Lewis and Clark
New Orleans was strategically located as a port where ships could drop cargo as they left. This made it an essential part of many trading activities. The United States wanted control over New Orleans, and they were also looking to expand their territories. Getting ahold of the port would allow them to have full control over the trade that took place here. For many years, American ships had grown accustomed to leaving their cargo in New Orleans because of its position and significance as a bridge for trade. At that time, France had not taken control of the city, and Spain was running it. To the United States, Spain was a weaker party who they could fight for the region. They viewed the Spaniards as a weaker party who they could easily have power over. After France took over the area in 1801, the United States tried to get them to sell New Orleans because they wanted possession of the city so that they could control trade in the port. Whoever had control over the top automatically became a natural enemy of the United States because they wanted the city from themselves so that they could take full advantage of its benefits.
Robert Livingston conducted the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase in place of the then-president Jefferson. He sent Livingston to make an offer to Napoleon to but the New Orleans port. When he met up with the foreign minister of France, he made an offer of two million dollars. At the time, Napoleon required the funds because he wanted to use them in his campaign. On seeing this deal working, the president sent Monroe to join the negotiations and make a new offer to purchase New Orleans and Florida. In the end, the parties agreed on a sum f fifteen million dollars to purchase the entire Louisiana area. France accepted the offer, which enabled the United States to expand and acquire new land.Jefferson rationalized the discomfort surrounding the purchase of New Orleans by convincing Congress that it will open up a new water route to other continents as well as enable the country to grow. At the time, it was not constitutional for a president to make any land purchase, which meant he had to convince Congress to approve the move. He explains that it was their right to acquire the territory, and the country would expand and become even more significant. He was able to successfully convince Congress to fund allow funding of the purchase because the port of New Orleans would be beneficial to the country.
The records that Lewis and Clark kept served as evidence that they had conducted the work and research that Jefferson instructed them to find. Both Meriwether Lewis and William Clark kept a strict record of their finding throughout the process. They collected samples of plants and various animal species that they came across. The purpose of the expedition was to identify a river that ran from the east to the western part of the country. Lewis and Clark kept records of the living organism that they came across along the way. Even though the expedition did not yield results of a river, the two came back possessing a lot of information about the plant and animal species that they had come across.