\ ilii Uiii.iM .it, hill II,

*'• -:i:--"-'

IHL

HISTORY OF LOUISIANA,

rAttTICDLAKI.Y

OF THE CESSION OF THAT COLONY

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA;

AX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT

UNITED STATES.

BY BARBlfe MAP.BOIS,
PEEB or F!IA>-CE, &C. &C. &C.

SCrattslat^b from the :ffvmtii
- BY AN AMERICAN CITIZEN.

PHILADELPHIA:
CAREY & LEA.

1830.

EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, To wit:
BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the eighth day of January, in the fifty'
fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1830,
CAREY & LEA,
of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book the right
whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:
" The History of Louisiana, particularly' of the Cession of that Colony to the
" United States of America; with an Introductory Essay on the Constitu-
" tion and Government of the United States. By Barbe Marbois, Peer of
" France, &c. &c. &c. Translated from the French by an American
" Citizen."
In conformity to the Act of the Congress of tlie United States, entitled, " An
Act for the Encom-agement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps,
Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the
times therein mentioned" — And also to the Act, entitled, " An Act supple
mentary to an Act, entitled, ' An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by
securing the Coj^ies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprie
tors of such Copies, duringthe times therein mentioned,' and extending the be
nefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and
other prints."
D. CALDWELL,
Ckrh of the. Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

CniGGS SCBICILIKSOX, PIIIXTEKS.

DEDICATION.

TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS, THE DAUPHIN.
Sir, If you have read, with some interest, the book
which I have the honour to dedicate to you, I owe it
less to the facts that I have related than to the maxims
of justice and virtue which you have remarked in it.
A frequent witness of the benevolent actions that ren
der your person so dear to us, I have been anxious to
be permitted to publish my book under your happy
auspices. I beg your Royal Highness to accept the homage of
my profound and respectful devotion.
BARB6 MARBOIS.

CONTENTS.

Translator's Notice, vii
Preface, - - - - - xv
Introduction. — Essay on the Constitution and Government
of the United States, - .... 17-
History of Louisiana.— Part I. — ^Louisiana under the Sove
reignty of France and Spain. — The relations of the colo
ny with St. Domingo, - - - - - loi
History of Louisiana.— Part II.— Cession of Louisiana by
France to the United States, . - - . 225
History of Louisiana.— Part III. — Execution of the Treaty
of Cession.— Events arising from the Cession, - - 317
Appendix, - - - 401

TRANSLATOR'S NOTICE.

Most foreign books which have treated of the insti
tutions of the United States have been compiled with
such illiberal feelings, and are at the same time so
very inaccurate, that when, a short time after my ar
rival in Paris last autumn, the following book was
placed in my hands, I conceived that I could not em
ploy a few weeks' leisure more usefully, nor in a man
ner more congenial with my former pursuits than by'
making it generally accessible to my fellow-citizens. I
was in hopes that, while the circulation of the original
in Europe dispelled many unfavourable prejudices re
specting my native country, my humble labours might
not be without some effect iu attaching the people of
America still more firmly to those institutions, on which
an enlightened and distinguished foreigner had pro
nounced a high encomium.
The friendly spirit alluded to is not confined to the
Introductory Essay, which particularly treats of the go
vernment, but will be found to pervade the whole of the
subsequent History. Even while the political parties,
into which the people of the United States were lately
divided, were doing every thing in their power to induce
the world to believe that on the election of a president
were to depend the future destinies of that great and

viii translator's notice.
prosperous nation; the author, estimating more favour
ably the nature of the American institutions, confi*
den^ly stated that, "whatever might be the result of
this domestic contest, the wisdom of the constitution
was a guarantee as well for the moderation of the ge-
neral as for the firmness of the magistrate."
But the History of Louisiana and of its cession pos
sesses claims to attention, though of a different cha
racter. It makes the citizen of the United States
acquainted with the origin of his country's title to a
territory, the importance of which, before the lapse of
many ages, will be scarcely inferior to that of all the
states of the original confederacy combined; and it un
folds to the statesman a diplomatic transaction, little
noticed at the time, which must hereafter exercise the
greatest influence on the general balance of power
among the nations of Christendom.
In most of the important events to which he alludes,
the Marquis de Marbois had a direct participation, and
as few foreigners can be named, whose oflBcial relations
have been more beneficial to the United States than
those of this respected individual, a cursory notice of
his life may not be unacceptable to readers on the other
side of the Atlantic. In French History he has long
held an important place.
Barbe Marbois was born at Metz in 1745. He ear
ly entered the diplomatic service, and was appointed in
1769 secretary of the French legation to the diet of the
empire, which held its sittings at Ratisbon. From
this post he was, two years afterwards, transferred in

lUAiNSI. VTOH S NOTICF. IX
the same ch.iracter to Dresden, wlicre, as well as in
Bavaria, lie for some time officiaJed as charge d'affaires.
On quitting the latter coQrt he seems to have had the
intention of entering on anotiitr career, and he was ac
cordingly received as a counsellor of the parliament of
Metz. But from his new pursuits he was soon with
drawn by the offer of employment in ximerica, whose
revolution then attracted universal attention.
The government of France, having determined open
ly to espouse the cause of the English colonies, con
cluded with them in 1778 treaties of amity and alli
ance, and of commerce. As efficient aid in men and
money was promised by its ally to the new republic,
the functions of the French legation to the congress
were at that time far more important than in the ordi
nary cases of diplomatic representation. M. Gerard,
the negotiator of the treaties, who was sent to the
United States in 1778 as miaister plenipotentiary, hav
ing returned home the following year, was succeeded
by the Chevalier de la Luzerne. M. de Marbois Avith
great readiness accepted the appointment of secretary
of legation, with v, hich place that of consul general was
united, and it is well known that he was the principal
agent in the important operations of the embassy. In
April, 1784, M. de la Luzerne took leave of congress,
and M. de Marbois was recognised as charge d'affaires^
in which situation he remained till his appointment in
1785 as intendant of St. Domingo, an office for which
he possessed, in an eminent degree, the appropriate ta
lents. While in the United States, he married a lady
B

X TRANSLATOR S NOTKL.
of Philadelphia, by whom he had a daughter, now the
wife of the Duke of Plaisance, the son of Le Brun,
one of Bonaparte's colleagues in the consulate.
In 1790 Marbois returned to France, and M^as named
by Louis XVL his minister to the Diet at Ratisbon,
but received instructions to proceed first on a special
mission to the Emperor Leopold. At this time, though
the king still remained an integral part of the constitution,
the revolution had made great progress. The princes
of the royal family and a large portion of the nobility
had actually exiled themselves, and were preparing to
attempt the recovery of their privileges by force of arms.
When M. de Marbois came back to Paris from Vienna,
he found that every thing indicated the near approach
of those bloody scenes which disgraced French liberty.
He asked permission to resign his placets which was
granted; the king and also the queen, at the same time,
graciously signifying that he should be preserved for
better times.
During the reign of terror which succeeded, M. de
Marbois's name having been placed on the list of emi
grants, he was imprisoned, and recovered his liberty
only with the fall of Robespierre. Under the consti
tution of the directory he again engaged iu public af
fairs. How far he was from upholding that old system,
the abuses of which time had rendered intolerable to
an enlightened nation, is sufficiently manifest from the
whole tenor of his writings. In the council of an
cients, to which he was elected in 1795, he proved that
however much he might condemn the excesses of the

translator's NOTICE. XI
revolution, to which he was a stranger, his sentiments
were those of a Frenciiman. He paid a just tribute to
the merit of the army of Italy, and of its illustrious
chief, at the same time that he attacked, without suc
cess, the law which excluded from the public service
nobles and the families of emigrants.
In 1797, when the contest took place between a ma
jority of the directory and the legislature, M. de Mar
bois was president of the council of ancients, and had
a great share in the nomination of M. Barthelemy as
one of the directory. A powerful faction having pre
vailed by a revolutionary movement, Barthelemy and
Carnot, two of the directory, as well as several mem
bers of both the legislative,t;ouncils, were subjected to
a species of ostracism. In this number M, de Mar
bois was included ; he was transported, under circum
stances of peculiar aggravation, to the pestilential re
gions of Sinnamari in Guiana. He remained there in
exile till 1800, when he was recalled by the directory
to the inhospitable island of Oleron, and soon after Bo
naparte, becoming first consul, annulled the unjust sen
tence against him and his companions in misfortune.
On M. de Marbois's restoration to his country, he
was made a counsellor of state and director of the pub
lic treasury. The latter office was changed in 1801 to
that of minister of the public treasury, when he be
came a member of the cabinet. While in this situa
tion, the negotiations with the United States for the ces
sion of Louisiana, which gave rise to the present work,

xii translator's notice.
were confided to him as the plenipotentiary on the part
of the French republic.
In 1805, he received from Napoleon several honora
ry distinctions; but being averse to a system, which
substituted for the usual sources of revenue extraordi
nary contributions from all the neighbouring states, the
consequences of which Marbois foresaw must ultimate.
ly be a general coalition of Europe against France, he
resigned the ministry of the treasury in 1806, and re
tired to the country. He was, however, recalled to Pa
ris, two years afterwards, to fill the office of first pre
sident of the court of accounts — the tribunal which has
jurisdiction in all cases affecting the public receipts and
expenditures.* In 1813, he was made a senator of the
empire. On the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, the king
created M. de Marbois a peer, and he was confirmed
in the presidency of the court of accounts. Having
been exiled by Napoleon, during the hundred days, he
was on the return of Louis XVIII. named minister,
secretary of state, and keeper of the seals; but he soon
after resigned this office to resume his former place in
the court of accounts, the duties of which, though now
eighty-four years of age, he still performs with the
greatest exactitude. He is also constant in his at-
* All the French courts are divided into chambers or sections,
each of which has its own president. The first president is the
magistrate who presides over the whole court when the several
chambers meet together on important occasions. The public ac
counts are settled by judicial forms.

TRANSLATOR S NOTICE. Xlll
tendance in the liouse of peers, where he takes part
in most of the important proceedings ; and, at the open
ing of the present session, he was named on the com
mission to whom the king's speech was referred. In
all institutions having for their object the melioration of
the condition of his fellow-beings, M. de Marbois en
gages with deep interest, and, notwithstanding his nu
merous Engagements, he lias witliin a few days consent
ed to be a member of a council formed for the suppres
sion of mendicity.
The labours of M. de Marbois have not prevented
his finding leisure for literary pursuits. Besides wri^
ting the Introduction to the Count de Goertz's Memoir
on the Negotiations of 1778 for the Succession of Ba
varia, he is the author of several works on Morals and
Finance, and of some translations from German and
English. He likewise published, in 1816, an account
of Arnold's conspiracy, preceded by an essay on the
United States, which is characterized by the same libe
ral spirit as the present Treatise. It was translated
soon after its appearance by a distinguished American
scholar. Accurate as is the Marquis de Marbois in general,
it is not improbable that the reader may find in the fol
lowing work errors of detail that might have been cor.
rected from public documents, had they fallen under the
observation of the venerable writer. The instructions
to the American plenipotentiaries, and their despatch,
accompanying the Louisiana treaty, are published in
tbp Appendix to the present edition. A few notes have

-^IV TRANSLATOR'S NOTICE.
also been inserted, but I have not felt myself at liberty,
except in a single instance, to make any comments on
the opinions which M. de Marbois has formed respect
ing either the political parties of the country or the
prominent American statesmen, to whom he has occa
sionally alluded.
After these explanations, I will only farther observe
that in submitting the History of Louisiana to my fel
low-citizens in the United States, I pretend to no other
merit, and wish to assume no other responsibility than
that of a faithful
TRANSLATOR.
Paris, May, 1829.

PREFACE.

Many facts worthy of being preserved pass into ob
livion, from not being recorded by those who are best
acquainted with them. A witness during my long ca
reer of various important pubUc events, in some of
which I took part, I always intended, as soon as I
should have leisure, to write an account of those in
which I was directly engaged. From year to year, I
have had reason to think that this moment was draw
ing near; though, whether I deceive myself, or am still
really able to attend to business and support the weight
of years, I have not yet resolved on retirement. At the
same time, I have not thought proper longer to delay
writing the History, which I now publish, and this oc
cupation has been to me a source of relaxation.
The treaty, by which Louisiana was, twenty-six years
since, ceded to the United States, has lately given rise
to regrets, which have appeared to me to merit the
more attention from their being entertained in good
faith. I have conceived that the history of that nego
tiation would dissipate some errors, and might throw
light on the doubts which have been suggested respect
ing the policy of the measure.

Xvi PREFACE.
France had, in 1802, just recovered Louisiana by
treaty. But, she had not yet taken possession, when
a war broke out between her and England. Could we
hope to retain that colony.? Admitting that it might
have been retained, and that it would, at a future day,
become useful to the mother country, did it offer suffi
cient advantages to indemnify us for the expense of its
settlement and defence ? As an independent state, will
it not make more rapid progress than if it were sub
jected to the laws of monopoly.'' Will not its con
stantly improving condition be more advantageous to
our commerce than its possession and exclusive go
vernment would have been.'' Already, the doubts are,
in part, removed.
1 have put in order some materials, which I long
since prepared for this narrative. The circumstances
respecting the cession of Louisiana were not, at all,
known in France, where even the treaties have never
yet been authentically pubhshed; but it is in the great
collection of the diplomatic transactions of the United
States that the principal documents are to be found.
It will, perhaps, be observed that the object of the ne
gotiation was not to put an end to a war; that it was
not accompanied by any remarkable incident, and that
it was promptly terminated. It may then well excite
surprise that it should furnish matter for a large vo
lume, whilst so many other treaties, concluded after
many communications and long conferences, only oc
cupy a few pages in history. But most of these trea
ties have been so badly observed, and their influence

PREFACE. XVU
has been so transitory? that they may be forgotten
without much affecting the instruction or the interests
of society. On the other hand, thp consequences of
the cession of Louisiana will extend to the most dis
tant posterity. It interests vast regions that will be
come, by their civiUzation and power, the rivals of
Europe before another century commences. It has
crowned the important work to which Louis XVI., his
armies, and the statesmen, who composed his council,
gloriously contributed. The great advantages which
the whole world has derived from that event have
caused it to be forgotten that, at the time of the alli
ance of 1778, politics did not conform to the laws of
morality. This History is about to appear in the midst of the
many good and bad books, which every season pro
duces. But is there any one which entering, at this
day, into a library, dares to look for a place there.''
They are laU occupied. I know not what will be the
fate of my book. If the great historians find in it some
details worthy of being remembered, I beg them to be
lieve that they are true. Two of their pagep will be
sufficient for the recitals of which I have made a vo
lume. -If some of the maxims have the happy effect
of shedding a new lustre on public virtues, I shall re
joice that I have had an oppj^tunity of writing them.
I have had my share in the calamities of our times.
Literature and study, which, in tranquil circumstances,
had contributed to my happiness, were my principal
consolation in adversity. They have inspired in me

XVIU PREFACE.
an attachment for Jiberty, regulated by wise laws.
They aided me to support with courage an unjust and
rigorous captivity. I may, perhaps, be permitted to
add, that in every situation of my life, whether prospe
rous or adverse, I have always believed it to be my
duty to render my labours useful to nay country. May
those who read the recital on which I am entering, re
cognise in the sketch that I- have traced of the institu
tions of the United States, my attachment for those of
France, and my firm persuasion that our happiness is
closely connected with the faithful observance of our
new laws.

IXTROtoUCTIOX.

ESSAY ON THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE
UNITED STATES OP AMERICA.

I X T R ODUC T ION.

