Congressmen were making angry speeches. Some, outraged, were accusing President Thomas Jefferson of destroying our Constitution. What was even more serious, several states had threatened to withdraw from the Union.

What had stirred up this storm of protest? Strangely enough, it was the purchase of Louisiana from France in 1803—one of the most important steps ever taken by our country.

In this book Robert Tallant give a stirring account of how Jefferson and the United States solve the problem of Louisiana.

It wasn't a simple problem. Bound up with it were the histories of Louisiana and its biggest city—the gay, colorful, French-speaking New Orleans. Bound up with it, too, were the interests of American farmers and events in far-off Europe.

As the story unfolds, great figures abroad make their entrance: Napoleon, ruler of France; Charles IV, King of Spain; and the French statesman, Talleyrand. The reader is also taken on a side trip to San Domingo in the West Indies, where an uprising of slaves was taking place under the leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture.

In this clear, vivid account the reader walks hand in hand with the young United States as it takes its first big step toward the Pacific—and an exciting experience it is!

From the dust jacket