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2006 

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