ESSAY ON THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

The origin of the greatest part of the nations of
antiquity was attended with extraordinary occurrences.
Their legislators proclaimed themselves the organs
and confidants of gods and goddesses. They con
versed with them, and the laws which they promul
gated were dictated by a mysterious power.
No fable is connected with the primitive legislation
of modern colonies. A benevolence truly divine was
the Egeria of WiUiam Penn. If, from the history of the
first period of the English settlements, we efface some
acts of fanaticism, and of an intolerance always bar
barous, often hypocritical, we shall find that the wis
dom which presided at their infancy, never abandoned
them during the most violent storms of their revolution.
These colonies, without violating their charters, in
serted in their rising institutions a principle of hberty,
which, from their very cradle, prepared the way for
their future emancipation. Better constituted, freer
and sooner peopled than the colonies of other nations,

18 INTRODUCTION.
if they had fewer motives for separating from their mo
ther country, they were also better prepared for inde
pendence. Their settlement only dates back a century
and a half; but their progress has been very rapid, and
we will set out from their earliest epoch, in order to
recafl some circumstances connected with their origin,
and present their principal results.
The discovery of America has had, during three
hundred years, a great influence on the destinies of
the old world. The independence of the United States
will produce consequences still more important: it is,
as it were, a second discovery. An irresistible impulse
is given to all civilized countries. The liberty of the
Spanish kingdoms in America has been probably ad
vanced by it a century. This great event, which Co
lumbus was far from foreseeing, is the most glorious
result of his bold labours. Europe already participates
in these happy changes. Some centuries will elapse
before an end is put to despotism and slavery in Asia
and Africa, but our posterity wiU witness even this
other astonishing event.
It was not the wisdom and policy of the govern
ments of Europe, but religious persecution and the
vices of large towns, that peopled and cultivated Ame
rica. These remote settlements offered to European
rulers the means of freeing themselves from religious
dissenters as well as from vagabonds, libertines, and
convicts. The latter description of persons were sent,
at first, in very small numbers, and it was only towards
the middle of the last century that transportation for

LNTRODUCTION. 19
crimes was carried to a great extent. Sixty years ago,
Franklin, in enumerating the grievances of the colo
nies, said to the Enghsh : " An act of parliament has
authorized you to do us, by emptying the contents of
your prisons into our cities, the greatest injury that can
be inflicted on a people." This was the universal sys
tem of the maritime powers. It was without any de
sign on the part of the statesmen of those days that the
agricultural colonies have become the honour and hap
piness of the human race. It was the Catholics, the
Puritans, the Huguenots, the Calvinists, and the Qua
kers who contributed most effectually to prevent the
evils which would have resulted from the presence of
criminals condemned to banishment. These sectaries
brought to America frugal and austere habits, and they
were all either well educated or conversant with some
branch of industry.
But these unfortunate settlers were in many of the
provinces, exposed to new persecutions. Some of them
were cruelly treated, and the prevaihng sects obliged
the more feeble to seek elsewhere a new asylum. It
may be observed that the colony of Maryland, which
had been the refuge of the Catholics, was the most to
lerant ; it was successively peopled by dissenters, pro
fessing different tenets and escaping from the place of
their first voluntary exile.
In the year 1662, Connecticut received from Charles
II. a constitution which bound it but slightly to the mo
ther country, and was framed with such wisdom, that
the only change which it underwent at the Revolution,

20 INTRODUCTION.
was the substitution of the name of state for that of
king. In 1818 this state gave itself a new constitution, the
articles of which diflfer very little from those of its
charter. The charter which Charies II. granted to
Rhode Island, is dated at the same period with that of
Connecticut. The people have found in it sufficient
guarantees and have not been disposed to make in it
the least alteration.
Locke, who was employed to prepare a charter for
Carolina, did not succeed so weU: he introduced in it
seignors, barons, landgraves, cassiques, and palatines.
This charter and ail those which were drawn up by
the counsellors of the crown underwent great changes
to suit the views of the colonists. The governors
could no where prevent the formation of those assem
blies of delegates, which constitute the strongest as
well as the most effectual restraint on abuses.
The colonists had, from the earliest times, frequent
quarrels with their mother country, and projects of se
paration appeared long before the Declaration of In
dependence. This disposition will seem the less sur
prising, when it is remembered that the most numerous
portion of the inhabitants of some of the provinces
were not of English origin; and that all of them, from
whatever nation they came, had fled from persecution,
and preferred liberty among savages to oppression in a
civilized country. The Dutch emigrants had brought
into the colony of New York sobriety, industry, useful
rules of economy, and an inclination for trade. A few

INTRODUCTION. 21
Swedes of upright character, and of religious and mo
ral habits were spread over New Jersey and Delaware.
A great part of Pennsylvania was settled by Germans
and Irish. The revocation of the edict of Nantes peo
pled South Carolina with many industrious and rich
French families : these unfortunate refugees had wished
to settle in Louisiana, but were excluded by the into
lerance and bigotry which then governed the councils
of France. The historians of America render their
sincere thanks for this persecution to the ministers of
Louis XIV.
The planters and inhabitants of the English colonies,
as free as the English themselves, and enjoying the
same civil rights, were subjected to very severe restric
tions on their trade and navigation,- as well as on all
kinds of manufactures, with which the mother country
could supply them. The British government held it,
also, as a maxim, not to suffer any settlements to be
formed in the interior of the country or at a distance
from the coast. The motives for this policy are ex
plained in a Report, which was only made public at a
very late period. " The territories of the West," says
this document, " are fertile, the climate is temperate,
planters would meet with but few obstacles in settling
there ; with little labour they would be able to satisfy
their wants ; they would have nothing to ask of Eng
land, and no returns to offer her." When the corres
pondence of some of the governors and other officers
of the crown was published, it was found to evince the
same intention of not favouring the; industry of the co-

22 INTRODUCTION.
lonists, and the same fear that their independence might
be the result of a less exclusive system.
It cannot, however, be said that the English colonies
were tyrannically governed. No colonies in the world
have enjoyed so many privileges ; and if the general
government of the United States can exercise over
them an authority more extensive and less contested
than the kings of England ever possessed, it is be
cause there is in the nature of the Federal Govern
ment a tendency to impose Umits on itself. The Eng
lish governors only sought to extend their powers; —
congress attentively confines itself within its proper
sphere. Every thing was ripe for a revolution ; the duties on
tea and the stamp act were only a pretence. The Vio
lent proceedings of the mother country taught the Ame
ricans that their liberty was in jeopardy. The danger
aroused all those to whom this liberty was dear; and
when it is recollected with what ardour they sacrificed
their repose, their lives, and their fortunes, it must be
acknowledged that the fear of losing an inestimable
good coiild alone have inspired so much courage and
devotion. They addressed themselves, at first, to their sove
reign, not with their knees on the ground and quires
full of mournful complaints in their hands ; but they
stated their grievances with calm and respectful firm
ness. As its only reply, the British government at
tempted to punish them as mutineers and rebels. They
then published that Declaration of Independence which

INTRODUCTION. 23
we now read, after a lapse of fifty years, without find
ing in it a single word to censure. The anniversary
of the day, on which it was published, is always cele
brated with those fresh manifestations of joy Which all,
without exception, feel at the bottom of their hearts.
Their undertaking, when it was announced, was se
conded by the good wishes of all Europe, and, even in
the councils of Great Britain, a numerous party sup
ported their eflforts.
The cabinet of Versailles acknowledged their inde
pendence, in doing which it was perhaps as much drawn
along by the movement of pubhc opinion as determined
by the deliberations that preceded the alliance. This
important resolution has since been censured, even by
some of those who had strenuously advised and de
manded it. It is very true, that it hastened in Europe
the development of the principles of freedom, whiqh
were then springing up on all sides, and were favoured
by princes themselves. But this unanimity was not of
long continuance: in France, even, where liberal opi
nions had been received with the most enthusiasm, a
few years sufficed to produce a violent explosion of an
opposite character.
The Anierican insurrection had only to contend with
the armies sent from England: forces still more formi
dable suddenly threatened the rising hberty of France.
If reforms had become necessary, abuses consecrated
by ages were almost inseparable from the established
order of things. The reformers made some vain eflforts
to proceed with prudence and deliberation; but, carried

24 INTRODUCTION.
away by the violence of parties, their acts soon bore
the marks of injustice. Furious excesses justified the
resistance of the clergy and nobility. This terrible
struggle was followed by deplorable catastrophies. At
this day, instead of acknowledging their true causes,
some attribute to the American revolution the disasters
and crimes of our own. They raise doubts respecting
the wisdom of the ministers of Louis XVL; and go so
far as to assert that that prince, instead of succouring
the Americans by his arms and the treasures of France,
ought to have united the French troops to the Hano
verians and Hessians, in order to bring back the re-
beflious subjects to their allegiance. Perhaps the in
tervention of France in this great quarrel was not suf
ficiently justified either by imminent dangers or by those
rules of justice which states should never violate. I even
hardly dare to look for a justification of the part which
was then taken in those maxims of precautionary poli
cy, which it is so easy to bend to all circumstances.
There is no doubt that Louis XVL, by allying himself
with the United States, really advanced the emancipa
tion of the English colonies. But, had France re
mained neutral, the independence of the United States
would only have been retarded a few years. We may
apply to modern colonies what has happened to all
those of antiquity. Whatever may be the power of the
parent state, its colonies are free as soon as they are
sensible of their own strength. In vain would the mo
ther country attempt to prolong their subjection by ar
resting their progress in every way, introducing dissen-

INTRODUCTION. 25
sion among the different classes of inhabitants, discou
raging industry, and substituting constraint to affection,
prejudices to reason. Such efforts would only serve to
render these establishments burdensome rather than
profitable, to engender the most profound hatred, to
incline the people with more certainty to revolt, and to
render an insurrection, by its being longer delayed,
more terrible and destructive.
A glorious justification of the revolution, and of the
assistance which France afforded to it, is to be found
in the advantages that have resulted from it to society
in general, and even to England. It depends on the
Americans to justify it still further by the wisdom of
their conduct.
Among the civil chiefs whom this people selected
to govern them, after the declaration of their indepen
dence, among those to whom they confided the com
mand of their armies, Arnold alone was misled by am
bition and avarice; no other person in office took ad
vantage of the public distresses to elevate himself Or
increase his fortune. The virtues necessary to the
foundation and preservation of states, boldness in ac
tion, moderation in success, constancy in adversity,
were exhibited without ostentation and without pOmp.
The rulers of that period also participated honourably
in that ¦ species of fame which is acquired by arms,
which is accompanied by the most dangers^and which
the multitude, therefore, place above all others.
Washington is, in the eyes of his fellow citizens,
more worthy of admiration-^greater than was ever

26 INTRODUCTION.
Alexander or Caesar, in the estimation of the Greeks
and Romans. His natural moderation was such, that,
after having vanquished the enemies of his country,
he had not, like so many other men illustrious in arms,
to combat his own ambition. He was delighted to lay
aside the sword, in order to devote himself to the care
of governing the republic, restored to peace. Deso-,
lation and ruins are the monuments of the lives of con
querors, and mark their course on earth. The happi
ness of mankind is the imperishable monument which
must recafl to future ages the name of Washington;
and his glory, purer than theirs, surpasses in reality that
of those pretended sons of the gods. The war once
ended, it was especially to his civil virtues that the
Americans were delighted to render homage.
They, at this day, prize one kind of glory above all
others, — it is that which in peace is attached to sin
cere love of country, and which, without ambitious
passions, and, with a sort of indifference for celebrity,
exhibits itself in. a modest desire to obtain the esteem
of the people.
Several of their first magistrates, among whom are
the two Adams* and Jefferson,t who have seen the
repubhc flourish, are no more : they gave examples of
private virtues, after having long exhibited those of a
pubhc nature. Madison and Monroe, who have re-

* Samuel Adams and John Adams.
t J(.liii Adams and Jeflerson died on the 4th of July, 1826, the
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which they signed
fifty years before.

INTRODUCTION. 27
turned, without authority, without power, into the rank
of private citizens, are there followed with as much ve
neration and affection as the king, who, on the throne,
had best merited the love of his subjects, would obtain
after his abdication. The magistrates, who succeed
in their footsteps, have no other end in view than the
good of the republic, and this good is made apparent
by indications that never deceive; that is to say, by the
pubhc will, — by the opinion of all the citizens clearly
and spontaneously expressed. Experience has taught
them that the people, left to themselves, are the most
capable of deciding on their true interests, and it is by
pursuing the course which they point out that rulers
are sure of obtaining general approbation and confi
dence. I traced,* some years ago, a picture of the prosperi
ty of this people; but they make such rapid advances,
that the scene changes even whilst we are observing
it, and in a few years it will be necessary to add new
observations to those which can, at this time, be made.
They have already assumed a rank among the old
nations of the world ; but they have not, like them, to
accotnplish the immense task for which centuries do
not always suffice, — the return from error to truth.
We there see no relics of the usurpation of power, no
old abuses seeking opportunities to resume their places,
no oppressive laws of former ages, no ambitious leaders
of sects abusing their authority over the consciences
* Preface to Arnold's Conspiracy, 1816.

28 INTRODUCTION.
of their followers, not the slightest trace of that feudal
system, of which in Europe even the institutions of re
publics still bear the stamp, no rival classes disputing
for rights, which belong as much to the one party as
the other. The concurrence of the interests of the
great number has smoothed all obstacles; it has pro
tected the rising republic from those hateful acts, from
those vindictive movements which, in the revolutions
of other states, have successively disgraced the tri
umphs of the different parties.
The government of the United States has no model
either in ancient or modern times. These new socie
ties have not had, like all those of which history has
transmitted any account, to encounter the difficulty of
proceeding from experiment to experiment, from revo
lution to revolution, in order to discover the constitu
tions and systems of government best calculated to
ensure their happiness. They consulted experience;
they sought light in the writings of the many sages
who have meditated on the means of rendering man
kind happy. They did not despise the theories which
prejudice and interest had so long ranked among chi
meras. They conformed their institutions to those wise
inspirations, and since their adoption no class of citi
zens, probably no one citizen, has desired any changes
in the fundamental laws, though the forms have been
ameliorated, when time has led to the discovery of de
fects. It was in the midst of arms that these constitutions
were* framed, and even the presence of the enemy did not

INTRODUCTION. 29
permit the adjournment of this important work. We find
in them, however, all the marks of mature reflection.
The Americans examined, first, whether it would not be
advisable that the states should be divided into thirteen
communities, free from every federal tie and only united
by a perpetual alliance, which would in no respect alter
their several rights of independent sovereignty. Those
who would have preferred so complete a separation were
in a very smafl minority; they founded their argument
on the certainty of a great increase in the population,
and on the difficulty of retaining by a common tie and
subjecting to common laws, states separated by such
great distances. But this form of government would
have rendered the revolution impracticable, because
there would not have been any concert in the efforts
to resist England; and, though success might have en
couraged some isolated efforts, dissensions would soon
have broken out among these numerous republics.
This proposition was easily put aside. The necessity
of a strict, indissoluble union, the want of a single cen
tral government were generally acknowledged. It was
left to time and other circumstances to make such re
gulations as might be expedient, when the extension of
territory should require the formation of other states.
A proposition was advanced, on which, however,
there was no discussion, but which we wiU mention,
because traces of it are to be found in some of the
writings of the period. It was proposed to have only
one single repubhc and one single supreme govern
ment, directing from north to south all the internal

30 INTRODUCTION.
and foreign affairs of this vast society. In adopting
this form of government, it would have been indispens
able not only to renounce many articles of the different
charters, which had become, by long habit, dear to
the people, but also to place the authority in the hands
of an aristocracy or of a monarch. But an aristocra
cy, whether hereditary or elective, would have de
stroyed that equality which was the fiindamental prin
ciple of the revolution. The Americans would have
had less aversion to monarchy, had not time effaced in
their hearts every trace, however slight, of that affec
tion which renders all things easy to royal authority;
moreover, they were not disposed to admit the fiction,
which reserves to the prince the merit of ah the good
that is done, and makes the ministers responsible for
ah the evil that happens. Far from concluding from
this doctrine that the king is a being incapable of do
ing good or evil, they would have feared that a bad
prince would end by adopting the maxim himself.
The republican system of government was chosen
with great unanimity. All the authority of the confe
derated states was concentrated, during the war, in a
single assembly; which was the only form of govern
ment that could have suited them while engaged in a
revolution. The common danger then commanded general obe
dience; and the power of the enemy silenced afl the
jealousies, which that of congress inspired. It was
quite otherwise after the peace of 1783; ambitious
views openly appeared in several of the states. Some

INTRODUCTION. M
of them would have wished to have had their army,
their little navy, and their ambassadors. Prudent men
were aware that if the federal knot were thus relaxed,
the union would soon be dissolved, and the republic
placed at the mercy of internal cabals and European in
trigues ; that the authority of the general government
would be in danger and always insecure, if it continued
to emanate from that of the several states, and that it
would, on the other hand, be complete and entire if it
had its source in the individual vote of every citizen of
the^confederation. This great change was accom
plished not without difficulty, but the separate states
have, at length, become accustomed to confine their
attention almost exclusively to the affairs of their inter
nal or municipal governments. They confide other
matters to the wisdom of congress, where every state
h9,s some of its citizens.
The cession of Louisiana has given rise to several
acts of this great body; the new states Obey it in the
same manner as the old ones ; and to understand the
facts, which we purpose narrating, requires a previous
knowledge of the principal regulations of the constitu
tion of the United States.
A convention, held at Philadelphia in 1787, proposed
certain articles to the confederated states, " in order,"
as they said, " to form a more perfect union, estabhsh
justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the
common defence, promote the general welfare, and se
cure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their
posterity."

