D Ci&t^ DEPOSITED BY THE LINONIAN AND BROTHERS LIBRARY THE HISTORY OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE fs^ NAPOLEON BONAPAETE From a painting from life by David, now in the Public Library of Minneapolis, Minn. The History of the Louisiana Purchase \ BY JAMES Kf HOSMER, Ph.D., LL. D. MEMBER OF THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION AUTHOR OF A SHORT HISTORY OF ANGLO-SAXON FREEDOM A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY, ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1902 Copyright, 1902 By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Published April, 1902 C-* vi . IZ3£ PREFACE This book undertakes to describe a trans action — the sale by the French Government to the United States of the western half of the Mississippi Valley, known at the time as Louisiana. At the fortunes of this vast re gion, known now as the Louisiana Purchase, before and since that sale this book does nothing more than glance ; in a cursory way it gives only so much as is needed to make plain the character and importance of the incident. Now that we are about to celebrate, at St. Louis, one hundred years of possession on a scale commensurate with the grandeur of the acquisition, a book devoted closely to the crisis, written for the people, viewing affairs through the long perspective of a most eventful century, and recounting the Euro pean as well as the American phases of the story, seems certainly to be in place. v History of The Louisiana Purchase While holding his predecessors in great respect, and acknowledging a great obliga tion to them, as the foot-notes will testify, the present writer ventures upon a new presenta tion. He believes that the transaction was a piece of Napoleonic statesmanship, Jeffer son and his negotiators playing only a sec ondary part. Excepting by Mr. Henry Adams (History of the United States during the Administration of Thomas Jefferson), too little attention perhaps has been paid here tofore in America to the French side of the matter. Mr. Adams's account, intended for scholarly readers, enlarges upon diplomatic details, and abbreviates certain picturesque points ; and is besides so embedded with much other history, in a work of nine vol umes, as to be not easily accessible. The present writer has approached his topic from the French side, making large use of French authorities, and giving at length some important secret history not heretofore fully set forth in English. Having in mind as readers, youths on the verge of maturity, and men and women too busy for deep study of the matter, he has felt that state-paper vi Preface minutiae might be spared or relegated to an appendix, while certain vividly dramatic pas sages were made much of. In this book, then, while the conception of the event is somewhat unusual, it has been sought to put in strong light the brilliant personalities — the hopes, passions, disappointments — the thrilling incidents, that belong to the story. The writer wishes to express his thanks to Mr. R. Gr. Thwaites, the honored secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society, for af fording access to the Napoleon Correspon- dance, documents never translated and rare in America ; also to Mr. James L. Whitney, of the Boston Public Library, for permission to use the Memowes of Lucien Bonaparte, a work still more rare. The Public Library of Minneapolis possesses a complete set of the Moniteur, the French official journal, from its establishment in 1789 to the present day. The writer has had this daily record of what happened during the Revolution and the First Empire always at hand, and has been able to glean from the pages some interest ing material. In conclusion, obligation must be ac- vii History of The Louisiana Purchase knowledged to Mr. T. B. Walker, president of the Board of Directors of the Minneapolis Public Library, for permission to reproduce for this work the Louisiana Purchase Napo leon. This magnificent picture, now in the Public Library at Minneapolis, was painted from life by David soon after the transfer ence of Louisiana to the United States. Na poleon presented it to Marshal Davoust, who retained it through his life at his country- seat, and from whose descendants it was pur chased by Mr. Walker. It is probably the most impressive Napoleonic memorial in the country, and is appropriately located in a city on the west bank of the Mississippi, in a region the destinies of which the mighty Corsican so powerfully influenced. James K. Hosmer. Minneapolis Public Library, March 24, 1902. vm CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGES I. — How Louisiana came to be 1-20 Development of United States profoundly affected by influ ences from Europe — Independence secured through French help^Acquisition of Louisiana due to French statesmanship — Belief of France that colonies are necessary to her national greatness — Causes of her ill-success — Illustrations of her faulty policy from India — American parallels — Career of Champlain ; of La Salle — Louisiana named — Career of Iber ville — Crozat and John Law — Immigration in time of the Mississippi Bubble — How wives were found for the settlers — Line of explorers continued — Family of La Verendrye — Energy of France in middle of eighteenth century — Found ing of Fort Duquesne — Braddock's defeat — Victories of Mont calm — Loss of America to France through Pitt and Wolfe — Louisiana given to Spain in 1762. II. — Louisiana under Spain 21-40 France gives up for a time thoughts of foreign dominion — England loses through her the Thirteen Colonies — Spanish governors of Louisiana — The Creoles — Spain foments the spirit of separatism in the United States — Extent of Spanish dominion — Attempts of France to recover Louisiana— Ap pearance on the scene of Napoleon — Portrait of Napoleon at Minneapolis — Appropriateness of its location — Sale of Louisi ana an interesting crisis in Napoleon's career — -Strange spell in which he binds the world — His interest in the idea of a colonial empire — Plan for invasion of India in 1801 — A glance at Spain one hundred years ago — Character of Carlos IV — The Queen — Godoy, the Prince of Peace — His good service ix J History of The Louisiana Purchase CHAPTER PAGES to the United States— Napoleon tries to regain Louisiana — Negotiations of Luoien Bonaparte — Adroitness of Godoy — Napoleon baffled. III. — Prance prepares to take Louisiana . . 41-60 Louisiana at the beginning of the century — Old New Orleans — Commerce, amusements — Spanish officials — Cumbrous and stately system — Napoleon presses his colonial policy — San Domingo in the French Kevolution — Toussaint 1'Ouverture — His friendliness to the United States — Blocks path of Napo leon in the West — Latter's infamous behavior to Toussaint — Exiled by General Le Clerc— French balked in San Domingo — Napoleon presses for the occupation of Louisiana — Exten sive preparations — Connection of Bernadotte with the matter — Victor appointed — What might have happened to Napoleon's marshals — Treaty of retrocession finally signed — Terms of the treaty — Napoleon's unfriendliness to the United States — Appearance of Jefferson on the scene — His opinions — His friendliness toward France — Bobert E. Livingston sent to Paris as minister — Imminence of a quarrel with France — Gathering tempest — Wisdom and mildness of Jefferson. IV. — How Jefferson builded wiser than he knew 61-79 Morales abrogates the right of deposit — Exasperation of America — Demand of West and South for active measures — Monroe despatched to France — His instructions — Subsidence of anger in America — No desire to acquire more than the mouth of the Mississippi — Jefferson's prudence and strength of character — Arrival at New Orleans of Laussat — Congress considers the seizure of New Orleans— Napoleon's colossal disappointment — He starts out on a new policy — War de clared on England — The British ambassador insulted — Our debt to Toussaint and the Haytians — Character of Lucien Bonaparte — His vivid account of Napoleon's sudden change of policy — He palliates Napoleon's rejection of republicanism — Joseph intimates Napoleon's determination to sell Louisi ana — Joseph and Lucien resolve to interfere — The apparition ef Napoleon as Emperor. Contents CHAPTER PAOES V. — Xapoleon and Joseph Bonaparte quarrel over Louisiana 80-97 Joseph and Lucien make plans for the interview with the First Consul — Lucien finds Napoleon in the bath-tub — Napoleon refers to October, 1795 — Talk on poetry — Napoleon as a poet — They discuss Paoli — Lucien as a Jacobin — Napoleon thinks men not born for freedom — " Machiavelli is right " — Entrance of Joseph Bonaparte — Louisiana introduced — Napoleon an nounces his intention to sell it — Brothers express disapproval — Napoleon defies the Chambers — The quarrel becomes heated — Bage of Joseph — Bage of Napoleon — Home-thrust from Joseph — The field bedewedj though not with blood — Lucien's interposition — The passion subsides — The valet faints — The combatants retire. VI. — The quarrel with Lucien .... 98-112 Lucien's opinion of Bourrienne — The First Consul affectionate — Gives his reasons for selling Louisiana — Lucien argues against — Eegrets over San Domingo — Napoleon on the Brit ish navy — His colossal self-confidence — Tries to win Lucien's support — His scorn rises — Lucien attempts to soften him — Disapproves of the unconstitutional measure — The First Con sul's rage — Lucien sticks to his guns — Napoleon beside him self — Lucien's defiance — The broken snuff-box — Lucien re tires — Eeference to a third quarrel — Lucien sums up the character of Napoleon. VII. — Livingston at Paris 113-129 Livingston's birth and descent — His public services— Chan cellor of New York — Wins friendship of Napoleon— His statue at Washington — Begins his work at Paris in 1801 — Difficulty of his situation — Baffled by Talleyrand — Berna- dotte appointed to command in Louisiana — Fears of Ameri cans — Livingston's appeal to the French Government — Victor replaces Bernadotte as commander for Louisiana — The expe dition balked — America does not desire Louisiana — Boldness and force of Livingston — Trials of his position — Misconcep tions — Appointment of Monroe as special envoy — Talleyrand xi History of The Louisiana Purchase CHAPTER PAGES proposes at last to sell Louisiana — He retires from the scene — Livingston's subsequent work in connection with Bobert Fulton. VIII.— Louisiana sold 130-147 Barbe-Marbois, Minister of Finance— Napoleon's agent in selling Louisiana— His history of the affair— His report of Napoleon's declarations — Impetuousness of the First Consul —The French spoliation claims— Arrival of Monroe at Paris — The treaty of cession arranged — Napoleon's regret at alien ating the people of Louisiana — His affectionate farewell to them — Treaty signed — Livingston eloquent and prophetic — Napoleon by far the foremost figure in the cession— Small importance of American negotiators — Disposition of the purchase-money. IX, — The party wrangle over the purchase . 148-160 Embarrassment of Jefferson at unexpected result — The op position alert — Federalist action of 1802 in time of Morales edict — Beady for violent measures — Eepublicans more peace ful — Jefferson's wisdom — Unreasonable hatred of him — The ridicule poured out — Exaggeration of the financial load — Newspaper criticisms — Good conduct of the administration — Jefferson's view of the powers of Congress — He makes no public expression — Federalists state the constitutional objec tions — The impolicy of the treaty — Eepublican replies — The treaty carried in the House by a large majority — Pickering's speech in the Senate exalting States Eights — Treaty carried in Senate by large majority — Wrangle as to method of govern ment — Matter decided to discontent of New England — Im portance of the debato and decisions as affecting constitu tional interpretations. X. — The United States in possession . . . 161-178 Laussat, French prefect at New Orleans — Festivities — Grief and departure of the Ursuline nuns — Astonishment over news of sale to the United States — The old Cabildo— The pageant there of the cession — The Faubom-g Sainte Marie — The Place d'Armes and river — Laussat's opinions — Arrival of Claiborne xii Contents CHAPTER PAGES and Wilkinson, American commissioners — Their ceremonious reception — The formalities — Claiborne's inaugural— Lower ing of the French flag — Pathetic significance of the act — Sad ness of the people — Anglo-Saxon ways long a burden, not a blessing — Josiah Quincy's opposition to admission of Louisi ana in 1811 — Discontent fifty years later. XI. — What a century has brought forth . . 179-204 Vicissitudes in ownership and indeflniteness in boundaries — Discontent of the Spaniards — Limits finally settled — Igno rance as to what lay within the Purchase — Imaginative ac counts — Surpassed, however, by the real wealth — Lewis and Clark despatched — Their successful exploration — Lieutenant Zebulou M. Pike's exploration — Appearance in the West of Aaron Burr — English attempt in 1815 — Jackson's success — Acquisition of Florida — Of Texas — Of the Pacific coast — The first steamboats — The cotton-gin and its consequences — The irrepressible conflict — The Missouri Compromise — The coun try ofthe Purchase occupied — Douglas and the Nebraska Bill — The Purchase in the civil war — Influence of the locomotive in producing rapid development — States of the Purchase — Their number, population, and wealth — Character and prom ise of the civilization. Appendix A. — Livingston to Talleyrand, February, 1803 205 Appendix B. — Napoleon's order for the sale of Louisiana 214 Appendix C. — Text of the treaty of cession from France to America 217 Index 225 xm LIST OF FULL-PAGE PORTEAITS FACING PAGE Napoleon Bonaparte Frontispiece Thomas Jefferson 64 James Monroe . 126 Andrew Jackson 194 Map, showing land acquired by the United States . 204 xv THE HISTORY OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE CHAPTER I HOW LOUISIANA CAME TO BE "When Thiers, in his History of the Con sulate and Empire, comes to speak of the sale of Louisiana by Bonaparte to the United States, he says, "The United States are in debted for their birth and for their greatness to the long struggle between France and England." * American pride dislikes to admit that our independence was not due to our own efforts ; that the well-trained leaders and 7,000 good French troops who did such service at York- town, while the Count de Grasse, at the mouth of the Chesapeake, blocked the path for the reenforcements which Cornwallis was expecting, were a decisive factor in our war. * Vol. ii, p. 499. Translation. 1 1 History of The Louisiana Purchase That point we are not concerned to argue ; but as regards the second point of M. Thiers —that the vast dimensions of our nation are due to an influence from Europe, America itself having had less to do with the matter than has been claimed — it is the purpose of this book to show that the facts of history bear the French writer out. That the United States in 1803 became im mensely extended in territory ; that at the same time our interpre tation of the Constitution became enlarged, so that henceforth "the spirit and not the letter was appealed to," making further develop ment possible — a change in the American point of view which has affected us pro foundly * — all this came about because France and England at this moment were in a crisis of their immemorial quarrel, and Na- * Sloan, Life of Napoleon, vol. iv, pp. 247, 248. 2 How Louisiana Came to Be poleon saw a way out of his difficulty by helping the United States to broad dominion. Taking up the story of Louisiana, then, from the French side, as it is certainly proper to do since it came to us through French statesmanship with little agency of our own, the remark of M. Leroy-Beaulieu will open the consideration well : * " Colonization is for France a question of life or death. France will either become a great African power, or in a century or two it will be nothing but a secondary European power. It will count in the world about as Greece or Roumania count in Europe." To-day, thinks this leader, it is vital to the position of France that she should be a colonizing power, Africa being the sphere at the present moment open. Four hundred years ago the same thought seems to have ruled, America being in that day the field; for France became active among the earliest, after the discoveries of Columbus and the * " La colonisation est pour la France une question de vie ou de mort: ou la France deviendra une grande puissance africaine, ou elle ne sera dansun siecle ou deuxqu'un puissance europeenne secondaire: eomptera dans le monde a peu pres comme la Grece ou la Boumanie comptent en Europe." 3 History of The Louisiana Purchase Portuguese, in fixing her grasp upon the new lands. Between 1504 and 1603 eighteen separate expeditions were made to America.* In the latter year it was that Samuel Cham- plain set out to found Canada. Mr. Walter Frewen Lord points out that the driving force in French coloni zation, then as always, has been the spirit of adventure. Until the present day a series of brilliant adventurers can be traced, vividly imaginative, intrepid, indefatigable, often of great capacity: types of the class are Cham- plain, and in our time Marchand of Fashoda. By such men everything possible to individ ual prowess has been done repeatedly. The reason why results have been meager and so often not permanent, says the English critic, is that the explorers have not been sustained. Kings as a general rule have been quite in- * Walter Frewen Lord, Lost Empires of the Modern World. 4 How Louisiana Came to Be different ; there has been no national or pop ular movement to back up the pathfinders. It must also be said that the pathfinders, when cooperation was important, have shown too often a disposition to quarrel, rather than to combine forces. Call it vanity, or call it by the higher name ambition — the craving to possess the admiration of the world — this quality seems to burn in the heart of a French man with especial intensity ; so that often through brooking no rival near Tn*m; the hero lets his enterprise go to utter wreck, a fate which a better harmony in the actors would have prevented. To glance for a moment at a region far away from Louisiana, the story of the French in the East Indies is very illustrative. Why is not India to-day the possession of France rather than England? The French were there before the English ; Europe has never sent out to a foreign strand abler men than those who stood for France. They failed because the Government was supine, because there was no backing from the people ; more than all, perhaps, because they fell out among themselves. They directed against one an- 5 History of The Louisiana Purchase other an acute and aggressive energy, which if applied to the obstacles they had to meet would have consumed them, as the vinegar of Hannibal ate a pathway through the Alps. Their force and sharpness went out in an acrid spite. In the first half of the eight eenth century in India all promised well for France. Dupleix among the inharmonious na tive states, with marvelous courage and ad dress, found ways to dominate and reduce to order. He had little help except from his own genius ; his appeals made little impression on the court ; the nation was indifferent. Worst of all, when an important helper came to stand at his side, in La Bourdonnais, bringing him a fleet which at once won triumphs, Dupleix, instead of welcoming him, treated him as an intruder who might in some way diminish his own credit, pursuing him until La Bourdon nais lay in the Bastile, though few men of that time deserved better of their country. In succeeding years Lally-Tollendal and Bussy paralleled the heroism and address of their predecessors; but again all went to wreck, through neglect from outside and spiteful contention within. Last came Suffren, a sailor 6 How Louisiana Came to Be of the highest genius, who won for a time an advantage which France has usually lacked — the command of the sea. But all came to naught. The adventurers were left to their own resources ; they fell a prey to their own foibles when success was right at hand. The slower race, more persistent, pulling together to better purpose, if less adroit and brilliant, succeeded; and to-day the Emperor of India is the sovereign of England. '- What happened in America was of a piece with the story of the French in the East In dies. The adventurous spirits, impressed, as they are still impressed, ^~ — with the idea that their ^-^^/^c^ttAe^- country's greatness de- '"*' V pended on colonial ex- ^ pansion, were early in the field. Jacques Car- tier penetrated to the site of Montreal in 1534, and in 1603 Samuel Champlain was at Quebec. Champlain perhaps is the noblest 7 History of The Louisiana Purchase type of the French colonizer that history af fords, possessed as he was of all the conspic uous merits of the type, with few of the de fects. The prelude to his Canadian experi ence was picturesque to a degree noteworthy even in that age. After proving himself a good soldier, he sailed, at thirty-two, to His- paniola and the Spanish Main, keeping always an intelligent diary, in which occurs the, for that day, splendidly imaginative suggestion of an Isthmian canal. After penetrating as far as Mexico he returned to France, going, as the seventeenth century opened, to break the path for his race in Canada. There is a story that the first settlers of Massachusetts, setting out from Boston to build a road west ward, stopped at Watertown, scarcely ten miles distant, reporting to the magistrates that a road running farther in that direction would never be required. Massachusetts Bay bounded their horizon. The want of imagi nation in the plodding English is well illus trated in the tradition. It marked the lead ers as well as the humbler men, and the lack was as noteworthy in the generations that followed as in the first comers. It is 8 How Louisiana Came to Be indeed in contrast with the wide visions of the pioneers of New France. As Champlain could foresee some day an Isthmian canal, so at Quebec he recognized himself as the fore runner of something mighty, and presently penetrated to the very heart of the wilder ness, confronting the Iroquois in regions which he meant to redeem. With the brilliant qual ities of the best of his class, Champlain seems to have been without the shortcomings ; his association with his co-workers seems to have been always sweet and genial, with no touch of the acrid jealousy which corrodes so many a reputation otherwise shining. But he had no support either from ministers or nation. He worked and schemed indefatigably for thirty-two years ; but with such small result on account of the indifference and unwisdom of the world, that at his death there was little to show at Quebec but the garrison of two hundred soldiers, subsisting on supplies brought from France. In a teeming land, the food went ungathered for want of hands to get it. In his disappointment and failure his patience and good humor are pathetic. If sustained, as has been said, he would have 9 History of The Louisiana Purchase colonized from Canada to Florida, or in the other direction to the sources of the Missis sippi. He died bound to his rock, and not until a generation had passed did a man appear to take up his work. In 1666 Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, came to New France, a scion of a noble house in Rouen, in whom strength and weak ness were picturesque ly blended. He was a truer type of a French adventurer than Cham plain, for in him the foibles of the class were plain, as they were not in the founder of Que bec. La Salle was to found something far greater, and needed for the task the power of beholding enkindling visions, an indomitable courage, and a resourceful intelligence. He failed of thorough success largely because, on account of vanity and unamiability, he roused the enmity of his co-workers instead of win ning their attachment. His old seigniory on 10 How Louisiana Came to Be the St. Lawrence, La Chine, still commemo rates in its name the soaring enthusiasm which led him into the belief that the broad river above the chute was the pathway to China. The dream of reaching China he was forced to abandon, though his foot pressed far on the road which, two hundred years after his time, came to be held the shortest way thither ; but he almost made actual a vision scarcely less bold. Discovering the Ohio, traversing the Great Lakes, first of white men descend ing the Mississippi to its mouth, it was he who in 1682 gave the name Louisiana to the vast region lying east and west of the great river — the Mississippi Valley, in fact — and took possession of it in the name of his sov ereign. He was able to map out fairly the great domain into which he had penetrated, and conceived the thought long cherished by his successors, of running a chain of posts from the St. Lawrence strongholds to the cities he meant to build in the south near the Gulf. If things had been a little different much might have come to pass in his time. Louis XIV could appreciate a brave man and gave him a fleet and resources. If only the 11 History of The Louisiana Purchase Huguenots, driven out by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes just at this time, could have come to New France as the exiled Puri tans fifty years before had come to New Eng land ! But even the wilderness had no hos pitality for them; no Protestant could set foot in New France. There was no popular movement thither of any kind. Misfortune overtook La Salle. His fleet was wrecked ; among his followers he seems to have had no faithful friend but Tonty, and he was far to the north among the Illinois. Mutiny that had followed him from the first now took the upper hand in the wretched com pany that remained to him, and his life went out in a Texas waste under the weapons of his own men. *2f'U*r«Ut^ But ^ line of great ¦ colonizers was by no means extinct. The mantle of La Salle fell upon Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, who perhaps was not inferior to him in force or fire. Iber ville, a young Canadian seigneur, won his 12 How Louisiana Came to Be spurs by driving the English out of Hudson Bay, establishing a control in the north that endured for years. He was as efficient in tropic seas, on the Spanish Main, as among the icebergs. But his chief desert was the es tablishment upon the Gulf of Mexico of a secure French colony, which made it possible for his young brother Bienville, a few years later, in 1717, to lay the foundation of New Orleans. As the eighteenth century proceeds the colonizing of Louisi ana goes on in a course characteristically French. The nation takes little interest, few voluntary settlers coming to the new coun try; when immigrants appear, it is to hunt gold or fur-bearing beasts among the savages, in desultory wandering, rather than to till the soil and establish homes. The Govern ment is quite indifferent. In the evil days of the Regency, and of Louis XV, the colony is 13 History of The Louisiana Purchase first given over to the monopolist Crozat; then to John Law, to be exploited in the Mississippi Bubble. Of the welfare of the unfortunate planta tion there is no heed ; but fortunes may be made out of it for courtly spendthrifts, or the bankrupt Gov ernment gain relief at the expense of the far - away dependen cy. The Mississippi Bubble, so ruinous to those caught by its flattering iridescence, did, through some good providence, bring benefit to Louisiana. It was necessary to Law's schemes that the land should be peo pled ; and though the methods for procuring emigrants were misrepresentation and even atrocious kidnaping, some thousands were deported of a fairly respectable character. These, finding return hopeless, at last, though heart-broken, made the best of the situation, and a substantial town became established 14 T%^ How Louisiana Came to Be upon the river-bank. The preponderance of men in the community proving to be an ele ment of insecurity, a grotesque remedy was sought : the shipping from France of cargoes of marriageable girls, filles a la cassette, so called from the little trunks in which each prospective bride carried the trousseau pro vided for her by the Government. The girls were speedily mated on arriving at the levee, and many a proper and happy union was the result. In this direct and business-like match making the Ursuline nuns played an impor tant part, recruiting the companies in France, chaperoning them sometimes on the voyage, and sheltering them when they reached Louis iana — by no means the smallest of the serv ices rendered by the excellent sisterhood to the infant plantation. But while the record of the settlement is so largely one of struggle