“The general government has no powers but such as the constitution has given it; and it has not given it a power of holding foreign territory, & still less of incorporating it into the Union. An amendment of the Constitution seems necessary for this. In the meantime we must ratify & pay our money, as we have treated, for a thing beyond the constitution, and rely on the nation to sanction an act done for its great good, without its previous authority.”
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Dickinson, a former Continental Congressman, 1803
What event is Jefferson most likely referring to in the above quote?
“The general government has no powers but such as the constitution has given it; and it has not given it a power of holding foreign territory, & still less of incorporating it into the Union. An amendment of the Constitution seems necessary for this. In the meantime we must ratify & pay our money, as we have treated, for a thing beyond the constitution, and rely on the nation to sanction an act done for its great good, without its previous authority.”
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Dickinson, a former Continental Congressman, 1803
What event is Jefferson most likely referring to in the above quote?
The Democratic-Republicans beating the Federalists in the 1800 election
The United States acquiring Cuba from the Spanish
The introduction of the Monroe Doctrine
The United States purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France