32 INTRODUCTION.
This constitution was adopted on the 17th of Sep
tember, 1787. A congress composed of a senate and
house of representatives exercises such legislative
power, as was delegated to it by the constitution.
The representatives must have attained the age of
twenty-five years, and have been seven years citizens;
they must, also, be inhabitants of the states in which
they are chosen. Their term of Service is for, two
years. There can only be one representative for forty
thousand free persons, calculating in this number of
forty thousand, five slaves as three free men, or 66,000
blacks as 40,000 whites. This proportion may, howe
ver, be changed after a new census. By the constitu
tion the number of representatives cannot exceed one
for every thirty thousand inhabitants ; but each state
must have, at least, one representative.
Every state sends two senators. They are elected
for six years ; they must have attained the age of thir
ty years ; have been citizens of the United States for
nine years, and be inhabitants of the state which elects
them. The senators are divided into classes, so that
one-third go out every two years.
The house of representatives impeaches for state
crimes. The senate tries them. The concurrence of
two-thirds of the votes is required for a conviction, and
the judgment only extends to disqualification to hold
an office under the United States. But the convicted
party may be, afterwards, prosecuted before the ordi
nary tribunals, sentenced and punished according to
law.

INTRODUCTION. 33
Congress assembles at least once a year. A majo
rity of each house constitutes a quorum to do busi
ness. Each house makes its own rules, punishes its
own members for disorderly behaviour, and, with the
concurrence of two-thirds, may expel a member.
The senators and representatives receive a Com
pensation, which is paid out of the treasury of the
United States.* They cannot be arrested during the
session, nor in going to or returning from the place of
meeting. They cannot be questioned elsewhere for any speech
or debate in either house.
No senator or representative can hold any office un
der the authority of the United States.
The bills passed in the two houses are presented to
the president, and become laws when he has approved
them. He can refuse his assent; but the bill acquires
the force of a law, if two-thirds of each house insist
on it after the president has returned it with his objec
tions. This is hkevyise the case, if the president does
not state his objections within ten days.
Congress has power to impose taxes, to contract
loans, tq regulate commerce with foreign nations,
among the several states, and with the Indian tribes,
to coin money and establish post offices, to constitute
tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, and punish pi
racy and offences against the law of nations, to de-
* Eight dollars a day, or forty-two francs for each senator and
representative. The allovrance for travelling expenses is regulated
by the distance, and is dght dollars for every twenty miles.
5

34 INTRODUCTION,
clare war, and grant letters of marque and reprisal.
It is also authorized to raise and support armies and
navies; but no appropriation for the army can be made
for a longer term than two. years. It may call out the
militia to execute the laws of the Union and repel in
vasions. No money can be drawn from the treasury, except
by virtue of a law, and statements of the receipts and
expenditures are made public.
The presidents of the United States never omit,,
when they enter on their duties, to proclaim the prin
ciples which they purpose following. The forms of
expression may be different, but the essential part of
the declaration always consists in an engagement to
be equafly just towards all, without distinction of reli
gious or political principles. Peace, commerce, and
friendship with afl nations, render useless, in their opi
nion, treaties of alliance, which they, moreover, consi
der at variance with true independence. They engage
to maintain the authority of the general government in
its constitutional vigour, as the best guarantee of tran
quillity at home, and peace abroad, and to support the
state governments in all their rights.
They recommend to the people to be attentive to
the privfleges of the elective franchise, to be obedient
to the decisions of the majority, and to support the su
premacy of the civil over the military authority. They
promise to carry on the administration with economy,
to preserve the public faith untouched, to encourage
agriculture and commerce, its principal agent; and,

iN'fRODUCTION. 35
finally, to watch attentively over the education of the
citizens, the free exercise of religion, personal liberty,
and the independence of the press.
The expectations which these speeches afford be
come a contract, which is faithfully observed. To in
fringe or elude it would be to destroy the very founda
tion of the government, which is good faith. Jeffer
son, on being raised to the presidency of the United
States on the 4th of March, 1801, declared that in or
der to leave to his family the legacy of an honoured
name, he must thenceforth occupy himself exclusively
with the public business and with the promotion of his
country's happiness. His presidency lasted eight years,
and history teaches us how wisely and successfully he
responded to the appeal which he had made to him
self. The president and vice-president of the United
States are named for four years. They are elected in
every state by special electors, who are neither sena
tors nor representatives, and who do not hold any of
fice of profit or trust under the authority of congress.
No person, except a native citizen of the age of at
least thirty-five years, or one who was a citizen on the
17th of September, 1787, can be named president.
This m&gistrate is commander-in-chief of the army
and navy of the United States, and of the militia, when
they are cafled into the actual service of the Union.
He grants reprieves or pardons for crimes and offences
against the United States, except in cases of impeach
ment. He has power to make treaties, with the advice

36 INTRODUCTION.
and consent of the senate, provided two-thirds of the
members present concur. He names, by and with the
advice and consent of the senate, ambassadors, pubhc
ministers, consuls, and judges of the Supreme Court.
He fifls up all the vacancies that may occur during the
recess of the senate, by granting commissions which
expire at the end of the next session.
The presidents of congress, under the old confede
ration, had the title of excellency. It is now only em
ployed with reference to the governors of states. This
emphatic appellation is afl that remains in the United
States of the forms of flattery, which European cour
tiers borrowed from the East, and which their masters
eagerly adopted.
The president and vice-president, and all other civil
officers of the United States may be removed from of
fice on an impeachment for, and conviction of treason,
and other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Every thing that is within the scope of the powers
of congress is forbidden to the separate states. They
cannot, without its consent, lay any duties on imports,
nor keep in time of peace troops or vessels of war,
nor make agreements or compacts with one another,
or with foreign powers, nor engage in war, unless ac
tually invaded or in such imminent danger as wiH not
admit of delay.
The privilege of habeas corpus cannot be suspended,
unless, when in case of rebeflion or invasion, the pub
hc safety requires it.
There is at Washington a power, which has neither

INTRODUCTION. 37
guards nor palaces, nor treasures: it is neither sur
rounded by clerks nor overloaded with records. It has
for its arms only truth and wisdom. Its magnificence
consists in its justice and in the pubhcity of its acts.
This power is called the Supreme Court of the United
States. It exercises the judicial authority in a\\ cases
affecting the general interests of the United States, in
their relations with one another and with foreign na
tions. The members of this tribunal can only be re
moved from office on account of bad conduct, and af
ter a trial. Their permanent tenure is an additional
guarantee of their probity and of acquirements, which
are every year increased.
They have original jurisdiction, where ambassadors^
ministers, and consuls, or states are parties. In other
cases, which are generally those in w^hich foreigners
are -parties against states or citizens, their jurisdiction
is appeflate. This court has other functions, that al
ready alarm some friends of liberty. But what have
they to fear from a power whose justice constitutes its
whole strength, which can, it is true, reduCe the other
powers to inaction by declaring that they are proceed
ing contrary to the constitution, but which would raise
the whole republic against it, if its decision was not
clearly correct.'' /
The Americans, supposing that they might profit by
the warnings of history, have multipMed the barriers
against usurpation and the abuse of power. Their con
stitutions contain as vaa,ny prohibitory as positive enact
ments. But, experience has proved that these fears

38 INTRODUCTION.
are ill-founded. Their rulers are more anxious to re
strain than to extend their authority.
The confederacy may admit new states, and it gua
ranties to all of them a republican form of govern-^
ment. The case of changes in the constitution becoming
indispensable has been foreseen. At the same time,^
provision has been made, by prudent regulations, to
prevent their being attenipted without mature delibe
ration. Amendments can only be made on the pro
position of two-thirds of both houses of congress, or by
a convention, cafled on the apphcation of two-thirds
of the states; and in neither case can they beconie ar
ticles of the constitution tifl they have been ratified by
the legislatures or conventions of three-fourths of the
several states.
Some amendments were, in fact, proposed by con
gress. The most important related to points, which
the convention had so generafly acknowledged and
practised, that it had deemed it useless to mention
them. Congress judged otherwise, and limiting its
own power, proposed to insert in the constitution that
congress should make no law respecting an estabhsh-
ment of religion, or to prohibit the free exercise there
of, to abridge the freedom of speech or of the press,
the right of the people to assemble and to petition go
vernment, or their right to be secure in their persons;
houses, papers, and effects. These provisions were
a,dopted as parts of the constitution; but they were in
full force before their adoption.

INTRODUCTION. 39
It is necessary to consider all the relations of the
Union with the particular governments of the different
states, in order to understand how this people have
united with the civil and political liberty of every citi
zen, the force and energy required in those crises,
which even the wisest governments cannot always
avoid. It wifl, then, likewise be seen how it has been
possible to adapt the forms of a republican and demo-
cratical government to a country of- great extent, and
to unite successively to the same central authority new
territories and new communities, which, without losing
any of their hberty and independence, are added one
after another to the Union, and increase its strength.
These communities wifl extend the hmits of the nation
fajjther and farther; but it is not probable that the ad
vantages, of which we have spoken, wifl then be pre
served, without a separation of the states. Whatever
may happen, we have no reason to fear that the prin
ciples of liberty wifl be at afl changed in any of the se
parate confederacies which may be formed. These
governments are estabhshed for the happiness of the
people; the people themselves watch them; they can
not forget their glorious destination.
Such is, then, the first duty of the congress of the
United States. The democratical element does not
prevail there in the same degree as in the states sepa
rately considered; its authority is not very different
from that which in limited monarchies belongs to the
throne. It has only a very smaU army: its powers are,
however, sufficient, because it does not abuse them,

40 INTRODUCTION.
but only exercises them for the public advantage. It
has, consequently, never experienced that resistance,
to which absolute governments are exposed; and, al
though attempts have sometimes been made to intro
duce dissensions into this great body, although it has
been obstinately predicted that the states wifl soon se
parate and make war upon one another, the spirit of
the union has been more powerful than afl the efforts
made against it, and this union has never, perhaps,
been seriously threatened except on one occasion,
which was in 1815, when the Hartford Convention sent
deputies to congress instructed to denounce the presi
dent. They have, indeed, since contracted the reci
procal engagement of never divulging the secret causes
of this proceeding. The steps taken by this assembly
cannot be approved, and yet it must be acknowledged
that it was composed of estimable men, whom the
people had chosen, and that their error was not attend
ed with the melancholy results which had been appre
hended. Montesquieu supposed that free states were the most
exposed to tumults and revolutions; but this great man
was only acquainted with those nominal republics, in
which the citizens are divided into classes possessing
unequal rights. The tranqufllity which reigns in the
United States is founded on the perfect equality of the
citizens. When the repubhc is at peace, all the parts
which compose it are equally benefited, because there
are no classes whom peace distresses and for whom
public calamities are a means of power and influence.

INTRODUt TrON. 41
If war takes place, it is carried on with a common ar
dour, since afl equally feel the wrong and injury which
occasioned it. There are twenty-four different states,
but the American loves them afl as his native land, and
in whichever of them he happens to reside, he consi
ders himself in his own country.
Conflicts have sometimes arisen between the autho
rity of congress, the depositary of the federal power,
and that of the separate states ; but the states have
more frequently been disposed to transfer to the gene
ral government a part of the power, which was re
served to them. The federal constitution emanates as
directly from the citizens of each republic, separately
considered, as its own particular constitution. It is
this common origin of the powers of the confedera-
tioiv, which constitutes its strength. I shafl hereafter
mention the cause which may affect the good under
standing between the states and congress. With this
one exception, every thing moves on without difficulty,
and while this submissiveness to the laws attests their
wisdom, it assures us that men, associated in society,
have made real progress in the career of happiness.
A remarkable proof of the good intelligence pre
vailing among the different parts of the Union, was
not long ago afforded by the war of restrictions car
ried on between the United States and England. In
such struggles victory belongs to the party which can
longest support its own losses and embarrassments;
and it was the perseverance of the Americans, that tri
umphed over the prohibitory system. They obeyed laws

42 INTRODUCTION.
that were in opposition to all their habits, but these
laws were enacted by congress. It was the United
States that suggested to England the renunciation of
her famous navigation act, and of that exclusive sys
tem, which she had so long maintained. Free com
merce makes the law for enslaved commerce.
Of all the great powers, no one is in a situation
more independent of the events and vicissitudes, which
affect the repose of nations than the. United States.
Is a negotiation commenced .f* Their fundamental
principle is equality in the stipulations. They have
declared that they will only treat on this condition.
The other party must conform to it or break off the
conferences. Skilled in navigation, and in afl the sciences which
constitute the pride of Europe, long initiated in all the
operations of English commerce, freer now than even
their former masters, they wifl soon become their equals,
and England sees in them rivals, that wifl presently be
more formidable to her than the maritime powers of
Europe have ever been.* England, by her conduct
towards the United States, first revealed to Europe the
degree of power to which this new people had, in a
very short time, arrived. She would not have willing
ly aflowed the world to know how much she requires
their friendship; but their forced participation in the
* The merchant tonnage of the United States, corresponding to
the British registered tonnage, was, in 1827, 1,650,607 tons, while
that of the United Kingdom, during the same year, is stated in the
parliamentary returns to have been only 2,105,605 tons. — Transl.