and suffering, bril liant adventurers were active carrying the flag of France farther and farther into the wilder ness. With little support or countenance, ex cept from their own intrepid spirits, they strove heroically to roll back the mystery from the face of the great continent. Du 15 History of The Louisiana Purchase Tisn6, Bourgmont, and the brothers Mallet penetrated into the southwest ; at last a final gleam of the splendid fire that had burned in Champlain, La Salle, and Iberville shot up in the far North. When that died down, the glory of French pioneering, as far as North America is concerned, became forever extin. guished. La V^rendrye, son of an officer of the regiment Carignan-Salieres, a body of regular troops that did good service in Canada at an early day, going to France, became an energetic soldier, and at Malplaquet, receiv ing six saber-cuts from some trooper of Marl borough, was left on the field for dead. But he survived to return to America, where deep in what is now Manitoba, to the north and west of Lake Superior, he established a chain of posts and brought up two sons as indomi table as himself. They lived on the northern edge of that vast Louisiana which La Salle, standing near the Gulf of Mexico, had claimed as the possession of the great king at Ver sailles. The younger La Verendrye, striking west beyond the Mississippi, across the Mis souri, and far over the plains, beheld, in 1742, first of white men, the Rocky Mountains. The 16 How Louisiana Came to Be achievement of the La Verendryes, father and sons, was of a piece with the best work of the great path-breakers of their stock, both in the Orient and the Occident. They died at last, worn out, utterly poor and forgotten; and that, too, was of a piece with the treatment which France has too often accorded to her best and bravest sons. Just before the middle of the eighteenth century an access of energy came to the French administration, which prepared as it had never before done to free itself from the threatening neighborhood of the Thirteen English Colonies ; or, if their destruction were impossible, at least to reduce them to impo tence. Baffled in Hudson Bay, and menaced in Louisiana by the establishment of the new colony Georgia, under the leadership of Ogle thorpe the philanthropist, who at the same time was a capable soldier, the French re solved to fight it out with the English, espe cially in the middle regions, below the St. Lawrence and on the approaches to the Ohio. The Thirteen Colonies were indeed in danger ; for though much more populous than New France, they were inharmonious among them- 2 17 History of The Louisiana Purchase selves, and each provincial government was weak and short-sighted. By extraordinary luck rather than through any soldiership New England captured Louisburg in 1 745, but many gloomy and anxious years followed before another success was gained. The following year the English colonists felt with sinking hearts that but for the interposition of pes tilence and tempests the fleet of d'Anville would have laid in ashes the coast towns, by way of reprisal for Avhat had been done at Cape Breton. A few years later, about Presque Isle, on Lake Erie, there was a buzz of energy, soldiers, voyageurs, and Indians, work ing with canoes and bateaux to force their way to the Alleghany. Presently the French hold upon the Ohio Valley was made good by the building of Fort Duquesne at that point of especial vantage, the junction of the Alle ghany and Monongahela. Braddock's enter prise against it, in 1754, set the mark for the extreme of failure. The best arm that ever struck for France in the New World was now bared for smiting. Montcalm was in the field, and by capturing Oswego, in 1756, Niagara at the west and 18 How Louisiana Came to Be Frontenac at the north already being French, he made Ontario a French lake. Next year he captured Fort William Henry, at the south ern end of Lake George. With the command of the Ohio and Lake On tario both secured, the French were now pushing from the rear at the very heart of New England, and with the victory of Ticon- deroga the prospect be came for the English hope less indeed. But in 1758 came about cdfo7l&Zwk~ + a conjunction "almost mi raculous " ; * and only by such a conjunction could the English colonies have been held. A great statesman and a great soldier stood forth together — Pitt and Wolfe — and, work ing hand in hand, saved the day in America. Louisburg, which had been restored to France by treaty, fell again, in 1758, to Wolfe ; Brad- street seized Fort Frontenac ; Forbes captured Fort Duquesne. In 1759 came the coup de grace of the Plains of Abraham, and for * W. F. Lord. 19 History of The Louisiana Purchase France all was over. In November, 1762, Louis XV ceded New Orleans and the coun try west of the Mississippi to Spain. With the surrender of Fort Chartres, on the Missis sippi, by St. Ange, in 1765, to Major Grant and his detachment of the Black Watch, not a rod of ground was left to France on the whole continent of America. How nearly she succeeded, and yet almost at once she was utterly dispossessed ! At the same moment the empire founded by Dupleix and Bussy in the Orient crumbled to pieces. Failure in both hemispheres was due to the same causes — the brilliant, adventurous leaders were sus tained by neither king nor nation; among themselves they were too often spiteful rivals, not friends. The English were dull and slow, but they were tenacious ; after a fashion they pulled together, and they won. 20 CHAPTER II LOUISIANA UNDER SPAIN When Canada was lost to France the Ohio Valley was also lost, and the region, too, south of the Ohio and east of the Mis sissippi River. There remained to France in America only New Orleans and the unex plored area west of the Mississippi, to which now the name Louisiana became restricted. Sore and discouraged through her misfor tunes, she abandoned for a time dreams of foreign empire, feeling that her interests would be best served by fostering develop ment at home.* To win the good-will of Spain, whom, in her weakness, she desired as an ally, Louis XV signed a treaty by which Louisiana was ceded to that power — a treaty regretted by the nation and long kept secret. Thus France stripped herself of her American * Barbe-Marbois, History of Louisiana. 21 History of The Louisiana Purchase possessions. Naturally, desire for revenge upon England constantly rankled — a craving that was fully gratified twenty years later, when, through her well-timed and energetic help, the Thirteen Colonies wrested them selves free, and for the moment Britain ap peared to undergo a humiliation deeper even than that which her rival had suf fered. D'Abadie, the French governor at New Orleans, at last broke the news of the cession to the people. The hearts of the Creoles were filled with consternation that their coun try should thus withdraw itself. Their fate seemed almost worse than that of the Aca- dians, whom the English had driven out; many of the Acadians, indeed, who had sought a refuge in Louisiana, now for a second time underwent expatriation. The Spaniards were slow in taking hold, leaving the French administration undisturbed for more than five years. Not until 1768, while the colonists were still begging not to be alienated, did the Spanish governor appear. Gayarr6, the creole historian of Louisiana, gives a pleasanter picture of the Spanish governors and their 22 Louisiana Under Spain administration than one might expect. Amer icans are inclined to do but scant justice to the great and unfortunate race with which so often we have fallen into difficulties, and it ought to be wholesome for us to dwell for a moment on the line of figures, for the most part respectable, who administered Louisiana for nearly forty years. Antonio d'Ulloa, the first, was a man of the highest distinction in the world of science and letters. As a bright boy of nineteen, he was set to measure, in company with French savants, the meridian at the equator, the attempt being made in South America. He traveled widely, served honorably on land and sea, and underwent many vicissitudes. He lived for a time as a prisoner in England, where his literary and scientific ability won him much attention. He had recognition elsewhere also, becommg a member of the Academies of Stockholm, Paris, and Berlin. In character he was brave, just, and humane ; and in his administration, though thwarted from Madrid, desired to be kind and liberal. D'Ulloa's successor, an adventurer of Irish blood, O'Reilly, pursued a barbarous policy, 23 History of The Louisiana Purchase but those that came later were better. Ca- rondelet, though disliking Americans, whom he had too much reason to regard as filibus ters quite without scruples, was intelligent and broad-minded, believing in admitting to the colony foreigners of every creed, provided they were quiet and law-abiding. He was alert and energetic, putting his province into as good a state of defense as his means al lowed. Gayoso, who came next, though in religion narrow, showed good sense and vigor in correcting abuses in the cession of land. Most interesting of all, perhaps, was Galvez, a man high-born, scarcely past the period of youth, who swayed the fortunes of Louisiana at the time of our Revolution. He did the United States good service by attacking bold ly and effectively the British at the south. Spain had joined France against the island power, and no champion of hers was so bril liant as the young hidalgo for the moment at New Orleans. He operated against Natchez and captured Pensacola, winning back for Spain Florida, which for a time she had lost, and received as reward the viceroyalty of Mexico. 24 Louisiana Under Spain The burdens upon the Creoles were light, the expenses of administration being paid largely from outside. Trade restrictions were rigidly drawn on paper, but the smuggler thrived. The people had no occasion to feel aversion to the foreign rule, and subsided into indifference. In the year 1788, just after the adoption by the United States of the Consti tution, Spain, feeling no friendship for the new nation (she had no reason to feel friend ship), offered the free navigation of the Mis sissippi River as a bribe to the western com munities. They were not yet organized as States ; separatist feeling was rife among them. Perhaps they might break off, if encouraged, from the seaboard States, and from this de fection Spain might reap advantage. As Mr. Henry Adams says : " Spain lay alongside the south and west of the United States like a whale — huge, helpless, profitable. Her rule stretched from the Lake of the Woods to the Gulf, including Texas, Mexico, and California, as well as Louisiana ; while still farther down, South America even to Patagonia was also under her sway. Far more than half the territory of the United States has been gained 25 History of The Louisiana Purchase from this vast inert bulk, rarely in ways not open to criticism." France had not ceased to be sorry that she had given up Louisiana, whose people re mained at heart faithfully French, though so roughly cast off. As the eighteenth century drew on, France tried repeatedly to recover what she began to feel had been too incon siderately given up. Vergennes, the minister under whom France gave help to our struggle for independence, tried to recover the lost possession during the elation over the crip pling of England, when the Thirteen Colonies went free. Another effort was made in 1795, also unsuccessful ; as was still a third effort made by Carnot somewhat later. On the latter occasion a splendid price was offered in an Italian kingdom for the Spanish infanta and her husband; but the Spanish king, a most faithful Catholic, refused aggrandize ment which was to come through despoiling the States of the Church. At this time a strong party in France, tired of revolutionary convulsions, aimed at peace in Europe and an extension of power abroad. Of this party 26 Louisiana Under Spain no other than the notable Talleyrand was, or aspired to be, the head; a churchman who had risen to be Bishop of Autun, but who had become unfrocked body and soul (his frock had served no end but to cover a mul titude of sins), and who stands in French history as the especial type of unscrupulous cunning. He appears to have grown into a feeling of shame that he had ever held revo lutionary ideas, and as the century approached its end, favored a restoration in France of the spirit of the old regime. He said of the United States, which he had visited in 1794, that the nation was devoured by pride and ambition, determined to dominate America, and to have influence in Europe; that she was really bound to England, and that her path must by all means be blocked. Talley rand's practical scheme was for France to help Spain, receiving in return Louisiana and Florida ; but just here, from being a leader he was dwarfed into a mere instrument by the sudden stepping upon the scene of an in comparable figure — the great protagonist in the drama with which we are at present occupied. 27 History of The Louisiana Purchase In the Public Library of Minneapolis hangs an heroic full-length portrait of Na poleon, an original by David. He stands in his imperial robes, the mantle besprent with the golden bees, the front full of the power and beauty which we may believe it pos sessed at the moment when he rose to the height of dominion. His head is not yet sur mounted by the imperial crown; but with one hand he reaches out toward the globe the symbol of empire, which he is just upon the point of grasping. To the right and left are Josephine and Marie Louise, the wife whom he repudiated and the wife who took her place, originals by Lefebvre, also of life size. It is a magnificent presentment of this most magnetic hero of the century, perhaps of all the centuries, just as he mounts to the pinnacle of his greatness. The portrait when painted was given by Napoleon's direction to Marshal Davoust, in whose family it was handed down ; until, falling upon evil days, they parted with it to an American, who set it up, as has been described, on the right bank of the Mississippi. Many a visitor who has stood before the 28 Louisiana Under Spain pictures has expressed the feeling : " Superb, but how incongruous ! These portraits be long at Versailles. What appropriateness is there in displaying them here in free Amer ica ? " A little thought, however, will suffice to convince one that this beam of the glory of the First Empire could fall nowhere else more appropriately than here. The spot thus signalized belonged to France when Napoleon was her master. As the most remote point in Louisiana, which at the same time was well ascertained, the Sault de St. Antcrine de Padoue must have been often in his thoughts. It was in connection with the alienation of Louisiana from France that the imperial eagle first showed a disposition to soar untrammeled. In this matter the First Consul for the first time declared himself independent of the Chambers, of the old tra ditions, of his former advisers, and took the step which carried him to absolutism. In the portrait he is not yet quite emperor, but extends his hand toward the imperial symbol which is just within his grasp. So in the autocratic sale of Louisiana he reaches out, 29 History of The Louisiana Purchase as it were, for the scepter and the purple. In that act he for the first time casts consti< tutional limitations aside and steps out as all powerful in the state. The portrait is an im pressive souvenir of a phase in the history of the Mississippi Valley which is now long past — impressive and most appropriately placed. We may admit it regretfully, but some how or other the personality in modern his tory beyond all others picturesque and mag netic is that of Napoleon Bonaparte ; and as time passes, the spell by which he binds mankind grows stronger rather than weaker. Few indeed are those who esteem him good, or even great in the highest sense, yet scarce ly a human being can be named contempla tion of whom excites such awe in the general mind, or who is referred to in terms so super lative. M. Frederic Masson, a living writer of repute, holds Napoleon to have been not only the greatest of Frenchmen, "but that one among men who was nearest to what has been called God," and he undertakes a study of the Corsican's career and character on a scale befitting such an estimate. This seems an 30 Louisiana Under Spain outburst in its excitement grotesque and blasphemous : but an authority as keen and cool in judgment as Lord Rosebery may be cited, whose portrayal in his Napoleon, the Last Phase, the most recent book on the topic, presents a character unique and ultra-human in a way most marked. What Napoleon Bonaparte did in Europe we have not failed to recognize. Have we made it real to our selves that scarcely any other human being has affected America so momentously ? Early in his career the imagination of Napoleon became kindled with the idea of building up for France a great colonial em pire. His interest in the Egyptian campaign was in the thought that success there might extend the domain of France perhaps even as far as India. The failure in Egypt was utter, but his buoyant spirit was not dis couraged. No sooner had the coup d'etat of the "eighteenth Brumaire? November 9, 1799, been accomplished, through which, set ting aside the feeble Directory, he became First Consul, confirming his power the next year by the victory of Marengo, than he pushed schemes vigorously east and west for 31 History of The Louisiana Purchase extending French dominion. On the east, Massena, after a plan concerted with the Russian Emperor Paul, was to advance by way of Astrakhan with 70,000 men, half French and half Russians, upon India. The Russian contingent, indeed, crossed the Vol ga upon the ice on the way thither ; but the assassination of Paul, March 1, 1801, put a stop to the attempt.* The western scheme Napoleon hoped to carry out with the help of Spain. Far the larger part of the territory of the United States has been won from Spain. The last despoilment has come in our own time, a taking of such dimensions that Spain is now almost completely shorn, her flag scarcely floating beyond the Iberian penin sula. Perhaps Spain deserves all her humili ations ; but the story of them is after all a pathetic one, and if any kindlier estimate of this ancient enemy, who has suffered so much from us, than the usual one is possible, the fair-minded will be glad to have it set forth. As regards the Spanish governors of Louisi ana the line of personages, as we have seen, * W. M. Sloane, American Historical Review, vol. iv, p. 441, 32 Louisiana Under Spain has attractive points ; so, too, in the old Spain of a century ago there were men de serving from us a more respectful regard than has been meted out.* Carlos IV, then king, like his father Carlos III, who died in 1788, was a figure not uninteresting. A di plomatist at his court paints him as a fairly worthy character, abstemious, and above re proach as a husband. He was devotedly pious after the Catholic fashion, a man mor ally correct, and of innocent tastes. He was a good practical mechanic, his liking being especially for the work of the armorer ; and we have an attractive picture of the king in a workman's dress, his sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, laboring daily at the forge with his blacksmiths. He was a great hunter — one of the best shots in Europe. He lived in good-humored companionship with his courtiers, hunters, and workmen, slapping them on the back with a good-fellowship sometimes a little too robust, but all well meant. In some ways he showed good sense ; but it was not often shown in public affairs, * Henry Adams, History of the United States during the Administration of Thomas Jefferson, vol. i, ch. xiii, etc. s 33 History of The Louisiana Purchase which he for the most part strangely neg lected, leaving all to his ministers. This fairly worthy monarch — chaste, temperate, simple, often sensible — was mated with a queen of character notoriously bad, whose lapses (it was indeed a curious society) he winked at, allowing her and her favorites to direct, more than he himself did, the concerns of his great empire in the two hemi spheres. In the court there was a strange mixture of good and bad ; and among the favorites of the dissolute queen was a character, deeply vicious, we must believe, from all that report says of him, and yet who deserves some gratitude from America. Don Manuel Go- doy, a young noble of the king's guard, seems to have been exceptionally corrupt, but he possessed conspicuous ability. He overcame in diplomacy even such opponents as Talleyrand and William Pitt, and in his dealings with the United States was hu mane and enlightened. Godoy — who, from a friendly understanding once brought about with a foreign country, gained the curious title " Prince of Peace," by which he is more 34 Louisiana Under Spain commonly known — was Prime Minister of Spain from 1792 to 1798, and negotiated a treaty with the United States in 1795 which was much the most advantageous to us up to that time arranged with any foreign power. He may have feared an English attack He conceded, at any rate, all America asked, set tled in a harmonious way the boundary be tween Natchez and New Orleans, and gave in a liberal spirit to the traders down the Mississippi "the right of deposit," the privi lege of landing from the flatboats and re- shipping upon ocean-going craft the mer chandise that sought a market in the world. This privilege was granted for three years, with hope of renewal if all went satisfac torily. The Spanish attitude to the United States was, in fact, most friendly, though little appreciated then or since. Soon after, in the complications, Spain became hope lessly dependent upon France, the king fall ing into subserviency to Napoleon as his star began to rise. Godoy, favoring a more spirited policy, resigned in despair, showing to the last his friendship toward the United States. 35 History of The Louisiana Purchase Within six weeks of Marengo", Bonaparte, full of colonizing zeal, had his agents at Madrid laboring energetically to bring about the re trocession of Louisiana to France, the great province alienated by Louis XV in 1762. A glorious New France was to be built up beyond the sea, and for three years the First Consul pursued the scheme with ardor. Side by side with the desire to aggrandize appears a purpose to restrain the United States1 whose hopeful prospects were contemplated in no friendly spirit. In August, 1800, Ber- thier, the instrument of Bonaparte in so much of his most vigorous effort, became minister at Madrid, and under his hand the form of the treaty grew definite. France was to have Louisiana, and also the two Floridas, while the consideration to Spain was to be a kingdom of at least a million people made up out of French conquests in the north of Italy, over which was. to be set the Duke of Parma, husband of the infanta, the daughter of Carlos IV. This treaty ne gotiated by Berthier, dated October 1, 1800, Mr. Adams pronounces to be one of the most interesting documents in the history of the 36 Louisiana Under Spain United States, for it is the source of our title to Louisiana; all subsequent arrangements were but modifications of this. Charles IV refused the surrender of the two Floridas, but with that exception all went as France wished, the Spanish king and queen, intent upon a fine settlement for the infanta, be ing overjoyed at the bargain. The king, however, did not ratify the arrangement as yet. At first the treaty was kept secret, Tal leyrand, the First Consul's Minister of Foreign Affairs, as he had been the Directory's, not hesitating to deny it when pressed by the American envoy, who had got wind of the matter. On December 3, 1800, came Mo- reau's victory of Hohenlinden, which put France more than ever on the apex. Early in 1801, Lucien Bonaparte, brother of Na poleon and six years younger, succeeded Ber- thier at Madrid. He was independent in character and intelligent, but, as it appeared, not above corruption. He was very young, and perhaps did not realize how easily a gift may become a bribe. He had helped his brother to seize power on the eighteenth 37 History of The Louisiana Purchase Brumaire, using his position as President of the Council of Five Hundred to further the scheme. He had been in youth an ardent Jacobin, and never became subservient to the autocracy which his brother was presently to establish. For the time being, however, he was in harmony with the First Consul, and in his present task was set to face no other than Godoy, who, though no longer Prime Minister, had been found indispensable and was really the power behind the throne. With a frank arrogance which has some justification, Godoy declares in his Memoirs that he had been recalled to power because he was the only man able to cope with Na poleon, who was then trying to occupy Spain with a French army under pretext of a war with Portugal. On March 21, 1801, Lucien negotiated at San Ildefonso, the residence of the Spanish court, a new treaty, which did little more than deepen and emphasize that of the preceding October. In return for the elevation of the Duke of Parma to the sover eignty of Tuscany, the retrocession of Loui siana to France was to be at once carried out. But, as before, the king's signature 38 Louisiana Under Spain was withheld ; and Godoy baffled Napoleon's other scheme of occupying Spain by making an arrangement with Portugal which Lucien was won over to approve by an extravagant gift. Lucien confessed that he secured twen ty fine pictures, and diamonds worth 100,000 crowns. He seems also to have been gorged with other wealth, so that he became the richest member of his family. That Napoleon was foiled thus by the address of Godoy and the venality of his brother Lucien was not the only embarrass ment which he now encountered. The assas sination just at this time of the Emperor Paul of Russia set against him that important power, the scheme of Massena's invasion of India at once coming to naught ; while Nel son's victory at Copenhagen, on April 9th, took from him the Danish fleet on whose aid he had counted. He angrily demanded im mediate possession of Louisiana; but Godoy, as Mr. Adams says, cool and adroit as a pica dor maneuvering before a maddened bull, held back the province on the plea that the Italian stipulation had not been scrupulously fulfilled. Said Bonaparte a little later to the 39 History of The Louisiana Purchase Spanish minister at Paris : " You act toward the French republic as you might act toward San Marino." * If the Prince of Peace could help it, Spain was to be saved humiliation at the hands of France. * Napoleon Correspondance. 