Did Thomas Jefferson Abandon His Ideals by Making the Louisiana Purchase?

Did Thomas Jefferson Abandon His Ideals By Making The Louisiana Purchase

Yes, we believe that Thomas Jefferson did abandon his ideals by making the Louisiana Purchase because he believed in the least amount of purchases made by the government as possible. He was big on small farming communities, and states' rights and was against large government purchases because it gave the government too much power.

He wanted the nation's capitol to be a small city with only a few thousand people in it.

He wanted to avoid ambitious measures and is quoted, "We will be less ambitious." He wanted to keep things simple and not take unnecessary risks.

He wanted to keep the federal establishment as plain and simple as possible. This meaning that he wanted the people to govern themselves and keep the government out of their lives as possible.

He wanted to practice the most rigorous economy and avoid unnecessary spending. He wanted to shrink everything and keep all government spending to a minimum, even for the military.

He also wanted to pay off the federal debt and by making another purchase, though cheap and very worthwhile, it didn't help the nation's debt situation.

He wanted the country to be an "unprogressive democratic-utopia dominated by self-sufficient, virtuous farmers."

Thomas Jefferson's ideals were of a strict budget and a passive government that would allow the people to rule over themselves as states, not as one government that rules over all. By making the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson abandoned the beliefs that he had about the way the government should spend its money and make a large purchase, which more than doubled the amount of land that the United States had at the time. Thomas Jefferson purchased 529, 911, 680 acres for 3 cents per acre. The total purchase was for $15 million, which was a huge sum of money in that time. This means that Thomas Jefferson threw away his ideals about having a humble and meek economy and government, and went out on a limb buying 827, 987 square miles of land.

http://www.libertysoft.com/liberty/features/59mayer.html, Mayer, David M., "The Misunderstood Mr. Jefferson" Liberty Magazine, 1997.

http://www.contrarianreview.com/jefferson.html, Kirn,