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Corruption–whether nepotistic, pecuniary, blatant, discreet, major, or minor–has undermined governments since governments were invented.Except for the ten years following Reform and Opening (which caused the Tiananmen Square demonstrations), corruption never interfered with Chinese policy formation, wage growth, or civic safety as it does elsewhere.But the corruption offended the Chinese people, whose Confucian civilization is very different from our Roman culture, which has been corrupt for 2500 years. Roman politicians were murderously corrupt and Christianity failed to improve them.Confucian governments at least fought corruption, as the The Hongwu Emperor⁠ [1] explained seven hundred years ago,Had I thoroughly eradicated corrupt officials in addition to those already imprisoned I would have been dealing with two thousand men from just two prefectures, men with no useful occupation who used my prestige to oppress people. No-one outside government knew how wicked they were so everyone said my punishments were harsh; they saw only the severity of the law and didn’t know that these villains had used the government’s good name to engage in evil practices.In the morning I punished a few and, by evening, others had committed the same crimes. I punished those in the evening and next morning there were more violations! Although the corpses of the first had not been removed others were already lined up to follow in their path, day and night! The harsher the punishment, the more violations. I didn’t know what to do, but I couldn’t rest. If I was lenient the law became ineffectual, order deteriorated, some people deemed me weak and engaged in still more evil practices. If I punished them others regarded me as a tyrant. How could anyone lead a peaceful life in such circumstances? Really, it was a dreadful situation.Nevertheless, the Confucian approach to corruption was consistently more effective than the Roman, for the Chinese public knew the antidote: before they destroy the State, people must withdraw the Mandate of Heaven from a government lacking the Four Principles–propriety, justice, honesty, and honor–and from officials lacking the Eight Virtues–loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, integrity, righteousness, harmony and peace.Rulers went to great pains to promote the most virtuous officials and to eliminate nepotism. Emperor Wu of Han began doing so in the second century BC and, despite officials’ resistance, fourteen centuries later, of two-hundred seventy-nine senior officials whose family histories we know[⁠2], fewer than half had forebears in government. By 2018, the number was under one-fifth. As Frederick Mote[⁠3] says, “China is very unusual, probably unique, in having had two millennia of experience with an increasingly open social structure and social ethos.”This table, from Nancy Park’s Corruption in Eighteenth-Century China, shows how government dealt with corrupt officials (‘salaried persons’) back then:From the earliest days, officials sent to govern provinces were forbidden to take their parents with them lest their needs conflict with the Emperor’s wishes. They were rotated every three years and, after each rotation, their successors were encouraged to report discrepancies lest they be blamed for them. Palace officials were regularly moved between departments and those who committed serious crimes were executed and their families sold into slavery.Everyone, from the humblest peasant to the most eminent politician, knows this history and understands that the surest cure for corruption is promoting honest men to leadership. Many still living saw how a century of chaos devastated public morality and how its effects lingered. As Mao observed during an anti-corruption drive in 1950, “Today, you can buy a branch secretary for a few packs of cigarettes, not to mention marrying a daughter to him.”Mao’s slogan, “The masses have sharp eyes,” encouraged people to report wrongdoing and corruption fell dramatically, just as Confucius had predicted. Though Mao’s insistence on merely shaming corrupt officials rather than executing them infuriated colleagues it worked, says Sydney Rittenberg⁠[4], “Nobody locked their doors. The banks–there was a local bank branch on many, many corners–the door was wide open, the currency was stacked up on the table in plain sight of the door, there were no guards and they never had a bank robbery, ever.”Anticipating that a wave of corruption would accompany the introduction of capitalism, planners redesigned the economy so that entrepreneurs would effectively bribe officials to expedite national development. Says Yukon Huang[5],The system countered the growth‐inhibiting aspects of corruption by setting investment and production targets that gave local officials incentives to promote expansion. It fostered a unity of purpose so that, even when corruption flourished, the collaborators still made growth the guiding principle of their actions. This was reinforced by competition between localities to meet targets and support productivity‐enhancing economic reforms. The competitive element helped curb waste and ensured a modicum of efficiency despite the high degree