INTRODUCTION. ' 43
profits of navigation and commerce seemed to her the
presage of stifl greater losses. She believed, a few years
ago, that there was yet time to arrest their progress.
The haughty demeanour, threats, and seductions,
which were in turn employed, only warned the United
States to provide for their safety. War was declared
almost simultaneously on both sides. But the English
received from it a harsh lesson, and eagerly entered on
negotiations for peace. A treaty, signed at Ghent in
December, 1814, put an end to hostilities without de
stroying the germs of jealousy and enmity. Negotia
tions have been prolonged to this day. If the English
bring forward a sine qua non proposition, the Americans
immediately advance another. Reciprocity, their rule
in commercial matters, is as simple as its forms are
various. They have their discriminating tariffs,- their
countervailing duties, and their inflexible prohibitions.
They have also an act of navigation, but different from
the one which was so long regarded by England as the
tutelary genius of her commerce. " We do not ask,"
they say, " that your ports should be open to us, we are
far from requiring that you should change your laws,
but leave us ours." England has at length learned
that the military marine of the Americans is no longer
an object of contempt, and that concessions must take
the place of exactions. She no longer pretends to vi
sit American ships, in order to take from them their
own sailors; she has mitigated the rigour of her mari
time code. The Enghsh West Indies cannot dispense
with the productions of the United States; in vain have

44 INTRODUCTION.
the English, afleging the long possession of the colo
nial monopoly, wished to retain the profits of this na
vigation : in vain have they hoped that Canada would
provide for the wants of their islands. At length to
preserve, at least, in appearance, the prohibitory sys
tem, they estabhshed an entrepot in the Bermudas.
The Americans, who had, at first, consented to this ar-
rangementf again showed themselves inflexible, and
would not listen to any modification of the principle
of an entire reciprocity. Then, the colonists of the
islands, who bear all the inconvenience of the inter
ruption of the intercourse, cried mercy; and, in 1822,
an act of the British parliament admitted these dread
ed rivals to a direct trade from the United States to
the West Indies, and even to the Englis'h colonies of
North America. These concessions appeared to have
been made with regret, and had hardly gone into effect
when the president of the board of trade thus expressed
himself in parliament:* "We wished to sustain with
the United States a contest of discriminating duties :
after persevering in it for several yearswe were obliged
to yield; but having entered into arrangements, found
ed on reciprocity, with the American government, we
could not refuse to extend this long neglected principle
to the European powers." In listening to these words,
one would have thought that the conciliation was com
plete ; but, in the month of July, 1 826, new orders in
council withdrew from the Americans the participa-
May 10th, 1826.

INTRODUCTION. 45
tion which had been granted them in the colonial trade.
Thus they refuse and grant, and retract again : the is
sue of the debate is always uncertain ; and, if we be
lieve men profoundly instructed in these matters, the
interests of navigation, which England places above
even those of commerce, are already endangered by
the liberal system, to which the United States have
since 1822 brought that power.*
Their vessels traverse, afl the seas of the globe, with
out any where undergoing those humfliations whieh
English pride has so often attempted to impose on all
flags and to which some have been obliged to submit.
The United States have never supported such indigni
ties. Their principle is that the flag assimflates a ship
to the sofl of the country to which it belongs, and ren
ders it ecfcally inviolable. The slightest insult would
be immediately resented and revenged.
They respect the rights of other nations, and their
rule is not to interfere in their affairs. The pretensions
which they believe to be well founded they assert with
firmness, and they wifl never maintain them feebly; for
their strength increases even whilst the contest is kin
dling. Although disarmed, liberty puts them on an
equality with the nations that continue under arms du
ring the most profound peace.
Those treaties of afliance, those conventions for
mutual succession, so common among the German
princes, are scarcely known byname in the United
~ March 19th, 1837. Parliamentary Debates.

46 INTRODUCTION.
States. They can only suit sovereign famflies, who set
little value on the rights of the people, whom they of
ten involve in quarrels of succession, which seldom re
sult in the improvement of their condition.
If, during the recess of the legislature, difficult cir
cumstances require a prompt decision, the president
does not fafl to take it, and he is sure of being ap
proved, if he has done a necessary act.
There is more timidity even in absolute govern
ments, where the ministers are only responsible to the
throne. In critical circumstances, they seek to gain
time, and proceed by expedients. The difficulty, in
the meanwhfle, grows worse: from being unwflling to
submit to reason, they are obliged to yield to force;
and they lose afl, because they attempted to retain all.
The president, and the two houses of congress, are
without mysterious archives. They have no concealed
and corrupting police, nor have they those secret re
ports so convenient for calumny, so dear to the calum
niators, so dangerous to the persons who are the object
of them, and, oftentimes, even to those who employ
them. All the affairs of the republic are brought as soon as
possible to the knowledge of the public, without any
exaggeration of the favourable condition of some, or
dissimulation respecting the bad state of others. And
why should congress and the administration plot toge
ther to deceive the public, or to conceal from them
untoward truths.-* They are themselves part of the
pubhc.

INTRODUCTION, 47
Measures which interest the state are never adopted
till after the most mature deliberation. They are de
termined on in the presence of the citizens, and during
their discussion, those whom they interest seldom fail
to make known their opinion by publications, whioh
the government never disregards. Publicity is only
disagreeable to those who would wish to make their
private interest prevafl over that of the public. When
the law is once promulgated, no one would dare either
to prevent its going into effect, or to elude its opera
tion. The history of every day also cites to its bar the
president and other rulers, and does not await their
deaths before pronouncing judgment on them. Their
acts are public, posterity already exists for them, and
the powerful as well as the weak are disgraced or
commended, while they are still alive.
The two houses profess the same political doctrines.
There is no essential distinction in the character of
th^ speeches delivered in them. Both are equafly ani
mated by a desire to render their country happy. More
calmness and gravity are, however, observed in the
deliberations of the senate, and more warmth and vi
vacity in those. of the representatives. This diflference
does not exist without a cause. The functions of the
members of the senate last for six years, and those of
the representatives only two. The latter are therefore
the most anxious to bring themselves into notice.
Congress, in its uniform course, ever consistent with
itself, is not at different times under the control of dif-

48 INTRODUCTION.
ferent factions; but, in order to remain free from those
internal agitations, from which the most happy coun
try is not always exempt, it constantly and sincerely
practices the maxim, that " the end of government is
the happiness of society."
There is henceforth no fear of the triumph of des
potism over liberty: the old nations of Europe would
not have experienced this calamity, if, instead of sim
ple traditions, subjected to human and variable pas
sions, at the wifl of an ambitious chief and of an igno
rant multitude, they had had constitutions written by
sages, and confided to the vigflance of all the citizens.
It is thus that the fundamental laws of the several
states of the Union are preserved. The sincerity and
clearness with which they are expressed, do not leave
any opportunity for sophistical interpretations, and the
introduction of obscure expressions, with a view of
hereafter arbitrarily explaining them, has been well
guarded against. If there are some differences in the
state constitutions, they are only to be found in the ex
ternal forms of the government; they afl have justice
and equality for their foundation: what is just at Bos
ton, is so at New Orleans.
• There is not a town or viUage, in which are not to
be found some men well instructed in the true interests
of their country: and if to the intefligence required in
those who engage in public affairs, they join the vir
tues of the citizens, they will infaflibly be raised to the
first employments. Any man may be called to the
highest office. The great Washington had been a

INTRODUCTION. 49
surveyor; Franklin a printer's journeyman; Jefferson
a planter. Magistrates chosen by those whom they
are to govern, are easfly obeyed. The infrequency of
crimes and punishments is the proof as wefl as the
consequence of the docflity of the Americans to the
restraint of the laws.
A long peace does not weary them. They do not
fear that idleness wifl render their youth seditious; a
war undertaken to employ them, to diminish their num
ber, or on futfle pretences, would seem to them sacri
legious, and would be impracticable. They have, at
length, discovered the solution of the problem proposed
so many centuries ago to the meditations of philoso
phers, and submitted to the experience of statesmen:
"To render communities happy with the least restraint
and at the smallest expense."
Congress disposes of an adequate revenue, arising
principally from the duties paid on the importation of
foreign merchandize, and from the sale of public lands
that do not belong to the several states. It does not aim
at raising the imposts as high as the patience of the
contributors would bear; but the legislature ascertains
where the comfort of famflies requires it to stop, and
one of its fiscal principles is, that the less that is de
manded from the people, the more wfll the improve
ment of their condition hereafter facflitate the aug
mentation of the impost.
No one would dare to propose to increase the pub
hc revenue by the estabhshment of a lottery or of
gaming tables, or by any other means that would

50 INTRODUCTION.
have the effect of enriching the state by corrupting the
morals. Smuggling could be very easfly practised on coasts
which are six or seven hundred leagues in extent, and
are scarcely guarded, but every one knows that in the
employment of the public revenue, there is neither pro
fusion nor parsimony. Afl have an interest in prevent
ing fraud, and it rarely occurs.
No useless pomp encircles the magistrates. Econo
my, so discredited and ridiculed in our courts and ca
pitals, is held in honour at Washington, and even in
those parts of the United States where large fortunes
are not rare. Habits of simplicity are there more ef
fectual than sumptuary laws would be. The senate
and house of representatives have no guards but their
door-keepers. The repugnance of the people for pomp
and empty parade does not, however, prevent their be
ing always disposed to incur expenses for objects that
are truly useful to commerce, navigation, the safety
of the confederation and of the different states, and
sometimes even for such as conduce to public orna
ment. Although they have no neighbour to fear, they have
not neglected the mflitary art: This science is taught
at West Point, upon the Hudson, by officers of reputa
tion. Some able engineers have been educated at this
school. The arsenals and magazines of the Union, and of
the several states, are well supplied and carefully. kept
in order. Fortresses are in the course of construction,

INTRODUCTION. 51
From the year 1792 to 1812, the United States enjoyed
a neutrahty, which, though disturbed for a period, was
the cause of the prosperity of their commercial marine,
which, in its turn, has been the origin of their naval
power. The churches and other bufldings destined for reli
gious worship, those for the magistrates and legislative
bodies, the court houses and prisons, are admirably
adapted to their objects.
Manufactures, always prohibited to the dependent
colonies of Europe, have made great progress in the
United States. England, in spite of her jealous vigi
lance, has been robbed of those machines, by the aid
of which she so long controfled the commerce of the
world. Independent America has imitated and im
proved them. Her tariffs have for their principal ob
ject the protection which every rising branch of indus
try requires. The interests of the treasury are consi
dered as only secondary. The decided advocates of
protection to manufactures would even wish that the
revenue should not be regarded at all in this matter.
The Americans consider public debts as one of the
diseases of modern societies, and they are far from be
lieving them a necessary evil. They have made large
loans, but always with a view to an advantage propor
tionate to the magnitude of the burden which they were
imposing on themselves; and these debts have been
faithfully extinguished.
They know that loans are a slow poison, the sweet
ness of which has often deceived and seduced states-

:yZ INTRODUCTION.
men who were reputed wise. If the United States bor-.
row, the reimbursement is always fixed at a definite
time, and the engagement is never eluded.
The Americans are constructing canals and roads
two or three hundred leagues in length, through terri
tories stifl occupied by savages. Regions, whose wa
ters flow to the north, wfll soon communicate with
those whose rivers have their courses to the south.
There wifl be a connected navigation from lake Michi
gan to the Illinois river, from lake Erie to the Wabash.
Steam boats will approximate the gulf of Mexico to
that of the St. Lawrence, and New Orleans with the
city of Quebec; both of which places were once under
the dominion of France, though the latter has become
English and the former now belongs to the United
States. The noble communications of this description,
so justly extolled in Europe, are not superior to these
new undertakings. Favourable to commerce and agri
culture, they have another advantage which had never
been contemplated : they have, as it were, brought near
to one another men whom great distances separated.
It has not been possible to stifle all the sources of jea
lousy; but the confederation which had only laws for
its guarantee, is now cemented by private and common
interests, which are continually in contact, though.
without clashing.
Such is, in its political economy, the conduct — such
are the maxims of a new repubhc — strong by its pre
sent greatness, and which increases so rapidly in re
sources, that its friendship is every year more to be de-

INTRODUCTION. 53
sired, its enmity more to be dreaded. It is no longer
one of those nominal republics to which an equal rank
with kings was refused, and whose ambassadors were
admitted, as if by tolerance, after those of crowned
heads. It would be vain to attempt to assign to it
an inferior rank, to subject it to a different law of na
tions: as independent and sovereign as the monarchs
on their thrones, this republic has on every occasion
maintained an equality with them, and it wfll, undoubt
edly, be sufficiently wise never to aspire to elevate it
self above them.
Those whom representative governments annoy or
incommode assert that they are the most costly of all
political systems, and they find credulous or interested
persons to repeat the opinion after them. It is true that
employments may be multiplied and salaries augment
ed by the aid of this maxim, and those who propa
gate it have often their share in the profusion. But
the example of the United States proves that it is false,
and demonstrates that order and economy are the most
certain means of avoiding public bankruptcies and pre
venting revolutions.
Among the circumstances that threaten Eiirope with
the transfer of her pre-eminence to the new woijld, there
is one which merits the particular attention of states
men. The North American republics are disposed to
make none but judicious expenditures. Europe, on
the contrary, delights in extravagance, and most of her
governments are only preserved by expedients.

54 INTRODUCTION.
It is, however, from England that the United States
have received the first elements of representative go
vernment; but they have perfected it to a degree which
cannot be attained in Europe, at least without great
struggles. In America representation has its prima
ry source in the suffrage of individuals, the right to
exercise which is unattended by any embarrassing or
difficult conditions. The possessor of a cabin and a
few acres of land, participates by his vote equally with
the proprietor of ten thousand acres, or the wealthiest
merchant, in the formation of the legislative assembly
of the state in which he resides.* Every thing which
interests the community or its several classes is dis
cussed in these assemblies, as wefl as in voluntary
meetings, which, formed independently of the magis
trates, and free from their inspection, proceed with as
much regularity as those prescribed by law. Habit
and a sort of routine there occupy the place of sta
tutes, and without the least constraint the minority re
ceive the law from the majority. It is by means of
these private assemblies, that the knowledge of the
true interests of the state is disseminated. It is thus
that we find dispersed over the whole territory more
* At the late election for the American president (1828) nearly
twelve hundred thousand votes, in a population of about twelve
millions, were given either directly for the electors, whose duty it
is to choose that officer, or for the members of the legislature, by
whom, in two states, the presidential electors were named. In
France, where the number of inhabitants is three times as great as
in the United States, less than eighty thousand persons take part
in the election of the chamber of deputies. — Transl.

INTRODUCTION. .j.'j
than ten thousand persons, enhghtened in the public
interests and affairs, familiarized with the most impor
tant matters of legislation, conducting themselves in
the assemblies of the smaflest vfllages with gravity and
decorum, and submissive to the Orders of a president
or moderator, who exercises, without effort, an autho
rity in some sort absolute. It is either in the public
assemblies or in these informal meetings, that those
who are one day to govern the state are instructed in
political eloquence. It was at them, rather than at the
bar, that four lawyers, who became successively presi
dents, learned to discuss public affairs, less after the
rules of oratory than according to those of wisdom
and reason.
If, from the view of the general confederation, we
pass to that of the constitutions of the individual states
and of their relations with congress, we see, with ad
miration, these great bodies move harmoniously toge
ther, without any difficulties of a serious nature arising
between the superior and subofdinate governments.
The legislative, executive, and judicial authorities
in the several states are invested with afl the powers
that have not been delegated to congress. Every state
legislates in civil and criminal matters. During fifty
years that this order of things has existed, it has been
attended with none but happy results. As the confe
deration is enlarged, the power of congress, at the same
time, increases. Some of the states have, of their own
wifl, limited their extent and population, and aban-

56 INTRODUCTION.
doned vast territories, where other states are already
formed. The preamble to their act of cession was
thus expressed : " Whereas nothing under Divine Pro
vidence can more effectually contribute to the tranquil
lity and safety of the United States of America than a
federal afliance on such hberal principles, as wifl give
satisfaction to its respective members, we renounce our
claims, &.c."
The wars which are excited among other nations of
the world by fanaticism, ambition, cupidity, and that
restlessness, which torments them and makes them
suppose that traiiquil happiness cannot be the lot of
man, will never trouble the people of the United States:
not that afl the individuals among them are free from
human passions; but the public councfls are formed in
such a manner, that the decisions of government are
always dictated by the general interest. A country,
which wifl be larger than Europe, and which is com
posed of so many different states, enjoys a peace that
promises to be perpetual, and to fulfil the bright vision
of the good man.
The officers and magistrates are not named for life.
The duration of their functions depends on their con
duct : their authority is defined by the laws with so
much precision that abuses are very rare, and can be
promptly repressed. A principle of representation,
which flows neither from hereditary rights nor"frOm
any fictitious source, constitutes the force and energy
of the different magistracies : powerful m effecting good,

INTRODUCTION. 57
they are without strength to oppress, and for this rea
son disorders and tumults, when they occur, are never
dangerous. It has been for a long time held as a maxim, that
temporary and elective magistracies are only adapted
to states of limited extent and small population. The
experience of the United States has proved that this
is an error. If it sometimes happens that bad choices
are made, the remedy is in re-election ; and the expe
rience of more than half a century has demonstrated
that it is an efficient one. Thus, the example of the
United States presents itself, whenever the object is to
prove that liberty is in every respect beneficial and that
it can never do harm. It likewise puts an end to the
hopes of those whom this liberty alarms, and who can
now no longer deny its benefits.
The judges, senators, and ministers are not, howe
ver, wiser or more intefligent in the United States than
in many other countries. They have their weaknesses
and their prejudices ; but they ought to have them to
a less degree than those who are raised to magistra
cies by accident, intrigue, or purchase. They have also
an advantage which men elsewhere placed at the head
of affairs do not possess : the laws and the publicity of
their acts, submitted to the censure of afl, render it a
matter of necessity with them to be always just, al
ways impartial; not to give employments, except to the
most worthy, and never to sacrifice the good of the
state to private passions and the interests of individur
als. A sincere probity can alone ensure the public

58 INTRODUCTION.
confidence, which is evCr ready to distinguish true me
rit from false. Impostors and hypocrites would soon
be unmasked. Thus even, though accident should
raise to an important post a man inclined to be bad,
he would be obhged to govern like those who were na
turally virtuous, or he would not be able to retain his
office. These wise institutions are protected for the future
against the ravages of time: free presses preserve
them, and are a more effectual defence than the
towers of the Louvre or of London. Under this gua
rantee, more powerful than was ever the authority of
the tribunes, we may be assured that the benefits of
social order wifl be durable. A moderate republic will
never become an absolute democracy, and we may
add, in reference to other countries, that, with the li
berty of the press, a royal government can never dege
nerate into despotism.
It is objected, however, that these presses may, at
least, endanger the peace of famflies, and injure in
dividuals in their private interests. It is but too true
that they have often served the cause of calumny; but
this is an evfl, which even the most severe prohibitions
have never prevented ; and the remedy for the injury
which they can do is, under the system of hberty, ef
fectual as wefl as prompt.
The shafts of calumny, so justly compared to poi
soned weapons, resemble them hkewise in this respect;
the most ferocious savages scarcely dare to discharge
them lest they should be turned against themselves.