40 CHAPTER HI FRANCE PREPARES TO TAKE LOUISIANA As the moment approaches for the resig nation by Spain of the province she had held so many years, it will be interesting to give some outlines of the picture presented by McMaster* of the land and the principal town. From the little posts near the mouth of the Missouri, and from Sainte Genevieve and New Madrid farther down-stream, scarcely a hamlet, on the west bank, met the eye of the boatman as he floated down until he arrived at Pointe Coupee. From this point planta tions and villages succeeded one another until New Orleans was reached. To the men from the North there was much to wonder at-^the great river flowing for hundreds of miles without a tributary, and at length within its levees, pouring on, high above the level of * History of the People of the United States, vol. iii, pp. 15, etc. 41 History of The Louisiana Purchase the fields on either hand ; the bayous full, on a sunny day, of basking alligators ; cypresses, palmettos, live-oaks, their branches hung with moss ; pelicans and buzzards ; houses without cellars, and cemeteries in which there was no grave. The town had been laid out in Bien ville's time by the Sieur de la Tour. On three sides ran a low rampart, the fourth being open to the stream. From the Gate of France on the north to the Gate of Tchoupit- oulas on the south was a mile, and precisely in the middle was the great square, the Place d'Armes. The streets, narrow, crossing at right angles, were named for the princes and nobles of France, but were squalid and with out drainage. The Creoles went in and out through the gates, liable always to the chal lenge of sentries. But outside the ramparts, particularly in the Faubourg Sainte Marie, to the south, was a turbulent population of strangers ; here it was mainly that the Ameri cans, found quarter as they landed from the " broadhorns " that had brought them from afar. Near here, too, were many seagoing ships, lying sometimes three deep along the levee. The trade had become large at the 42 France Prepares to Take Louisiana time of the purchase, the exports amount ing to $2,000,000 in value, and the imports to $2,500,000. In the bustling business life the levee was the great exchange, piled high with bales and boxes, and the scene of bargaining. There was a theater ; and music and dancing had a large place among all classes, from the pure French and Spaniards, down through mulat toes of every gradation of shade to the coal- black negroes, who did the rougher work, often under compulsion of the lash. The colored people were generally slaves. Over all pre sided the " Cabildo," city council, composed of six hereditary "regidors," two "alcaldes," and the governor. One regidor was " alf erez royal," and bore the king's banner; another was "alguazil," mayor; and others were treasurers and collectors. The " alcaldes " had special dignity, being judges, and never appearing in public without their wands of office. Each night an alcalde, with the al guazil and a scrivener, walked the streets to see that the laws were obeyed and that all was well. On the eves of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost the governor and alcaldes went 43 History of The Louisiana Purchase the rounds of the prisons, sometimes setting free culprits confined for petty offenses ; but stern often was the justice meted out to the criminal. If he had reviled the Savior or the Blessed Virgin, his property was confiscated and his tongue cut out. If he had vilified the king or queen, half his property was taken and he was flogged. If he had stolen the sacred vessels from a holy place, or robbed a traveler, or committed a murder, or assaulted a woman, he was put to death. No sooner did a craft draw up to the river- bank than it was visited by a " syndic," who made severe scrutiny of captain, crew, and cargo. Along the highways, too, were officers who interrogated sharply every passer. Tax, restriction, penalty, weighed upon everything, the governor, and the intendant, an officer set to oversee civil functions, being in general responsible for the administration. It was a system stately and ceremonious in a high degree ; also cumbrous, clumsy, oppressive — pervaded with a mildew of medieval tra dition. A Latin people might tolerate it — indeed sit with a fair degree of comfort under its provisions. It had become inevitable now 44 France Prepares to Take Louisiana that it should touch the Anglo-Saxon, as the young republic pressed and grew restless against its barriers on every side. Out of the contact there could, of course, come but one result. In the fall of 1801 came peace with Eng land, and the First Consul was free, as he had not been before, to pursue his great schemes for internal improvement, and also his colonial policy. Louisiana was in his thoughts, but before he could enter upon the American continent there was a matter on the threshold of that continent which must be seen to. Here he stumbled, and that stumbling on the threshold, since it brought the downfall of his wider plans, must receive some notice here. San Do mingo, under the old regime the most im portant colony of France, had at this mo ment practically fallen away from her. Only the western end of the beautiful island was French ; but when the Revolution broke out, in 1789, nearly two-thirds of the commercial interests of France centered here. The island had a population of 600,000, five-sixths of whom were negroes of full blood. Of mu- 4:5 History of The Louisiana Purchase lattoes there were 50,000; of white Creoles an equal number ; and to the latter belonged all political and social advantages. Under the old rule trade restrictions had been rigid, and the Creoles welcomed at first the Revo lution with its freer policy ; but, taking alarm when the mulattoes received recognition, they became in the end ardent loyalists. The spirit of freedom with which the air was filled pene trated still deeper, until in August, 1791, the vast black multitude rose against their mas ters, involving the island in ruin and death. Their liberty was at last granted, for in 1794 the National Assembly abolished slavery. At this time rose into prominence one of the re markable figures of history, the most distin guished character of the negro race, Toussaint L'Ouverture. Toussaint was a thorough black, son of a slave born in Africa, who was the son of a chief ; the date of Toussaint's birth is given as 1746. He grew up a slave in the Spanish part of the island. Now, grizzled but vigor ous, at the head of 4,000 blacks, he cleared out his old masters in the interest of the freedom-offering French. His new friends 46 France Prepares to Take Louisiana made him general-of-brigade, and in May, 1797, general-in-chief. One halts before the enthusiasm of Wendell Phillips, in whose im passioned portrayal Toussaint was made to appear almost the first of heroes ; but it is im possible to think of the negro chief with out admiration. He is described as well- meaning and ordinari ly gentle, of command ing ability, indefati gable, and possessed of splendid ambitions. He was sometimes fero cious, but he had feroc ity to meet. He was wily, but he had wiles and treachery to meet, and came to ruin at last through overtrustfulness. The whites he had cherished and protected: through them he found a dungeon and the grave of an exile. As the career of Toussaint affected America, becoming an important factor in deciding for us that Louisiana should come 47 History of The Louisiana Purchase States. No one in the United States appre ciated the situation. Jefferson came in, a man of peace, determined to be friendly to France. Support was withdrawn from Tous saint ; he was left to face his danger alone. In January, 1802, Le Clerc appeared with a great fleet and army, and was met at once as an enemy. The war was sharp and swift, and was not intermitted, though Toussaint himself disappears. Relying upon the honor of his foes, in the hope that good might come to his cause by surrender, he gave himself up. Thereupon he was treacherously conveyed to France, to die within the year of pneumonia in a casemate of the fortress of Joux, in the bleak Jura region. Coeval with his deporta tion from the island came the decree that the blacks whom the National Assembly had set free in 1794, and to whom the First Consul had promised freedom in the preceding No vember, should be again reduced to slavery. But Bonaparte was far enough from hav ing won the game. Toussaint had capable pupils, who, though not equal to the French in the open field, carried on irregular warfare from the forests and mountains most effect- 50 France Prepares to Take Louisiana ively ; and, now that their leader was gone, gave rein to the ferocity which belonged to them as savages. Presently stood at their side a terrible ally, the yellow fever ! The pestilence devoured far more than the sword devoured, until, as the summer ended, Le Clerc was forced to report that scarcely a seventh of his army remained. In November the general followed his legions into the sep- ulcher, and the cause of the French became hopeless. In the summer Bonaparte's hopes of suc cess in San Domingo had been high. He wrote to Le Clerc* that everything was going well elsewhere. "Rid us of these gilded Africans," he said — having in mind Toussaint and his lieutenants — " and we shall have noth ing more to desire." A little earlier f he had written to his Minister of Marine, Decres : " My intention is to take possession of Louisi ana in the shortest time possible." The ex pedition was to be prepared with the greatest secrecy, and pretense was to be made that it was a reenf orcement for San Domingo. " Let me know," continues the First Consul, "the * Correspondance, July 1, 1802. f June 4, 1802. 51 History of The Louisiana Purchase number of men you think necessary, both in fantry and artillery. Present me a plan for organizing the colony, both military and civil, for works, fortifications, etc. Make a map of the coast from St. Augustine to Mexico, and a geographical description of the different cantons of Louisiana, with the population and resources of each." A month later,* he writes both to Berthier and Decres as to details. There are at once to be assembled at Dunkirk five battalions of infantry of the 54th and 17th regiments, two companies of artillery, sixteen pieces of cannon, and three thousand muskets, to be under command of a general of division who shall have under him three brigadiers, the whole to set sail early in November after the equinoctial storms. The large proportion of officers no doubt indicates that the force was to serve as a nucleus to be increased largely from the population of Louisi ana. No doubt, too, it was thought fitting that the captain-general should have a retinue of dignity. To hold this high position Bona parte at first named Bernadotte, who already had great distinction, the appointment pos- * August 4, 1802. 52 France Prepares to Take Louisiana sibly being made that a dangerous rival might be got out of the way. Bernadotte, however, made inconvenient conditions, whereupon he was named minister to the United States; that position, too, he never assumed, although he was on the brink of sailing for America. The commander finally settled upon for Louisiana was the impetuous Victor, who in the late summer and fall of 1802 pressed en ergetically the preparations for departure. As one encounters these historic names, fa mous marshals of the Empire as they after ward became, it is interesting to mark how easily their destinies might have been differ ent. But for the intervention of a Russian assassin, Massena would have marched upon India through the passes of the Himalayas with 70,000 men. The news of a coming European war kept Bernadotte in France; and Victor, almost on shipboard, was at the last moment needed elsewhere. So they pass on to Austerlitz, to Jena, to Wagram, to Moscow and Leipsic, becoming duke, prince, or king in the great new ordering of Europe, now close at hand. Still another of these imperial satellites 53 History of The Louisiana Purchase , about-to-be just at this time played a part in the development of this American incident. The treaty of retrocession, first arranged by Berthier in 1800, and confirmed during Lu cien's term in 1801, had not as yet, mainly through the tenacity of Godoy, received the signature of the king, which alone could make it valid. Even now, though Spain was pros trate, Carlos IV held back ; pressure must be brought to bear ; and the First Consul used as his instrument the able Gouvion St. Cyr. Not until October 15, 1802, did the king yield, and only then after exacting most defi nite conditions. 1. The new kingdom of Etruria, as the Italian appanage of the in fanta and her husband was to be called, must be distinctly recognized by Austria, England, and the dethroned Duke of Tuscany, whose lost territory was incorporated in the new do main. 2. France must pledge herself not to alienate Louisiana, and to restore, it to Spain in case the King of Etruria should lose his power. These two things Talleyrand, Minister of Foreign Affairs, solemnly promised, St. Cyr giving a written pledge in the name of the First Consul. The whole coast of the Gulf 54 France Prepares to Take Louisiana of Mexico was to be included in the cession, from St. Marys, on the Atlantic, to the Rio Bravo, now the Rio Grande, the boundary of Mexico. Bonaparte was to have what Spain had received from France, the understanding being that what is now Texas was to be in cluded, and in the far Northwest an extension to the Pacific. An outline containing these claims, unsigned, but probably the work of Barbe-Marbois, Secretary of the Treasury, still exists in the archives of France.* The United States, at whose "usurpations over Spain " Bonaparte professed to be indignant, was to be entirely shut off. The lucrative commercial relations between the Union and the French West Indies were to come to an end, the plan being that Louisiana alone should furnish the supplies. Bonaparte had labored and planned for it through three long years, to meet at last colossal failure. The story has reached the point where the United States must be taken into account. The administration of John Adams, during which the Federalists, leaning strongly toward * W. M. Sloane, American Historical Review, iv, 445. 55 History of The Louisiana Purchase England, nearly involved the country in a war with the French Directory, came to an end March 4, 1801, and a new figure sat in the President's chair. " For eight years this tall, loosely built, somewhat stiff figure, in red waistcoat and yarn stockings, slippers down at the heel, and clothes that seemed too small for him, may be imagined . . . sitting on one hip, with one shoulder high above the other, talking almost without ceasing to his visitors at the White House. His skin was thin, peeling from his face on exposure to the sun, and giving it a tettered appear ance. This sandy face, with hazel eyes and sunny aspect — this loose, shackling person — this rambling and often brilliant conversa tion — belong to the controlling influences of American history. . . . Jefferson's personality during those eight years appeared to be the Government ! " * Jefferson had scarcely suspected the in trigue of France for the retrocession of Loui siana. He was in his notions a disciple of Rousseau ; had been an ardent sympathizer with the French Revolution, whose begin- * Henry Adams, History of the U. S., etc., i, 187. 56 France Prepares to Take Louisiana ning he had witnessed close at hand, and had been scarcely estranged by the later excesses. Though with the eighteenth Brumaire, the establishment of the consulship, republicanism had practically come to an end in France, he, like the world in general, could not see it at once, the First Consul being a quantity quite unknown. The new President began with a favorable disposition not only toward France, but also toward Spain, her ally. He believed that the recent troubles with France were due to the Federalists, and that a frank and trustful policy would set matters right. Of course, in these ideas he was quite out of sympathy with a large division of the party which had elected him. The West and South hated the Spaniards ; and when it developed, as was presently the case, that France was scheming for the retrocession of Louisiana, they grew wild with alarm, believing that their strait as to the navigation of the Missis sippi would be closer than ever. A new minister to France, Robert R. Livingston, sailed in August, 1801. By this time the effort for the retrocession had become well ascertained ; but even now any bad intention 57 History of The Louisiana Purchase toward the United States was not suspected by the administration, and Madison, Secretary of State, sent mild instructions to the foreign envoys. Livingston, soon after arriving at Paris, sharply interrogated Talleyrand on the sub ject, who denied that any retrocession had taken place. The arch dissimulator really told no lie here, for, as we have just seen, the signa ture of the King of Spain to the treaty had not yet been affixed. News of Talleyrand's denial reached Jefferson at the same time with a letter from Rufus King, Minister to England, who forwarded a copy of the unratified agree ment formulated in the spring at San Ilde- fonso between Godoy and Lucien Bonaparte. Jefferson now became convinced, much against his will, that a quarrel with France was immi nent. But for the delays imposed upon the First Consul, first by Godoy, who would not yield Louisiana until every condition had been fulfilled, and secondly by Toussaint and his followers, who balked the French in San Domingo, General Victor might at this time have been setting in order a threatening for eign host at New Orleans. 58 France Prepares to Take Louisiana By this time there were many signs of a heavy tempest. It had become known that Le Clerc at once upon arriving in San Domingo had shown unfriendliness to Ameri cans, seizing their property and stigmatizing them as "the scum of nations." Pichon, an old Republican, minister at Washington, who, not prepared for the new order, tried- to ex plain and adjust, was re buked from home and pres- • ently dismissed. The letters of Livingston reported cav alier treatment. On both sides temper was rising. While Talleyrand was su percilious in Paris, Le Clerc was angry in the West In dies. On the other hand, J«.,na MutlCjo* Livingston's blood was up, and even the peace-loving Madison was los ing his calm. As it became known in the country that France was likely to replace Spain at the mouth of the Mississippi, and that she was by no means a good friend, a warlike murmur arose, particularly through out the West and South. 59 History of The Louisiana Purchase Amid such mutterings Jefferson bore him self well. Following his bent, he still tried to be conciliatory, but at the same time there was a show of spirit. If France persisted in taking Louisiana, he wrote Bonaparte, it would cost her a war, perhaps soon, which would annihilate her on the ocean, and place that element under the despotism of two nations — "which I am not reconciled to the more because my own would be one of them." To Livingston he wrote : " From the moment that France takes New Orleans, we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation." Mr. Adams believes that there was a touch of bluster about this, which Jefferson thought in the circumstances might be politic. He was too peace-loving to be sincere in it. But when Bonaparte was the one to be frightened, and Talleyrand the one to be hoodwinked, the navoete of the proceeding becomes rather ludicrous. 60 CHAPTER IV HOW JEFFERSON BUILDED BETTER THAN HE KNEW Near the end of 1802 news arrived which aggravated the public excitement. Morales, intendant or civil officer at New Orleans, abrogated the right of deposit, closing abso lutely the Mississippi to the United States. The right had been enjoyed since the treaty of 1795. It had been granted at that time for three years ; though this term had expired four years before, the arrangement had been suffered to continue. Under this the west ern traders, unhampered, paying a moderate charge for storage, had been able to lay down and reship at New Orleans the merchandise brought from the interior. To be sure, the Spanish governor, Salcedo, disavowed the act, but the intendant was quite independent of him. The restriction continued, and the 61 History of The Louisiana Purchase course of Morales was universally taken in America to portend what must be borne when France took hold. War now seemed inevi table, the Federalists chuckling at the pros pect. Their great opponent — so fond of France, so cool toward England, so naively peace-loving that he had conceived the idea of laying up under cover as useless, side by side, the few little frigates that formed our entire navy — would be forced after all to fight, adopting the identical policy which they had laid down. But Jefferson extricated himself, his own dexterity being favored by extraordinary good fortune. " Peace is our passion," was one of his exclamations. Peace he preserved, strik ing into a neutral policy which was entirely successful. For the moment no action was taken. Meantime the trouble worked toward a solution. The Spanish minister at Wash ington, Yrujo — an interesting young man, brave and able, though quick-tempered and vain, the son-in-law of a prominent Jeffer- sonian, and through his American wife very much of a Republican — now vigorously de clared that the act of Morales was unauthor- 62 How Jefferson Builded ized, and despatched to him a letter of re buke. This, when known, had a pacific effect. A letter from Salcedo, governor of Louisiana, repudiating also the action of Mo rales, when laid before Congress quieted war like feeling there. The West and South, however, continued to be up in arms, demand ing that a force should proceed southward forthwith, with the view of seizing New Or leans at the first sign of the French adyance. This discontent of the West and South af fected Jefferson strongly, and it was no doubt mainly in order to put an end to this that he now took such action as he did. As a man of the "tide- water" region of Virginia, the world beyond the Alleghanies seemed to him very far away. It was not easy for him to feel that this free navigation of the Missis sippi was so very important, at any rate in comparison with the interests of the Atlantic coast ; and as regards the great unknown re gion west of the Mississippi, the unexplored wilderness of Louisiana, he no doubt was quite indifferent, if, indeed, he did not regard it with dread. Madison is on record as be lieving that emigration west of the river 63 History of The Louisiana Purchase would be detrimental; that settlers shpuld remain on the eastern side ; not " dilute popu lation " by spreading too widely. To occupy that unknown desert — such it was believed to be in great part — would most unwisely " slacken concentration " and be a certain pro moter of disunion sentiments. It was a ne cessity that the west bank should be under a separate government. These views of his secretary the President probably shared. What he felt in the exigency was the turbu lent ill-humor of the frontier people ; that he must find some means to allay, though the deep reasons for that ill-humor impressed him but little. He hit upon an effective scheme to carry out his desire ; and as it developed) the fates so ruled that he builded far, far wiser than he knew. Jefferson's, expedient to quiet the West and South was to appoint a special envoy, a man well and favorably known, with $2,000,? 000 in hand, authorized to proceed to Europe, and buy outright New Orleans and Florida; This envoy was James Monroe, a good soldier of the Revolution, who since then had played a part in Congress, also as Minister to France 64 How Jefferson Builded and as governor of Virginia. The French envoy, too, at this juncture wrote a remon strance to the First Consul, and used his in fluence also in Louisiana to do away with the interdict of Morales. All these facts becom ing known, impatience subsided, and the ex cited communities grew calm enough to wait for the outcome. Monroe's instructions were definitely laid down : 1. He was to purchase, if possible, New Orleans and the Floridas, and he might expend up to $10,000,000 rather than lose the chance. 2. Should France refuse to sell even the site for a town, the old right of deposit, as granted in 1795, was to be tried for. Should that fail, further instructions were to be waited for ; Jefferson, apparently, was determined to pull still an other string rather than go to war. Besides the money, an offer of commercial privileges for ten years was to be made to the sellers; incorporation with full privileges into the Union was promised to the people of the districts to be ceded. The west bank of the river, too, was to be guaranteed, if necessary, to France. What our generation sees to have been a thing of inestimable importance, was s 65 History of The Louisiana Purchase outlined only in the faintest way in the back ground of the consciousness of those negotia tors of 1803, and so far as it was noticed at all, regarded only with aversion. Really, to satisfy the American administration, Bona parte needed only to disavow the act of Mo rales, and restore and guarantee the condi tions of 1795. Jefferson was indeed short sighted, but no more so than everybody else. Livingston once or twice, as will be shown hereafter, recommends to Talleyrand, for the sake of France, the cession to the United States of the country " north of the Arkan sas." These are probably the only references of that kind that can be found in the pub lic utterances of that time ; in making them he put himself quite outside the sympathy both of the American Government and of the people. When the negotiation was over, indeed, there was from Livingston a notable out burst, which we shall in good time consider. Jefferson, in his policy at this time, was thought by the envoys of France and Eng land at Washington, and also by many of his own countrymen, to be weak and pusillani- 66 How Jefferson Builded mous. The simple fact was that he loved peace, and was determined to preserve it if possible. He showed really great moral courage and strength of character in main taining so steadfastly, in that age so prone to weapon-wielding, his noble attitude. His policy was destined to be successful far be yond anything that he or any one could have anticipated for it ; but when Monroe set sail, March 8, 1803, the omens were dark Though Victor and his soldiers delayed, a civil official M. Laussat, a busy man, formerly in the Convention, whose name one often en counters as he turns over old files of the Moniteur, arrived in New Orleans, March 26, 1803, and promptly set to work to pre pare for the French occupation. He allayed the fears of the Creoles on the point of slavery by making known a recent law of the French Republic maintaining slavery and the slave- trade. In other ways he sought to arouse a disposition favorable to a change, a task by no means difficult. The President had small hopes of success in his negotiations, and was already anxiously considering with his Cabi net what might be done with England in case 67 History of The Louisiana Purchase France proved obdurate. The most Living ston had been able to say from Paris was, "Do not absolutely despair." Meantime a resolution was offered by the Federalist Senator Ross, of Pennsylvania, in Con gress, looking toward the immediate seizure of New Orleans by force; $5,000,- 000 were to be put into the hands of the Executive, and 50,000 men were to be set in motion before the French had time to arrive. The project was discussed in both Houses in secret session, Gouverneur Morris, who had had bet ter opportunities to know France than per haps any other American, especially favor ing it. But the fates were working for America. In these early weeks of 1803 a disappointment was coming home to Bonaparte, bitter and heavy enough to have overcome any one but a Titan. His plans for a colonial empire, so dear to him, so long cherished, so powerfully pushed, were failing utterly. His own cam- 68 How Jefferson Builded paign in Egypt and the project for the great invasion of India by Massena had first come to naught ; now his schemes in the Occident were meeting with disaster. In San Domingo general and army had perished under the weapons of the blacks and the stroke of pes tilence. Victor's army, prepared for Louisi ana, it had been necessary to send to that abiding-place of death to recruit in some de gree the ranks out of which the troops had dropped. Moreover, the gloom of a mighty European struggle, certain to begin in the near future, was now gathering not obscurely. Whatever agony of mind the First Consul may have felt over this ruin of his projects, he gave little or no sign of suffering. Prompt and buoyant, as if nothing had happened, he abandoned his old path, and, to the surprise of those about him and the world at large, dashed with all his energy into a new course. Probably the first symptom that can be fixed upon of the First Consul's change was the appearance in the Moniteur of January 30, 1803, of the report of his emissary Sebas- tiani on the Military Condition of the East, which was the alarm to England that the 69 History of The Louisiana Purchase peace of Amiens was about to be broken. On February 20th there was in the First Con sul's annual message a still further menace against England; and on March 12th oc curred in the drawing-room of Josephine the memorable scene which was practically a declaration of war. Livingston interrupts a letter to Jefferson of this date, as he says, "to attend Madame Bonaparte's drawing- room, where a circumstance happened of sufficient importance to merit your atten tion. After the First Consul had gone the circuit of one room, he turned to me and made some of the common inquiries usual on these occasions. . . . When he quitted me he passed most of the other ministers merely with a bow, went up to Lord Whitworth (British ambassador), and after the first civilities said: 'I find your nation wants war again.' L. W. : ' No, sir, we are very desirous of peace.' First Consul: 'You have just fin ished a war of fifteen years.' L. W. : ' It is true, sir, and that was fifteen years too long.' Consul : ' But you want another war of fifteen years.' L. W. : ' Pardon me, sir, we are very desirous of peace.' Consul : ' I 70 How Jefferson Builded must either have Malta or war ! ' L. W. : ' I am not prepared, sir, to speak on that sub ject; and I can only assure you, Citizen First Consul, that we wish for peace. . . . Bowing hastily to the company, he retired immediately to his Cabinet without entering the other rooms. ... It is, then, highly prob able that a new rupture will take place, since it is hardly possible that the First Consul would commit himself so publicly unless his determination had been taken." * Just at this juncture Toussaint L'Ouver- ture coughed his life away in the bleak case mate of the fortress of Joux, in the Jura Mountains, the leader of the men who had thwarted Bonaparte's grasp after a western empire. It is not strange, says Adams, that Bonaparte should have soon forgotten the " miserable negro " ; " but race prejudice alone has blinded the American people to the debt they owe to the desperate courage of 500,000 Haitian negroes who would not be enslaved." We fortunately possess a most graphic portrayal, by the hand of a brother of Napo- * Annals of Congress, 1802-1803, Appendix, p. 1115. 