Question

what political problems did the Louisiana purchase cause?

Answer 1

Spain sold the Louisiana Territory to France in 1800. One of the clauses in the treaty was that should France decide to sell, they could only sell it back to Spain. Napoleon sold it to the US. This created an uproar between Spain, which still had Texas and California and everything in between, and the US. In fact a Spain supposedly sent an expedition after Lewis and Clark for the purpose of arresting them but never caught them.

In the US there were several problems. The US was new and no one really knew the limits of the Constitution or the Presidency. Jefferson, who believed in a strict interpretation of the Constitution, also had a problem over the fact that the Constitution didn't specifically state that the US could acquire territory of any kind by any means. It was very possible that the purchase was therefore unconstitutional. Also by purchasing Louisiana from the French, President Jefferson was acknowledging that France had a right to Louisiana in the first place. A position he didn't hold. France sold Louisiana to Spain in 1762. Spain sold it back to France in 1800. In both treaties, boundaries were never set, No one knew how big Louisiana was. Not France, Spain, or the US.