INTRODUCTION. 59
Different from most things, the liberty of the press is
improved and strengthened by time, and becoming
every day more useful, it hkewise becomes more inno
cent. That it was not so during the early periods of the
American revolution, we readily admit; but the enemy
was then present. Royalty had warm partisansj and
the presses on both sides were actuated with an equal
violence. Jefferson himself was for a moment alarmed
by it. At this time an animated contest is going on; and
it is possible that a good citizen may be injured through
the too great warmth of the conflict. But the blows
soon become harmless, and without taking the trouble
to justify himself, he may, by maintaining sflence, leave
to a pure life and irreproachable conduct the care of
his defence. There is no example in the United States
of a journal open to irreligious essays, to the recital
of licentious anecdotes, or to offensive personalities
having been long supported. The disgust of the rea
ders administers justice with more promptitude and
with more certainty than even the tribunals; so much
do this people love decorous truth, and so ready are
they to distinguish it from falsehood. Among them
nothing is so rare as prosecutions for libel before the
courts. There is then nothing which the liberty of the press
cannot improve; and the Americans would think that
their government had lost its reason, if they saw in
their budget an appropriation destined to the corrup
tion and recompense of the journalists. To pay fo-

60 INTRODUCTION.
reign newspapers to publish articles carefully prepared
for them, would seem at once culpable prodigality and
a useless act of folly. I wifl, however, admit that this
liberty is not without danger for all kinds of ministers.
Cardinal Wolsey said to Fisher, "If we do not put
down the press, it will put us down." Fisher rephed,
" Let us do our duty as good and wise ministers, and
not fear any thing from the malice of the press. If
we would interrogate ourselves, we would find how
greatly we are indebted to the freedom of the press;
when it notices not only our past faults, but also
warns us of those to which we are exposed. I am
accustomed to receive advice from the press. It is
a torch which sometimes hurts my eyes ; but, were it
extinguished, I should think that a bandage covered
them." The diplomatic correspondence is printed by ordei'
of congress, as soon as it can be published with pro
priety. The cases are rare in which it is kept from the
knowledge of the citizens. The newspapers, by their
eagerness to gratify curiosity, often anticipate the most
diligent couriers. They sometimes give as much in
formation as secret and ciphered despatches. These
frank communications are a great innovation in the re
lations which foreign powers entertain with one ano
ther; and those who preside in the cabinets of Europe
have not yet been able to accustom themselves to read
in the gazettes of Washington, the conferences which
they have had with the American envoys. One would
think that they are afraid of showing to what an easy

INTRODUCTION. 61
science the art of good government is reduced, The
despot Wolsey then had just motives for dreading free
presses. It is only ministers, who are truly worthy of
the name of statesmen, that can, with a tranqufl eye,
contemplate their action and brave their power.
The right of public petition, the recourse of op
pressed weakness to a wise and efficient protection, is
rarely exercised. It exists, it is not a vain formality,
it is adequate to restrain unjust magistrates, and this
means of defence is rarely employed, because it may
always be resorted to.
These repubhcs which, fifty years since, stifl bore
the names of colonies, provinces, and plantations, have
already founded several new republics. They gradu
ally extend themselves; cities and towns rise up in all
directions, without being menaced by any citadels or
castles that overlook them from the neighbouring
heights. Uncultivated districts, which were scarcely
inhabited by a few Indian families when Washington
and the two Jumonvifle met and fought there in 1754,
have been changed into rich fields, and are now as well
peopled as many countries of Europe.
Afl the difficulties which a community experiences
at the moment of its formation, disappear before equal,
just, and free laws. The rapid progress of these set
tlements is without precedent. Famihes associate
together, at their own instigation, and without any
superior sanction, to go and occupy the uninha
bited lands that are situated even beyond the terri
tory of the states of the Union. These self-created

62 INTRODUCTION.
societies name their own magistrates, their officers of
justice and pohce, put themselves in a state of defence
against the Indians, and make their own regulations,
to which they render an exemplary obedience. One of
these associations, composed of three hundred famflies,
took possession of a district lying on the borders of the
Red River; the new society had not to encounter the
weakness of infancy; it possessed from the beginning
the vigour of mature age, and, a few years after its
establishment, it became part of one of the new states.
It may be remarked, in reading the acts which have
emanated from congress during a period of thirty years,
that they have seldom for their object the old states of
the Union. The names of some of them do not occur
a single time. Firmly established on imperishable
foundations, they have only occasion for local laws, and
even these are not numerous. Their constitutions be
ing formed, and their fundamental principles well con
solidated, the protection of congress is no longer ne
cessary to the old states. On the other hand, it is con
stantly occupied with those new communities, which
have been founded to the east and west of the Missis
sippi, since the general peace of 1783. At first dis
tricts, then territories, and at length admitted to the
rank of states, they enjoy all the rights of the old mem
bers of the confederacy. Until they have attained their
strength, it is necessary that congress should guide
them, instruct them and defend them from their own
errors; and, as its authority is only exercised for their
advantage, it rarely encounters any obstacles. From

INTRODUCTION. 63
whence, indeed, could resistance arise.'' These new
communities are not like ancient or modern colonies
formed by a superabundant population, of which the
mother country wished to relieve herself, by sending it
beyond the seas to people desert or savage countries.
The new states that are formed exist by themselves
and for themselves, without being subjected to the
state from which the emigration proceeded, and with
out alarming it by their complaints and their insurrec
tions. The system cafled colonization is at an end. It
would be vain to attempt new enterprises of this sort.
No people are either sufficiently rich or sufficiently
powerful at sea to imitate what the English have done
in New Holland, and the settlements which other na
tions would form there would only have with Europe
the relations of commerce and navigation, not those of
political subjection. To attempt at this day to found
dependent colonies, is to waste, without advantage,
human life and public treasure. Year after year, how
ever, these attempts are prolonged, and the fear of ad
mitting that we have been deceived might have pro
longed them indefinitely, if the United States had not
declared that they could not hereafter approve such
attempts in America.
France, England, and Spain have afl of them in turn,
through jealousy, prevented the rival nation from found
ing new colonies. War was near breaking out in ] 770,
on account of the Falkland Islands, and more recently
on the subject of Nootka Sound. It was tacitly agreed
that these countries should remain desert. The Ame-

64 INTRODUCTION.
ricans, more just and more powerful in these regions,
wish that they should be peopled, and they proclaim,
at the same time, with a sort of authority, and perhaps
with too much haughtiness, that they wfll not hence
forth suffer any European colony to be established in
the new world. Thus another Europe, a Europe truly
free, rises up in this vast continent; and, before the end
of a century, the United States wfll count one hundred
miflions of inhabitants of the white race. Whether
they remain united in one single confederacy or sepa
rate into several, the forms of government which they
have adopted do not leave any opportunity for ambi
tious aggrandizement, and the wisdom of their laws
wfll preserve among them a friendly understanding. If
Europe must lose her pre-eminence, she can never lose
the many treasures of- science and intelligence which
centuries have accumulated. It depends on the peo
ple and on their rulers to retain advantages which will
not be inferior to those of any people of the world.
They wifl be retained, if, instead of repefling the ad
vantages of a just liberty, we only avoid its extravagance
and licentiousness; to effect which, education wisely
and universally diffused throughout the nation is the
most certain means.
There is not one of the American constitutions which
does not contain provisions relative to education and
the advancement of science. Commissioners, chosen
by the inhabitants, superintend the education of youth.
They with pleasure see them instructed by a master,
who has a wife and children, and who teaches them by

INTRODUCTION. 65
his example to become one day good heads of families.
They. have avoided, with great- care, confiding them
exclusively to military men, to lawyers, or to priests.
They believe that to form useful citizens, it is proper
that a young man should enter into society without
factitious inclinations, without prejudices, and free; to
choose the profession to which his taste and natural
capacity inchne him. , ;
Their legal code was originally drawn from that of
England. They have not yet entirely removed the
confusion ^with which hu^e commentaries have embar
rassed the distribution of justice in the mother country.
They are, however, engaged in this reform, and even
now their laws no where offer any traces of feudality.
The rights of-confiscation, of primogeniture, the disa
bilities on r the inheritance of aliens exist no more.
There are no longer advantages accorded to men to
the prejudice of women in the distribution of family
estates., The law once promulgated, the tribunals have not
to fear either the influence of the legislative or execu
tive power. Oral evidence, which the laws of other
countries only admit with a great deal of caution, is
very much used in the United States. It is not ob
served that any abuses result from it, and this respect
for the declaration of a witness, who has taken an oath
to tell the truths is a homage rendered to the national
probity. *
~ The general constitution and'those of afl the states
prohibit with great care the granting of any titles of

66 INTRODUCTION.
nobility. There are, in fact, in the United States, no
institutions which distinguish certain hereditary classes,
and yet it would not be rigorously true to say that they
do not acknowledge high descent. There are in the
countiy several famihes, settled there at a remote pe
riod, who are known by their hereditary merits. It is
never in vain that citizens have recourse to the Qoun-
sels and assistance of these patricians. Their virtues
are revered, and a homage is paid without difficulty to
a nobility, which consists in services rendered to indi
viduals and to the repubhc. The names are important, ¦
so long as the children preserve the high qualities of
their fathers. It is on this condition that all the good
which their race has done is carried to their account.
If they forget the duties which their eminent standing
imposes on them, they fafl lower than those who had
never been thus distinguished; and other citizens, the
names of whose ancestors are unknown, become equal
in reputation to the most iflustrious men of their time.*
Such is nobility in America, and it has in it nothing
that offends the principles of equality. This exception
is the work of those, who, in abolishing the nobflity of
birth, have preserved that of virtue.
At the opening of a session of the legislature in one
of the recently formed states, the governor addressed
the following words to a numerous auditory :t
* Nam genus et proavos et quae non fecimus ipsi
Vix ea nostra voco! Ovid. Metam. lib. xiii.
t Our author is mistaken as to the source from whence the extract
in the text is derived. It is taken from a speech delivered by Judge
Story, in the Massachusetts convention of 1820.— Transl.

INTRODUCTION. 67
" In our country the highest man is not above the
people; the humblest is not below the people. If the
the rich may be said to have additional protection, they
have not additional power. ' Nor does wealth here
form a permanent distinetion of famflies. Those who
are wealthy to-day pass to the tomb, and their children
divide their estates. Thus property is divided quite as
fast as' it accumulcites. No family can, without its own
exertions, stand erect for a long time under our statutes
of descents and distributions, the only true and legiti
mate agrarian law. It silently and quietly dissolves the
mass heaped up by the tofl and diligence of a long life
of enterprise and industry. Property is continually
changing like the waves of the sea. One wave rises
and is soon swaflowed up in the vast abyss, and seen
no more. Another rises, and, haying reached its des
tined limils, fafls gently away, and is succeeded by yet
another, which, in its turn, brealks and dies away silent
ly on the shore. The richest man among hs may be
brought down to the humblest level ; and the child,
with scarcely clothes to cover his nakedness, may rise
to the highest office in our government."
The development of all these advantages is no cen
sure on those' old governments, which, formed many
centurii&s since upon other plans, can only be improved
slowly and after mature deliberation. We cannot, in
deed, but be astonished at the progress which these last
¦mentioned states have made in spite of the many obsta
cles that they have had to encounter. At the same
time, let us not hesitate to acknowledge that if the

68 INTRODUCTION.
Americans have profited by the learning and wisdom
of Europe, the people of the old worid will, in their
turn, receive like benefits from America. Her example
and recent facts have taught us that liberty does not
diminish the vigour and energy necessary for the exe
cution of important enterprises. If it does not enervate
repubhcan governments, there is no reason to fear
that it wfll become a principle of weakness in limited
monarchies. Already, in spite of resistance on all
sides, the laws are improved, and wise monarchs have
acknowledg"ed that the throne can only be solidly esta
bhshed by uniting the interests of the prince and the/
people : placed on any other foundation, it may he
continually shaken by internal agitations and attacks'
from abroad.
The constituent assembly of France made some
progress towards great improvements, when, forty
years since, in obedience to the almost uniform in
structions of the people, it reformed our legislation. It
had intended to consohdate the throne in a country
where the royal government had very deep roots. But,
although its work was in part destroyed, the spirit of
it is preserved, and no effort wifl prevent France from
again becoming, what indeed she now already is, a mo
narchy limited by a national representation.
The Christian tenets are acknowledged throughout
the whole extent of the United States. Whatever may
be the modifications which distinguish the different
sects, most of them are discreet and conform to the
wise laws which the first author of our religion taught

!^TRODUCTION. 69
to maVi. Divided on articles of faith, they agree in the
principles of morality. Some of them, however, pro
fess extravagant* maxims, which would be dangerous,
if a real toleration did not soon consign them to con
tempt and oblivion. The government only interferes
to hinder doctrinal points from invading the domain of
civU or political legislation, and to keep the priests
from meddhng in matters foreign to rehgious worship.
It is not less attentive to prevent every establishment
of an ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and afl matters which
belong to that jurisdiction, in England, are cognizable
in America by the ordinary tribunals.
Several of the state constitutions, in interdicting
pubhc -functions to priests, could not comprehend in
the exclusion their eligibflity as members of the two
hoases of congress. A few clergymen of different te
nets are to be seen in them, and, in 1823, the territo
ry of Michigan named, as its delegate, a catholic
priest. These nominations are productive of no in
convenience, because the representatives are citizens
before they are priests.
But the exclusion of ecclesiastics from office is more
important in the United States than elsewhere, inas
much as there are not in their viflages, as in most of
those of Europe, local bailiffs and lords of manors,
who, by the authority which belongs to their rank
and situatioits, balance that of the priests. With
out the provision in question, ministers of religion,
armed with the power which- they possess over the
consciences of their parishioners, might induce them