of state intervention in commercial activities.President Hu Jintao gave the system free rein between 2002-2012 and the roaring economy solved many problems–except corruption. But the government’s alternation of liberal and conservative policies is as ancient and predictable as the moon–and the new cycle followed a nepotism scandal in 2010.Bo Xilai, son of a Revolutionary Immortal (and schoolmate of Xi Jinping), had ignored his father’s pleas to stay out of politics, “You know nothing of the sufferings of ordinary people and just want to capitalize on my name.” Xilai cultivated a charismatic image, was named one of Time’s Most Influential People, rose rapidly to provincial governor and publicly campaigned for a cabinet position. But, as conservative scholar Cheng Li said at the time, “Nobody really trusts him. A lot of people are scared of him, including several princelings who are supposed to be his power base.” With the help of the Minister for Justice, Zhou Yongkang, Bo even wiretapped the President. Michael Wines wrote that, though he possessed prodigious charisma and deep intelligence, he had “A studied indifference to the wrecked lives that littered his path to power...Mr. Bo's ruthlessness stood out.”Then Vice Premier Wu Yi, the nation’s highest woman official, demanded an open investigation in 2012. A court trial revealed that Bo owned expensive property around the world and his wife had murdered a British agent, and the couple was jailed for life. They joined a long line of disgraced elites, like the grandson of Zhu De, China’s Head of State and founder of the Red Army, who was executed for rape, and Yan Jianhong, wife of Guizhou’s powerful Party Secretary, who was executed for corruption.With the economy strong, prosperity assured, and corruption foremost in the public’s mind, Congress anointed Xi Jinping, the most honest official of his generation, to succeed President Hu.In his first year, Xi’s anti-corruption campaign saw ten thousand officials passed over for promotion for concealing information and one-hundred thirty-thousand demoted or disciplined for making false declarations. In 2016, corrupt Yunnan Party Secretary, Bai Enpei, was sentenced to death, prosecutors charged sixty-three senior officials and ministers with corruption, and released confessions from fifty-seven thousand Party members who made restitution and accepted demotions.By 2018, the anti-corruption team had investigated 1.3 million administrators, filed a million court cases, issued one hundred thousand indictments, captured thousands of overseas fugitives and jailed or executed one-hundred twenty high-ranking officials–including five national leaders, twelve generals and a dozen CEOs. After a 2019 Tianjin industrial explosion killed one-hundred sixty-five people the investigating magistrate found that petty bribery had led to weak code enforcement, so he sentenced the responsible official to death and jailed forty-nine colleagues.Today, anti-graft officials subject officials to unannounced inspections like Olympic athletes’ doping tests. An Anhui provincial inspection team called one official four times between 7:31 and 7:35 one evening about his poverty alleviation efforts and reported that his failure to answer the call–he was showering at the time–had hindered the battle against poverty. Fortunately, when they moved to fire him, the public came to his defense and he was eventually exonerated.Knowing that that ten percent of their statements will be audited, even deputy county officials now report their marital status, overseas travel, criminal record, wages, other earnings, family properties, stocks, funds, insurance and investments. If they are questioned and refuse to answer, or collude with or protect accomplices, they are detained immediately. Bureaucrats–especially those with leadership ambitions–must endure increasing scrutiny as they advance. As one of them, Zhao Bing Bing[⁠6] said, “The selection criteria are: a person must have ‘both ability and moral integrity and the latter should be prioritized.’”Midlevel officials must report their own assets and those of their parents, wives, children, children’s spouses and cousins and the reporting form has a reminder, in red ink, to include children from previous marriages, children born out of wedlock and foster children. They must report their income, savings, real estate, stock portfolio, insurance policies, stocks, unit trusts, bonds and assets in overseas accounts, “Income shall include salary and various bonuses, allowances, subsidies, and payment you receive from lectures, writing, consultation, reviewing, painting and calligraphy.” The impact was immediate and palpable, says the young scion of a prominent Party family:I am a Party Member in China and all my family are Party members. What I think of Xi is that the life is really changing after he came to power. A relative of mine works for the government as a vital governor in my city ShenZhen (which is a big city like BeiJing or ShangHai), then all my family people are like in the hierarchy of privilege. We pay nothing when go out for dinner, the Party pays. We pay nothing for filling in oil, the Party pays. It seems like we don't need to pay for anything with our