e Administration,
President Jefferson was quick to appreciate the vast importance of the
province to the United States. "Giving us the sole dominion of the
Mississippi," he wrote, "it excludes those bickerings with foreign
powers, which we know of a certainty would have put us at war with
France immediately: and it secures to us the course of a peaceable
nation." At the same time he was equally quick to see that the
acquisition would give "a handle to the malcontents." To his intimates
he avowed with the utmost frankness that the Administration had
exceeded its constitutional powers. The Constitution, he conceived, did
not contemplate the acquisition of territory not included within the
limits fixed by the Treaty of 1783. Yet he was firmly convinced of the
practical necessity of ratifying the treaty of purchase. The only way
out of the dilemma, he thought, was frankly "to rely on the nation to
sanction an act done for its great good, without its previous
authority."

Never doubting that so benevolent a purpose would be cordially approved,
Jefferson drafted an amendment to the Constitution authorizing the
acquisition of Louisiana and providing for its government. To his
surprise, leading Republicans received his proposal with indifference,
not to say with coolness. Nicholas thought that the power to acquire
territory by treaty might fairly be inferred from the Constitution, and
advised the President not to run the risk of turning the Senate against
the treaty by raising constitutional scruples. In much distress of
spirit Jefferson replied that to assume by free construction the power
to acquire territory was to make blank paper of the Constitution. If the
treaty-making power could be stretched in this fashion, then there was
no limit to its extent. But finding that his party did not share his
scruples, Jefferson abandoned his amendment to the Constitution,
"confiding that the good sense of our country will correct the evil of
construction when it shall produce ill effects." Hamilton in all the
pride of triumphant Federalism had never gone further than this.

The debates in Congress over the treaty are full of interest to the
student of constitutional law. The treaty fairly bristled with
controversial points. The exigencies of politics played havoc with
consistency. Parties seemed to have changed sides. Federalists borrowed
state-rights arguments without a tremor; and Republicans employed the
language of centralization