70 INTRODUCTION.
to regulate their opinions and public acts according to
the interests of the prevailing sect.
A few remarks respecting the catholics wifl show
the happy effects of a general toleration. The catho-
lies, whfle the country was under the Enghsh govern
ment, were subjected to a great many restraints in the
exercise of their religion. Even after the peace, and
as late as 1790, there was only one. mission for the
whole United States. At this day there are ten bishops
under a metropolitan. The catholic societies of fe
males have been greatly multiplied. Among those of
the men, the estabhsh ments of the Jesuits are the most
remarkable. In 1806, a brief of the pope permitted
them to preach, teach, and administer the sacraments.
The progress which this society soon made woull
have been deemed dangerous in any other country,
and congress wefl knew how formidable its ambition
and intrigues had rendered it in Europe; but it did not
suppose, it could ever become so in a country where
fanaticism can never stifle liberty of conscience; and
it apprehended no danger from forming a coflege of
Jesuits at Georgetown into a university, with power to
confer degrees in all the faculties. A timidity, the Cause
of which is understood, has prevented this enterprising
society from resuming its true name; but congress
would not have opposed any obstacle to it. It only
sees in its members the propagators of a morality use
ful to the community and to the instruction of youth.
Every one knows that they blindly obey a foreign au
thority to which they are secretly subjected. This oc-

INTRODUCTION. 71
casions no alarm, for full confidence is reposed in the
goodness of the constitutions: nor wifl there ever be
any reason to repent of this pelicy, since the press is
free and can never be enslaved by the Jesuits, i;
It is said, that in the city of New York alone, wheje
there Tvere only three hundred catholics twenty years .
since, there are now twenty thousand. The increase
is principally to be ascribed , to the emigration from
Ireland and Germany.
There is not in America a single statesman who is
not persuaded that social order can only be maintained
by the aid of religion, and, it is to the establishment of
a dominant sect that opposition is alone made. Where
all kinds of Christian worship are .mutually tolerated,
there is no longer *but one religion.
What an advantage for legislators, who lay the
foundations of a community, not to have to contend
against the errors and licentiousness of paganism, the
intolerant theocracy of the Hebrews, or the fanaticism
and ignorance of the Mussulman^ I Jefferson* and
Fraoklin found Christianity established jn the United
States. Of afl the systems of religion that have been
proposed to the human understanding, no one is more
conformable to the rules of sound morality, no one bet
ter calculated to render man happy, and of this the
sages of America have borne honourable testimony.
The catholic, the quaker, the methodist, the unita
rian, and the En^ish episcopahan are afl equal before
the law. Toleration is not as in Europe an arrogant
indulgence of one sect towards another; it is a perfect

72 INTRODUCTION.
equality among all. Religious quarrels, without the
interference of government, are always innocent. To
appease the combatants, it is sufficient to let them
alone. The acknowledgment of one God^ creator and be
nefactor, is the characteristic which distinguishes the
civflized and educated from the savage and ignorant
man. Many Indian tribes have hardly a vague idea of
the Deity, or of the immortality of the soul. Afl of
them are in a truly wretched state.
On the other hand, men, who enjoy social advan
tages, acknowledge that it is to Providence that they
are indebted for them. The state of New York mo
dified its constitution in 1821, and the* new act com
mences by a homage rendered in these terms to the
Deity : " We, the people of the state of New York, ac
knowledging with gratitude the grace and beneficence
of God, in permitting us to make choice of our form
of government, do estabhsh this constitution."
Thus we see that the Americans, after the example
of kings, found the power of the state On divine right;
this they do with great propriety; for to make men
happy is an obligation imposed on rulers, which should
be placed in the first rank among eternal truths, and
it is to Providence that they must be indebted for the
abflity to perform this duty.
An article of this constitution proclaims liberty of
conscience, and the one which follows is expressed in
these words : " Whereas the ministers of the gospel
are, by their profession, dedicated to the service of

INTRODUdTlON. . 73
God^and.the care of souls, and ought not to be divert
ed from the .great duty of their functions; therefore no
minister of the .gospel or priest of apy denomination
whatsoever, shall, at any time hereafter, be eligible to
or capable of holding any civfl or military office with
in this state."
The Americans have not to dread those conquerq^s
who, in Europe, have arrested and destroyed the ad
vances of civilization. In this situation a people wifl
never retrograde; it will always, advance, in spite gs
well of the ambitious as of the intolerant, and hence
forth nothing in the world can deprive the United
Sl^atqs of the honour of having first presented,, a. per
fect model of the best federal constitution.
At the period of the cession of Louisiana, at the west,
only the mouths of the rivers tributary to the Missis
sippi were explored. Twenty-five years have scarce
ly elapsed, and the United States already form, on the
©oasts of.the Northern Ocean, commercial estabhsh-
ments, which are the germs of states . that ,wifl be
founded there before the end of the century. They
have given Gqiumbus's name to one of the principal
rivers of, thpse regions,*, thus restoring to this great
man the honours unjustly decreed to Americus Vespi-
, cius. Congress has not announced the design of here
after extending the confederacy to the, Pacific Ocean;
but its intention of, securing to these territories a re-
publican government cannot be doubted. This system
' * A ship fromBoston,- called Columbus, first entered this river
in 1791. iQ

74 INTRODUCTION.
is about to embrace, by a general impulse, the whole^
of the new world; and it maybe predicted that the se
veral states, which we see rise up in the south, wifl
make the constitutions of the United States their mo
dels. Already strong by the irresistible power of numbers,
the new republics of the southern continent advance
in the career of independence, which they have con
quered. They have their own principle of legitimacy,
which is the wfll of all. They have just proclaimed
that " nations exist by the decrees of a universal and
Divine .Providence, and that rulers only derive their
power from the wifl and consent of the people." Th^y
may be divided among themselves on questions of po
litical expediency ; but in the midst even of the tu
mults incident to new states, not a sigh of regret to
wards their powerless and decrepit parenji-country
ever escapes them.
Even the Indian population is but thinly scattered
over the immense space which extends from. the great
river to the Western Ocean; and the Americans find
few obstacles in pushing on their settlements over re
gions, which, in spite of the richness of tire sofl, have
been long useless, to man. Whatever may be onr re
spect for the ancient rights of property, it is difficult
to admit those of a single family to ten, square leagues,
where ten thousand persons could be support,ed in
abundance. The Indians maintain that liberty, with the obliga
tion of labouring and obeying the laws, would be real

INTRODUCTION. 75
slavery. EuVope has wished to civilize, them in her
way, by giving them her laws and her learning: the ef
forts of three centuries have not tended to meliorate
their condition; vvhUe the advances made, three or
four centuries before the discovery of America, to
wards the introduction of social order in" Peru and
Mexico, prove that, left to themselves, reason wotjjd
have probably conducted the aborigines, by other
roads, farther than our example has carried them.
The neighbourhood of these tribes and the view of
the profound misery which harasses them make us ap
preciate stifl more the advantages of good laws. On
one side, we see society in all its vigour, splendour, and
beauty; on the other, a state of weakness, the inevi
table consequence of the absence of knowledge and
social order. The aborigines, witnesses of the be
nefits of civflization, have profited little by it to me
liorate their own situation. Our example has 'not
yet taught' them that the division of lands among fa
milies is the first condition of the social state, that
the smallest proprietor loves the field which he has
cultivated, and that this attachment to the sofl is the
surest guarantee of the repose of society. The sa
vage has no property Except in his bow, his canoe,
and a few ornaments, with which he delig^hts to deco
rate himself in battle or on holidays. Less free than
is supposed, he is dependent for his daily wants, and
, is unacquainted with th6 most ready means of sup
plying them. In the civflized state, science and expe
rience teach these means to riian, and his well-being

76 INTRODUCTION.
advances with his knowledge. It is for a contrary rea
son, that error and ignorance are so favourable to
despotism. The Indians do not, however, hve wholly
without restraint: travellers have found none of them
in that pjrimitive state, which we have called the state
of nature, and in which even the ties of families do not
e;rist. Their liberty is not the right of doing whatever
they wish: they have customs which occupy the place
of laws, and which, though they are ferocious and'san-
guinary, serve to moderate their excesses. A savage
came one day to Sinnamari and said to Simapo, his
chief, "Aricapoto has kifled my brother; I have killed
him, and his son likewise." I heard Simapo reply,
" You have done well." " I am going also," conti^
nued the Indian, " to kfll the brother of Aricapoto." .
Simapo forbade him, and the injured man stopped his
vengeance. Reason has banished from our codes what was foi;
a long time cafled public vengeance. The civfl autho'-
rities no longer punish except to restrain the guilty and.
to deter, by example, others from the commission of
crime. But, among savage tribes, vengeance is pur
sued by families, and the public power sometimes in
terposes its aid. If the murderer takes refuge among
a neighbouring and friendly nation, it is obliged to de
liver him up; or, should it refuse and protect him, the
refusal almost always becomes a cause of war.
The aborigines are not ignorant of the horror, with
which the custom of eating prisoners of war inspires
us, and I have never been able to obtain any precise

INTRODUCTION. 77
information from those whom I have questioned on this
subject. But the" vagueiieis of their replies, or their
sflence, has led me to believe that our exhortations
have-not put an end to the practice.- It is more com
mon among the northern than the southern tribes'.
From the earliest 'period, of which we have any ac
count, the savages of North America have been formed
into distinct tribes; every, one of which constitutes a
smafl nation. These tribes^ whom a common interest
should have united against the Europeans, are distin
guished to the west of the Mississippi by four lan-
guagesj which bear no common resemblance. Each
language, is again divided into dialects, which are so
different that it may be concluded that the separation
into small tribes dates back several centuries. They,
nevertheless, resemble one another in their customs,
and above aflby the profound ignorance, in which
they obstinately conthiue. .* '
These independent societies are seldom at peace;
and in their wars it often ha'ppens that the most pow
erful, after having conquered the weaker tribe, either
incorporates it with itself for exterminates it.
Some savages haVe pacific dispositions towards the
whites; Indemnified at a smafl expense for the lands
which they abandon, tolerated on their own ¦ territory,
¦ they^ observe the new-comers without interrupting their
progress. The community which is forming is like a
spectacle presented to their curiosity; they conceive
neither jealousy nor alarms respecting it, and, for tri
fling indemnities, rehgiously observe the peace of which

78 INTRODUCTION.
t,he calumet is the symbol. A subsidy, though an
nual, is only in their eyes the price of the land which
they abandon. If they received it as the condition of a
peace, they would consider their tributaries interested
in brea.king the treaty.
Others have warlike dispositions and are not so ea
sfly subdued. Those who are stifl scattered along* the
borders of the Mississippi and of the numerous streams,
from which that river receives its waters, might arm
twenty thousand warriors, but they are in no condition
to unite their forces : they fear the Americans, who are
so superior to them in numbers and skfll. They were the
auxfliaries of the Enghsh in the war of independence,
and in that of 1812. " They continue since the peace
to trouble their neighbours, less indeed by constant
hostihties than by frequent surprises on their extreme
frontiers. If they attack with fury, it is not so much to
avenge the loss of their territory, as through hatred of
civflization. They are irritated at the progress of social
order, as soon as they fear that it is intended to subject
them to it : they detest its advantages', because tbiy
cannot reconcile therh with a liberty which cannot<en-
dure control. Rather than subject themselves to the
restraints inseparable from the civilized state, they fly to
a distance, abandoning their native'sofl and the abofle
of their fathers. But whether they remove or whether
they remain, when war is once terminated by a treaty,
they lay down their arms and only resume them for the
chase. To g6 during peace to visit their chief or their
friends, with the bow or the foniahawk in the hand,

INTRODUCTION. 79
would appear to them as unreasonable as to march to
Ijattle without arms.,
. There a^re with them only jtwo principal employ-
ment;^ — t'hbse of hunters andwarriors. .Some, it is true,
have become shepherds: it is thus that a mo};e regular
society begins to be formed; wherever there are mas
ters, there are servants. ,,The chief, then, has new
wants, he wishes to be better fed than on bread and
milk, to be better clothed than his servants, and a sim
ple sheep-skin wifl not satisfy him. It is, at , this first
step, that the civflization of many of the Indian tribes
stops. . ^ „
The, aborigines have more readily a,dopted ou.r vices
than our virtues, and the Whites affordithem, indeed,
more opportunities to imifate bad than good examples.
Those who trade with them are seldom capable of
giving them lessons of morality apd good conduct. . It
is thus that these Indians, famiharized with some of
our usages without our morals, have become the most
depraved and the most miserable of men. ^ Those,
who are for the first time known by the whites, exhibit
more hospitality and frankness. A very few of the triljes
have ^beg|m to cultivate land, and to exercis,e tlje rudest
mechanicci,l arts. But it has,^been in vain attempted
to teach tjhem our religion and its mysteries. They
listen to the missionaries without iiiterest, and with*-
out assenting tp their doctrine or refusing their belief.
What has be,en narrated by the authors of "The Jesy-
it's Letter^," what the English and other missionaries
have published, has not been confirmed by the test]^-

80 INTRODUCTION,
mony qf any traveller. A child six years old, e^ducated
among us, is better acquainted with the Christig^n relij
gion than an Indian who has been instructed in it|o|
ten years. The whole of the Old and New Testa
ments has been translated into the language of, the
most numerous of these nations. Two editions of the
work have been printed in England ; but not one Indian
even knowing how to read could understand this book,
in which there is scarcely a word in ten that belongs to
his language. , It is a useless labom*, dictated by ig
norance, or perhaps undertaken to deceive persons in^
discreetly zealous for the conversion of the savages.
The missionaries, whom zeal stfll carries into these
regions, are soon convinced that they have given too
much credit to the nar;ratives of those who have pre
ceded them. i
An impostor, who represented himself as a mission-
aiy, was hospitably received by the tribe of Osag^.
He pretended to have the gift of exorcism, and tau^^
the people in what this power consisted. Several de
moniacs presented themselves, and were delivered.
Many sick then ca,me from neighbourii^ tribes, \^th
whom, he had the same succes^; but these men, proud
of their supernatural cure, becarne turbulent, and quar^
reUed with one another and with, the other families.
The sachem or chief of the Osages considered it pru
dent to send away the pretended exorcist, and, as soon
as he was gone, there were no more men possessed .
with devils.
We may predict with confidence, that, in less than

INTRODUCTION. 81
two centuries, all these nations wfll disappear from the
two Americas. History and geography wifl scarce pre
serve their names : if a few feeble fragments of their
races should stfll remain, they wfll be confounded with
the whites, and there wifl not be seen on the same sofl
two rival people, one subject and conquered, the other
prolonging the right of war, and perpetuating in peace
the power of victory.* ^
The Americans hold it as a maxim of their public
law respecting the Indians that it is advisable, with a
view to their own happiness, to remove them to the
right bank of the Mississippi; that their existence, as
separate and independent tribes in the bosom of the
confederacy, is incompatible with the civflized state.
The Cherokees and Creeks first resisted this policy,
by which it was intended to drive them from Georgia,
and they have not been enticed away either by pecu
niary grants or offers of a more extended territory in,
the western regions. The negotiation is, however,
stifl going on.
" An attempt to remove them by force," (said Mr.
Monroe, in a message to congress of the 30th of March,
1824,) "would in my opinion be unjust. In the future
measures to be adopted in regard to the Indians with
in our limits, the United States have duties to perform
and a character to sustain to which they ought not to
* Travellers have given statements of the population of all the
Indian tribes, that inhabit the regions to which the United States
will extend in advancing towards the great ocean. Their re
searches fix the number of souls at 534,656. These calculations
are necessarily very uncertain. 11

82 INTRODUCTION.
be indifferent. My impression is equafly strongs that
it would promote essentially the security and happi^
ness of the tribes within our limits, if they could be pre-
vafled to retire west and north of our states and terri
tories. Surrounded as they are, and pressed as they
wfll be on every side by the white population, it wifl be
difficult, if not impossible for them, with their kind of
government, to sustain order among them."
The cession of Louisiana will facflitate to the Ame
ricans of European descent the execution of the great
est designs. They have already made, in a very few
years, more progress tovyards happiness and civfliza
tion than Asia has made for many centuries. This they
have done, because they have founded the social state
upon its true basis; because they have been the first to
find out that the face of the world is changed by the
great discoveries of modern times — the mariner's com
pass, — the art of printing, and the liberty of the press,—
the abolition of the slave trade, — steam navigation
and the many other conquests of science and wisdom,
whose utflity can no longer be cafled in question.
A steam boat can ascend from the mouth of the Mis
sissippi to the junction of the Yeflow Stone with the
Missouri, a distance of eight hundred leagues. Mines
of coal, the indispensable auxihary of this navigation,
are found near the banks of the rivers, and beds of this
combustible are almost on the surface of the earth.
The territory washed by the great river and its tri
butary streams is in general fertfle, and is in extent
three or four times the size of France.

