Message from the President of the United States

By Thomas Jefferson

Published in 1804

Reference #0726

Message from the President of the United States, Accompanying Sundry Documents Relative to a Delivery of Possession, on the 20th Ultimo, by the Commissary of the French Republic, to the Commissioners of the United States of America, of the Territory of Louisiana. 16th January, 1804. Read, and ordered to lie on the table.

First Edition. Entitled, “Message from the President of the United States, Accompanying Sundry Documents Relative to a Delivery of Possession, on the 20th Ultimo, by the Commissary of the French Republic, to the Commissioners of the United States of America, of the Territory of Louisiana,” this document accounts the official transfer of the of Louisiana territory, also known as the Louisiana Purchase and includes the foundational documents declaring the Territory an American sovereign.

The document contains: Thomas Jefferson’s announcement of the acquisition, the acting governor William Claiborne’s proclamation and address to the populace of the Louisiana territory. The United States purchased the Louisiana territory from France and Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803 for $15,000,000 (approximately $300,000,000 in 2017 dollars).

The Louisiana Purchase was an area of 828,000 square miles and included lands that would later be part of fifteen U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Initially, the United States only wished to purchase the city of New Orleans and its adjacent lands, but quickly accepted the entire territory.

Works By Thomas Jefferson