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The federal government had no constitutional power to buy new territory. The constitution lists all the powers of the federal government and says any power not listed belongs to the individual states.

Buying territory is not listed. To assume the federal government had such a new power would be a violation of states' rights and Jefferson was a staunch defender of states' rights.

However he believed the purchase would head off war with France and generally be good for the country.

(There was also a small problem of having to borrow the money to buy it from European bankers. The US already had large areas of unsettled and undefended land east of the Mississippi-- did they really need to borrow money to buy more ? )

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