salaries, cause either the Party pays, or someone will pay for us (who wants to flatter us). I smoke the best, I drink the best, sometimes I even drive without license when drunk, because I fear no one.In past times, yes we did have privilege everywhere, I felt so arrogant to be superior to others that’s also true. But the problem is, there is a tradeoff. We drank quite a lot of alcohol to show respect to others, we had to accept bribes even we know it's risky, cause we have to consider about our clan (like the interest of my boss). We had to do some many things we don't want to do, that's the rule of living in Party, care about the interest of Clan more than your own. That's how we united. We have to fear a lot of threats from ordinary people, colleagues, and bosses. We cannot keep our own passports, Party keeps it in case of we flee.But life changed after Xi came to power, he did real thing on anti-corruption. No one dare to present gifts to governors and the abuse of public funds is strictly monitored. The Party took back the public cars from my family and even we have to pay for the parking fee now! But..my family and I are actually happy with this, we are thankful to President Xi. Cause he seems like dragging China to a healthier future. My relative doesn't need to go out for dinner with other governors as social intercourse daily, they don't need to drink so much on the table. And they start to learn to pay for the bill by turns, cause the Party will no longer do this for them. They start to learn how to take bus or metro. That's good, actually. People start to think about what kind of lifestyle is called ‘healthy,’ they are more like human now, no longer some conceited stupid with expanding power. That's how life changed after Xi came.Officials who have relatives in government must disclose their relationship and wait for promotion until the senior relative retires. Senior ministers’ lives are excruciatingly transparent. Their private activities are scrutinized and their children must adopt assumed names to avoid influence-seekers. One-on-one appointments are taken as evidence of impropriety so all meetings must have third-party observers. A trail of excessive–or poor quality–government debts is treated as prima facie evidence of corruption and automatically investigated.Even retirement brings no release: after retirement senior officials are audited annually and remain responsible for the consequences of their decisions until the day they die. Even then, clawback provisions reclaim ill-gotten gains.The masses’ eyes grew sharper, too, after Xi crowdsourced the anti-corruption campaign. He urged everyone to text 12388, the office of the Rules and Discipline Committee (founded during the Tang Dynasty). Complainants often post accusations on social media and request additional witnesses. In one famous case, netizens scrutinizing a news photograph spotted a low-level safety official wearing an expensive watch and the subsequent investigation sent Brother Watch to jail for fourteen years. Amateur corruption fighters even have their own websites and Beijing publishes monthly scores:Visitors still burn incense at the shrines of great corruption fighters and millions watch TV dramas about ‘Justice Bao’ Zheng, the incorruptible Prefect of the Capital in 1000 AD. A wildly popular TV series, ‘In the Name of People,’ depicts current-day intra-Party power struggles in the fictional city of Jingzhou. The Jingzhou prosecutor and honest local officials help laid-off workers violently protesting a corrupt land deal, fight corrupt bureaucrats sabotaging an arrest warrant, and stop fake police bulldozing honest citizens’ homes. The writers say they have no shortage of material for the show.But for all his high-profile attacks on corruption, Xi’s most memorable contribution to Chinese history will probably be his new, fourth arm of government, the National Supervision Commission[⁠7], whose job it is to make corruption impossible. It is only such government agency on earth.Before the Commission was created, anti-corruption was divided between the Party and the state. On the Party side, the CCDI enforced party discipline–including party loyalty, anti-graft, and ethical and lifestyle requirements–against Party members, who constitute 80 percent of civil servants and 95 percent of leading officials. The CCDI turned evidence of criminal wrongdoing over to the state for prosecution.On the state side, the State Council Ministry of Supervision (MOS) supervised the civil servants who were not Party members, investigated graft, misappropriation of public funds, and other duty-related violations. The National Bureau of Corruption Prevention made policy recommendations and coordinated international anti-corruption. Departments of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) investigated certain kinds of corruption and malfeasance.Now the anti-corruption functions of all three agencies–the MOS, the CPB, and the SPP–are performed by the Commission which, as the highest anti-corruption agency in the country, ranks with the Supreme People's Court and the Department of Justice. Congress appoints its director, deputy director and senior staff–who need not be Party members and who