INTRODUCTION. 83
The governments of Greece and Rome, which were
called repubhcan, were very different from these new
repubhcs. Did they wish to form a confederation
among themselves .f* Nothing was more difficult, inas
much as they had not the same institutions, and fre
quently not even the same customs. There is not only
more rapid and frequent intercourse between Boston,
Charleston, and New Orleans, than ever existed be
tween Corinth and Athens, or between Rome and Sy
racuse, but their respective views are much more easily
made to accord.
Newspapers constitute a power unknown to antiqui
ty: they put questions and give answers, they have mil
lions of readers, and the orators of Rome and Greece
from the height of a tribune could only address five
or six thousand auditors. A journal is read calmly,
and families peruse it during the leisure hours of the
morning. There is no reason to fear from the reading
of newspapers the sudden and unexpected tumults,
which an irtipetuous tribune could excite in the pubhc
square. The ancient republics were almost always
concentrated in cities; the American republic, of ho
mogenous elements and uniform laws, exists in villages
as wefl as in large cities, and extends over an immense
continent. Its progress wifl not be limited even by the
shores of the vast regions discovered by Columbus.
This great man behoved that he could go to India by
moving round the globe to the west. His design is
about to be accomplished. A navigable breach through
the isthmus which joins the two Americas wifl one day

84 INTRODUCTION,
be opened to approximate Europe and Asia, and future
ages wifl admire this triumph of science over nature,
Panama, or rather some other neighbouring city, wifl
unite the deputies of thirty republics, or, to speak more
correctly, of a great part of the globe. This council
wfll confine its deliberations to the interests of Ameri
ca, as that of the Amphictyons did to those of Greece,
But, without taking any active part in the events of
Europe, the imperial and royal cabinets must expect
that its example will have an influence there.
It is in the boundless regions of America that the
human race may henceforth freely multiply. There,
for many centuries, want wifl not throw impediments
in the way of the conjugal union, Jior will parents
have to fear that the earth wifl refuse the means of
support to those to whom they may impart existence.
Who can contemplate, without vivid emotions, this
spectacle of the happiness of the present generation,
the certain pledge of the prosperity of numberless ge
nerations that will follow.^ At these magnificent pros
pects, the heart beats with joy in the breasts of those
who Were permitted to see the dawn of those bright
days, and who are assured that so many happy pre
sages will be accomplished. I had that good fortune.
I have readily yielded to the pleasure of rapidly
sketching the picture of this new people, but I will not
venture to assert that they are secure from all contin
gencies. Their union now constitutes their strength,
and yet there are between the northern and southern
states, principles of division which in many cases em-

INTRODUCTION. 85
barrass the most prudent statesmen. The northern
states were founded by the puritans, those of the south
by the cavaliers or royahsts. A century and a half has
not effaced the traces of this difference of origin: an
hereditary antipathy wifl one day perhaps be the cause
of a separation that will not be effected without a great
shock. The arts and navigation are honoured in the
north-eastern states, the southern are principally de
voted to agriculture. Hence the sources of rivalry be
tween the north and the south. Slavery is abolished
in the north, at the south it is the principal means of
cultivating the sofl. Attempts are also now making to
employ the slaves as mechanics and in manufactures.
The government of the United States holds, as an
incontestable maxim, that public morahty, like that of
individuals, is founded on doing what is right, not what
is expedient. This rule is not, however, applied to all
classes of men without distinction. The blacks are an
exception. Liberty only exists without restriction, and
for afl creatures endowed with reason, in seven or eight
of the north-eastern states. In the other states, the
enjoyments of the citizens and free inhabitants are the
price of tlie oppression of a numerous class, and sla
very is the condition of almost two mfllions of blacks.
If this is in the southern states a means of riches, it
is there, at the same time, a more horrible scourge
than slavery ever was in Europe. Without repeating
what has been re-echoed by so many voices, during
fifty years, respecting the injustice and barbarity- of
slavery, I will point out the obstacles which, until the

86 INTRODUCTION.
present time, have prevented the eflfectual cure of this
great calamity, and the dangers to which the masters
themselves are exposed, whether they either maintain
slavery or abolish it.
It is acknowledged that to perpetuate it is to sup,.
port in the bosom of every family enemies, who are but
too wefl aware that the time of their manumission is
arrived. They are impatient at the sight of three hun
dred thousand freemen of their own race, who, in the
United States alone, were slaves like themselves. Ir^
ritated from seeing themselves in a state so different
from that of their fellow-blacks, they sometimes en
gage in secret plots, and at other times assemble in
large numbers prepared for revolt. The mere sound
of the whip,the slightest punishment, makes a whole
plantation foam with rage. Domestic plots and at
tempts of open force, alike to be dreaded, are motives
for the masters to draw tighter the bonds of slavery.
Humanity and justice, however, cafl for that manumis
sion, which, was formerly so useful in Europe. But it
would have, in America, consequences which the
emancipation of the serfs never produced. They, as
well as their masters, were of the white race. No na
tural mark distinguished the free born man from the
manumitted slave; the amalgamation was easy, and
emancipation having put an end to all political distinc
tions, the others were soon effaced.
In America distinctions, humfliating to the emanci
pated slaves, stifl separate them from the white race.
They have in many states neither the right of voting

INTRODUCTION. 87
at elections, nor of giving' evidence in courts of jus
tice, except in trials among themselves. Excluded from
public employments, and deprived of the opportunity
of connecting themselves in marriage with the whites,
they are only half citizens. They are every where held
as a degraded race, and this opinion universally dif
fused, necessarfly debases and corrupts them. Conti
nual objects of the contempt of the whites, they in the
end lose their self-esteem; elevated sentiments and
the ambition of rising above this abject condition, are
rare qualities among them. If some superior charac
ters distinguish themselves, they are soon pushed back
into the crowd: it may even happen that the advan
tages which they have received from nature, useless as
virtues, are converted into vicious inclinations, which
render them enemies of society.
In 1827, there were in the southern parts of the
United States about 1,800,000 slaves, and at least
300,000 free blacks. The number of slaves was to
that of free whites in the proportion of one to two in
some states, and of one to three in others. The com
parison of these numbers, and the difference of colours
render it sufficiently manifest that a general manumis
sion could not take place except' to the injury of the
whites, and with imminent danger to them. On the
other hand, reason revolts at the idea of a mixed race,
and of the degradation which would necessarily result
from the amalgamation. To keep the two classes
distinct, and let them equafly enjoy the benefits of li
berty, is to resolve on a civfl war. Difficulties present

88 INTRODUCTION.
themselves on afl sides. Means of rendering their in
crease less rapid have been sought in vain. The im
portation of negrOes ceased in 1808, and since then the
white population has augmented faster than the black;
but, at the south, the climate is favourable to the in
crease of the people of African descent. Humanity
has, we are assured, rendered their treatment more
mild in most of the plantations. But it is stifl slavery.
Emancipation has become general in the northern
states, without being favourable to the increase of the
blacks. They enjoy there afl the rights of citizenship;
but their number is so small, as to be scarcely re
marked. This is the case from the states of Maine
and New Hampshire to those of Pennsylvania and
Delaware. But in Maryland and the other southern
states the number continually grows larger, and it has
doubled in ten years in many famflies of slaves. It
diminishes, on the contrary, after manumission, and
the white population increases. Slavery in afl its ri
gours exists in these states; some have even thought
proper to prohibit emancipation. In other states, in
dividuals have liberated all their slaves. Washing
ton is cited among those who first set this example;
but it is acknowledged that this generous resolution
had its inconveniences, and the manumitted slaves, as
I have just said, only enjoy a part of the civil rights.
Their admission to the legislative assembly would lead
sooner or later to the emancipation of afl. The ex
istence of one of the two classes would be jeopard
ed; for nature, by distinguishing by an indelible

INTRODUCTION. 89
mark the blacks from the whites, has rendered a sin
cere reconciliation impossible, and there would always
be reason to dread the extermination of the weaker
party. In the jj)«iBntime, imperfect hberty by the side
of complete liberty is, for the people of colour, slavery
itself. Alarmed by so many dangers, some statesmen
have attempted, since 1815, to form on the western
coast of Africa a colony of free blacks born in America,
and thus restore to this part of the world the inhabitants
whom America formerly received from thence. For
this purpose, expenditures have been hberally incurred.
But the result has disappointed the hopes that were,
at first, entertained. The blacks themselves regard
this exile as the climax of their misery. Whether it
arises from affection for the country which rejects
them, or from fear of finding slavery in Africa, there
were scarcely four hundred persons in this colony in
1826; the founders, however, begin to flatter them
selves that their perseverance wfll triumph over afl ob
stacles, and they have been encouraged by the last re
ports which have been made to them of the condition
of Liberia. ,
In 1823, Boyer, the chief of the repubhc of Hayti,
also invited these aflfranchised blacks. Offers of hospi
tality, and the certainty of obtaining grants of lands
seemed calculated to attract them. About three thou
sand were induced by the prospect thus held out to
them; but they were idlers, without means, who ex
pected to live in St. Domingo, wholly without labour.
The government of Hayti was soon tired of these use-
12

90 INTRODUCTION.
less and exacting guests. President Boyer was obliged
to withdraw the advantages which he had announced,
and the repubhc gained by sending them back, at its
own expense, to the United States, 4tgm whence they
had come. Finally, it has been proposed to assign to
the free blacks a territory in America, situated to the
west of the Rocky Mountains, and at a great distance
from the whites. This project has met with the strong.
est opposition, and has not even been put to the trial.
The entire race detests the whites, who have so long
oppressed them. Such neighbours would, at a fiiture
day, be more to be dreaded than the savages. The
proximity of the republic of Hayti inspires the United
States with just a,nd Uvely alarms, and they refuse to
acknowledge the independence of the Haytians, be
cause they are of the same colour with their slaves.
When the designs of nature have been violated for
many centuries, the best intentions every where meet
with difficulties.
The abolition of the slave trade has palliated these
evils ; but they are always very great ones, and while
the whites are themselves suffering inconveniences
from the faults of their forefathers, the slave remains
without consolation. Another distressing considera
tion is, that slavery constitutes a perpetual cause of di
vision. The inhabitants of the north hold it in detes
tation, and those of the south wish in vain to deliver
their country from it.
This irritation was manifested in an alarming manner,
when the time arrived for admitting into the Union the

INTRODUCTION. 91
territory of Missouri, which, with those on the right
bank of the Mississippi, formed a part of ancient Lou
isiana. The inhabitants seriously reckoned among
the rights of man, that of possessing slaves. The op
ponents of slavery reproachfully asked them in reply;
" Do you, who enjoy all the inestimable advantages of
liberty, while slavery stifl afflicts the neighbouring
states, do you wish to introduce it in a new state.-*
These regions, which have never seen slaves, wfll re
ceive from you an institution that has become the hor
ror of the world,- and is the most abominable one that
has ever dishonoured society."
The Missourians answered, " That their want of
slaves was manifest, and that necessity made the law,
that congress ought not to interfere in the formation
of a state constitution, except with respect to its re
pubhcan character." They added, that, "if it was in
tended to oppose obstacles to their happiness, they
would be able to do themselves justice."
The general constitution of the United States has
excepted such^ questions from the number of those on
which it belongs to congress to pronounce. It dis
cusses, but does not decide them.
Some ambitious men would have seen, without
regret, these discontents produce two independent
confederations; — one to the north, the other to the
^outh. They believed it possible to introduce in the
northern section a government conformable to that of
England, They would have been resigned to even

92 INTRODUCTION.
have had, instead of hereditary chiefs, only presidents
for life. The south Would have preserved its laws.*
If the separation had taken place, it would not have
overturned the most beautiful monument of liberty that
mankind has ever erected; but the strength which
union necessarily gives to growing states would have
been lost, and England would probably have geen,
without regret, a division in the bosom of the only ma
ritime power that she has reason to dread.
After three years' discussion, the menace of this se
paration made the partisans of slavery triumph. It
was authorized in Missouri, on condition that the slaves
introduced .there should come from the other states of
the Union.
Other causes wifl weaken for a stifl longer time the
advantages offered to Europeans in this part of the
new world. If no property attaches them to the soil
of Europe, or, if tired of exhausting their strength in
the cultivation of a few acres of land, they go to Ame
rica in quest of extensive plantations, the clearing of the
* On matters of opinion, where he has diftered from the autlior,
the translator has not in general deemed it within his province to
offer any comment. He cannot, however, be accessory to the pub
lication of this book in America, without alluding to the mistake,
that is entertained abroad respecting the views of those who took
part in the Missouri controversy. Without referring to the merits
of the question, it may be confidently asserted that no member of
either house of congress, during its discussion, looked to the sepa
ration of the Union as a consequence of the vote that he was about
to give. In both the parties to which that dispute gave rise, were
to be seen men of the purest patriotism and most elevated views,
who honestly differed on a point of public policy. — Transl.

