Question

Briefly explain ONE major difference between Ellis’s and Meacham’s historical interpretations of how Thomas Jefferson came to approve the Louisiana Purchase.

Answer 1

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

One major difference between Ellis’s and Meacham’s historical interpretations of how Thomas Jefferson came to approve the Louisiana Purchase is the following.

For historian Joseph J. Ellis, the issue was the way President Thomas Jefferson proceeded to but the Lousiana territory to the French, knowing that he could have been going beyond his powers as the head of the executive branch. The question for historian Ellis is not that his decision over the territory was right, but the way he implemented that decision that challenged his powers as President. Thomas Jefferson had big hopes that the next step for the American government was in the conquest of the western part of the United States.

For historian John Meacham, the way President Jefferson acted during the Louisiana purchase saga was decisive, trying to protect the Louisiana territory from the Europeans. Meacham thinks that Jefferson never hesitated to exert his power in this particular and special case to defend the sovereignty of the United States. Probably, in other kinds of decisions, Jefferson would have acted differently, more passively, but not in the case of the Louisiana purchase.