71 History of The Louisiana Purchase leon, of the First Consul at the moment when he decides upon parting with Louisi ana. Probably there is no more vivid picture extant of Napoleon " in undress," very liter ally so. The account possesses the utmost interest in the story of the Louisiana Pur chase, and should be much better known than it is. Next to Napoleon the ablest of the Bona parte brothers is said to have been Lucien, who, some years younger than the First Con sul, in 1803 but twenty-eight, had neverthe less been for some time a famous man. Though in 1801 he had accepted the gifts of Godoy, and so laid himself open to the charge of venality, his life on the whole was respect. able. He married as his heart dictated in stead of bending to his brother's will, though his independence cost him a kingdom ; and preferred exile with comparative obscurity to the gilded chains he might have worn in company with Joseph, Louis, and Jerome, at the wheels of Napoleon's imperial car.* In connection with the sale of Louisiana to the * Joseph became King of Spain ; Louis, King of Holland ; Jerome, King of Westphalia. 72 How Jefferson Builded United States there exists in his Me moires * a detailed account of a curious quarrel be tween Napoleon on the one hand and Joseph and Lucien on the other. The story has every internal evidence of truth and is dramatic in a high degree. Rather strangely, the story as a whole seems never to have been trans lated, though in abridged form it has now and then appeared. Lucien, referring to the eighteenth Bru maire, November 9, 1799, when he as Presi dent of the Council of Five Hundred played a part in the overthrow of the Directory, exclaims : " How many lovers of liberty have regarded me as an accomplice in my famous brother's apostasy, the consequences of which were so sad for me ! By no means. Unfor tunately, my brother did not hold fast to the republicanism to which his spirit in early youth was devoted. Yet I have often wit nessed the struggle it cost him to free him self from that early passion, and I do not hesitate to cite as some palliation of my brother's backsliding the desire of the ma- * Lucien Bonaparte et ses Memoires, 1775-1840, tome ii, Paris, Charpentier, 1882. ¦ Th. Jung. 73 History of The Louisiana Purchase jority of Frenchmen at that time to submit themselves to despotism. He was not won over until continued assaults had been made upon him from the beginning of his eleva tion to power. In spite of my esteem for Washington, I believe even he would have had some difficulty in keeping firm, if all his valiant companions-in-arms, the civil func tionaries, too — in fine, the men who with him were co-founders of America — had insisted on his assuming the crown of a king or an emperor." After this preface Lucien refers to his embassy to Madrid in 1801, at which time he had been spurred on by his brother to conclude the treaty. " 'Above all,' Napoleon had said, ' don't let Louisiana go. Hold fast to that.' Beautiful Louisiana put at sword's points three of us — Joseph, the First Consul, and me." " It was on a day of a first performance at the Theatre Francais. [No doubt April 6, 1803, when the Moniteur reports that the fa mous Talma for the first time played Hamlet.] I had come in to attend the theater from my place in Plessis, and going in to put off my 74 How Jefferson Builded country attire, I saw with surprise in the court the carriage of my brother Joseph ; and learned, while going up-stairs, that he, know ing my plan, had told the porter he would go with me to the play. I had scarcely en tered the salon, where, as I heard, Joseph had been pacing back and forth for half an hour, when my brother exclaimed: 'Here you are at last ! I was afraid you would not come. You are thinking of going to the play. I have come to tell you news which will take away your desire to amuse yourself.' My first thought was that our mother had fallen ill ; but Joseph, replying quickly to my anx ious 'Say quickly what's the matter,' contin ued: 'You'll not believe it, but it is true. The General means to give up Louisiana.' ' Bah ! who'll buy it of him ? ' ' The Ameri cans.' I stood for a moment stupefied. ' Come, now,' said I, after a moment. ' Sup pose this were his plan, the Chambers would never consent.' ' He means to get along with out their consent. That is what he said when I declared as you now do that the Chambers would not consent.' ' What ! Did he really say that ? That's rather strong. No ; it's im- 75 History of The Louisiana Purchase possible. It was only a bit of brag (fan faronade) for your benefit.' ' No, no,' insist ed Joseph, 'he was talking very seriously. And, what is more, he added that this sale would furnish him with money for a war. Do you know, I begin to think he is going to f .like war too well.' " We talked together for some time about this coup d'etat which seemed to us of great importance. ' And all this,' said Joseph [who as elder brother looked down patronizingly on the later comers], 'is going to take place under the direction of this callow youngster ! ' For my part, I did not go so far as to believe, as Joseph was inclined to do, that a revolu tion would come about that would set us all adrift at once. 'Besides,' said I, 'if the First Consul really has this incredible fancy about selling Louisiana after all he has done to get it, and the necessity for our having it that he has always talked about, for our co lonial interests and even for our national dig- j nity, how will he be able to dispense with I the authorization of the Chambers ? Since the Americans on their side will, of course, not agree without this condition, we shall 76 How Jefferson Builded have time enough to block the scheme by our parliamentary opposition — opposition based upon the bad effect which the mere sugges tion of alienating a dependency of this im portance could not fail to produce on public opinion ; and, if necessary, we will speak to him about the danger to which he would expose all those of his name. He ought to know that when the people are roused it is but a step from the Capitol to the Tarpeian rock' 'Undoubtedly,' interrupted Joseph, 'to any other man you might say, "If you do not care for yourself, have some care for us " ; but he will have slight thought for us however important we may think ourselves. Several times he said to me : " I have no chil dren — so after me the deluge. You or some successors will fight over my tomb like the followers of Alexander." ' "I knew [continues Lucien] about this disposition of the First Consul, having heard him say about the same thing, half-joking. Joseph declared very resolutely that the duty of frank and courageous opposition was abso lutely incumbent on us in the present circum stances. ' If our brother actually gets it into 77 History of The Louisiana Purchase his head to sell Louisiana with as little cere. mony as our dear father would have shown in selling a vineyard, and if therefore the Creoles over there wake up some fine morn ing good Americans, having gone to bed as Frenchmen the night before — what will they say, or rather what will they do ? ' ' Never mind that,' said I. 'They will say little and do nothing, good people that they are. The most of them will not be sorry to belong to a government which certainly will not sell them overnight.' 'All right,' said Joseph, ' but will Paris be satisfied ? ' ' Paris, I agree, will not gain as much ; but I believe it will swallow the pill without making faces, and will digest it still more quietly, particularly if the General continues hereabouts to be fortunate in war. If he allows himself to be beaten, which I do not think possible, it will be another thing.' ' Parbleu ! ' burst out Joseph, 'before getting so far as that this Monsieur Napoleon must hear from me.' The name Napoleon, says Lucien, had here tofore only struck my ear in my childhood, when our brother, the officer of artillery, was mentioned, and sometimes when our mother 78 How Jefferson Builded used it. [He seemed to hear it now for the first time as conveying an imperial sugges tion.] Joseph and I were both wrong — I in thinking the First Consul would not dare to sell Louisiana without parliamentary author ization ; he in thinking that the General would so dare, and fearing the disasters that would result to the family through the wrath of the nation." 79 CHAPTER V NAPOLEON AND JOSEPH BONAPARTE QUARREL OVER LOUISIANA Lucien continues : " It was growing late. The project of going to the play was aban doned, the clock striking midnight. Pedro brought us chocolate, a Spanish custom I had adopted during my embassy. Joseph for this time kept me company, and we separated after agreeing that I should go next morning to pay a visit to the First Consul, who thus far con tinued to receive us familiarly. Joseph was to follow soon without its appearing that we had planned it so. I was to break the ice as to the Louisiana matter, though not until the First Consul himself had led the way to it. Should I be asked if Joseph had broached the subject to me, I was to admit it, and might even say that Joseph had shown alarm. I was to follow my own judgment in replying 80 Napoleon and Joseph Quarrel to the suggestions the First Consul might throw out." [During the night Lucien brooded over the matter, feeling more strongly the impolicy of alienating Louisiana the more he thought about it, but holding himself to be as insig nificant as the fly on the coach-wheel as to any influence he could exert upon his powerful brother. Next morning, April 7th, Thursd ay :] " I went to the Tuileries, where I was with out delay led to the First Consul's apartments, who was at the moment taking a bath. I found him in excellent humor, straightway launching out into a description of the per formance of the previous evening, which he had attended. He was surprised and sorry that we had not joined him, because Talma, of whom we all were very fond, had shown great power. Then he added with much bonhomie: 'You might have seen, too, that the Parisians always bike to see me. In fact, I scarcely flattered myself they would ever become so sympathetic when I had to shoot them down that October day in 1795.* Ah, * The day when Napoleon, commanding for the Directory, first showed his quality. 6 81 History of The Louisiana Purchase that Gulrde-sac Dauphin ! Since then I have seen many battle-fields of different dimensions, God knows. But that one in the midst of Paris where the dead were all Frenchmen, sometimes gives me bad dreams. But to speak of pleasanter things, do you know what the street- wits said? It's droll but true. That the Cul-de-sac Dauphin was not a close at all, since it led straight to the Tuileries.' ' You proved it, my dear brother,' said Lucien, ' by going that way to install yourself there.' ' That's what I meant, you may well believe. Ah, those queer fellows, so light and forget ful ! But it's better so.' 'Yes,' I added, 'good and ill are forgotten almost in the same de gree. One might think that the waters of the Seine were like those of Lethe.' 'Ha! ha! you are always inclined to poetry. Well, I like that. I should be sorry to see you give that up entirely for politics.' 'I do not think,' said I, ' that one stands in the way of the other. Not to speak of David and Solo mon, who were undoubtedly poets, you your self, Citizen Consul, had not poetry begun to charm you ? Was it not, so to speak, the first glow that escaped from the flame of your 82 Napoleon and Joseph Quarrel genius? Almost all statesmen, financiers ex cepted, have begun by being poets. I was reading only the other day that the famous economist Turgot boasted of his fondness for novels.' For some unknown reason, as I re member with surprise, this reference to Turgot did not please him. ' Bah ! ' he exclaimed contemptuously. ' Turgot — Turgot ! ' and he mouthed the name so scornfully that I ha stened to say what was true, that if the Citizen Consul had been willing to take up poetry, he might have shone in it as in everything else he had undertaken. ' Well, yes,' said the First Consul, pleased, and rolling the bit of flattery under his tongue. 'Do you really remember, my dear Lucien, my first efforts ? ' 'I well remember them,' was the reply. ' Your story of our Cure de Gualdo charmed the whole family ; so, too, the wits in all the country round, as our uncle Archdeacon Lucien told us. How many times have I read it myself with delight and pride, for I was younger than all of them ! ' " Then we talked a little about Corsica, for which I noticed my brother cared less than I, France having absorbed him. He 83 History of The Louisiana Purchase spoke slightingly of the patriot Paoli, to my displeasure, which I expressed. ' Then why,' said the First Consul, 'have you abandoned him?' 'Because, brother, like you and Jo seph, I preferred France to England. The constitution — ' ' The constitution ! ' broke in the First Consul contemptuously. ' Have you ever seen an authentic copy of the plan which Jean Jacques Rousseau gave Paoli for Corsica ? ' 'I never heard it mentioned even.' ' It is a positive fact, Abbe Raynal told me that this document, as he knew, was a hotch potch where most principles called free were sacrificed.' Napoleon now referred to Lu cien's Jacobin sympathies, to which Lucien replied very seriously: 'Let me tell you, I have never deviated in the least from the opinions you have held. We have been good and sincere Republicans together — you glori ously at the head of our armies, I in our popular assemblies or at the parliamentary tribune. If you call me a Jacobin in the only sense appropriate to me, all right. I don't object. But I beg you not to class me with some kinds of modern Jacobins, whom I like no more than you do, as they know well.' 84 Napoleon and Joseph Quarrel If I had not been taken up with the Louisi ana matter, which I had been expecting he would start in upon, I should have refuted his accusation of Jacobinism with less moder ation. "Recurring to Paoli, I recalled to him what was true, that I had often heard him say Paoli was a great man on a smaE stage ; and that it was unfortunate, since he was one of those rare geniuses fitted to regenerate nations debased. 'Yes, I still have those thoughts sometimes,' said Napoleon, 'but I smother them ; for the farther I get from good Paoli, the better I understand that men are not born to be free.' ' Have you come to believe, then, that men are better off if lib erty belongs to one single man alone, to use in behalf of all, with good intentions ? In a word, would you have one single, absolute king, like a single, absolute God ? ' ' Ah ! there you go into metaphysics !' said the First Consul. ' I have no taste for them. Mathe matics has driven me more and more from that science, if there is one.' " [The dialogue went on, Lucien continually anxious to get upon Louisiana, yet dreading 85 History of The Louisiana Purchase to make the approach. In the desultory, in timate talk, Napoleon all the time immersed in the bath, which contained a large infusion of cologne, there were, as reported by Lucien, now touches of conceit, now of good-nature, now of cynicism.] "'Machiavelli is right,' burst out the First Consul. ' You must always live with your friends with the idea that they may some day be your enemies. He ought to have said, " you must live so with everybody." ' " It was almost time to come out of the bath, continues Lucien [one would indeed think so], and as yet there had been no men tion of Louisiana. As the opportunity for saying something drew toward an end my hesitation increased. The valet had already prepared the cloth in which to wrap his mas ter. I was about to leave the room, when Rustan [the famous Mameluke attendant] scratched like a cat at the door — a practise introduced a few weeks before at the Tuileries instead of knocking. The visitor for whom Rustan had put his nails to use at the door of the consular bath-room was no other than our brother Joseph. 'Let him come in, Napoleon and Joseph Quarrel said the First Consul; 'I shall stay in the bath a quarter of an hour longer.' He was accustomed to indulge inordinately in the bath when business did not press. I had time to make known to the newcomer that as yet I had not spoken of Louisiana, and I saw he was in doubt how to begin if our brother did not lead up to it." [In order to comprehend the scene which now took place, it must be remembered that the three brothers, though playing parts on a large stage, were nevertheless in their charac ters thorough Corsicans. The family tie was intensely strong; if one had been assailed, the others would have entered upon a fierce vendetta, no doubt, with all the exaggerated clannishness of the barbarous islanders. The attachment to the old mother, Letitia Ramo- lino, was noteworthy and interesting : brothers and sisters held together remarkably. The tradition nevertheless is that Pauline, Caro line, and Eliza scolded together like fishwives on slight occasion ; and the brothers, as we are about to see, sometimes all but laid hands upon each other in their wrath.] " The First Consul having settled back 87 History of The Louisiana Purchase into the perfumed water, we brothers mean time standing near, and the valet holding the sheet extended, Napoleon said to Joseph, ' Well, brother, have you spoken to Lucien ? ' ' What about ? ' said Joseph. ' Of our plan as to Louisiana, don't you know ? ' 'Of your plan, you mean, my dear brother. You can not have forgotten that far from being mine — ' ' Well, well, preacher,' broke in Napoleon, ' I don't need to discuss that with you, you are so obstinate. I like better to talk about serious things with Lucien; for, although he sometimes takes it into his head to go against me, he knows how to give up to my idea when I think fit to change his.' 'You are unjust enough,' said Joseph, 'to attribute to obstinacy what is the effect of wise reflection.' 'Then,' said I to Joseph, laughingly, ' that means that I hold my ideas so lightly I can easily be reasoned out of them.' 'Ah, my dear boy,' said Napoleon, 'don't fear that any one will accuse you of lightness. You are more likely to be nick named Ironhead (tete defer)? " [Some persiflage about the nickname Iron- head followed back and forth between Napo- 88 Napoleon and Joseph Quarrel leon and Lucien, during which Joseph ap peared bored.] "At last he broke in quite brusquely, 'Well, you say nothing more about your famous plan.' ' Yes,' said the First Consul, ' but it's late, and if Lucien is willing to wait with you in my cabinet, Mr. Faultfinder, I will join you soon. Please call back the va let ; I must get out of the bath at once. Only take note, Lucien, I have made up my mind to sell Louisiana to the Americans.' I thought it my cue to show only moderate surprise at this announcement, which I pretended was news, feeling sure that I should have reason to show more, as his determination appeared to sell it of his own accord, without any consultation of the Chambers. I simply ex claimed, ' Indeed ! ' in a tone of curiosity, indicating a wish to know more, expressing neither approval nor the contrary. This ap parent indifference caused Napoleon to say : ' Well, Joseph, you see Lucien does not utter loud cries about this thing. Yet he almost has a right to, seeing that Louisiana is, so to speak, his own conquest.' ' I assure you,' said Joseph, 'if Lucien says nothing, he thinks 89 History of The Louisiana Purchase none the less.' ' Indeed ! and why should he be diplomatic with me ? ' Brought forward thus unexpectedly, and, as it were, thrust against the wall, I had to explain myself; and really I was not sorry. But as Napoleon did not ask my opinion about the sale, I contented myself with declaring that I really thought on this matter as Joseph did. 'I undertake to say,' said I, in a tone which I tried to make as little offensive as possible, 'that the Chambers will not assent.' 'You undertake to say ! ' Napoleon said this with an air and tone of contemptuous surprise. ' A pretty piece of business ! ' ' And I un dertake to say,' said Joseph in a tone of tri umph, ' that it will be so. And that is what I told the First Consul before.' ' And what did I say ? ' said our brother, his wrath rising, looking at us by turns, as if not to lose any change in our countenances. ' You declared,' said Joseph, 'you would get along without the assent of the Chambers, did you not?' 'Exactly. That is what I took the liberty to say to Monsieur Joseph, and what I repeat here to Citizen Lucien, begging him to give me his opinion about it, derived from his 90 Napoleon and Joseph Quarrel paternal tenderness for that mighty diplo matic conquest of his.' " * [Let the reader dwell for a moment on the scene. The front of Napoleon with its black locks emerging from the water, his eyes afire with the battle-gleam as he turns them now this way, now that, his impetuous words rolling like a volley. He was now, at the age of thirty-four, in the height of his intellectual and physical vigor. His body, no longer marked by the emaciation of his earlier years, had not yet taken on the waxy corpulence of his later time ; his mind was never more alert; his will never more imperious. Lu cien's comment upon the moment is to this effect — that only those who have themselves undergone the blasting discharge of scorn and irony which alone of men this son of our father could deliver, can have any idea of its force. He remarks that he managed to stand up under it in the consciousness that his treaty was really a good and use ful piece of diplomatic work, and so re garded.] " The matter seemed about to be dropped, * Referring, of course, to Lucien's work at San Ildefonso. 91 History of The Louisiana Purchase and Joseph and I were turning toward the door, while the valet was spreading open the sheet to wrap up his master, when the latter, returning to the charge, suddenly cried out in a tone that made us all start : ' Well, sirs, think what you please about the sale of Louisiana ; but you may both of you put on mourning over this thing — you, Lucien, over the sale of your province ; you, Joseph, be cause I purpose to dispense with the consent of all persons whatsoever. Do you hear ? ' I confess that I fairly shivered at such an outbreak, on a topic so delicate in the pres ence of a servant. I kept still, however, but Joseph made a remark which caused a tre mendous tempest, not in a teapot, as the say ing is, but in the bath-tub of the man who was beginning to make all the sovereigns of Europe tremble. Stung by the scornful words and manner, especially by the con temptuous ' Do you hear ? ' which had been the cutting snapper to our brother's lashing wrath, Joseph rushed back, exclaiming : ' You will do well, my dear brother, not to lay your plan before the Chambers, for I swear to you I will myself, the first, put myself, if neces- 92 Napoleon and Joseph Quarrel sary, at the head of the opposition which will certainly be made.' " Continuing, Lucien says : " I was prepar ing to support Joseph, but in a somewhat less vehement tone, when I was stopped by an outburst from Napoleon of loud and sar castic laughter, at the end of which Joseph, flushed and almost beside himself, stooping over the figure that lay immersed, screamed out : ' Laugh, laugh, laugh, then ! All the same I shall do what I say ; and though I do not like to mount the tribune, this time you'll see me there.' At these words Napoleon, rising so as to show half his body out of the water opaque and frothy with cologne, cried sternly : ' You will not need to play the ora tor, for I repeat to you that this debate will not take place; because the plan so unlucky as to be disapproved by you, conceived by me, negotiated by me, will be ratified and ex ecuted by me — by me alone, do you under stand ? — by me, who scorn your opposition.' " The speaker then immersed himself once more to the neck; but Joseph, whose self- control was quite gone, his face all aflame, roared : ' Well, General, on my side I tell you 93 History of The Louisiana Purchase that you, I, and all of the family, if you do what you say you will, may get ready to join shortly those poor innocent devils whom you so legally, so humanely — above all, with so much justice — have had transported to Cayenne.' " [The reference was to certain alleged con spirators whom many thought harshly pun ished. Lucien says it was a home-thrust, and he longed to get away. But now came an aquatic explosion the consequences of which he escaped by being in the background, but which Joseph received the full force of — an explosion caused by the quick rising and plunging back of Napoleon so that the water dashed out in a flood on the floor. He thun dered at the same time, "You insolent fel low, I ought — " Lucien says he did not hear the rest of the sentence, if there was any more.] Excited though he was himself, he could not help remarking the contrast in his two exasperated brothers. While Joseph red dened with his fury, the pallor of Napoleon's face and breast only grew more marked. Feeling that he ought to play the part of 94 Napoleon and Joseph Quarrel conciliator in the wordy battle that had now become so violent, he hit out felicitously in discharging his part. Recalling the passage from the first book of the ^Eneid, in which Neptune chides the winds which, without his authority, have raised a great storm at sea, throwing himself into an appropriate at titude, he broke in with the sonorous lines : " Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri, Jam coelum terramque meo sine numine, Venti, Miscere et tantas andetis tollere moles ? Quos ego sed motos praestat componere fluctus." * Probably Lucien possessed in good meas ure the dramatic faculty belonging to his race and family, and gave an effective burlesque, set off with all proper gesture and facial play. His expedient, at any rate, drew the electricity from the cloud and discharged it harmlessly. The angry combatants sobered down. Joseph had received full in the face the splash from the tub, which had also drenched his clothes. While the valet was sponging him off he muttered with cooling * Are you so possessed of confidence in yourselves that you now dare without my sanction, O Winds, to confound heaven and earth and to pile up such masses ? Whom I — but first I must quiet the disturbed waves. 95 History of The Louisiana Purchase passion, "Anyhow, your god is a big fool (bienfou)V " But the god," says Lucien, " disarmed, or wishing to appear so, remarked to me in a way pleasantly responsive, ' You always have something that hits the occasion.' " The scene in the relating is absurdly gro tesque, but no doubt was really terrifying. The valet had been not long before in the service of Joseph, and had hurried to the help of his old master when the drenching occurred. But now he gave all the brothers a shock by falling to the floor in a fainting fit, for which probably the quarrel of the magnates which he had just witnessed, gave good excuse. The Bonapartes good-heartedly rushed to the rescue. Joseph hurried to pick him up from the floor ; Lucien rang the bell so hard that Rustan came in frightened, to find out what was the matter ; while the lips of Napoleon, just visible over the bath tub's edge, ejaculated sympathetically, "Car ry off the poor fellow, and take good care of him." Joseph and Lucien, helped by Rus tan and a new servant, got the man to his feet, as he slowly recovered. Lucien now 96 Napoleon and Joseph Quarrel offered to help the First Consul, but the help was declined. Joseph stood soaked and grumbling (bougonnant) in a corner, causing Napoleon to offer him, in a tone more cool than obliging, his own dressing-room to change his clothes ; to which Joseph replied still more coolly, that he should change at home. " Are you coming, Lucien ? " he asked me. " Did he get a splashing too ? " said the First Consul. "No," said I. "Do me the favor, then," said Napoleon, " of wait ing for me with Bourrienne. I want to talk with you. I'll be with you in a few mo ments." 97 CHAPTER VI THE QUARREL WITH LUCIEN The first part of the battle over the sale of Louisiana was finished. Joseph had been routed. Lucien, though present, had not been active, contenting himself, while his brothers fired the serious volleys with " mark ing time," so to speak.