Through the Louisiana Purchase many issues can be found on how Thomas Jefferson addressed the Constitution. Jefferson was the third president of the United States and the leader of the Democratic-Republican Party. Although he believes in a strict interpretation of the Constitution, his actions during the Louisiana Purchase violate this stated constitutional principle and also go against his principle of low government spending. Jefferson believed in a strict interpretation of the Constitution. In “Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank,” Jefferson states that “all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.” This means that if the federal government wants to do something and it is not mentioned in the Constitution, the federal government does not have the power to do whatever it wants to do. Jefferson clearly does not follow this during the Louisiana Purchase. There is no provision in the Constitution that justifies the purchase of new land to the United States. Then, to justify the purchase, Jefferson, in a letter to John C. Breckinridge Monticello, wrote: “I did it for your good; I pretend that I have no right to bind you: you may disavow me, and I must get out of trouble as I can: I thought it my duty to risk myself for you. Here Jefferson says he used his implied constitutional powers to purchase Louisiana because he felt it was for the good of the people. This is totally against his constitutional principles because looking back at the first document it is totally against the implied powers, but that's what he uses to justify the purchase. Jefferson during the purchase of Louisiana goes against his principles...... middle of paper ...in the manner specified in the following article the sum of sixty million francs regardless of the sum that will be fixed by another Convention for the payment of debts owed by France to citizens of the United States." Jefferson makes a purchase with the French for 60 million francs, equal to 15 million dollars, even though he believes that the government should get rid of the debt rather than earn it. Jefferson goes for many verses against his principals in the Louisiana Purchase. He uses implied powers, which did not fit into his concept of a strict interpretation of the Constitution, but also went against his ideas about government spending and how the United States should manage it. the debt. Although the purchase was important, the way he did it was unconstitutional according to his strict views and ended up contradicting himself in many ways..