Negotiation
Thomas Jefferson laid the society for the purchase of New Orleans by sending Livingston to Paris in 1801, after finding out that the release of Louisiana went from Spain to France.
Livingston was to pursue the purchase of New Orleans, but their offer was refused by the French.
In 1802, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemour was recruited to help negotiate.
Purchasing Louisiana from France was not the idea that Jefferson liked.
He believed that a president does not have the right to make a deal because it was not specified in the constitution.
It would erode the authority by increasing federal executive power.
He also did not want France an enemy.
Napoleon was considering the surrender the Louisiana Territory.
Marguess de Barbe-Maebois offered Livingston all of Louisiana instead of New Orleans because he believed that the United States would accept the large offer.
The American Negotiators were prepared to spend 10 million for New Orleans but was stumped when Louisiana was offered.
Getting the Territory would double the size of the United States at the cost currency of the day would be less than 3 cents an acre