the Constitution never said that the president has authority to make land purchases
the Constitution never said that the president has authority to make land purchases.
I recall two -- I'm forgetting the third. Two of the three are: a) His founding of the University of Virginia b) His authoring of the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom
The US and its governing document, the US Constitution was so new in 1803, it is understandable that what was constitutional and what was not had even its Framers in doubt concerning the legality of the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson, ever the scholar and man of utility at the same time saw that the executive branch and the legislative branch had acquired a huge new territorial acquisition never contemplated by the Framers. The Louisiana Purchase almost double the size of the US. Jefferson came to doubt that while the congress and the president were partners in the Purchase, they did not have the joint authority to make the "deal" unless a Constitutional amendment was passed authorizing such a remarkable set of events. There was certainly no "emergency" allowing for the Purchase. In fact, it was a surprise that Napoleon actually owned the territory the US acquired.
James Monroe and Robert Livingstone were sent to France to negotiate a purchase of New Orleans and permanent rights to the Mississippi River. Napolean needed money and no doubt realized that the Louisiana Territory would be hard to defend and offered to sell it. The result was the Louisiana Purchase.
George Washington was no doubt more successful as president, but John Adams really did not have much of a chance to better Washington. Washington was hard to top.
Thomas Jefferson ( 1801-1809) was no doubt the best of this time period.
As an advocate of a small, decentralized government, his actions in making the Louisiana Purchase, and in one fell swoop, nearly tripling the size of the United States (and, some thought, its government, by association) mystified some and angered others. He got a good deal, there's no doubt about that, but many saw his move as a betrayal of the Jeffersonian libertarian ideals.
The only federalist president I can find is John Adams.
Thomas Jefferson believed in strict interpretation of the US constitution, and in the constitution it did not say anything about him being allowed to purchase such a large territory (remember it almost doubled the size of the country) but he did it any way because the property otherwise belonged to the french. He saw them as a potential threat and thought that without the purchase there could be war. Federalists usually believed in a more broad interpretation of the constitution, but in this case they feared the newly gained territory would support the Republican party and argued the constitution did not give the president the right to buy the land and that the purchase would make American debt skyrocket.
Without doubt, politics is what interested Jefferson F. Davis the most. Before he became the President of the Confederate States of America, Davis was the U.S. Secretary of War for President Franklin Pierce. He was the U.S. Senator and a member of the U.S. House of Representative from Mississippi. In retirement, Davis wrote two non-fiction books about the Confederacy.
I doubt it for just a purchase.
Jefferson who favored a strict interpretation of the Constitution was concerned that he did not have the authority to add new territory to the US. Also there was the problem of finding the money. The US did not have the $15 million available so it had to be borrowed from European bankers, creating foreign entanglements. Some people no doubt objected that the land was not needed, that the price was too hign and that the US could get the land for free just by taking it later if they wanted it.