* He was not to es cape, however ; his turn had now come. " I went," he says, " to Bourrienne's cabi net at once, and found that insupportable tee totum (totillon) of a private secretary much stirred up at the First Consul's delay. See ing that he expected to get the reason from me, to avoid the ennui of his talk I plunged into a newspaper while waiting to be called. It was half an hour before Rustan appeared with a summons from his master. * Lucien's word is peloter, to play ball, or, idiomatically, to fill up time with something unimportant while one is waiting. 98 The Quarrel with Lucien " As soon as I appeared the First Consul said, employing the affectionate thee and thou (tutoyant) : ' I wanted to speak to thee without Joseph. I should be very sorry that thou hadst witnessed his manner toward me if we did not all know how irascible he is. Before the world he has so pleasant a way that the rest of us pass for tigers in compari son.' I replied that we all had indulgence for Joseph at such times, knowing his real gentleness, or rather good intentions. The usual quiet of his handsome face, I said, was the shining through of his beautiful soul. ' That's fine, very fine,' said the First Consul, quoting a line from Ariosto." [Lucien says his brother's affectionate manner almost made him hope for success in his cause as the advocate of the retention of Louisiana; but he was soon undeceived. Napoleon proceeded to give his reasons at some length for wishing to sell Louisiana, which Lucien unfortunately abridges. What he does give, however, well deserves reading.] "It was certainly worth while, urges Na poleon, first, to sell when you could what you were certain to lose, 'for the English, who 99 History of The Louisiana Purchase /have seen the colony given back to us with great displeasure, are aching for a chance to capture it, and it will be their first coup de main in case of war.' To this I replied that as regards selling what one fears to lose some day, it might do sometimes in private affairs, but not in public. As I looked at the honor of France, it was more disgraceful to sell Louisiana for $18,000,000 than to let it be taken in war. Frankly, I did not believe England then desired it. If the First Consul were not of my opinion, I did not see why, instead of giving up on such base conditions a colony of such importance, he did not profit by the peace and send troops there, as he had sent them to San Domingo. Napoleon replied, somewhat touched, ana dropping the ' thee ' and ' thou ' : ' But you did not believe in my San Domingo expedition.' I replied that I had not been satisfied with the treat ment given to Toussaint. ' Well, let me tell you,' said Napoleon, ' I am more ready than I like to be to confess to-day my regret at the San Domingo expedition. Our navy, so in ferior to that of our neighbors across the Channel, will always cause our colonies to be 100 The Quarrel with Lucien exposed to great risks.' ' Yes,' said I, ' espe cially if we force those neighbors to make war on us before we have increased our own navy. All who think as I do rejoice to see that you are giving some thought to that.' ' Yes, of course,' said the First Consul. ' I'm doing what I can. But trust me, our national glory will never come from our navy.' ' But formerly, not long ago,' said I. Here Napo leon broke in impatiently. ' Bah — bah ! for merly — but I am speaking of now.' He con tinued in a tone less sharp : ' You see our land forces have fought, and will fight victo riously against all Europe. But as to the sea, my dear fellow, you must know that there we have to lower the flag — we and all the powers of the continent. America perhaps some day —but I'll not' talk of that. The English navy is and long will be too dominant ; we shall not equal it.' ' But Colbert proved,' I said ; here Napoleon broke in with the rudest abruptness: 'Silence.!' (taisez-vous). 'Col bert—Colbert ! You talk like the Third Con sul, Lebrun, who always has Colbert on his tongue, or Sully, or George d'Amboise, all statesmen of the past, who, I assure you, would 101 History of The Louisiana Purchase have had a harder time in my place. Know well that the desire to fight England on the sea by no means enters into my thoughts — in the first place, because I am in no condi tion to command myself. If I have great faith in French valor, I have none the less in my own happy star. I count positively on victory only when I command myself. See the blunders (sottises) that have been made when I have been out of the way.' " [This outbreak, so characteristically Napoleonic — his self-confidence escaping conceit only by being so sublimely colossal — greatly scandal ized Lucien, who says his brother too often fell into this tone ; and cites the names of Hoche, Marceau, Kellermann, Moreau, Brune, Championnet, Bernadotte, Mass6na, and the rest, commanders of the fourteen armies of the Republic, as not deserving to be thus depreciated. The First Consul, discussing still further what he called his Louisianicide, in a mocking way, gave a reason for selling which Lucien believes to have been the chief one — the pretended necessity of getting funds ready for the war which he foresaw. This was very repulsive to Lucien, who declares a 102 The Quarrel with Lucien war of conquest was meditated, " for I wish to have it well understood that I do not believe my brother ever made war in spite of himself at any time whatever. I know too well his secret thoughts, particularly at the time I am considering."] " ' So then,' said Napoleon, dropping again into an affectionate manner, 'if I am to be lieve Joseph, and also what thou sayest, thou wilt range thyself with him against me in case I should submit my plan for selling the much-loved Louisiana.' Lucien was softened by the affectionate ' thou,' but did not recede, whereupon the First Consul bristled again. 'As you please. Cease the miserable cavil ing which you and Joseph are at work on night and day, ridiculous for him, and still less appropriate for you. It is not from you that I expect lessons in government. Enough ! Forget all you have said about it. I shall contrive to dispense with you. A precious, well-disposed pair of brothers you are ! ' I remained silent, says Lucien. His taunting tone of contemptuous superiority was harder to bear than if he had actually assaulted me. I began to think he would give me no further 103 History of The Louisiana Purchase chance to return to the matter I had so much at heart. He seemed to wish me to go, turn ing over papers on his desk, and looking at me askance from under his eyebrows (en des- sous) now and then. Forming a plan which was destined to turn out badly, I thought I might bring him back to Louisiana by a little brotherly soothing, which might come in nat urally enough after what he had just said about Joseph and me. Responding rather languidly to my affectionate advance, he threw himself into an armchair with a tired air, telling me also to sit down, which I did in a chair close at hand, with a sincere desire not to trouble him though returning a, mes mou- tons. Taking his hand, which he abandoned to me listlessly, not answering to the friendly pressure which I gave, 'Believe me well, dear brother,' said I, ' fraternal devotion can not go farther than that which I feel for you.' ' H'm ! ' he replied. ' Devotion proves itself by deeds when the opportunity comes. I don't at all say that you have always failed me here ; but you fail me now on this point to which I attach great importance. But we only waste time. Dispense with your fine prot- 104 The Quarrel with Lucien estations.' 'But let me assure you again,' replied Lucien, ' my devotion is deep enough to sacrifice everything for you, except my duty.' ' Except, you mean, all you please to except,' said the First Consul, scorn once more gathering. ' No, brother,' said Lucien. ' If I believed, for example, this sale of Louisi ana would be fatal to me alone, I would con sent to it to prove to you the devotion which you doubt. But it is too unconstitutional.' "Napoleon broke here into a fit of the rasping, sarcastic, almost convulsive laughter to which he sometimes gave way in moments of excitement. It did not come from the open throat (deployee), says Lucien, but as if forced from the depths of his chest, cutting off his utterances as he had cut me off. ' Ha- ha-ha! You are drawing it fine. For ex ample ! ' Lucien began to fear the roughest possible explosion as his brother's words struggled out in the intervals of his cachin- natory spasm. ' Ha-ha-ha ! For example ! ' repeated he, catching his breath. ' Unconsti tutional ! That's droll from you — a good joke — ha-ha ! ' And the outbursts went on less forced, but not more natural. I sat mute, 105 History of The Louisiana Purchase says Lucien, quite stupefied at the irritation which I had unwittingly produced. An ex pression of ironical and contemptuous rage passed over Napoleon's face following this nervous and uncanny gaiety. Conscious, says Lucien, that I deserved his esteem more than his contempt, I was determined not to be driven from my word 'unconstitutional,' by which I had only meant to justify myself, or at least to soften my resistance to his will. I coolly said, therefore, I was astonished that he could treat so mockingly so great a sub ject. ' Do let that rest,' he cried, shrugging his shoulders. 'How have I touched your constitution ? Answer.' ' I know well,' said Lucien, 'you have not done so; but you know well that to alienate any possession of the Republic without the consent of the Chambers is unconstitutional. The expres sion of such a thought by the august repre sentative of the national sovereignty, who until now has been its most glorious defender, is a subject for astonishment. In a word, the constitution ' " The last phrase brought upon Lucien a most emphatic " Clear out ! " (allez-vous prom- 106 The Quarrel with Lucien ener), the wrathful Napoleon just stopping short of a bodily attack. The brothers, we may be sure, had by this time sprung to their feet. " These precise words/' says Lucien, " were then thundered forth: 'Constitution! I7n- constitutional ! Republic ! National sover eignty ! Great words — fine phrases ! Do you think you are still at the club of St. Maximin? We are past that, you had bet ter believe. Parbleu ! You phrase it nobly. Unconstitutional ! It becomes you well, Sir Knight of the Constitution, to talk that way to me. You hadn't the same respect for the Chambers on the eighteenth Brumaire.'1* Here Lucien broke in in a tone as high as Napoleon's : ' You well know, my dear brother, that your entry into the Five Hun dred had no warmer opponent than I. No, I was not your accomplice, but the repairer of the evil which you had done to yourself ; and that at my own peril, and with some generosity on my part because we did not * Lucien, who at the little village of St. Maximin, in south ern France, had been a Jacobin leader, had helped bring the Directory to an end November 9, 1799. 107 History of The Louisiana Purchase then agree. Not to boast, I may add that no one more than I in Europe has disapproved the sacrilege against the national representa tion.' Lucien says he read the effect of his words in his brother's eyes, which flamed like great diamonds brilliant in themselves. He declares he was not angry himself ; and his blood being up, he did not fear to expose him self to the First Consul's wrath. He repeated firmly : ' Yes, unconstitutional attempt upon the national sovereignty.' ' Go on — go on,' cried Napoleon, ' that's quite too fine a thing to be cut short, Sir Orator of the clubs ! But at the same time take note of this, you and Monsieur Joseph, that I shall do just as I please ; that I detest without fearing them your friends the Jacobins, not one of whom shall remain in France if, as I hope, things con tinue to rest in my hands — and that, in fine, I snap my fingers at you and your national representation ! ' " Greatly scandalized," says Lucien, " as may well be believed, at this outburst, for I was still in all the naivete of my republican ism, I replied as coolly as I could : ' On my side, Citizen Consul, I do not snap my fingers 108 The Quarrel with Lucien at you, but I well know what I think about you.' 'What you think about me, Citizen Lucien ? Par bleu ! I am curious to know. Out with it.' ' I think, Citizen Consul, that having sworn to the Constitution of the eighteenth Brumaire, as president of the Council of Five Hundred, and seeing you despise it thus, if I were not your brother I would be your enemy.' ' My enemy ! ' thun dered Napoleon. ' Try it once. That's rather strong,' and he made a movement toward me as if to strike me a blow. To this day I thank God that he did not strike me, for I would not have endured it. He paused, how ever, before the coolness with which I faced him. ' Thou my enemy ! ' he screamed. ' Look, I would dash you to the earth as I do this box.' He had in his hand his snuff-box, in the lid of which was Isabey's miniature of Josephine. This he flung violently to the floor. It did not break, being received on the carpet; but the portrait fell out of the cover. I hastened to pick it up, and present ing it to Napoleon in a manner which I forced myself to make respectful, said : ' It's too bad. It's your wife's picture, not your brother, that 109 History of The Louisiana Purchase you have broken.' " Lucien says he now re tired backward toward the door, not to con form to an etiquette as yet not established at the Tuileries, but to keep in his eye this friend or enemy, as the case might be. The First Consul, however, did not follow up his begin ning. Instead, he carefully picked up the box, and Lucien saw through the door, which he left open as he went away, that Napoleon was trying to put the picture back into the lid. This made him think his brother was not so angry as he wished to appear.* " Turning it over, I made up my mind that Napoleon was trying to terrify me by this spectacle of extreme wrath, hoping to over come my opposition. To this view I am all the more inclined, because my brother often, especially in scenes where he figured with splendor, posed as a great actor. Not at all that I believe, as some have alleged, that he * Josephine, West Indian Creole and very superstitious as she was, was much disturbed by this incident. The impending divorce was already casting its shadow before. She consulted a famous fortune-teller, Mile. Le Norm ant, as to what it was best to do, who suggested covering the miniature which had run such risk with a duplicate by the same artist. This was done ; the box with the double portrait is said to be still ex tant. 110 The Quarrel with Lucien shut himself up with our common friend, the great actor Talma, to prearrange the effect of such and such oratorical gestures, or, indeed, of the folds and carriage of the imperial mantle. No ; in my view, he was charged with the dramatic instinct, but his acting was always offhand (improvise), based on the cir cumstances in which he found himself. I ought, however, to confess that this scene of the broken snuff-box was so well played in its fury as to puzzle me about his real feel ing. I am sure that what I said displeased him deeply." " What else took place," says Lucien, " as regards the sale of Louisiana has no more personal relation to me." He makes a brief reference to another scene between the First Consul and Joseph, which indicates that the latter did not at all regard himself as routed at the engagement of the bath-tub. At the end of an argument the First Consul had be come angry, and enlarged on his grievances, before which Joseph showed himself un abashed. He drove at his brother, on the contrary, with such vehemence that Napoleon was forced to leave the field, seeking refuge 111 History of The Louisiana Purchase in the apartments of Josephine. But out of all this hot discussion, in which the fate of a colony was concerned, nothing came, says Lu cien, except a little greater haste in the exe cution of his calamitous plan — the sale of Louisiana for a few millions, destined to be applied to an insensate strife against Europe. Lucien concludes, writing at a time long after, in a tone which will seem to all frater nal in spirit, and just and moderate in its judgment : " In spite of all the harm done me by this brother of mine, who became all-pow erful, and in spite of the tyrannical acts with which his glorious memory has too justly been reproached, I believe that far from hav ing a tyrant's heart his nature was funda mentally good. Pushed to an extreme of power which he did not desire himself, he might with impunity have done much more than he did, encouraged and approved by flatterers. I firmly believe he deserves thanks as much, and more even, for the evil which he did not do, having all power to do it, as for the good which can really be ascribed to him in many of the startling crises of his career." 112 CHAPTER VH LIVINGSTON AT PARIS The great event was at hand ; but before describing the critical moment of the trans fer, it will be interesting to take a look at the envoy of America, as he waits in that troubled and excited world of Paris, watching and laboring for an issue to the affair which may be of benefit to his country. Jefferson never did better than in the selection of Robert R. Livingston to represent America in this crisis. Of a distinguished line in which Scotch and Dutch were blended, he himself from an early age had shown remark able powers and rendered extraordinary pub lic services. He had been on the Committee of Five for drafting the Declaration of Inde pendence ; he had presided at the convention at which New York adopted the Federal Constitution, bringing about the favorable s 113 History of The Louisiana Purchase result by his influence. As Chancellor of New York he had administered the oath to Washington at his inauguration ; and first of men had hailed him as he stood in the su preme place, " Long live George Washington, President of the United States ! " In the full strength of his powers he was now set to conduct a most arduous and embarrassing negotiation, which he carried through in a manner to confirm his title to high fame. When he finally left Eu rope, in 1805, Napoleon assured him of his re gard, bestowing upon him one of those taba- tieres (snuff-boxes) which in that day appeared now and then in con nection with interesting events. This snuff-box, too, like the one de scribed by Lucien, was set magnificently with diamonds, and had in its lid a miniature by Isabey — this time a picture of Napoleon himself. American dis tinctions, too, were not wanting, and the 114 Livingston at Paris Commonwealth of New York could not have chosen better then to set a statue of him — as she did at a later time — in the hall at Washington, as one of her two typical great men. But when Livingston began, in the fall of 1801, his work as envoy in Paris, the path before him was beset indeed by thorns. Of his course, his letters to the administration, contained in the Annals of Congress,* give a full account, and are often interesting reading. As has been mentioned, an important part of the work expected from Livingston was to obtain payment of the spoliation claims — the reimbursement of American merchants for property taken from them by the French when the two nations had been at peace. France had admitted the justice of the claims, but payment was withheld. In addition to this business, the envoy was charged with the negotiation for the mouths of the Mississippi, New Orleans, and the Floridas — a matter which almost at once, when in November the news was spread that France was treating * Seventh Congress, second session, Appendix. 115 History of The Louisiana Purchase with Spain for the cession of Louisiana, be came of the utmost importance. December 10th, Livingston writes Madi son, he has heard the story, but that Talley rand, Minister of Foreign Affairs, has denied it. "He seemed at first inclined to waive the subject; but when he found I pressed more closely, he admitted that it had been a subject of conversation, but nothing had been concluded or even resolved on in that affair. I left him with a hint that perhaps both France and Spain might find a mutual inter est in ceding the Floridas to the United States." Lucien Bonaparte's treaty for the cession had been arranged at San Ildefonso March 21st preceding ; but it may palliate the prevarication of Talleyrand, that the treaty when he spoke, and long after, lacked the signature of the king, and therefore was un ratified. Livingston finds abundant reasons for believing the cession has been made, and that an armament is preparing to occupy Louisiana. "By the secrecy and duplicity practised relative to this object, it is clear to me that they apprehend some opposition on the part of America to their plans. But I 116 Livingston at Paris have declared that as long as France con forms to the existing treaty between us and Spain (Godoy's treaty of 1795), we do* not consider ourselves as having any interest in opposing the exchange." * Livingston's thought seems to be that France as a neigh bor will be as little dangerous as Spain, but as time goes on the tone in his papers changes. The famous Bernadotte, it is reported, is to command the Louisiana expedition, and has asked for ten thousand men. " I have pressed an explanation on the subject, but have re ceived no answer." f The exchange others think can not be looked upon as a matter of indifference. " Has it occurred to you," writes Rufus King, Minister to England, to Madi son, " that the French Government will prob ably send thither a large body of people from France, and that it may add to them all the refractory and discontented blacks and per sons of color of their West Indian colonies ? " % Throughout the spring of 1802 Livingston is on the alert, though, as will presently be seen, he is less apprehensive as to a good result than others. He besets Talleyrand incessantly, * January 13, 1803. f February 26th. 1 February 27th. 117 Histc ry of The Louisiana Purchase with 3 forever baffled by the minister's indi camfm. From other sources he learns of the ",aration of Bernadotte's expedition, and gor mmends the occupation of Natchez, to ra re in case of need, as a substitute for New it leans. "No time should be lost in throw- fig obstructions in the way." * During the summer Livingston began the writing of a series of papers elaborately set ting forth the inexpediency for France of an effort to seize and colonize Louisiana; and insisting, if the cession from Spain were com pleted, that the territory ought to be sold to the United States. These papers are well- reasoned and vigorously expressed documents, thoroughly worthy the attention of the stu dent of this affair, f Livingston was assured by Joseph Bonaparte, with whom he became well acquainted, that they came under the eye of Napoleon. One thinks that the good opinion which Napoleon had of Livingston must have been largely based upon the im pression made upon him by these able discus- * May 28th. f See Appendix A for a specimen of Livingston's work in this kind. 118 Livingston at Paris sions. Though it was widely believed that the First Consul took counsel only of himself, it was not at all the case that he neglected in reaching his conclusions such lights as he might gain from the sensible and well-in formed. Meantime the envoy had no reason to feel that any outcome favorable to his country was likely. It became known that Victor, a general still more vigorous, had re placed Bernadotte at the head of the expedi tion, and that preparations were nearly com plete. Talleyrand gave assurance that no arrangement with the United States was pos sible, and Livingston thus voiced his own con victions to Madison at home : " There never was a Government where less could be done by negotiation than here. There is no peo ple, no legislature, no counselors. One man is everything. He seldom asks advice and never hears it unasked. His ministers are mere clerks, and his legislature and counsel ors parade officers. Though the sense of every reflecting man about him is against this wild expedition, no one dares to tell him so. Were it not for the uneasiness it excites at home it would give me none, for I am per- 119 History of The Louisiana Purchase suaded that the whole will end in a relin quishment of the country, and transfer of the capital to the United States. Their islands call for much more than France can ever fur nish. The extreme hauteur of this Govern ment to all around them will not suffer peace to be of long continuance." * Livingston's expressed conviction in this passage that the affair must end in a relin quishment of the whole territory by France, and a transference of it to us, is an interest ing flash of prophecy. He saw the approach of all-absorbing European war. Without his knowledge, too, while he wrote, those potent and direful agents, the blacks and the yellow fever, were at work in San Domingo. When he next wrote to his chief the outlook for America was clearing; from the misfor tunes of France great benefits were to accrue to us. " The Mississippi business, though all the officers are appointed, and the army under orders, has met with a check. The army under orders is obstructed for the moment. Events may possibly arise of which we may avail ourselves." f At the moment when he * September 1st. f October 28th. 120 Livingston at Paris wrote Le Clerc was at the point of death, and scarcely 1,200 of the host he had commanded still kept their feet. A passage follows con cerning an interview with Joseph Bonaparte, who plainly, from what we know of his real views on the alienation of Louisiana, is guarded and politic in his talk with the American. " I had, two days ago, a very interesting conversation with Joseph Bonaparte, having put into his hands a copy of the Memoir on Louisiana which I sent the Secretary of State. I took occasion to tell him that the interest he had taken in settling the differences be tween our respective countries had entitled him to our confidence, and that I should take the liberty to ask his advice in matters that were likely to disturb the harmony that sub sisted between our respective republics. He seemed pleased at the compliment, and told me that he would receive with pleasure any communication I could make ; but as he would not wish to appear to interfere with the minister, he begged that my communica tion might be informal and unsigned — exactly what I wished, because I should act with less 121 History of The Louisiana Purchase danger of committing myself, and, of course, with more freedom. He added : ' You must not, however, suppose my power to serve you greater than it actually is ; my brother is his own counselor ; but we are good brothers ; he hears me with pleasure ; and as I have access to him at all times, I have an oppor tunity of turning his attention to a particular subject that might otherwise be passed over.' I then asked him if he had read my notes on Louisiana. He told me that he had, and that he had conversed upon the subject with the First Consul, who, he found, had read them with attention ; that his brother had told him he had nothing more at heart than to be on the best of terms with the United States." Whether in this interview Joseph was quite frank may well be doubted ; but it is pretty good evidence that the First Consul and his entourage thought it worth while to weigh well Livingston's words. The sky still continued dark; the expe dition was still threatened ; the best that Livingston could write at the end of the year was : " Do not absolutely despair." * The news * December 23d. 122 Livingston at Paris of the abrogation of the right of deposit en joyed by Americans at New Orleans, the act of the intendant, Morales, which so aroused America toward the end of 1802, stirred Livingston to vigorous remonstrance. Re garding the French occupancy as now in evitable, seeking the best terms he could, he urged with all his might the conclusion of a treaty through which the United States might have what she desired, the Floridas and the mouths of the Mississippi, adding also this recommendation, which deserves particular notice : " Let France cede to the United States so much of Louisiana as lies above the mouth of the river Arkansas. By this a barrier will be placed between the colony of France and Canada, from which she may other wise be attacked. . . . Let her retain the coun try lying on the west of the Mississippi and below the Arkansas River — a country capable of supporting fifteen millions of inhabitants." * It is noteworthy, indeed, that only in this suggestion, repeated by him at other times, does Livingston manifest any thought for or interest in the great Northwest, the coming * January 10, 1803. 