Jefferson, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase - Museums Today

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), July, 2003 by Victoria Cooke

ONE OF THE most-significant events in American history, the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country, adding all or part of 13-17 states from Louisiana to North Dakota. (The number varies according to different historical views of the original territorial boundaries.)

The words of Thomas Jefferson--who was president when the U.S. bought the territory from France--promoting liberty, justice, and religious freedom, have left a permanent mark on the American consciousness. His thoughts were fueled by the ideas of the French thinkers of the European Enlightenment, such as Francois-Marie Voltaire. Jefferson even bought a bust portrait of the philosopher from sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon to include in a gallery of heroes at his Monticello estate. Jefferson's role in the American Revolution was not that of a soldier, but a statesman, and his eloquence and vision prompted the Continental Congress to ask him to draft the Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson was a lifelong Francophile. He was sent to France asa trade commissioner in 1784 and succeeded another Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, as American minister to that country from 1785 to 1789 at the court of King Louis XVI. His strongly held belief in the fundamental right of citizens to liberty and self-governance inspired the French revolutionaries, including Jefferson's lifelong friend, the Marquis de Lafayette, who had helped the Americans win their freedom. In 1777, at the age of 20, Lafayette had outfitted a ship named La Victoire (Victory) at his own expense and left for the New World to fight on the side of the American revolutionaries. Lafayette brought the ideals of democracy home to France when the war ended. He and other French revolutionaries could be found plotting an end to the monarchy while enjoying the hospitality of Jefferson's table at his elegant house in Paris.

Jefferson left Paris shortly after witnessing the fall of the Bastille and the beginnings of the French Revolution. His dream of a sister republic in France would not come to pass, though, as the optimism of the French Revolution degenerated into the Reign of Terror and, eventually, the autocratic monarchy of Napoleon Bonaparte. Jefferson returned to the U.S. and continued his role as one of the founders of American democracy. He served as vice-president to his political rival, John Adams--who succeeded George Washington as president--and was elected the nation's third president in 1800. Jefferson often retreated to Monticello, his home in Virginia, where objects he had bought in France, such as Sevres porcelain and armchairs by Georges Jacob, were placed beside furniture made by slaves in the plantation's joinery.

While Jefferson rose to the presidency through the process of democracy he held so dear, Napoleon began his ascent to power through the military. Jacques-Louis David's portrait of Napoleon wearing a golden crown and ermine robes reveals a charismatic and complicated man who crowned himself Emperor a year after the Louisiana Purchase and assumed all the trappings of a monarchical ruler. He rose to fame and power on the democratic ideals of the French Revolution, earning a battlefield promotion to the rank of general at the age of 24. In 1799, Gen. Bonaparte returned from the Egyptian campaign to a Paris in chaos. The tragic aftermath of the Reign of Terror had left France without a credible government until Napoleon emerged as First Consul of France in 1799 in the bloodless Coup de Brumaire.

He sought to rebuild France, encouraging the reinvigoration of the luxury goods industry so vital to the French economy, organizing schools, and unifying the legal codes of France under the Code Civile, now known as the Napoleonic Code. Over the course of his career, he marshaled all the symbolism and propaganda of ritual tradition to legitimize his power.

Napoleon chose to sell the Louisiana Territory in part to fund his war against England. The sugar islands of the Caribbean, especially Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) played a crucial role in his decision as well. Toussaint Louverture, who was born a slave in 1743 and earned his freedom by serving in the military, led the slaves of Saint-Domingue in their uprising against their French rulers. Louverture declared himself governor of the island in 1800, promising to rule in the name of France, and abolished slavery in 1802.

Bonaparte could not accept an independent, black-controlled Saint-Domingue and sent his brother-in-law, Gen. Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc, to retake the island and reinstate slavery on the plantations. The expedition proved disastrous. Louverture was captured and brought back to prison in France, where he died in December, 1803, the same month the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed in Paris. Shortly before his death, he declared, "In overthrowing me they have only cut off the trunk of the tree of black liberty. Liberty will flourish again through its roots." His words proved prophetic as his death galvanized the will of the black insurgents to gain their freedom. Of the 30,000 French troops who arrived in Saint-Domingue, 25,000 died. Some fell in battle, but most, including Leclerc, died of yellow fever. In January, 1804, Saint-Domingue became an independent nation.