“Do You Go to New Orleans?”: The Louisiana Purchase, Federalism, and the Contingencies of Empire in the Early U.S. Republic

abstract:This essay examines the planned invasion of New Orleans organized by the United States in late 1803 to enforce the terms of the Louisiana Purchase treaty. This story is a little-known but revealing moment in the history of the Louisiana Purchase and the early U.S. republic, and it demonstrates the varied levels of power and authority the United States depended on to implement its imperial projects. The federal system necessitated cooperation between the Jefferson administration and state governments in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee, all of which were active partners in U.S. empire-building. West of the Appalachian Mountains, however, local conditions shaped the abilities of the states to fulfill Jefferson’s request for troops. By focusing on the intricacies of the federal system as the Jefferson administration attempted to accomplish a single goal of acquiring Louisiana in a narrow window of time, this essay highlights how crucial the contingencies of politics and power on the ground were to the federal system.