This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/18/2024
[WASHINGTON, Lawrence Augustine (1774-1824), his copy]. National Intelligencer, and Washington Advertiser. Celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Washington, D.C.: Samuel Harrison Smith, 3 February 1804. Vol. IV, No. 113. 4pp., folio (540 x 343 mm), usual browning. Provenance: SUBSCRIBER NAME OF GEORGE WASHINGTON’S NEPHEW (“Law A. Washington”). Lawrence Augustine Washington, along with his brother and sister, went to live with their uncle for a time after their father’s death. George paid for him and his brother to be educated at Georgetown academy. The Louisiana Purchase, completed in 1803 during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, was a landmark acquisition in American history. The United States, under the leadership of negotiators James Monroe and Robert Livingston, purchased the vast Louisiana Territory from France, doubling the size of the country. The territory, which stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border, was acquired for $15 million. The purchase not only provided the U.S. with valuable port access in New Orleans but also opened up vast unexplored lands for westward expansion. The Louisiana Purchase significantly shaped the nation’s geographic and economic landscape, contributing to the concept of “Manifest Destiny” and setting the stage for the exploration and settlement of the American West in the 19th century.