Louisiana Purchase

In American Sphinx, Joseph Ellis uses the Louisiana Purchase as the prime example of Thomas Jefferson’s pragmatism overriding his stated principles. Jefferson, a champion of limited federal power and strict constitutional construction, “was prepared to abandon the principle temporarily when great opportunities (i.e., the Louisiana Purchase) or great crises (the Embargo Act of 1807) required it.” Ellis draws the parallel forward: just as twentieth-century Americans embraced “a more collectivistic mentality” only under the threat of the Great Depression or wartime, Jefferson set aside his individual-sovereignty convictions for a one-time opportunity — and then individual sovereignty “remains the seminal conviction and the ideological home-base” once the moment passes.

Context: The Louisiana Purchase (1803) was the United States’ acquisition of roughly 828,000 square miles of French territory for about $15 million, doubling the size of the country. It is a famous case study in the tension between Jefferson’s strict-constructionist constitutional philosophy and the practical opportunity the deal presented.

Where this appears

• American Sphinx — cited as the “great opportunity” for which Jefferson temporarily abandoned his limited-government principle, illustrating Ellis’s account of his pragmatism.