123 History of The Louisiana Purchase of which to us has proved in subsequent years so immeasurably the most important part of the bargain. It is also noteworthy that no other statesman than Livingston makes mention of it as a thing desirable ; and examining the matter more closely, it is inter. esting to see that even Livingston at first had no premonition of the greatness and wealth that was to come to pass in that unbroken wilderness. This is proved by a passage in a letter written soon after.* " M. Talleyrand asked me this day, when pressing the subject, whether we wished to have the whole of Louisiana. I told him no ; that our wishes ex tended only to New Orleans and the Floridas ; that the policy of France should dictate (as I had shown in an official note) to give us the country above the river Arkansas, in order to place a barrier between them and Canada. He said that if they gave New Orleans the rest would be of little value." In this opinion of Talleyrand, Livingston at that moment seems to concur. If the United States should possess the vast Northwest it would be an advantage to France as a barrier against * April 11th. 124 Livingston at Paris the British, though scarcely an advantage to the United States. We shall see, however, that at a time close at hand the eyes of Liv ingston were opened — that almost alone in his generation, with noble, prophetic inspira tion, he foresaw and declared the develop ment that was to come. Livingston's communications to Talley rand in the early months of 1803 put the American view with great force and courage. We want the Floridas and New Orleans ; the unobstructed navigation of the Mississippi is indispensable. Let France beware, for her policy will certainly result in disaster ; in the draining of her population to people a waste, in the sacrifice of armies and resources, in the final surrender of Louisiana, in the loss to France of the friendship of the United States. Your present policy, Monsieur le Ministre des Affaires ^Jtrangeres, can result in no other way than, in Jefferson's phrase, " to marry us to the British fleet and nation." With such representations Livingston pressed Talley rand ; he opened also other channels of com munication with the First Consul — through Joseph Bonaparte, through Barbe-Marbois, 125 History of The Louisiana Purchase Minister of the Treasury (who had served in America, and who was an old friend), and through Bernadotte. The latter, having been replaced by Victor in command of the Louisi ana expedition, was now expecting to sail at once to America as envoy to Washington. Spain, too, was not neglected ; through the Spanish ambassador at Paris pressure was brought to bear upon Madrid against the course which things were taking. The American representative had nothing to reproach himself with as regarded the dis charge of his duty ; and it was natural that he should have felt, with anxiety and sorrow, that, after all his work and exasperation in struggling with the baffling duplicity of Tal leyrand's diplomacy and the headstrong pur pose of the First Consul, he found his consid eration was sinking both in France and America, and that he was about to be super seded. Bernadotte was to . go as envoy to Washington to negotiate matters there, which he in Paris should have been em powered to take care of. He complains of the indefiniteness of his instructions; and when at last news arrives of the appointment 126 Livingston at Paris of James Monroe as Minister Extraordinary, set directly over his head, no wonder that to a man of such spirit it became an occasion of wrath. As the reader knows, Jefferson, in appointing Monroe, had especially in view the quieting of excitement in the West and South over the closing of the Mississippi by Morales ; to name a popular man for a special mission, it was thought, would have a good effect, and, as we have seen, it proved to be an admirable stroke of policy. But Living ston, three thousand miles distant, receiving news only after months of delay, could not know all this, and it is natural that in his correspondence at this time there should be touches of grief and temper. " I can not but wish, sir, that my fellow citizens should not be led to .believe from Mr. Monroe's appoint ment that I had been negligent of their inter ests, or too delicate on any of the great points entrusted to my care. I trust that a com munication of my notes to some of them would show that I had gone as far as possible for me to go, and perhaps further than my in structions would justify." * * March 18th. 127 History of The Louisiana Purchase But Livingston's long labor was about to end, the denouement being now at hand of the knot which had been so sorely perplex ing. On the 11th of April Talleyrand start led the envoy by the inquiry whether the United States would buy the whole of Louisi ana, and what price it would be willing to pay. What lay back of the changed attitude of the minister the narrative of Lucien as to the determination which the First Consul had at this time reached, makes sufficiently plain. Livingston declares he assured Tal leyrand " that we were not disposed to trifle ; that the times were critical, and though I did not know what instructions Mr. Monroe might bring, I was perfectly satisfied they would require a precise and prompt notice; that I was very fearful, from the little prog ress I had made, that my Government would consider me as a very indolent negotiator. He laughed, and told me that he would give me a certificate that I was the most importu nate he had met with." With this little touch of good nature — rare enough, no doubt, in this arch schemer — Talleyrand steps off the scene, so far as our 128 Livingston at Paris story is concerned. Now that a new policy was to be followed, Napoleon had a helper at hand whom he thought more trustworthy. Livingston, too, retires from the first place, for Monroe had arrived charged with the latest purposes of the administration. Living ston's work had been well and faithfully done, and no chapter of our diplomatic history is more memorable and interesting than the long struggle which preceded the Louisiana settlement. His work as a man of affairs was not less important than as a statesman. Returning to America, after an interval he became the main support of Robert Fulton in the application of steam to locomotion, one of the most momentous of human inventions. His life, full of illustrious service, ended in 1813. 129 CHAPTER VIII LOUISIANA SOLD What may be called the secret history of Napoleon's determination to sell Louisiana has been sufficiently dwelt upon ; so, too, the battle of Livingston, so long hopeless, in the diplomatic closets at Paris. Returning to the public aspects, we have fortunately an authority to follow, of high character, whose opportunities for knowledge were of the best. Francois, Marquis de Barbe-Marbois, had been before the Revolution Consul-General in the United States, marrying there an American wife and enjoying the friendship and respect of many prominent men. He became afterward civil administrator of San Domingo, whence returning to France he was made mayor of his native city, Metz, and during the Revolution a member of the Council of Ancients. As the storm grew 130 Louisiana Sold violent, his moderate opinions caused his exile to Cayenne. With the fall of the Di rectory he was recalled, receiving at once a high position. He was made Minister of the Treasury through the influence of the Third Consul, Lebrun, and at once won the confi dence of Napoleon, who now, as his Louisiana perplexities became embarrassing, took him into his counsels and entrusted him, rather than Talleyrand, with the management of the affair. Barbe-Marbois, though in official life, grew less friendly to Napoleon at a later time, and became Minister of Justice under the regime that succeeded him. In his after life, which lasted until 1837, he wrote a his tory of Louisiana and its alienation from France, which is a book of marked ability. Following the account of Barbe-Marbois,* the declarations of Napoleon, who had, we know, just before fought the battle out with Joseph and Lucien, are direct and confident. He consulted his ministers ; but before calling this conference he had denounced the claims of England to be " mistress of the seas," and had said " to free the world from the com- * History of Louisiana, translation, pp. 260, etc. 131 History of The Louisiana Purchase mercial tyranny of England it is necessary to oppose to her a maritime power which will one day become her rival. It must be the United States. The English aspire to dis pose of all the riches of the world. I shall be useful to the entire universe if I can pre vent them from dominating America as they dominate Asia." On Easter Sunday, April 10, 1803, Na poleon, having attended service, summoned Barb^-Marbois and Decres, Minister of the Marine, who also had had an American ex perience. He addressed to them his request for advice in what was really a demand for their assent to his plans, " made with vehe mence and passion," which did not invite ar gument. The first declaration of his purposes is thus given by Marbois : "I know the worth of Louisiana and I have wished to repair the error of the French negotiator who abandoned it in 1762. I have recovered it on paper through some lines in a treaty ; but I have hardly done so when I am about to lose it again. But if it escapes me, it shall one day be a dearer cost to those who force me to give it up than the 132 Louisiana Sold cost to those to whom I will surrender it. The English have successively taken from France, Canada, the Isle Royal, Newfound land, Acadia, and the richest territories of Asia. They are intriguing and disturbing in San Domingo. They shall not have the Mississippi, which they covet. Louisiana is nothing in comparison with their aggrandize ment in all parts of the globe ; but the jeal ousy they feel because of its return under the dominion of France warns me that they intend to seize it, and it is thus they will be gin the war. They have already twenty ves sels in the Gulf of Mexico. They swagger over those seas as sovereigns : and in San Domingo, since the death of LeClerc, our af fairs are going from bad to worse. The con quest of Louisiana will be easy if they will only take the trouble to descend upon it. I have not a moment to lose in putting it out of their power. I do not know but what they are there already. That is their usual way of doing things: and as for me, if I were in their place, I certainly would not have waited. I wish to take away from them even the idea that they will ever be able to ' 133 History of The Louisiana Purchase own this colony. I contemplate turning it over to the United States. I should hardly be able to say I had ceded it to them, for we are not yet in possession of it. But even a short delay may leave me nothing but a vain title to transmit to these Republicans, whose friendship I seek. They are asking me for but a single city of Louisiana, but I already regard the whole colony as lost, and it seems to me that in the hands of this rising power it will be more useful to the politics. and even to the commerce of France than if I attempt to keep it." Decres opposed the sale, but Barb6-Mar- bois favored it, arguing the matter at length, ably and with full knowledge of the situa tion. Napoleon broke off the conference for the time, but at daybreak of the 11th, Barbe- Marbois, being suddenly summoned, found Napoleon busy with despatches which had just arrived from England, giving news that both on land and sea warlike preparations were being pushed with extraordinary ra pidity. "Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in season," he broke out. " It is not 134 Louisiana Sold only New Orleans I will cede ; it is the whole colony, without any reservation. I know the value of what I abandon, and I have suffi ciently proved the importance I attach to this province, since my first diplomatic act with Spain had for its object the recovery of it. I renounce it with the greatest regret. To at tempt obstinately to retain it would be folly. I direct you to negotiate this affair with the envoys of the United States. Do not even await the arrival of Mr. Monroe ; have an interview this very day with Mr. Livingston ; but I require a great deal of money for this war, and I would not like to commence it with new taxes. For a hundred years France and Spain have been spending money in Louisiana for which its trade has never in demnified them. ... I will be moderate, in consideration of the necessity in which I am of making the sale. I want 50,000,000 francs, and for less than that sum I will not treat ; I would rather make a desperate attempt to keep these fine countries. To-morrow you shall have your full powers." Napoleon paused here, but when one of his hearers, probably Marbois himself, spoke 135 History of The Louisiana Purchase of the difficulties of selling "what the Ger mans call souls," he continued : " There you go, with your ideology — the rights of nature and of man. But I need money to make war on a nation which has it in abundance. Send your doctrines to London. I am sure they will be the object of great admiration there — and that they will not pay the least attention to them when it is a question of seizing the best parts of Asia." Here no doubt, though Marbois does not report it, came the hard scornful laugh. " Perhaps it may be objected," he went on, "that the Americans will be found too powerful for Europe in two or three cen turies. But my foresight takes no count of terrors at a distance. Moreover, you can look to the future for dissensions in the bosom of the Union. The confederations which are called perpetual only endure until one of the parties to the contract finds reason to break it. It is against present dangers to which we are exposed by the colossal powers of England that I wish to provide a safe guard." Marbois making no reply, Napoleon con- 136 Louisiana Sold tinued : " Mr. Monroe is on the point of ar riving. To this minister, going two thousand leagues from his constituents, the President must have given, after defining the object of his mission, secret instructions, more extensive than the ostensible authorization of Congress, for the stipulation of the payments to be made. Neither this minister nor his colleague is prepared for a decision which goes infinitely beyond anything that they are about to ask of us. Begin by making them the overture without any subterfuge. You will acquaint me day by day, hour by hour, of your progress. The cabinet of London is informed of the measures adopted at Washington, but it can have no suspicion of those which I am now taking. Observe the greatest secrecy, and recommend it to the American ministers ; they have not less interest than ourselves in conforming to this counsel." Marbois began conferences at once with Livingston, who had no power to act. The first object of Livingston's mission, it will be remembered, had been to obtain satisfaction for what were known as the French spoliation claims — demands of payment for damages 137 History of The Louisiana Purchase inflicted upon American merchants in John Adams's time, when warlike operations be tween the United States and France actually began. The postponements and supercilious ness of Talleyrand had irritated Livingston much, and he felt at first that the new propo sitions as to Louisiana were only to gain time. The two negotiators, however, got at last upon the topic of the amount to be paid, Livingston regarding as excessive anything beyond 30,000,000 francs, to which, however, might possibly be added a sum to be paid as indemnity to Americans for the spoliations. Though Napoleon had first mentioned 50,- 000,000 francs as a proper amount, he after ward put it at 100,000,000, a sum which Mar bois believed excessive. In the midst of the bargaining Monroe arrived at Havre, and reached Paris on April 12th. Livingston was still hopeless, in spite of the representations of Marbois, and declared that he wished the proposition made by Ross in the Senate, to descend upon New Orleans with an army, had been adopted. "We must use force. Let us first acquire the country and negotiate afterward." 138 Louisiana Sold Next day Marbois met the two Americans, to both of whom he was an old friend. In Livingston's letter of that date is a graphic touch, telling how, as the two Americans were at dinner, Marbois was descried from the window walking in the garden, and at once invited in. The conference was greatly helped by their pleasant relation, though each negotiator had careful regard for the interests of his Government. As the First Consul's determination became apparent, to part with the whole of Louisiana, the Americans were astonished. The negotiation had three ob jects : First, the cession; second, the price; and third, the satisfaction of the spoliation claims. It was determined to make three treaties. As to the cession, Monroe and Livingston were embarrassed by the fact that their in structions related only to the mouths and east bank of the Mississippi ; also, that there was no opportunity for ascertaining the dis position of the people of Louisiana, They soon, however, took the enlarged responsi bility, going so far as to augment the sum they had been authorized to offer. There was no time for delay; decision must come at 139 History of The Louisiana Purchase once or the English would be at New Orleans. The American envoys were at first troubled by the vagueness of the boundaries of the territory to be ceded, to a large extent utterly unexplored. This they became reconciled to ; and when Marbois spoke of the indefiniteness to Napoleon, he bluffly declared " that if an obscurity did not exist it would be well to put one there." A stipulation which Marbois says was proposed by Napoleon himself, provided that the Louisianians should straightway be in corporated into the Union, with all the rights of American citizens. When left to his nat ural disposition he was, says the ministeA always inclined to an elevated and gener-\ ous justice. "Let the Louisianians know," \ he cried, "that we separate ourselves from them with i regret ; that we stipulate for everything they can desire ; and let them here after, happy in their independence, recollect that they have been Frenchmen, and that^ France in ceding them has secured^for thenr" advantages which no European power, how ever paternal, could have afforded. Let them retain love for us; and may our common 140 Louisiana Sold origin, language, and customs perpetuate the love." Marbois dwells upon the treaty of cession article by article. The pledge given to Spain at San Bdefonso, that Louisiana should never be alienated by France without Spain's con sent, he declares was disregarded because despatch was imperative, and there was no time to consult Madrid. Really, Napoleon now assumed that Spain belonged to him to do as he pleased. The time was not far dis tant now when Joseph Bonaparte was to be seated upon the Spanish throne. The matter of the price was made the subject of a second convention, signed the same day. Marbois put the sum at 80,000,- 000 francs. To this the Americans at last agreed, on condition that 20,000,000 of the sum should be applied to the extinction of the spoliation claims. These claims were made the subject of a third agreement. All three agreements were arranged and ready for signing April 30th, the conferences be tween the three friends being throughout harmonious -and frank to a degree unusual in diplomatic affairs. Four days were taken for / 141 History of The Louisiana Purchase the preparation of copies in French and Eng lish, so that the actual signing was slightly deferred.* Livingston in especial showed himself to be a good and able man throughout the nego tiation. He alone had been ready to take the whole of Louisiana, a thing which Madi son recoiled from, and which the people of the Union did not at first favor. Now that all was successfully accomplished, there came an interesting moment, which Livingston, rising beyond himself, with a vision broader than that of any other statesman of the time, signalized by an eloquent outburst, full of a spirit nobly prophetic. Says Marbois : " As soon as they had signed they rose, shook hands, and Livingston, expressing the satis faction of all, said: 'The treaty we have signed has not been brought about by finesse nor dictated by force. Equally advantageous to both the contracting parties, it will change vast solitudes into a flourishing country. To day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank. Moreover, if * See Appendices B and C for Napoleon's order for the sale, and the text of the treaties of cession and payment. 142 Louisiana Sold wars are inevitable, France will have in the new world a friend increasing year by year in power, which can not fail to become puis sant and respected on all the seas of the earth. These treaties will become a guarantee of peace and good-will between commercial states. The instrument we have signed will cause no tears to flow. It will prepare cen turies of happiness for innumerable genera tions of the human race. The Mississippi and the Missouri will see them prosper and increase in the midst of equality, under just laws, freed from the errors of superstition, from the scourges of bad government, and truly worthy of the regard and the care of Providence.' " But shall we err if we say that in this great transaction the supreme figure is that of the prince of adventurers, who, in connec tion with the affair, declared himself for the first time, independent of his family, of his Parliament, and of most of his advisers, grasping at the imperial scepter, which a few months later he was destined fully to pos sess? Though the statesmanship of Jeffer son in this juncture was creditable both to 143 History of The Louisiana Purchase his head and to his heart, his weight in bring ing to us Louisiana was not great. Of the negotiators Livingston deserves high fame for persistency, courage, and far-reaching views. It may well be believed that his pleas and remonstrances, scanned by Napo leon, affected the great result. He was cha grined, as we have seen, that to some extent his credit was eclipsed by Monroe, who arrived on the scene at the last minute only. He had labored, and another had entered into his labors. Monroe, on his part, de clared that neither he nor Livingston affected the great result. It was the First Consul who was all in all. Napoleon, so haughtily great and self-confident, was not slow to as sume the credit. When he signed the treaties he declared that this accession of territory which he had bestowed " assures forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a rival who, sooner or later, will humble her pride." On May 22d Napoleon signed the ratifica tion, and on that day hostilities began in the great new war. The 60,000,000 francs of purchase-money, which he had at first in- 144 Louisiana Sold tended for peaceful uses, having projected the construction of five canals, were applied to preparations for the invasion of England, which came to naught. If the present narrative is up to this point trustworthy, it is plain that the coming to the United States of Louisiana, the western half of the vast Mississippi Basin, was a piece of French or Napoleonic statesmanship, Jefferson and his negotiators obtaining, to their astonishment, something for which they had neither labored nor asked — something, indeed, which they had not at all desired — an acquisition regarded as embarrassing far more often than as a thing to be welcomed. If Louisiana had not come to us through Napoleon, would it have come to us at all ? Perhaps so — probably so. Americans of our time, cognizant as they are of what has come to pass through the unmeasured dynamic forces wrapped up in our Union, easily take on the belief that nothing can stop us. That the Union should gain in the eighteenth cen tury the eastern half of the Mississippi Basin was a thing inevitable; just as inevitable 10 145 History of The Louisiana Purchase was the gaining of the western half, no mat ter in whose hands it lay — and so on and on, Texas, Oregon, California, Alaska, the Phil ippines — to absorb them all is but our mani fest destiny, a consummation foreordained for us. But disengaging ourselves for a moment from the national enthusiasm, let us inquire coolly what would have been likely to happen if Napoleon had been foolish, and persisted in his plan of building up a New France in America. He came to believe that he could not keep such a colony out of the hands of England. Livingston, too, believed that a consequence of persistence on the part of Napoleon would be an English occupation of the west bank of the Mississippi. He speaks of a " Gibraltar " at Pensacola answer ing to Quebec, and a close and populous cordon of British settlements uniting the two strongholds. No two men were better able than they to judge. Certainly it was prob able. We should have had a Canada to the west of us, as we have a Canada to the north ; and England, it may well be noted, is a different kind of a neighbor from Spain or even France. It is an old cry that Canada 146 Louisiana Sold must inevitably fall to us ; yet Canada was never less likely to fall to us, never more impervious to our approaches, never more set and determined in her British loyalty, than at the present moment. Can we be sure that a Canada to the west of us would have been any more yielding before the United States approach? And if unyielding, what a re straint it might have been upon our expan sion ! But nothing is idler in the affairs of na tions and of individuals than speculation upon what might have been. Napoleon tossed into the arms of the unexpectant and greatly astounded Jefferson the possession which France could not keep, believing it to be the best disposition which could be made of it, looking to the interests of France. Could those actors only have seen what a century was to bring forth ! 147 CHAPTER IX the party wrangle over the purchase Jefferson was greatly embarrassed when news arrived from his envoys. A meteorite by the sudden nod of an Olympian had fallen at his feet, he meanwhile scarcely more than a surprised spectator. Instead of the river- mouth, the one town, and the little stretch of territory he had sought to gain, an area doubling that of the United States had come into his hands; instead of the $2,000,000 which Monroe had been authorized-to-spend, $15,000,000 were called for. Had there been no hostile criticism, the perplexity of the President would have been great ; but the opposition was alert and able, and made the most of its opportunity. The Federal ists, whose numbers and influence, though much diminished, were still formidable, de nounced and ridiculed the transaction in the 148 Party Wrangle Over the Purchase most unmeasured way. That the opposition would be energetic and crafty, demanding of the administration a summons to all its re sources, was plain from what had preceded. At the end_of JL802, at the time of the edict of Morales, Gaynor GrisyyokLofNew York, leader of the Federalists in the House of Rep resentatives, had demanded papers and docu ments relative to the conditions of the cession of Louisiana by Spain to France ; and when the demand was denied by the majority, he forthwith introduced resolutions to the fol lowing effect : That the United States were entitled to the free navigation of the Missis sippi ; that right having been obstructed by Morales, it was the duty of the House to inquire how it might be restored and main tained. The tone of the resolutions was so zealous and peremptory that the Democrats feared a stealing of their own thunder. What if the West should come to regard the Fed eralists as the special champions of their in terests ! It was a poaching on the Demo cratic preserves that must be at once headed off. Griswold's resolutions were voted down. The two parties, indeed, were alike in their 149 History of The Louisiana Purchase aim; but the Democrats, influenced by the spirit of Jefferson, were for mastering the difficulty by means of ne gotiation, while the Fed eralists were ready for war. Now it was, that while Jefferson appointed Monroe, sending him to France and Spain with his $2,000,000, to get round the trouble by a bargain, Ross, of Penn sylvania, the Federalist, moved, as has been nar rated, in the Senate the 50,000 men and $5,000,000 for the immediate seizure of New Orleans and the river-mouth. In dealing with the danger which the ap proach of France brought to the United States, Jefferson and his party had shown a wiser and humaner spirit than did the oppo sition. Now in the later stage of the affair, when the transfer of Louisiana by France to America had come about, it is the Jeffer- sonian policy which we from this distance must commend; for the Federalists became 150 Party Wrangle Over the Purchase turbulent and factious. To this day in old New England families the tradition persists of the rancor with which Jefferson was re garded. There could be no good, so thought the friends of John Adams, in anything his great rival had done, and the country would never be safe until they were again in power. Incorporation of foreign territory was uncon stitutional in the extreme, and impolitic in the extreme. The East might become de populated through an immigration that might be expected to set in into the Purchase. Se cession of the trans-Mississippi country might certainly be looked for : there could never be anything in common between the men of the plains and the men of the coast. Then how vast was the load imposed upon the country by the $15,000,000 and more about to go to the coffers of Napoleon ! McMaster gives a vivid resume of the newspaper outpourings on this point: $15,000,000 as a price for a wil derness ! Maine had been sold by Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges for .