The Constitutional History of the Louisiana Purchase: 1803-1812

The Constitutional History of the Louisiana Purchase: 1803-1812
By Everett Somerville Brown

2000/06 - Beard Books - Law Classic
1587980339 - Paperback - Reprint - 265 pp.
US$34.95

A narrative on the constitutional aspects of acquiring foreign territory.

Publisher Comments


Category: Real Estate

The Constitution contains no specific grant of power to acquire territory. Hardly had it been put into effect when the first step in the acquisition of foreign territory was made. The author discusses the most important constitutional questions which arose as a consequence of the purchase of Louisiana, and shows how statesmen and legislators interpreted the Constitution in answering those questions. For example, this book contains a detailed account of the Senate debate on the Brekinridge Bill, including the startling bitterness in the subject of the control of slavery and the slave trade by Congress. Historians and legal scholars will find much in this book to satiate their intellectual appetite.

With access to manuscripts never before utilized, Brown provides a coherent and interesting narrative that describes how the legislators of that time interpreted the constitution while dealing with the issues that arose as a consequence of the purchase of Louisiana. For example, an issue of far-reaching significance is the issue of slavery that was raised and debated decades before it became the issue that divided the country during the Senate debate on the Louisiana Government Bill. This work offers the first published account of that important debate.

Everett Somerville Brown also wrote William Plumer's Memorandum of Proceedings in the United States Senate 1803-1807 in 1923 and Ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: State Convention Records and Law.

Preface		v-x
Chapter I.	Events Leading to the Purchase	1-13
Chapter II.	The Constitutional Right to Acquire Territory: Contemporary Opinion	14-35
Chapter III.	The Status of the Acquire Territory: Contemporary Opinion	36-48
Chapter IV.	The Debate on the Treaty: The Treaty-Making Power	49-61
Chapter V.	The Debate on the Treaty: (1) The Right to Acquire Territory (2) Status of the Acquired Territory (3) Commercial Privileges under the Treaty	62-83
Chapter VI.	The Government of the Acquired Territory	84-100
Chapter VII.	The Debate in the Senate on the Louisiana Government Bill	101-131
Chapter VIII.	The Louisiana Government Bill in the House	132-140
Chapter IX.	Problems of Territorial Government	147-169
Chapter X.	Demands for Statehood and the Question of West Florida	170-187
Chapter XI.	Admission to Statehood	188-196
Bibliography		197-209
Appendix		210-234
Index		235

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