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The Louisiana Purchase on the front page...
The Louisiana Purchase on the front page...
Item # 701192
November 02, 1803
COLUMBIAN CENTINEL, Boston, Nov. 2, 1803
* Historic Louisiana Purchase
* Expansion of the United States
The top of the front page has an historic notice headed: "Louisiana Treaty" announcing the ratification of the treaty by the Senate by which the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory, referred to now as the Louisiana Purchase. It lists the names of the senators who voted against the treaty and those who voted in favor of the treaty.
This report is followed by the text of the: "Treaty Between the United States of America and the French Republic" containing the ten articles, followed by the text of two "Conventions" each with several more articles relative to the financial terms of the agreement. The Treaty and two Conventions are each signed in type: Rob. B. Livingston, Barbe Marbois (for France) & Jas. Monroe. Collectively the report and the documents take 2 1/2 columns.
Four pages, in very nice, clean condition.
background: The November 2, 1803, issue of the Columbian Centinel serves as a primary source window into a pivotal moment of American expansion, capturing the immediate aftermath of the Senate's 24–7 vote to ratify the Louisiana Purchase. By meticulously listing the names of the senators who opposed and supported the measure, the newspaper highlights the intense Federalist-Democratic-Republican friction of the era, reflecting concerns that the $15 million price tag and the vast, unmapped territory would destabilize the Union. The inclusion of the full ten articles of the "Treaty Between the United States of America and the French Republic," alongside the two financial Conventions signed by Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Barbé-Marbois, provided the public with the first granular look at the legal framework that doubled the nation's size. Occupying two and a half columns of a four-page layout, this report exemplifies the era's "Information Age," where the slow transit of transatlantic news finally met the rapid-fire political debate of a young Republic grappling with its new status as a continental power.
Note: another issue of this same title and date sold in auction in 2023 for $1875.
Category: Pre-Civil War
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