cannot work in another arm of government for the rest of their lives.Their first task is turning the ongoing anti-corruption campaign into a regular legal process, rather than continuing prosecution through internal and extralegal channels. The Commission also oversees provincial, city, and county commissions responsible for supervising all public personnel exercising public power. Their authority is much broader than their predecessor agencies and they enjoy more powerful investigatory powers including, scarily, power of immediate detention!The Supervision Law also doubles, even triples, the number of personnel subject to supervision. While the MOS only had jurisdiction over non-Party government employees, the new law gives the Commission authority over civil servants, the CCP itself, the government, the people’s congresses, the supervision commissions themselves, the people’s courts and the procuracy, the people’s political consultative congresses, the eight democratic parties, federations of industry and commerce, and other personnel managed under China’s Civil Servants Law or who work in organizations that manage public affairs.The Commission’s writ runs further: to SOE managers, state educational, scientific research, cultural, health care, sports, and similar entities and grassroots villager and urban residents committees–and even ‘other personnel who perform public duties.’ They do not have jurisdiction over the PLA or the PAP, who are supervised by the Central Military Commission.The Commission is neither an administrative body like MOS nor a judicial organ like the SPC or SPP–it is a political body. This means that, in addition to being exempted from criminal procedure protections, it is not subject to the administrative law that imposes procedural and substantive constraints on government administrative organs like the police, which must disclose stipulated information, allow the public to participate in rule-making, and follow due process when imposing administrative penalties.The new Supervision Law does allow its targets to request re-examination of the Commission’s decisions and challenge (internally) unlawful conduct like harsh interrogation and prolonged detention by appealing to the higher-level supervision organ. But, though the new law does not provide a right of further appeal to the courts, it does require supervisory organs and staff to pay lawful compensation for infringing someone’s lawful rights and interests.The effects of the anti-corruption drive are already visible: civil service applications fell four percent in 2018, but satisfaction with local officials rose twenty percent since 2012, while ninety-three percent of people said they trust the national government and eighty-three percent say it runs the country for everyone’s benefit. Thanks to officials’ early years in the wilderness, constant monitoring, endless ethics lectures, relentless demands for results, exhaustive disclosures, painful transparency and twenty-four-hour public scrutiny, corruption is becoming a losing business.We should also credit Confucius for limiting political power to a single lifetime, for knowing that intelligence and honesty are linked[⁠8], and for insisting that power be given only to honest, intelligent people._______________________________________________________________________1 Huáng-Míng Zǔxùn (Instructions of the Ancestor of the August Ming) were admonitions left by the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Chinese Ming dynasty, to his descendants.2 China's Meritocratic Examinations and the Ideal of Virtuous Talents. Xiao, H., & Li, C. (2013). In D. Bell & C. Li (Eds.), The East Asian Challenge for Democracy: Political Meritocracy in Comparative Perspective: Cambridge University Press.3 Imperial China 900-1800. F.W. Mote4 An old friend of the party assesses China's new leaders. Rob Schmitz. Marketplace.November 19, 20125 Yukon Huang was the World Bank’s Director for China. The Diplomat6 The China Model, by Daniel Bell and Zhao Bing Bing.7 The National Supervision Commission was formed at the first session of the 13th National People's Congress in 2018 and absorbed the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.8 Honesty, rule violation and cognitive ability: A reply to Gächter and Schulz, by Heiner Rindermann, David Becker, and James Thompson.

From : Religion and Spirituality (one of many good research tools)// Sacred Texts in World ReligionsSome sacred texts form the cornerstone of a religion, instilling law, character and spirituality in its people; some are narratives of historical figures in the faith. A text might be viewed as the unchanging “Word of God;” other texts are revised and expanded by later generations. Texts can be literal, or metaphorical, or both. This guide shows you how to find online versions, commentary and historical context of scriptures for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. //That given, every activity of man requires some kind of definition. We conducted meetings using Robert’s Rules of Order. When there is a dispute about a point of order in a meaning, no one refers to the back label of a cat food tin.Countries have Constitutions. In the United States, when we go to court