ABSTRACT
British commander George Cockburn ordered his men to tear down the building housing the Republicans' pet publication, the National Intelligencer, brick by brick. Republicans sought to "enlarge the sphere of liberty" and Federalists aimed through "grand hereditary orders" to "make government independent and hostile toward the people". Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson sustained their argument over the size and scope of government through their proxies in the press. As Secretary of State Jefferson selected newspapers in every state to publish the laws and resolutions of Congress and push Democratic-Republican policies. The purchase of 827,000 square miles of territory west of the Mississippi for $15 million doubled the size of Jefferson's "Empire of Liberty". Baltimore's Republican on October 19, the day the Senate voted to approve the purchase, cited Jefferson's argument that New Orleans in the hands of another nation was "a danger to our peace which would be perpetually exposed.