£1,250, and Pennsylvania had cost William Penn but a trifle over £5,000. Fifteen million dollars ! You can say it in a breath ; you can write it in a 151 History of The Louisiana Purchase few strokes. But what does it mean? Weigh it, and there will be 433 tons of solid silver. It would take 866 wagons to draw it. The wagons in line, each occupy ing 3 rods, would stretch out 5 \ miles. If a man were to set out to fill the wagons, at the rate of 16 a day it would take him 2 months. Pile up dollar on dollar, reckoning 9 to an inch, the pile would be 3 miles high. It would load 25 sloops; it would pay an army of 25,000 men 40 shillings a week for 25 years. Apportioned among the popula tion, it would give men, women, and children $3 apiece. All the coin in the country, gold and silver, would fall far short of such a sum. Stock must be created, and for fifteen years to come $2,465 a day must be paid as in terest. Make the $15,000,000 a fund, and the interest would support forever 1,800 free schools, allowing 50 scholars and $500 to each school. Who is to benefit by the trans action ? The South and West, who will pay no share of the debt, because the tax on whisky has been removed.* * McMaster, History of the People of the United States, vol. ii, p. 630. 152 Party There calmness, aL could muste visers were i they felt ther What Madisoi has been shown taken in this str the administration make the best of tht the people, in spite of the purchase a bargain, . toward a close, every wheu land excitement subsided over the great thing that had As to the constitutional matt himself, as a strict constructionist,, grave doubt. He had once laid it down »nat Congress has only two kinds of powers : 1, such as are expressly delegated ; 2, such as are necessary to carry the delegated powers into effect. Into neither of these kinds of powers could come the acquisition of foreign territory. In signing the treaty, he felt that he was doing an act beyond the Consti- * See ante, pp. 63, 64. 153 ur chase to a plan nich would amendment proval of his ist an adviser ation needs no mg power covers 1 the President to on. Jefferson was iurse, but when Con- ,jober 17th, his Message d as to the need of an 6 days later the treaties itified, the Federalists oppos- jut vainly. ^y as possible, on October 19th, ^ ^ ~ Griswold again stood up in opposi tion, arguing that the Louisiana treaty was unconstitutional, first, because the treaty-mak ing power does not extend to incorporating foreign soil and a foreign people into the United States. The words " new States may be admitted by the Congress into the Union " he declared meant new States carved out of territory belonging to the United States at the time the Union was founded. But grant- 154 y Party Wrangle Over the Purchase ing for the moment that such incorporations were right, it belonged certainly to Congress, not to the President and Senate. Second, argued Griswold, the seventh article of the treaty gave to ships of Spain and France the right to enter Louisiana ports paying no more duty than was imposed on American ships. Elsewhere foreign ships must pay more. New Orleans, then, was to enjoy special priv ileges over other ports. But the Constitu tion provides that "no preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce to ports of one State over another." For a third count, Griswold urged that the President and Sen ate had tried to regulate commerce with France and Spain, thereby usurping power that belonged to Congress. Having stated his points, the Federalist leader dwelt on the impolicy of the treaty. What troubles were certain to arise in dealing with so vast an area, for the most part a wilderness ; and where peopled, having inhabitants so foreign in tongue, manners, and religion ! The Republicans were not slow in reply ing. The right to acquire territory, said they, is a sovereign right, which belonged to the 155 History of The Louisiana Purchase individual States at the formation of the Union. Territory can be acquired only by conquest or purchase. Conquest came of the war power, purchase of the treaty-making power. But the States had expressly sur rendered 'to the general Government the powers of levying war and making treaties — in the latter case establishing that the power shall be exercised by the President and Sen ate. As to the preference given to New Or leans, the constitutional prohibition relates to " the ports of one State." Louisiana is not a State ; it is a territory bought by the United States. The Republicans, too, spoke of the promotion of the general welfare. To increase our domain, said they, is conducive to that. Why should the increase not take place ? That the general welfare was promoted by the purchase the opposition would by no means admit. It is not denied, they said, that we can purchase and hold Louisiana ; but it is denied that it or any foreign coun try can be incorporated into the Union by treaty. Now Louisiana is ceded to us on the express condition of such incorporation — an unconstitutional provision which must 156 Party Wrangle Over the Purchase cause the treaty to fail. But the Repub licans were determined the treaty should not fail. The House being in Committee of the Whole, three resolutions were carried by a vote of 90 to 25. First, that provision should be made to carry the treaty into effect. Sec ond, that the matter of a provisional govern ment should be referred to a special com mittee. Third, that the Committee of Ways and Means should be charged with raising the purchase- money. When the matter came up in the Senate, each side used the same arguments, nothing new appearing .until Timothy Pickering, ^^^ ot Massachusetts, made the ^y extremest statement possible of the rights of the States. He declared that to his mind the treaty was unconstitutional because it stipu lated something no power existing could carry out. The third article read: "The inhabit ants of the ceded territory shall be incorpo rated into the Union of the United States." 157 History of The Louisiana Purchase Who was competent to carry that out ? Not the President and Senate ; not the President and Congress ; not an amendment to the Con stitution passed by a two-thirds vote of both Houses and ratified by three-quarters of the States. He believed the assent of each and every State was necessary before a foreign country could join the Union. The case was like that of a business house where the assent of each partner must be got before a new partner can be admitted. When the Consti tution declared that new States might be ad mitted by Congress, the words meant domes tic, not foreign States. No acquisition of foreign territory was contemplated or pro vided for, and ought therefore to be regarded as impossible. This speech of Pickering was an interesting contribution to the discussion, but it produced no effect. The vote stood twenty-six to five in favor of the treaty. Both Federalists and Republicans were agreed as to the right of the President and Senate to buy foreign soil ; and the Repub licans carried it overwhelmingly that the President and Senate could by the treaty- power incorporate foreign territory into the 158 Party Wrangle Over the Purchase United States, j A new wrangle came up over the question how the new territory should be governed. The proposition having been made that the President should administer the territory provisionally until Congress should arrange for a new government — the old institutions for a time persisting — the constitutional battle became as bitter as ever. Jefferson, declared the Federalists, was to step into the shoes of Carlos TV, for a time to administer a tyranny — therefore legalizing on American soil Spanish despotism. This was tearing the Constitution to tatters. More over, since he was to appoint all executive, judicial and legislative officers, and determine how they should act, this was equipping the President with the three powers — executive, judicial and legislative — an enormity of the largest dimensions. The Republicans were ready with replies. To try to make out the President to be a Spanish despot was a gross exaggeration of the situation. As to his ex ercise of the three powers, it would not exist ; he appointed the men who exercise them, doing nothing himself. But granting that he did, it would be no infringement; the Con- 159 History of The Louisiana Purchase stitution had reference to States, not territo ries. Indiana and Mississippi were cited as precedents, in which territories presidential appointees, governors and judges, exercised the three powers, and none had complained. The opposition were voted down with little ceremony. The bill for a provisional govern ment became a law October 31st. Soon after a bill was passed authorizing the creation of stock to the amount of $11,250,000. The decision left New England especially full of discontent, and nearly ready for secession. The balance of power was inclining, they thought, quite too strongly toward the South and West. Federalists and Republicans bat tled fiercely, but the doctrines of both had this in common : they were fatal to the old status of things. The interpretation of the Constitution became enlarged, so that hence forth the spirit and not the letter was ap pealed to. That it possessed latent powers became admitted, so that it grew at once elastic, adaptable therefore to a nation con stantly growing in numbers and might, a change in the American point of view des tined to affect the future profoundly. 160 CHAPTER X THE UNITED STATES IN POSSESSION Just as the year 1803 was ending, New Orleans became the scene of an ever-memor able ceremony. Following the pleasant and picturesque account of Miss Grace King,* we are told that the proclamation of Pierre Clement Laussat had filled the people with " the delirium of extreme felicity " ; but tak ing note of Laussat's republican denunciation of the Spanish regime, the address of welcome continued : " We should be unworthy of what is to us a source of much pride if we did not acknowledge that we have no cause of com plaint against the Spanish Government. We have never groaned under the yoke of an oppressive despotism. We have become bound together by family connections and by the bonds of friendship. Let Spaniards * Xew Orleans, Chapter IX. 11 161 History of The Louisiana Purchase have the untrammeled enjoyment of all the property they may own on the soil, that has become the land of freedom, and let us share with them like brothers the blessings of our new position." A month or so later, the Marquis of Casa Calvo arrived, to assist the governor, Sal cedo, in turning the province over to France. A time of festivity followed, the traditions of which still persist, the courtly Spanish gran dees being determined to make the latter day of their rule brilliant; and Laussat and his wife, well versed in the ways of Paris, vieing with their hosts in the social rivalry. But the Ursuline nuns were afflicted, feeling only terror at the prospect of passing under the sway of a power which a few years before had ostentatiously driven out religion and maltreated its ministers. The Mother Supe rior begged to be allowed to retire with her sisterhood to some point under the protection of his Catholic Majesty of Spain, and Ha vana was assigned. Laussat tried in vain to explain and palliate, while promising for the future full protection; an aged nun de nounced him and what he was supposed to 162 The United States in Possession represent. The people, too, pleaded, the mayor going down upon his knees to beg that the children and the city might not be abandoned. But nine nuns, however, out of the twenty-five could be won. On Whit sunday, at the firing of the evening gun, the sixteen who were to go, came forth hooded and veiled. Their old pupils thronged the garden as they passed through ; their slaves knelt about the gateway ; the dignitaries and the humbler people followed them tearfully to the waterside. Victor was expected any day, and each man and woman had ready the tricolored cockade, which was to be assumed as soon as the Spanish flag descended. But like thun der out of a clear sky came at last, by a vessel from Bordeaux, the news that the province had been sold to the United States ; and no one was more surprised than Laussat, who presently read in a formal document his appointment to conduct the ceremony of sur render. It was felt that the colony had no recourse, and the prefect faced his task val iantly. On November 30th came the cere mony of the cession by Spain to France, a 163 History of The Louisiana Purchase French mayor and municipal council taking the place of. the alcalde and his suite. Seven teen days later arrived the American commis sioners with an escort of troops, encamping two miles outside the city. In New Orleans still stands a building which one hundred years ago surpassed probably in beauty every other civic struc ture in America — the old Cabildo, the meet ing-place of the municipal council, which also bore the name Cabildo. Miss Grace King says it is still picturesque and imposing, a dignified meeting - place for the Supreme Court of the State. The great stone stair ways, majestic and easy of ascent, are now blackened and worn, the noble front chan neled and pitted like an old man's face. The council chamber of the Cabildo and the bal cony adjacent, were the scene of the formal retrocession of Louisiana from Spain to France, and also of the event so much more momentous to us, the ceremony in which France delivered Louisiana into the keeping of the United States. The French had taken possession of the city, the tricolor replacing on the tall flagstaff in the Place d'Armes the 164 The United States in Possession banner of Spain. The Spanish officials had withdrawn with all the stately circumstance that had surrounded them. On the 20th of December, Laussat having been in possession but twenty days, the pageant took place. It was a day so full of sunshine that the Amer icans interpreted it as a favorable omen for their occupation, contrasting the radiance with the rain and darkness in which three weeks before the French had assumed power. Chartres Street and the Place d'Armes, through which the procession was to pass, were thronged early. No one needed to rise at an untimely hour, or go far. In that sim ple time the world was up at daybreak; and so compact was the town that it was scarcely more than a stone's throw from the most dis tant habitation to the cathedral in the cen ter. There was indeed outside the ramparts the Faubourg Sainte Marie, the American quarter at the riverside, with a rough and turbulent population of flatboat and rafts men, unstable and therefore irresponsible, who had drifted down from far-off Kentucky and Tennessee, and were loud and voluble as to their right of deposit and determina- 165 History of The Louisiana Purchase tion to hold open the mouths of the Missis sippi. The Faubourg Sainte Marie had long been a terror both to the Spanish Governor and the American President; for precisely there were focused the spirit and the agita tion which had kept the Dons on the alert against the filibusters, and had caused Jeffer son to send Monroe to Paris to effect, if pos sible, a peaceful solution by purchase. At nine o'clock the provincial militia began to gather in the Place d'Armes, to review whom Laussat, representative of the First Consul, stood on the central balcony of the Cabildo. In that day the square was a wide area upon which an army might easily maneuver; and the eye unobstructed could range up and down the river in the back ground, flowing in a wide crescent before the town, whence comes to the town its second name. A fleet of vessels lay in the stream, the masts and yards dressed with flags ; and to the right and left, on shore, handsome buildings with high, red-tiled Spanish roofs, balconies and gratings of wrought-iron work, twining and interlacing like vines, stood fa cing the open space. These were the choice 166 The United States in Possession locations, and whatever of architectural dis play the little community was able to achieve, was ranged here where it might best be seen. A French traveler who was present and stood at the side of Laussat, describes the scene, and says he talked with the prefect about the cession as they awaited the arrival of the Americans. What Laussat really felt we know from his despatches. " The Americans," he wrote, "have given $15,000,000 for Louisiana; they would have given $50,000,000 rather than not possess it. ... In a few years the coun try as far as the Rio Brazos will be in a state of cultivation. New Orleans will then have a population of from 30,000 to 50,000 souls, and the country will produce sugar enough to supply America and part of Europe. . . . What a magnificent New France have we lost ! . . . The people are naturally gentle though touchy, proud, and brave. They have seen themselves rejected for the second time from the bosom of their mother-country. . . . Their interpretation of the cession, and their comments on it, show too clearly the extreme bitterness of their discontent. . . . Neverthe less, they have become tolerably well disposed 167 History of The Louisiana Purchase toward passing under the new government. . . . There are advantages in the Constitution of the United States of which it will be im possible to prevent them from experiencing the benefit. . . . And being once freed from her colonial fetters, it would be unnatural to suppose that Louisiana would ever willingly resume them." Shortly before noon sounded the signal- gun that announced the departure of the Americans from their camp. Another shot an nounced that they had marched through the Tchoupitoulas Gate ; and the French batter ies, manned, however, by Spanish artillery men, fired a salute of twenty-four guns. On the stroke of twelve the /,> t~^y ev^-r Americans marched up on the Place d'Armes into the presence of the crowd and the pre fect. At the head rode two characters of importance — Wilkinson, so long commander- 168 The United States in Possession in-chief of the army of the United States, a figure beyond almost all others in our history deserving execration and contempt, and the worthy Claiborne, Governor of the Mississippi territory, and destined now to a niche in our story as the first Governor of Louisiana. Be hind them rode a troop of dragoons in red uniforms ; there was also a train of artillery, some companies of infantry, and an escort of grenadiers from the city's militia The Americans drew up opposite the French formations, and the commissioners, dismounting, ascended to the council-hall, where they were impressively received. A throng of dignitaries, ecclesiastic and lay, greeted them with gravity. The robes of churchmen, the armor of Spanish cavaliers, the silken attire of rich citizens, swept and sounded as they moved back and forth in the salutations. Laussat at last led the way to the balcony, to a chair of state, to the right and left of which were lower seats. Before the upturned faces of the people he took his place in the center, while Claiborne sat at his right and Wilkinson at his left. In front stood the secretary of the commission. Laussat 169 History of The Louisiana Purchase presently opened the ceremony by stating briefly the object of the assembly, after which secretaries read the treaty of cession in both English and French. Laussat himself read his credentials, the authorization of the First Consul, through which he had received from Salcedo the province, and through which he was empowered now to surrender it to the new Government. Claiborne then read Jeffer son's command to him to receive the province, after which followed from the prefect the for mal announcement of the alienation; Louisi ana, with all its dependencies, was committed to the new hands under the same limits and conditions that had been laid down in the treaty of San Ildefonso. He then delivered to Claiborne the city's keys, declaring with a loud voice : " I proclaim, in virtue of the powers with which I am invested, and the commission with which I am charged by the First Consul, that all citizens and inhabitants of Louisiana are from this moment relieved from their oath of fidelity to the French Republic." He then caused Claiborne to take the high central seat while he sat at the side. 170 The United States in Possession It was now the turn of Governor Clai borne. Speaking in English, he offered the people "his congratulations on the event which irrevocably fixed their political exist ence, and no longer left it open to the caprices of chance," assuring them that the United States would receive them as brethren, and that they would be pro tected in the enjoy ment of their liberty, property, and relig ion; that their com merce would be fa vored, their agriculture encouraged. The sec retaries then read the proces-verbal of the transfer in French and English, which the commissioners, having signed and sealed, for mally interchanged. And now while the concourse looked on, and the commissioners stood at the front of the balcony, came the closing ceremony. Till this time, in the sunshine, spread abroad 171 History of The Louisiana Purchase in the mild breeze, the great flag of France had floated above all, at the top of its staff. Slowly now it descended, trembling, flutter ing, never more to wave on the continent of North America. What heart does not feel the deep pathos of that moment ! The descent of the flag that day indicated that all the magnificent striving had come to naught. In vain had the strong-souled Champlain held the rock at Quebec through long decades of peril and discouragement ; in vain had been the thou sand-league journeys of the intrepid La Salle by forest-trail, by stream and lake ; in vain had La Verendrye opposed his breast, marked by the wounds received at Malplaquet, to As- sinniboines and Dakotas in far Manitoba ; in vain the splendid soldiership and bloody death of Montcalm. Since that moment the islets of St. Pierre and Miquelon — dots of rock in the surf beating upon Newfoundland — have been the sole remnants of that far-reach ing New France to establish which so much genius and heroism had been lavished. As the tricolor came slowly down, the Stars and Stripes as slowly ascended. Midway of the 172 The United States in Possession staff they paused a moment, mingling their folds and colors. Presently the flag of the Union was at the top of the staff, and salvos of artillery and musketry rent the air. The multitude shouted ; the ladies, eyried in the gracefully wrought balconies, waved and ap plauded. Such, according to Miss King, is the tradition ; but the shouts and saluting were probably more for the flag which de scended than for that which rose. A French officer received the tricolor in his arms as it came to the ground, and wrapping it about his body, strode away with it to the barracks. The crowd fell in behind as at a funeral, the American soldiers presented arms as they passed, and men in the street uncovered as at a great solemnity. Laussat presented graciously to the crowd his successor, and Claiborne delivered his in augural. " Louisianians, my fellow-citizens ! " he exclaimed. But his words were unintel ligible; and had he made himseK understood there wouldhave been little response to his wel come and congratulations. The new governor was able and honest, but always a stranger. He never engaged the sympathies of the 173 History of The Louisiana Purchase people over whom he was set, and the Anglo- Saxon polity which he introduced was long a burden rather than a blessing. As the people of Louisiana were reluctant, the treatment they met often in their new rela tions was for a long time the reverse of cordial. January 14, 1811, in Congress, the question for deliberation being the admission of the present State of Louisiana, then called Or leans, into the Union, Josiah Quincy, of Mas sachusetts, made a speech which it is curious to look back upon.* "I address you, Mr. Speaker," he said, " with an anxiety and distress of mind with me wholly unprecedented. To me it appears that this measure would justify a revolution in this country. I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opinion that, if this bill passes, the bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved ; that the States which compose it are free from their moral obligations ; and that, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for * Annals of Congress, 1811. 174 The United States in Possession a separation — amicably if they can, violently if they must." Here Mr. Quincy was called to order, but, being suffered to proceed, went on with a statement of the old Federalist argument of 1803— that the Consti tution did not authorize the admission of foreign territory, but only of States formed from the territory possessed by the Union at the first. "If this bill be admit ted," he exclaimed, " the whole space of Louisi ana, greater, it is said, than the entire extent of the United States, will be a mighty thea ter in which the Government assumes the right of exercising this unparalleled power; nor will it stop until the very name and nature of the old partners be overwhelmed by newcomers into the confederacy. This is not so much a question concerning the exer cise of sovereignty as it is who shall be sovereign. Whether the proprietors of the 175 1UCJTV J?C C44sWCsU History of The Louisiana Purchase good old United States shall manage their own affairs in their own way, or whether they and their Constitution and their political rights shall be trampled under foot by for eigners introduced through a breach of the Constitution. Suppose the population of the whole world beyond the Mississippi were to be brought in to form our laws, control our rights, and decide our destiny. Can it be pretended that the framers of the Constitu tion would have listened to it ? They were not madmen. They had not taken degrees at the hospital of idiocy. Why, sir, I have already heard of six States, and some say there will be, at no great distance of time, more. I have also heard that the mouth of the Ohio will be far to the east of the center of the contemplated empire. You have no authority to throw the rights and liberties and property of this people into a hotch potch of the wild men on the Missouri, nor with the mixed, though more respectable, race of Anglo-Hispano-Gallo- Americans who bask on the sands in the mouth of the Mississippi. The whole extent of Louisiana is to be cut up into independent States to counterbalance 176 The United States in Possession and to paralyze whatever there is of influence in other quarters of the Union. The gentle man from Mississippi spoke the other day of the Mississippi as of a high road between — Good heavens ! between what, Mr. Speaker \ Why, the Eastern and Western States. So that all the countries once the extreme western boundary of our Union are hereafter to be denominated Eastern States." Mr. Quincy concluded with a declaration in which the State was exalted above the Union. "Sir, I confess it, the first public love of my heart is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. There is my fireside ; there are the tombs of my ancestors. The love of this Union grows out of this attachment to my native soil, and is rooted in it. I cherish it because it affords the best external hope of her peace, her prosperity, her independence. I oppose this bill from the deep conviction that it contains a principle incompatible with the liberties and safety of my country. The biE, if it passes, is a death-blow to the Con stitution." Josiah Quincy's speech may appropriately have a place in the story of the Louisiana 12 177 History of The Louisiana Purchase Purchase. As the newcomers into the Union were long looked upon askance by many of their fellow-citizens into whose society they had been forced, so in their own hearts they remained unreconciled until far along in the century. Old soldiers of the civil war recall how often as they marched or sailed among the bayous and plantations, or as hated in vaders passed through the streets of New Orleans, the flag of France was displayed from doors and windows, the householders behind making claim to French citizenship. Had the South prevailed, and the Union been split into the " States dissevered, discordant, and divided " — the nightmare which troubled the imagination of Daniel Webster — how nat ural it would have been for that rejected people to seek once more the bosom that yearned for them though it had twice thrown them off! France stood at hand with its troops in Mexico. Had Fate been a little less kind, New France, after all, might have been established on the Mississippi. 