about some right or privilege, the Court uses three basic criteria.The ConstitutionCurrent law duly passed and recordedPrevious court decisionsOf those three, only the Constitution (presumably) cannot be changed by the court. Of course, the court can do what it wants in this regard. Who is going to arrest them? But a subsequent court can overturn a previous court if they feel a ruling was in error. See Dred Scott - Wikipedia The United States, like many other countries, also has an Amendment process. Our only recourse to correct a runaway court is to change the constitution in such a way as to tie their hands legally speaking. (We do it poorly. In using the Amendment process to correct the Dred Scott decision, we created the current “anchor baby” problem in American immigration.) In religion, this is not a luxury that can be so easily enjoyed. In politics, change the Constitution, you still have the country. In Religion, throw out its founding documents, and there is nothing to support what is left.Religions are unique institutions in humanity. They, for the most part, present a case for divine revelation that establishes a system of beliefs and practices binding upon their adherents. Historically, deviation from the religion could result in loss of life, liberty, property and privilege. It becomes the cause of emigrations, revolutions, and other significant human events. The reason for this is simple. There is, in the minds of the believers, Truth that must be defended and obeyed. As put in Acts 4:19, International Standard Version, “But Peter and John answered them, "You must decide whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God…”So it is. Each religion has a generally agreed upon methodology for determining what comes from God and what does not.The premise of your question contains the concept that there is a such a thing as THE Bible and it consists of 66 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament. In fact, what Roman Catholics and Orthodox call “The Bible” adds a selection of agreed upon books called “The Apocrypha” and grants them authority in matters of doctrine that Protestants do not allow. In addition to that, Roman Catholics believe that Scripture plus Tradition are valid in discussing matters of doctrine and practice. This is nearly identical to the role of the U.S. Supreme Court. While tradition can be softened or changed by successors in the Catholic Church, the Scripture is unchanged. Still both bodies of information are used by that group. Insofar as the Orthodox Church uses the same essential canon for the Bible, there will be significant similarities. However, since the Great Schism (and events preceding it) The Eastern Orthodox Church has its own leadership, councils and rulings, there are differences.Protestants have differences among themselves as well, but it is not because their “rule of faith and conduct” is different to one another. It is because they have many smaller governing bodies that interpret the Bible in distinctive ways. Deviation can cause an “evolution” of sorts in a denomination, or it can cause an exodus, either imposed upon the “deviant” or self-imposed. Here is where study of the same canon can have differing results. Lack of a central “Protestant” council gives them little recourse to appeal.Now, to the books themselves. Interestingly, The Bible is a Book of Books. So again, the premise of the question is not precise. The Protestant Bible has collections of writings, unlike the Quran, which purports to record the revelation of the Angel Gabriel to one man. The beginning of the book of Genesis is most likely compiled from more than one oral tradition (preserved, though mixed in, creating the presence of more than one style and set of word usages) which was handed down through the family from Shem, one of the sons of Noah to the “Semite” (from his name) descendants, whose identities are not known. Most of Genesis after the flood is a narrative of a specific family and their adventures. Their claim is the be the scarlet thread of revelation when the rest of the world was busy corrupting the original message into idolatrous forms. It is my belief that this is why the Mother/Child situation exists in so many pre-Christian religions. They are twisted versions of the promise God made to Eve after the fall in the Garden. After Genesis, Exodus records the events surrounding the rather tragic sojourn in Egypt that resulted in an astounding rescue mission by God using Moses and Aaron, and the preparation for entering into the Land that God had promised to Abraham’s descendants. We get the Law and the Priesthood almost as a by-product of this story, even though later we see that it was the main event. Details in Levticus. Numbers is a book more given to actions of that preparation while Israel was still in the wilderness, and Deuteronomy the rehash of the Law with resettlement in mind.Joshua tells of the conquest, Judges the earliest government(s), and Ruth/Samuel the transition to a Kingdom state and subsequent politics.Psalms is the hymnbook, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes some good guidance for life, and the prophets a combination of guidance for the current situations and