The United States confronted new problems of territorial expansion with the Louisiana
Purchase, as it involved, for the first time, the transfer in sovereignty of a territory that
contained a population who by birth, language and religion differed substantially from
the inhabitants of the United States, but who had been guaranteed the rights of full
citizens. A series of other colonial powers faced these same problems on the North
American continent, notably the Spanish in Louisiana. As with those earlier powers,
ultimately the United States pursued processes that both brought Louisiana government
and law into line with its institutions, and allowed for continued local control. County
and parish officeholders through their interactions with U.S. authorities prove especially
useful for an examination of the processes that gradually integrated the Territory of
Orleans into the United States. Neither a study of high political figures in Washington
nor marginalized groups in Louisiana can accurately demonstrate how this process of
accommodation worked. Local elites and U.S. officials served as the middlemen who
oversaw the implementation of new policy and therefore were in a position to obstruct
these policies if they so chose. Native-born Louisiana elites confronted significant challenges in dealing with a U.S. administration that in some areas chose to
accommodate them, but in many others chose to implement policies through Anglo-
American or foreign French newcomers to the territory. The change in sovereignty to the
United States offered many individuals from local elites new pathways to power in the
territorial legislature, and later in a stronger state legislature. Local governance played a
central role in the success of U.S. sovereignty within Louisiana.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-12-7403 |
| Date | 2009 December 1900 |
| Creators | Beauchamp, Michael Kelly |
| Contributors | Hatfield, April L. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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