The Declaration of Independence is the document in which the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so. It was ratified by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. This anniversary is celebrated as Independence Day in the United States. The handwritten copy signed by the delegates to the Congress is on display in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

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The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of more than 529,911,681 acres (827,987 mi² or 2,144,476 km2) of territory from France in 1803, at the cost of about 3¢ per acre (7¢ per hectare); $15 million or 80 million francs in total. (If adjusted for the relative share of GDP, this amount would equal approximately $390 billion in 2003 [1], or about $1800 per hectare.)

The French territory of Louisiana included far more land than just the current U.S. state of Louisiana. The lands purchased contained parts or all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains, the portions of southern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta that drain into the Missouri River, and Louisiana on both sides of the Mississippi River including the city of New Orleans.

The land included in the Purchase comprises 22.3 percent of the territory of the modern United States.
Domestic opposition
The American purchase of the Louisiana territory was not accomplished without domestic opposition. The Federalists strongly opposed the purchase, favoring close relations with Britain over closer ties to Napoleon. The Federalists argued that the purchase was unconstitutional, and that the U.S. had paid a large sum of money just to declare war on Spain. The Federalists also feared that the political power of the Atlantic seaboard states would be threatened by the new citizens of the west, bringing about a clash of western farmers with the merchants and bankers of New England. A group of Federalists led by Massachusetts Senator Timothy Pickering went so far as to plan a separate northern confederacy, offering Vice-President Aaron Burr the presidency of the proposed new country if he persuaded New York to join. Burr's relationship with Alexander Hamilton, who helped bring an end to the nascent northern secession movement, soured during this period. The animosity between the two men grew during the 1801 election and ended with Hamilton's death in a duel with Burr in 1804.
Boundaries

The Louisiana Purchase shown on the Louisiana State Quarter.When purchased, the boundaries of "Louisiana" were not defined, and the land itself was generally unknown (which led to the Lewis and Clark expedition). In particular, not wanting to anger Spain, France refused to specify the southern and western boundaries.

Estimates that did exist as to the extent and composition of the purchase were initially based on the explorations of Robert LaSalle.

If the US owned all the tributaries of the Mississippi on its western side, the Purchase extended into Canada. This makes the above map inaccurate, as the purchase originally was found above near the 50th Parallel. However, these lands were ceded to the UK in 1818 in the Red River Cession.

The tributaries of the Mississippi were held as the boundaries.

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Northern boundary
The northern reaches extended to the border of equally ill-defined British possessions in the north (what is now Canada). This boundary was not fully settled until the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 split the two countries at the 49th parallel.


Eastern boundary
The eastern boundary of the Louisiana purchase was the Mississippi River, from its source to the 31st parallel; the source of the Mississippi was then unknown, but is now known to be Lake Itasca in Minnesota. The eastern boundary below the 31st parallel was unclear, the U.S. claimed the land as far as the Perdido River. (Today, the 31st parallel is the northern boundary of the western half of the Florida Panhandle, and the Perdido is the boundary between Florida and Alabama.)

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The Embargo Act of 1807 was an American law prohibiting all export of cargo from American ports. It was designed to force Britain to rescind its restrictions on American trade, but failed, and was repealed in early 1809. Specifically, the act prohibited American goods from being shipped to foreign ports and all foreign vessels from taking cargo at American ports. Cargo for the coastal trade had to be bonded at double value. Foreign imports were not banned, but they mostly ceased because ships would have to return empty. It represented President Thomas Jefferson's response to the United Kingdom's Orders in Council (1807) and France's Continental System, which were severely hurting America's merchant marines. Although it was designed to force the British and French to change their commercial systems, neither country did, and the Act was repealed in 1809. Moreover, the Act failed to prevent the War of 1812.

From the 1790s to 1807, American shippers enjoyed their status as the primary neutral carrier between France and England while both countries were engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, profiting as both Nations purchased American goods and ships. Before it passed about $120 million in American ships and cargo were on the high seas on any one day. Jefferson thought that Britain needed the business so badly it would buckle on the impressment issue, where British warships stopped American commercial ships and seized sailors it said were British subjects. The vast British Royal Navy required a large workforce to keep a stranglehold on the oceans; a need which could not be provided for by volunteer enlistment. British warships stopped American merchant ships; inspected the papers of every crewmember, and carried off those they decided were British subjects. Over 6,000 sailors with American naturalization papers were also taken because Britain did not honor "naturalised citizenship" papers issued by American courts to men born in Britain.