preparation for future ones.All of this leads up to the manifestation of the Son of God in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the implementation of the intended outreach to the entire world began in the book of Acts (also penned by Luke.) The rest is commentary, until you get to the book of Revelation, then you read most of the prophets’s of the Old Testament’s predictions rolled together and harmonized in such a way as to capture the imagination for generations to come.What would you change? If you take things out, the story fails. If you add things, the central premise is diluted.The Apocrypha does not hurt us, but it really is of little help either. Unless you want to believe in purgatory or justify the Catholic Priesthood (which is not legitimate in my view from a pure reading of the New Testament in which all believers are priests,) then it is like that tool in your garage that you get down once in a while and only for that one unusual job. I have found good things in it, I just do not call it “the Word of God.”As for other books, we have many. They range from Classics, like “Pilgrim’s Progress” to commentaries (Matthew Henry comes to mind) and Systematic Theologies. Those are usually quite well written, compare side-by-side the major positions on each theological issue with carefully researched reasoning. The only prejudice, and we allow this completely, is that the author generally puts his own position last. It is as if to say “you have heard the rest, now hear the best.” Don’t like it? Buy one of the competitors. I have always been grateful for the scholarly objectivity, because at the end of the day, I prefer to make up my own mind. I could break this down further. Ancient language studies, Manners and Customs in Bible Lands by Fred Wight, Josh McDowell’s excellent apologetics, even ancient histories like Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus. But they are aids, not the Bible. We hold that it, and only it, establishes our definition. It is the Constitution of the earthly Church of God in Jesus Christ, and regardless of denomination, binds us together in ways we could never accomplish on our own.Now I am past the edge of my self-imposed size limitation for Quora. Receive it with love.

I rank Jefferson as our sixth greatest president. He moderated, but did not dismantle, the Federalist policies of Washington and Adams. He cut federal spending, cut the number of federal office holders, cut military spending, and cut the national debt nearly in half (from $87 million to $57 million). All internal taxes were abolished (the government raised revenue through tariffs). He allowed the states to take the lead on domestic affairs. He made it easy for farmers to buy land. He established the United States Military Academy at West Point. He ended the landowner requirement for white men to vote, establishing universal white male suffrage. Many social conventions relating to class, such as bowing to the rich, ended with the spirit of Jefferson.He also dealt with the Barbary Pirates. These states were a part of the Ottoman Empire, and are now Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli (Libya). The Barbary economy was largely reliant on the kidnapping of slaves from trans-Atlantic ships and European villages. Historians now estimate that about 1.5 million Europeans and Americans were enslaved by the Barbary Pirates between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. As a part of the British Empire, the American colonies were protected from the pirates. After independence had been secured, however, American ships fell victim to these predatory attacks. In the mid-1780s, America’s two chief diplomats, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, met an envoy from Tripoli in London. They asked to know by what right had the Barbary States in attacking Americans. The US had not participated in the Crusades. It had done nothing to Islam. Jefferson later told the State Department the dignitary mentioned that only a paid tribute could protect America’s sailors from attack. During the Washington and Adams Administrations, about 20% of the Federal Budget went to paying the Barbary States this tribute. That changed once Jefferson was in office. Within days of his March 1801 Inauguration as the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson ordered a naval and military expedition to North Africa, without the authorization of Congress, to put down the regimes involved in slavery and piracy. The war was the first in which the US flag was carried and planted overseas; it saw the baptism by fire of the US Marine Corps (whose anthem boasts of action on “the shores of Tripoli”)However, his greatest accomplishment was the Louisiana Purchase. The story of the Louisiana Purchase is one of strength, of Jefferson’s adaptability, and of his determination to seize the territory from France, doubling the size of the US and turning the United States into a continental power. A weaker politician may have bungled the acquisition, but Jefferson had a lifetime of experience to face off against Napoleon in the Louisiana Crisis. Less than a month after Jefferson’s 1801 inauguration, Spain gave France more than half of her North