178 CHAPTER XI WHAT A CENTURY HAS BROUGHT FORTH Claiborne, in his speech to the crowd on the 20th of December, had promised the peo ple of Louisiana that they should never be transferred again. If they could have felt sure of that it might have conveyed some comfort ; for their country had in its history been transferred, counting its bestowal by Louis XIV on private owners, and the swap ping back and forth between Spain and France, and now America, no less than six times. At no one of these exchanges had any human being possessed a definite idea of the boundaries of Louisiana. In 1803 the doubt was as great as ever. In the language of the treaty the cession was to be of the " Province of Louisiana with the same extent it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it." But north, 179 History of The Louisiana Purchase west, and southeast uncertainty prevailed. On the north Louisiana went to the sources of the Mississippi, but those were not at all ascertained ; on the northwest the mountains, which the eye of white man had scarcely seen, were supposed to be the limit, though there was a vague idea that the jurisdiction of the Bishop of New Orleans went to the Pacific ; if the bishopric, why not the province ? To the southwest why did not the discovery and exploration of the Texas coast by the ship wrecked La Salle, who there found his grave, make valid a claim to the country as far as the Rio Grande ? The southern boundary was certainly the Gulf — that was a thing fixed in all the doubt. The Mississippi, too, in its upper course fixed the limit on the east; but on the southeast the uncertainty was as great as anywhere, and here the em barrassment was most serious. Jefferson and Madison much desired the Floridas, and felt that the purchase should include at any rate West Florida. But the Spaniards, outraged by the sale to the Ameri cans, were determined to yield no more than was absolutely necessary; indeed, were al- 180 What a Century Has Brought Forth most ready to go to war because the Ameri cans had entered into the bargain at all. With perfect truth they declared that the Floridas were no part of the cession made to them by the French in 1762, but that they had received those territories from the Eng lish in 1783. In fact, the Americans had no just claim to anything east of a line marked by the river Iberville, running thence through Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the Gulf. We do not need to concern ourselves with the details of the disputes, which were not entirely settled till far along in the cen tury. Florida came to the United States, but not through the Louisiana Purchase ; Texas came at a later time ; and still later, a better title to Oregon and Washington was dis covered than that they had once been part of the bishopric of New Orleans. Now that the contentions are passed, and our ample Union has absorbed all that was disputed, the Louisiana purchased by us it is thought fair to describe as comprising New Orleans and its island, and the entire Mississippi Val ley west of the great river, and no more; except that at the extreme southwest the 181 History of The Louisiana Purchase Sabine River forms the limit, east of which are streams that are independent currents to the Gulf — not tributaries of the Mississippi. The territory so vaguely known had been parted in the Spanish day into two great di visions. The Creoles then understood by Louisiana the area as far as New Madrid, what is now southern Missouri; while the great unknown north of that — on the edge of which were dots of settlement at Sainte Gene vieve, St. Louis, and afar on the Missouri the little post of St. Charles — was known as Spanish Illinois, or sometimes Upper Louisi ana. A rude census, taken in 1799, gives to Upper Louisiana a population of 6,000. To Louisiana proper are assigned 36,000, of whom all but 2,000 were to be found below the Arkansas. Three-fourths of the popula tion of Louisiana, and seven-eighths of the wealth, were to be found below Pointe Coupee. After the purchase, the name Orleans was ap plied to the portion south of the thirty-third parallel; this was Claiborne's jurisdiction. All north was known as the district of Louisiana, and at first made part of Indiana. No wonder that many stood aghast at 182 What a Century Has Brought Forth the immensity of the accession, and felt sure a change must come to America that might be disastrous. The limits being all un known, imagination could work freely as to what they were and what was contained within. But whatever rein imagination might take, it could hardly surpass the real ity. As Mr. Binger Herman puts it,* the area of the Louisiana Purchase, now made definite, is more than seven times that of Great Britain and Ireland ; more than four times that of the German empire, or of the Austrian empire, or of France; more than three times that of Spain and Portugal ; more than seven times that of Italy; nearly ten times that of Turkey and Greece. It is also larger than Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy combined. Tales regarded as absurdly extravagant were told of the resources of the new country, but the facts have surpassed all that was fancied. It is probable that scarcely a square mile of the great region will ultimately prove una vailable for human uses, desert though much of it was long believed to be. There is no * Louisiana Purchase, p. 36. 183 History of The Louisiana Purchase soil in the world more fertile than that bor dering the Mississippi and its great affluents. Where the farmer fails of a chance, the ranchman can often find opportunity; if flocks and herds are out of the question, the lumberman is accommodated ; while in the ab solute waste the miner finds coal, oil, and al most every metal that can be useful to man. Jefferson, although the purchase had been made almost in spite of him, and although he had so many misgivings when the matter was finished, had yet shown himself throughout to be a statesman thoroughly wise and hu mane. His subsequent conduct in relation to Louisiana was of a piece with what had gone before. Soon he sent a message to Congress embodying such information as to the Purchase as he was in possession of — a description which, although it was ridiculed in unmeasured terms by the opposition, was seldom extravagant. He spoke of tall bluffs faced with stone carved into what seemed a multitude of antique towers; of a land ex traordinarily fertile ; of prairies covered with buffalo, which pastured on broad, unbroken areas of succulent grass. In these accounts 184 What a Century Has Brought Forth he hit the truth. If, furthermore, he en larged on the gigantic stature of the Indians, it is not strange that savages so formidable as Sioux, Pawnees, and Comanches should have caused a rumor to go forth of herculean size. And if he described a vast mountain of rock salt, which glittered in the sun, and poured forth from its crevices waters that might match those of the sea, even that was not without foundation; though the rock salt of the Purchase stretches under ground in far-extending deposits that must be mined, not in heaps that lie upon the surface. But this message was only to quiet curi osity. Full exploration he saw was necessary at once, and he proceeded upon a plan which he had already formed in the time when the act of Morales had excited the country. In resolving to send out an expedition, he did not anticipate for the new country any large increase of white inhabitants. He seems to have thought that the tribes east of the Mis sissippi might be moved thither, and that with the Indian population thus recruited profitable trade relations might be established. Tn arranging for the exploration, he chose the 185 History of The Louisiana Purchase t^s^s£jLs\s<*^~u--L*vfczs-^, £&Ce*^>v-C& leaders as wisely as possible. Lewis and Clark were indeed ideal pathfinders ; young army officers, of mili tary experience under Wayne, of excellent Virginia stock. Lewis, a kinsman of the Presi dent, and for a time his private secretary; Clark, a younger brother of that chief hero of the frontier, George Rogers Clark — the two young men lacked no quality or accomplishment that could be useful in such an exploration. They set out from St. Louis in May, 1804, as soon as it was possible to get ready after the transfer of the country with a company of twoscore or so, made their way by the Missouri and its tributaries to the Rocky Mountains, and thence followed the Columbia from its head springs to the Pacific. This they reached November 15, 1805. Hence they returned in the following year, having let light through the wilderness, They had gone without harm through the 186 What a Century Has Brought Forth most dangerous tribes, and coped with all natural perils with scarce a casualty. They lost one man by death, and Lewis, with his own rifle, shot one Indian, when the lives of the party seemed to depend upon a show of vigor. Their management of the savages whom they encountered was a marvel of adroitness and full of the spirit of humanity. Their own bearing and that of their men, not one of whom faltered, was full of manly resolution. In the annals of America there are few things pleas- anter or more credit able than the story of Lewis and Clark. With their names should be coupled that of Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, whose expeditions, contemporary with that of Lewis and Clark, first into north ern Minnesota, and afterward far into Colo rado and south into Mexico, though under taken under unfortunate auspices, the patron- 187 History of The Louisiana Purchase age of the worthless Wilkinson, were marked by skill and heroism. When Pike and Lewis and Clark had returned, and their maps and journals were spread abroad, it began to seem as if the American world might some time get within its grasp the vast domain to which it had fallen heir. But the times were full of peril and dis content. The Spaniards, enraged, as they had reason to be, at the sale of Louisiana in spite of the express promise of Napoleon not to alienate it, lingered sullenly about New Orleans, and clung obstinately to Florida, which the administration had especially de sired to gain. In the northeast, hatred of the Jeffersonian ideas, and discontent with his policy, were so rife that the air was full of threats of secession. The ties that held the Union together in those days were indeed weak ; that no severance came about was a marvel. On the 25th of June, 1805, says Mr. G. W. Cable, as evening came on, and the Cre oles of New Orleans, according to their habit, gathered at the levee, they found their inter- 188 What a Century Has Brought Forth est excited by a handsome barge impelled by ten oarsmen, which, sweeping around the bend above the city, presently made a land ing. Then stepped ashore a small but hand some and distinguished figure, who as soon as he became known was received with all possi ble respect. It was Aaron Burr, up to this time the most noteworthy public man who had appeared in New Or leans since it passed into the new ownership. The grandson of Jonathan Ed wards, he inherited re markable abilities, which he had used to such advan tage that he had attained everything but the highest place. He had failed by but one electoral vote of be coming President instead of Jefferson; but as Vice-President he was close at the front. His moral worth did not equal his political distinction. He had shown that he could be trusted by neither man nor woman; he had killed in a duel Alexander Hamilton, perhaps the most useful man in the 189 History of The Louisiana Purchase country at the time ; and now in the ill-knit, unstable Union, not as yet well adjusted and in good working shape under the Constitution, he saw his selfish advantage in promoting treasonable schemes for breaking apart, rather than for bringing to pass harmony. What precisely Aaron Burr designed has never been known, probably was never distinctly out lined in his own mind. He meant, no doubt, that events should determine how far he might go. Baffled in his ambition in the East, he resolved to make a trial in the West, hop ing that through some dismemberment of the nation, and some robbery of Spain, Aaron Burr might sit exalted. He had won Blenner- hassett ; Wilkinson had lent an ear to his propositions. Henry Clay and Andrew Jack son, young men on the threshold each of a great career, the one in Tennessee, the other in Kentucky, had felt the spell of his fasci nation, but recoiled at the suggestion of dis loyalty. Claiborne, too, at New Orleans, though at first deferential to the eminent visitor, was utterly cold and unsympathetic before every suggestion of treason. New Orleans in general, on the contrary, was ex- 190 What a Century Has Brought Forth cellent soil for the seed Burr was scattering. The Creoles were full of grievances against the new order; the Americans, flatboat men and adventurers of the frontier, were born filibusters. In such a population the Union counted for little. But the story of Aaron Burr does not require from us more than a glance. Wilkinson betrayed him, as he did everybody. There were worthier instruments who wrought in the matter. Marshall sat in judgment on him; his downfall was accom plished. The Louisiana Purchase was saved from the plots of home conspirators. There was one last great peril from for eign encroachment to be faced. France had vanished from the continent with the solemn and pathetic lowering of the tricolor that winter day in 1803. Spain, oppressed with the Napoleonic incubus, no longer needed to be reckoned with. But England remained. To keep Louisiana out of the grasp of Eng land the First Consul had sold it. A time came when the world-arbiter languished in Elba; and straightway England, her hands for the moment free, clutched at the prize 191 History of The Louisiana Purchase that had been withheld. The world then had rarely seen such an armament as she sent forth. Twenty thousand fighting-men were collected in a vast fleet ; nor was the quality of the expedition inferior. Long years of war against an enemy almost miraculously able had developed both on land and sea extraor dinary leadership. Soldiers and sailors had been trained and toughened under Wellington and Nelson in the most critical campaigning. With the end of 1814 they were at the Mis sissippi's mouth, and the odds were indeed against the forlorn Republic which for two years had been struggling on the northern frontier with very indifferent success against her formidable foe. So thought Sir Edward Pakenham, the commander, and those who sent him ; and the expedition brought, besides the fighters, civil officials who, when the easy victory was gained, were to organize a broad British dependency on the Louisiana Purchase and the parts adjacent, which might attain who could predict what greatness ! Andrew Jackson, upon whom fell the duty to meet the attack, was the very type of imperious energy, a soul born for leader- 192 What a Century Has Brought Forth ship. Out of the heterogeneous elements at hand when he arrived in December, he had managed to combine an effective force that now performed a wonder. His line, says Mr. Cable,* was about half a mile long, an en trenchment of the roughest at the best, and dwindling at the end into a mere double row of logs, two feet apart, and filled in between with earth. Here was an almost droll confu sion of men, arms, and trappings. On the ex treme right, at the river-bank, were some regular infantry and a company of Orleans rifles, with a few dragoons who served a howitzer. Next came a band of Louisiana Creoles in gay and varied uniforms ; then sailors with guns from a destroyed ship. A swarthy group of pirates from Barataria, serving two twenty-four pounders, had a po sition near ; then a troop of negroes, another bunch of sailors, and a party of mulattoes from San Domingo. There was a stretch of blue marking the position of the Forty-fourth Infantry, next to whom an old artillery-man of Napoleon directed some Frenchmen in the management of a twelve-pounder. A long * Creoles of Louisiana, p. 195. is 193 History of The Louisiana Purchase line of brown homespun hunting - shirts draped the lank Tennesseeans of Carroll ; a bright cluster of marines; more artillery; then at the end Adair's Kentuckians and Coffee's Tennesseeans, frontiersmen all to whom the rifle was as another limb. There were on the main line but 3,200 men with 12 cannon. How the waifs and strays of Jackson's line accomplished an achievement of the first rank is a brilliant page in our story. Since then no foreigner with hostile purpose has encroached upon the soil of the United States. The Louisiana Purchase having been ex plored, and saved from peril at the hands of domestic plotters and outside enemies, the question of the exact boundaries, up to this time ever present and most vexatious, was gradually settled. "What are the eastern boundaries of Louisiana ? " said Livingston to Talleyrand in 1803, when the treaty was be ing arranged. "I do not know," was the reply. " You must take it as we received it." " But what do you mean to take ? " asked Liv ingston, thinking about the retrocession from 194 What a Century Has Brought Forth Spain. "I do not know," said Talleyrand. And so the question was left all uncertain. For two hundred and fifty years, in fact, Florida was a bone of contention, Spain, France, England, and at last the United States tugging at the morsel of tropical rich ness. The phases of the contention since 1803 it is not worth while to follow here; 1819 is the year in which the long contro versy was concluded, a treaty then being arranged with Spain which John Quincy Adams regarded as the most important trans action in which he was ever concerned. By that treaty Florida was definitely ceded to the United States, which in return for the concession renounced all claim to the terri tory west of the Mississippi as far as the Rio Grande. Spain is said to have congratu lated herself on this arrangement : in return for a province isolated and impossible of defense against a most aggressive neighbor, she was set at rest as regards a region con tiguous to Mexico, the secure holding of which was most important to her American empire. But unfortunate Spain could not be happy long; in a few years American ad- 195 History of The Louisiana Purchase venturers who had fixed themselves in Texas, with small ceremony turned out the Spanish Government, and in 1844 Texas became part of the United States. In the mind of John Quincy Adams, the treaty of 1819 was per haps more important for what it secured to the United States on the Pacific than for the acquisition of Florida. Spain yielded her claim to all territory north of the forty-second de gree of latitude, the region comprised within Oregon and Washington. Resting upon this, upon, the discovery of the mouth of the Co lumbia by Captain Gray in 1792, and upon the early establishment of Astoria, the United States could well afford to let go the vague title derived from the Louisiana Purchase. As the country grew, the ancient disputes were swallowed up and have long ceased to possess other than an historic interest. In the development of the Louisiana Pur chase, two machines have played a great part. In the year 1815 two little craft made their way down-stream among the rafts and broadhorns, exciting some interest among the river-men, because in their movements 196 What a Century Has Brought Forth they were in a measure independent of oar, sail, or current — a mysteriously moving wheel, connected somehow with a furnace which smoked away from a tall funnel, being the principal agent of progress. Their cargoes delivered, the queer craft, to the great won der of all, made their way back up-stream to the Ohio, whence they had descended. The application of the power of steam to locomo tion thus proved successful, a demonstration the consequences of which it is scarcely pos sible to exaggerate. As regards the New West, the civilization which has come to pass upon the area of the Louisiana Purchase, it is quite within bounds to say that it may look upon the locomotive as its creator. Deferring for the moment further consid eration of this instru mentality, another con trivance must be mentioned — the notion of a Yankee's brain wrought out in wood and 197 CC/~SL4Jfc?T^e<^ History of The Louisiana Purchase iron, the results of which are even more re markable than those of the steam-engine. Eli Whitney's cotton-gin, invented in 1793, produced a revolution economically, and much more ; it changed men's ways of look ing at life, and set up new standards of right and wrong. Through the cotton-gin, sla very, which had been a dying institution at the South as well as the North, became at once a profitable form of labor at the South. As cotton became king, to preserve slavery became at the South the first duty of the pa triot. At the North, meantime, the moral sense of men became greatly roused against it, until to hold men in bondage was looked upon as the chief of sins. The "irreconcil able conflict," therefore, came about the course and crisis of which has so affected the history of America. Our story can not be told with out a reference to this. It was in the Louisiana Purchase that the conflict between North and South first be came acute and threatening in the great struggle of 1819 and 1820 as to the condi tions under which Missouri should be admit ted to the Union. Louisiana had come in in 198 What a Century Has Brought Forth 1812 ; the great territory north about the same time had received the name Missouri. From this, a little later, Arkansas had been set off as a territory; and in 1819 the re gion north of 36° 30', having all the requi sites for statehood, petitioned for admission to the Union. Let Missouri come in, said the country, but shall it come in as free or slave ? In the in tense feeling which this question aroused, the people for the first time awoke to the seriousness of the rift that had been gradually opening. The Missouri Com-^ promise was the ac commodation hit up on at the moment, in arranging which Henry Clay came for ward into fame as the " great pacificator." Slavery being admitted into Missouri, it was ordained by Congress that the region north- 199 History of The Louisiana Purchase of Missouri should be forever free. The coun try settled upon this, feeling that the union of the States was thereby saved ; for a genera tion, from 1820 to 1854, the act was held as binding, and peace prevailed. Meantime the country was filling up. Missouri became pop ulous ; Iowa, also on the Purchase, followed her into statehood in 1845 ; and it began to be plain that the region still farther west and north, instead of remaining unoccupied for ages to come, as the con temporaries of Jefferson had imagined, was to re ceive immediately a nu merous immigration. Then broke upon the land the voice of Stephen \ ,,;~H^ ^- T^ouglas> proclaiming in the Federal Senate the doctrine of " Squatter sov ereignty," denouncing the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional, and de claring that not Congress, but the settlers within a territory alone had power to decide whether the territory should be slave or free. 200 What a Century Has Brought Forth At once the doctrine was embodied in the Nebraska Bill (the whole vast expanse west of Iowa and north of Missouri being known as Nebraska), which presently became the law of the land. Kansas, being set off, forth with became the scene of troubles which could end only in war. Though in the tumults preceding the civil war the Louisiana Purchase was to such an extent the theater of important de velopments, it lost that gloomy distinction as soon as the cannon began fairly to thunder. The good conduct of Frank Blair and Na thaniel Lyon early made Missouri secure for the Union ; there were battles elsewhere in the Purchase, indeed, but none really momentous. As compared with what went forward east of the river, the conflicts were not significant. Those sad four years lapsed slowly on, so burdened with anxiety, with pain, with death. Dark indeed was the catastrophe to which the Yankee inventor of 1793 had brought us ! But the Union was saved, to the immense advantage, as we believe, of the country and of mankind. The Louisiana Purchase, though less blood-bedewed in the conflict than other 201 History of The Louisiana Purchase areas farther east, has reaped in full measure the benefits of the victory. Recurring to the power of steam, as ap plied to locomotion, the steamboat has been succeeded, to a large extent superseded, by the locomotive; and the great New West, which the world beholds as having come to pass in the expanse so cavalierly tossed to us by Napoleon in 1803, may rightly be called the child of the locomotive. Never before, when men have occupied new lands, has the occupation been so rapid. At the present moment not a fragment, save Oklahoma and the Indian Territory, remains which has not been admitted into statehood. Twelve com monwealths, populous, politically complete, socially organized according to advanced standards of civilization, stand side by side. Following Louisiana and Missouri, Arkansas became a State in 1835, Iowa in 1845, Min nesota in 1858, Kansas in 1861, Nebraska in 1867, Colorado in 1876, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana in 1889, and Wyoming in 1890. It is not strange that some feel we have gone quite too rapidly, and that 202 What a Century Has Brought Forth our grandchildren may wish their forebears had been slower in the exploitation of the resources of our noble domain. It does not belong to the function of him who writes the story of the Louisiana Purchase to discuss this question, or to deal with the other prob lems which beset and threaten at the present moment. The purpose of this book has been merely to give the story of the transaction through which the area came to us, not to narrate the events which make up its sub sequent history. At that history we have done no more than to cast a glance. The result is remarkable. The value of the agri cultural products alone of the area, for one year, is a hundred times the purchase-money. The taxable wealth is more than four hun dred times the purchase-money. Recent sta tistics may be tabulated as shown on the fol lowing page.* The Louisiana Purchase is a domain with natural resources almost unparalleled. It is occupied by 15,000,000 English-speaking peo ple—a race formed by the assimilation into a strong Anglo-Saxon stock of elements from a number of the better breeds of men. The 203 History of The Louisiana Purchase appliances of the highest civilization are scat tered among them lavishly. The principles of the noblest polity ever evolved in the progress of the human race are established for its government. The present fruition is scarcely calculable ; the hope for the future is boundless. * Population, Area in Square Miles, and Taxable Wealth of the States and Territories embraced by the Boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase States and Territories. Population. Area, Square miles. Taxable wealth. 1,311,564 539,700 2,231,853 1,470,4951,381,6251,751,394 3,106,665 243,329 1,068,539 319,040401,570 92,531 391,960398,245 53,850 103,925 56,025 82,080 48,720 83,36569,415 146,080 77,51070,79577,65097,890 31,400 39,030 $189,999,050 430.000,000 2,106,615,620 1,021,833,294 267,723,138585,083,328 1,093,091,264 153,441,154 171.747.5931431000,000 172.225,085 37,892,30394.000.000 150,000,000 Minnesota Missouri North Dakota Wyoming Indian Territory . . Totals 14,703,510 1,037,735 $6,616,642,829 The taxable wealth above given is approximate only, be cause of variations in the systems of assessments, and is in most instances much below actual values. 204 108 Long- 1M West 100 fit. ZTT -!fc0»e. F««. ¦Wferfrff /«*S iSf- ^ftL^."* ftiffif l*"*3££_ me/x | \ a J.'-S*. \ t 4 ' ff* s.j ; -frvflRni A/ii»n v r^-y X H V \ /*'>*' 4 \ / i ; Y- 'O ' >> * 1 / / '*»;5fcr--i — UMk -M Sinmft-i-*- Iii? in." ALASKA Pt.n SCALE OF MILES IJS^ p E CON gk