"Was the United States to become a colonial power within one generation of its own anticolonialist revolution, or would the ceded territory [Louisiana] be incorporated into the Union on some basis of equality, as called for in the treaty with France?" I was contemplating an answer to this question, asked by George Dargo in Jefferson Louisiana: Politics and the Clash of Legal Traditions, when I read "Patriotism then and Now" by Donald W. Miller, Jr. on LRC. In his piece, Miller presents a theory for the evolution of the United States from a republic to an empire. He writes: The … Continue reading The Louisiana Purchase