American colonies, a territory that stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. First Consul Bonaparte sought to establish a great empire in North America. President Jefferson could not allow this. It was one thing to have the weak Spanish Empire control a large neighboring territory. It was quite another to have France, a superpower ruled by the greatest military mind of modern history, govern it. Jefferson threatened to marry the United States to Britain, the country he hated most, in resistance to Napoleon. He was most nervous about France controlling New Orleans, which possessed a port that was critical to US trade. Jefferson sent James Monroe with a team to Paris in order to negotiate the American acquisition of New Orleans. Two factors played into America’s favor. First, Napoleon could not tolerate the threat of an Anglo-American alliance. Jefferson’s bluff terrified the most powerful man in the world. Second, the French colony of Haiti, which was key to Napoleon’s North American Empire, had risen up in a slave rebellion (this was partly inspired by the Declaration of Independence). Since France was at the brink of war with Britain, Napoleon could not afford to tie up troops in Haiti. The Louisiana territory had become a liability. Monroe and his team met with French Foreign Minister Talleyrand, a master of geopolitics. Talleyrand notified the Americans of Napoleon’s desire to sell their country the entire Louisiana territory for $15 million dollars, or three cents an acre. Jefferson was notified on July 3, 1803. The deal was announced the next day. The president and the American people were stunned with excitement. But many questioned whether the Constitution allowed Jefferson to acquire land. However, Secretary of State James Madison, who wrote the Constitution, said it was legal. That was all the encouragement Jefferson needed. He considered adding an amendment to the Constitution that would allow the acquisition of territory, but he did not have the time. News came that Napoleon was having second thoughts about selling so much land. Jefferson quickly pushed the treaty through the Senate. Using Hamiltonian methods, he cared less about the Constitution than doing what was best for the United States. Napoleon excitedly proclaimed his pleasure with the deal. Even if France lost the war, he had developed an ace in the hole. He helped turn America into a continental power, and one day the United States would grow to overpower Britain. There were negative consequences to the Louisiana Purchase, however. The territorial acquisition allowed the US to continue its expansion westward at the expense of the Native Americans. Furthermore, the seeds of the Civil War were partly sown in this expansion. Thomas Paine wrote Jefferson that the Louisiana Purchase offered a new beginning for the American nation; slavery could be outlawed in the new territory, containing the institution to the Deep South. Jefferson mistakenly believed that allowing slavery to expand would de-concentrate and weaken the system. He allowed slaves to be imported into New Orleans, crushing Paine’s hopes. Nevertheless, Jefferson’s doubling the size of the country is among his foremost achievements. If not for him, the United States may have remained a skinny nation on North America’s east coast, far from the superpower that it is today.Next, Jefferson sent Louis and Clark on their expedition westward. Shortly after the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson wrote to Meriwether Lewis to assemble a team to explore the territory recently acquired by the US. That team included William Clark and forty other individuals (including a young Native American woman named Sacagawea, who would act as a guide). Jefferson described the mission as a “ journey… to undertake for the discovery of the course and source of the Mississippi, and of the most convenient water communication from thence to the Pacific.” Jefferson did all he could to control the mission. He wrote detailed instructions, offered council, and worried over details. His explorers pushed a path through the great American wilderness and mastered a continent. They sent Jefferson a collection of artifacts, including the skins and skeletons of antelope, weasels, and wolves, and many interesting plants. The journey fascinated the public. Unfortunately, Lewis and Clark never found the fabled Northwest Passage, which was said to be a continuous navigable waterway between the Atlantic and the Pacific. What the expedition finally found was not the path between the oceans but an incredible story of adventure. By the time President Jefferson sent the captains on their way, the US already had its Constitution, but not an epic. It had its government, but not an identity. Lewis and Clark helped invent one.No presidency is perfect (except maybe Polk). Jefferson’s biggest failure was the Embargo, where he severed trade with Britain and France as a way to punish them for impressing American sailors in the Napoleonic Wars. This led to a recession that ruined Jefferson’s second term. However, the Louisiana Purchase remains the most important legacy of Jefferson’s presidency, and he is the best president between Washington and Lincoln.