Congress passed the Embargo Act in December 22, 1807, by votes of 22-6 in the Senate and 82-44 in the House. The South and West were in favor, and the Northeast opposed, The goal was to attack England economically for their impressment policy, and also to ensure America's neutrality in the war. Unfortunately, surprisingly good crops in 1808 left England far less dependant on America than usual and the parts of the British Empire hit hardest by the Embargo were too poor to convince the government it was worthwhile to repeal the Orders in Council. Although the Act did succeed in lessening impressment, it was merely because it caused so many American sailors to become unemployed that they joined Britain's merchant marine and navy willingly, to avoid starving. New England, a traditional Federalist stronghold, was in an uproar over the Act and turned to smuggling, particularly across the Canadian border. Congress repealed the Act three days before Jefferson left office, replacing it with the Non-Intercourse Act on March 1, 1809; an Act which lifted all embargoes except for those on England and France. This Act was just as ineffective as the Embargo Act itself and was replaced again the following year with Macon's Bill Number 2, lifting the remaining embargoes.

The entire affair was sometimes ridiculed as the Dambargo, Mob-Rage, Go-bar-'em or O-grab-me (embargo spelled backwards). The Snapping turtle, sometimes known as the Ograbme, was therefore the subject of a political cartoon ridiculing the Act.

One small item about the Embargo - when repealed, the guns of Fort Edgecomb, in Maine, one of the fortications for defense of the coast, were fired for the first time, in celebration.

Despite its unpopular nature, the Embargo Act did have some benefits, especially as it drove capital and labor into America's domestic manufacturing industries, lessening America's reliance on the English.


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The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was written in 1779 by Thomas Jefferson. The 793-word statute is divided into three sections.

In Section 1, Jefferson argues that the concept of compulsory religion is wrong for the following reasons:

The imposition of anything on a human mind, which God made to be free, is hypocritical and mean.
Jesus never coerced anyone to follow him, and the imposition of a religion by government officials is impious.
The coercion of a person to make contributions -- especially monetary -- to a religion he doesn't support is tyrannical and creates favoritism among ministers.
Government involvement in religious matters tends to end in the restraint of religion.
Civil rights do not depend on religious beliefs, and what a person thinks is no business of the government's.
Section 2 (which remains part of Virginia law, in Article 1, Section 16 of the Constitution of Virginia) declares that:

"...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."
Section 3 declares "...that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right."

The bill was made law on January 16, 1786. Jefferson, proud of this achievement, had it listed on his epitaph along with his founding of the University of Virginia and the writing of the United States Declaration of Independence.


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Achievements

Black tailed Prairie DogThe U.S. gained an extensive knowledge of the geography of the American West in the form of maps of major rivers and mountain ranges
Discovered and described 178 new plants and 122 species and subspecies of animals (see List of species described by the Lewis and Clark Expedition)
Opened American fur trade in the West
Paved the way for peaceful relations with the Indians
Established a precedent for Army exploration of the West
Strengthened the U.S. claim to Oregon Territory
Focused U.S. and media attention on the West
Produced the first literature about the West (the Lewis and Clark diaries)
Made themselves heroes throughout the country and big names in Early American History
Helped show pioneers some of the Oregon Trail


Western frontier
The purchase extended westward to the Rocky Mountains.

Southern boundary
The southern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase was initially unclear; the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 began to lay down official dividing lines.

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Judicial review is the power of a court to review a law or an official act of a government employee or agent for constitutionality or for the violation of basic principles of justice. In many jurisdictions, the court has the power to strike down that law, to overturn the executive act, or order a public official to act in a certain manner if it believes the law or act to be unconstitutional or to be contrary to law in a free and democratic society. In some, such as Scotland and also England, the power goes further, and it may be possible to strike down a decision simply because it ignored relevant and material facts.

In a letter to William C. Jarvis in 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote:

To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men and not more so. They have with others the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps... and their power the more dangerous as they are in office for life and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves.

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Although Thomas Jefferson came to power determined to limit the reach of the federal government, foreign affairs dominated his presidency and pushed him toward Federalist policies that greatly contrasted with his political philosophy. The first foreign episode involved Jefferson's war with the Barbary pirates. For the previous century or so, Western nations had paid bribes to the Barbary states, which would later become Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripolitania, to keep them from harassing American and merchant ships. When the Pasha of Tripoli raised his demands in 1801, Jefferson refused to pay the increase, sent warships to the Mediterranean, blockaded the small nation, and tried unsuccessfully to promote a palace coup in Tripoli. This was one of the first covert operations in American history. The war ended with agreements that involved one last payment of tribute, at least to Tripoli. Jefferson's action on this matter caused him to rethink the need for a well-equipped navy and halted his move to reduce the force to a mere token size.


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