INTRODUCTION. 93
land will require on their part indefatigable courage.
The more fertile the land is, the more reason is there
to fear its unhealthfulness. Those dreadful maladies,
from which Europe is not even at this day exempt,
produce fatal and rapid ravages in countries where
new clearings expose to frequent changes of tempera
ture and great humidity. Fevers, as dangerous as the
plague, have within a few years appeared in those re
gions. Friends, even neighbours, cannot easily visit
one another. It is sometimes necessary to renounce
for a long season that social intercourse, which in our
poorest vfllages renders the greatest misery supporta^
ble. To the tediousness of solitude are joined the ri
gours of winter. Rains and drought endanger the ex
istence of the newly arrived planter. He has settled
in the neighbourhood of a river, the shores of which
he has seen enriched with green meadows. Twenty
years of peaceable possession have successively en
couraged him to enlarge his estate. But a scorching
summer comes on; melted snows descend in torrents
from the tops of the mountains; the brooks suddenly
swefl the rivers; the waters rise in a few hours to fif
teen or eighteen feet above their natural bed; one day
destroys the labours of long years; flocks, barns, and
dwelling houses are all carried off by the flood, and
the planter is not always able even to save himself and
family. i .
Other emigrants begin to settle, without having pro
vided necessaries to support them after a bad harvest.
One description of insects destroys their crops, while

94 INTRODUCTION.
others, more to be dreaded, attach themselves by
swarms to the labourer engaged in clearing the new
land, and by their many acute stings occasion torments
unknown in Europe. The lands near the Missouri are
sometimes torn up by frightful earthquakes. When
the sweflings of this river unite with those of the Mis
sissippi, they destroy the embankments which nature
or art has formed along their shores: the inundation
enters through vast breaches, and extending thirty
leagues from the river, kifls the cattle and lays waste
the cultivated fields.
Of all the inconveniences to which a famfly com
mencing a settlement is subject, the neighbourhood of
the savages is most to be dreaded. Some are fero
cious, and disposed to acts of treachery even in the
midst of peace, and carry on war for the most futile
causes. Some tribes preserve the horrible custom of
eating their prisoners. The settlers are obliged, after
the fatigues of the day, to keep guard against sudden
attacks during the night, and they sometimes watch in
vain. The Indians look out for the moment when the
head of the famfly is absent, in order to cut the throats
of his wife and chfldren : they carry off or disperse the
cattle, and set fire to the barns and crops. It has been
vainly attempted to meliorate their customs by educa
tion. Ignorance is dear to them, and from Algiers to
the hut of an Osage, ignorance has for its companions
barbarism and all the vices.
We see in our sacred books man already civilized
and religious from the very origin of the world. The

INTRODUCTION. 90
brutishness of the savages obliges us to assign them, if
not a more ancient, at least an unknown origin. ' It is
with such tribes that we should commence the history
of the human species. It appears to be stifl nearer its
cradle among the hordes of Australasia than with the
inhabitants of the banks of the Missouri. The differ
ence, however, only consists in the degrees of igno
rance and ferocity.
Everything authorizes, us to predict the end of these
calamities, and the great events which are now pass
ing in America, call the views of statesmen to an ap
proaching melioration. This immense country is no
longer dependent oh Europe, From the Atlantic to
the Pacific Ocean, rapid changes bear glorious testi
mony to the progress of the new world. Numerous
republics dafly make new advances, and it is thus that
the guarantees of happiness in the civilized world in
crease. Let us, then, prepare for the most important
changes. Let the hope of retaining the people in sla
very by the aid of ignorance be abandoned. Let us
submit, without regret, to a happy necessity, and let
us acknowledge that hmited and constitutional monar
chies, far from having to dread liberty, will find in it
their firmest support, and a bulwark against licentious
ness and revolts.
I wifl explain, before concluding this essay, how the
United States have been able to make so great pro
gress in so short a time.
From the year 1787, the period when the constitu
tion received its last form, those who presided over the

96 INTRODUCTION.
public aflfairs directed afl their attention to the means
of securing the benefits of the new system for every
class of citizens. The diminution of the fiscal charges
appeared to them the necessary consequence of the
return of peace. The long agitations of their revolu
tion had ceased, and the resolution of faithfufly paying
the public debt tranqufllized afl minds. They were
careful in all their negotiations not to contract any en
gagement that could oblige them to take part in Eu
ropean quarrels. But Europe came to seek them, and
they could not remain isolated. It was in 1793 that
those beautiful maxims of neutrality were proclaimed,
the sincerity and advantage of which an experience of
thirty-five years attests. Some, however, professed
their admiration for the principles of our revolution,
though they entirely condemned the acts which dis
honoured it: others appeared as the open partisans of
England. Congress Avas obliged to declare war ra
ther against the directory than the people of France.
Napoleon had hardly seized the helm, when he ac
knowledged the great impolicy of this war. He made
peace in 1800, but the Americans only signed it on con
dition of preserving the principle of neutrality. This
system secured, during five or six years, to their mer
chant-marine the commerce of the richest portions of
the globe. England and France, however, soon irri
tated at their success and jealous of their great pros
perity, attacked, both at the same time, navigators
enriched by the quarrels of Europe. The American
government, in the midst even of its harassing difficul-

INTRODUCTION. 97
ties, effectuafly persevered in its maxims, and it was
then that it was indebted to its navigation and com
merce for the ascendency, which it acquired in all the
affairs of America, as wefl as for its influence in those
of the world at large.
The Americans consider taxes imposed on the in
troduction of foreign productions less burdensome,
because they pay them only indirectly. Mr. Jefferson
acquired great popularity by substituting them for di
rect taxes, real and personal. The war of 1 81 2 obliged
Mr. Madison, who succeeded him, to have recourse
anew to internal taxation; but this people would consider
themselves no longer free, if the weight of the imposts
should become disproportionate to their ability. The
opposition, which was then only the English party, again
manifested great activity, when the return of peace in
Europe put an end to this source of excitement. A new
president of the United States, Mr. Monroe, found him
self, in his turn, in a situation to lighten the internal
taxes: he returned to import duties: his popularity
equalled, and perhaps surpassed, that of his predeces
sors. It was under his peaceable government that the
prosperity which now astonishes the world was seen
to assume new channels. Agriculture, manufactures,
and navigation animate all the parts of these numerous
republics. The violence and animosities of the parties
are appeased. Both have, by different means, equally
served the state, and to the almost hostfle dispositions
which heretofore distinguished each of them has suc
ceeded an emulation, which, by increasing the fortunes
13

98 INTRODUCTION.
of individuals, contributes to the general prosperity.
The great riches acquired by commerce are applied
to vast undertakings.
The population increases at a rate which surpasses
afl conjectures. The citizens enjoy an entire liberty of
conscience, and no where are more families to be seen
sincerely religious. Political equality is perfect among
them, but it does not exclude the consideration and
respect that are the attendants on personal services
and merit.
To what are such glorious advantages to be attri
buted .^^ To the goodness of the laws and the wisdom
of the government.
We have seen Bonaparte overturn and build up
thrones at his pleasure. If these sports of his prodi
gious power had for their object the debasement of
royalty, he was greatly deceived. It is true that he
has irretrievably destroyed that great mystery of power,
which gave to monarchs a supernatural and almost di
vine existence. It is well known at this day that they
are men like ourselves; but nothing can take from
them a proud prerogative, a privflege, the loss of which
would carry with it their destruction. I mean the ob
ligation of being just, virtuous, and good, under the
penalty of being deemed incapable of reigning; and it
is thus that the maxim, so often false, " that kings can
do no wrong," has become true.
In writing this essay it has several times occurred to
me, that my remarks might be regarded in the light of
allegories imagined by timid moralists to moderate the

INTRODUCTION. 99
severity of their counsels. Such has not been my in
tention. How is it possible to assimilate the condition
of America with that of Europe.'* How can we pre
tend to treat in the same manner a country where
boundless and fertfle territories wifl present themselves
for more than a thousand years to the activity and
wants of man and our Europe, where five famihes out
of six are wholly destitute.'' I have wished, I say it
frankly, I have wished that it should be admitted that
there are no great distinctions between the principles
of monarchies and those of repubhcs.
The sovereign, whether called king, magistrate or
people, can henceforth only govern by the aid of re
spect for political liberty. There cannot be mis
chievous magistrates in the United States, and it ap
pears to me that there can no longer be mischievous
kings in Europe. The love of nations for good kings
is formed as naturally as that of chfldren for their pa
rents. The citizens of a republic have not the same
kind of affection for their magistrates; but they have
confidence in their wisdom, and they are attached to
a constitution of which they every day experience the
benefits. It depends on the princes, who now reign
over the nations of Europe, to unite afl these advan
tages. They wfll then taste the highest felicity which
can be the lot of man on earth, that of making nume
rous generations happy. Educated in the maxims of
wisdom and virtue, and firmly resolved always to prac
tise them, they wfll soon inspire their courtiers with
the love of them. The people in turn wifl be eager to

100 INTRODUCTION.
follow the example of the prince. Morality wfll re
sume its empire. Expenditures for luxury and public
festivals wifl cease to be held in honour. Whatever is
extravagant in the different modes of government, se
parately considered, wifl be moderated by skilfully com
bining them, and all voices wfll unite to proclaim the
excellence of monarchical government.

THE

HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.

PART I.

LOUISIANA UNDER THE SOVEREIGNTr OP FRANCE AND SPAIN.
THE RELATIONS OF THE COLONY WITH SAINT DOMINGO.

THE

HISTORY OF L.OUISIANA.

PART THE FIRST.

LOUISIANA UNDER THE SOVEREIGNTY OP FRANCE AND SPAIN. —
THE RELATIONS OF THE COLONY WITH SAINT DOMINGO.
The history on which we are about to enter wifl not
extend to the indigenous tribes, who, before its occu
pation by Europeans, inhabited the country now known
by the name of Upper and Lower Louisiana. Re
searches, made with the greatest care, have not re
moved the obscurity in which their origin is stifl enve
loped. Their traditions are contradictory. In the ab
sence of authentic documents, analogies are sought
between their respective languages and those of other
people in different parts of the globe. So few have,
however, been discovered, that are not either contest
ed or accidental, that no inference can be drawn from
this source. Many rude monuments afford certain in
dications of the existence, at a former period, of na
tions more populous and less ignorant than those which
were found there by our ancestors. But even these
more ancient aborigines had made very inconsiderable

104 THE HISTORV '
progress in civflization; it is, indeed, doubtful whether
after having advanced some steps, they did not retro
grade or become the conquest of a race stifl more bar
barous. About a century and a half has elapsed since a
French colony, under the name of Louisiana, was
founded on the Mississippi. This settlement lan
guished tifl within a recent period, and if the treaties
by which Napoleon ceded it to the United States offer
matter for a particular narrative, it is because the con
sequences of that measure are already of the greatest
importance to those states, to afl America, and even to
Europe. The sea-coasts, islands, and mouths of rivers have
long been the first spots noticed by those who have
gone in search of new regions. The countries of
which we shall treat were discovered by exploring the
interior, at a distance of more than three hundred
leagues from the mouth of the great river which tra
verses them.
In 1672, the French, who had been settled a century
in Canada,* learned from the Indians that there were,
in the neighbourhood of the great lakes, the sources
of a river which flowed towards the south, crossing
magnificent forests: they called it Namesi-si-pou, that
is to say, the river of fishes. They added that those
* The coasts of Canada were discovered by the French in 1504.
Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence in 1534, and took possession o£
the country in the name of His Most Christian Majesty. Quebec
was founded by M. de Champlain in 1604.— Transl.

OF LOUISIANA. 105
vast regions had never been visited by the white na
tion. One hundred and eighty years had elapsed since
Columbus discovered America, and yet the course of
this river was so little known, that many placed its
mouth in the Vermflion Sea, between Mexico and Ca
lifornia. Some intelligent travellers set out in 1673
from Quebec to explore this country; they descended
the Mississippi to the mouth of the river of the Ar
kansas, which is to the right of the great river, and
empties into it in about the 33d degree of latitude.
The accounts which they gave, on their return, to
Count Frontenac, governor of Canada, did not permit
him to doubt the importance of the discovery. La
Safle, his successor, was authorized to examine the
country himself.
In 1 679, proceeding from the north towards the south,
he advanced as far as the river of the IHinois, which
he called Seignel^i, a title that it did not long retain.
The name of Colbert, given to the Mississippi, was
likewise soon forgotten. La Safle was accompanied by
Hennepin, a Franciscan monk, a man of considerable
acquirements, and inured to the hardships inseparable
from travefling in unexplored regions. This person
was subsequently intrusted with the charge of an ex
pedition that went to the north, following the upper
branch of the Mississippi; he published an account of
his travels. Other simflar works also appeared, afl
of which attracted general observation. These narra
tives contained no exaggerated statements, and Louie
XIV. was led by them to entertain views in accordance
14

106 THE HISTORY
with the principles of the colonial system, which then
began to be adopted by all the maritime powers. A
more considerable expedition was determined on; and,
in 1682, La Salle descended the Mississippi with sixty
men. He stopped in the country of the Chickasaws,
where he buift fort Purd'homme, after which he pursued
his journey and reached the great gulf. Delighted
with the beauty of the countries which he had seen,
he gave them the name of Louisiana. On his return
to France, he proposed to the government to unite to
Canada the discovery which he had just made, and
thus secure to France the sovereignty of the territo
ries in the interior, situated between the northern sea
and the Gulf of Mexico, into which the Mississippi
fafls. This vast and magnificent project was favoura
bly received by Louis XIV. It was even at that time
perceived that the colony, which was about being
founded, might effectually contribute to the advance
ment of St. Domingo. La Barre, governor of Cana
da, was ordered " to keep up a regular correspondence
with the governor of the French islands in the gulf,
as these colonies might derive very great benefit from
a reciprocal trade in their staple productions." In
1 684, it was supposed that advantage might be taken
of the truce, which had then just been signed between
France and Spain. La Salle set sail from La Rochelle
with two hundred and eighty persons, one hundred of
whom were soldiers, and with every thing necessary
for a new settlement. But, deceived in his reckoning,
he passed the mouths of the Mississippi without being

OF LOUISIANA. 107
aware of it, and landed on the 18th of February, 1685,
one hundred and twenty leagues beyond them in the
bay of St. Bernard. He took possession of the country,
built forts, pkced garrisons in them, and the post of
St. Louis acquired some importance. This brave of
ficer was assassinated a year afterwards by some of
the men employed in the expedition, who feared the
severity which their culpable conduct had deserved.
Other detachments, under the authority of the king of
France, then reconnoitred these countries in different
directions, and a few feeble colonies were established.
War was declared between France and Spain in 1689,
and interrupted these attempts till 1698, when peace
was restored. During this interval, the planters, de
prived of aid from the mother country, had made no
progress. In 1699, D'Ibbervillej a brave artd intelligent adven
turer, was sent to the Mississippi to establish a new
colony there and be its governor.* The country, of
which possession was taken in the name of France,
extended from the mouth of the Mobfle, which crosses
Florida, to the bay of St. Bernard. The occupation
was hardly contested by the Spaniards, and the rela
tions of amity and common interest which were esta-
* It is mentioned in a Memoir of the Count de Vergennes, laid
before Louis XVI. during the war of the American revolution, that
in September, 1699, the English, conducted by some French de
serters, came in a vessel of twelve guns to explore the mouths of
the Mississippi, but were compelled to retire by the Chevalier de
Bienville, (the brother of D'lbberville,) who commanded a post
which was then already established on that river.— Transl.

108 THE HISTORY
Wished ^t the beginning of the eighteenth century be
tween the two kingdoms, put an end to any claims on
the part of the court of Madrid. There was, howe-
\er, no settlement of boundaries, and it appears, that,
on the one side, the Spaniards were afraid that, if they
were accurately described, they would have to consent
to some concessions; and, on the other, the French
were unwifling to limit, by precise terms, their possible
extension of territory.
At the same time, the English colonies, founded
twenty or thirty years before, were beginning to pros
per. Their charters granted to them the countries
which extend, between fixed parallels of latitude, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. These colonists
did not, however, advance their settlements beyond the
Afleghany mountains. This chain and a few rivers
were the first boundaries between the French colonies
and those of England, which, having attained their in
dependence, are at this day known as a powerful and
happy nation, under the name of the United StatejS.
At the origin of their settlements, the planters, who
had come from England, finding fertile lands on the
sea-coast, or at a short distance from it, were in no
hurry to advance towards the mountains. No one
then foresaw that these colonies, flourishing as a con
sequence of their good laws, would be the first to ef
fect their independence; that their caravans would one
day extend beyond the Mississippi, and penetrate by
discoveries and settlements in the interior to the west
ern coast, where it is washed by the Northern Ocean.

OF LOUISIANA. 109
The laws given to the colony of Louisiana seemed to be
intended to perpetuate its dependence, by checking the
rapidity of its progress. The care of peophng this new
and almost uninhabited country, instead of being placed
under the charge of the superior departments of the go
vernment, was principally confided to the agents of the
Paris police. Louis XIV., however, by letters patent
of the 14th of September, 1712, granted to Crozat, a
rich financier, the exclusive trade of the colony for
twelve years. The names of the Mississippi, the Ifli-
nois, the Wabash, and the Missouri were suppressed in
these letters. It was attempted to replace them by
those of St. Louis, St. Stephen, and St. Jerome; but
these designations, imagined by the authors of the let
ters patent, are no longer remembered. Those to
which the Indians were accustomed have been pre
served. It Was not then known that the countries tra
versed by these rivers are several times as extensive as
France; and the government had only a very vague
notion of what it was granting. It made a present of
the colony to Crozat, or rather it relieved itself of a
burden. The limits of Louisiana were not afterwards
much better defined; but agreeably to the practice,
which certain maritime powers had made a principle
of the law of nations, the effect of the occupation of
the momths of the rivers and streams extended to their
sources. Crozat showed that he was more of a statesman
than the ministers. His plans were wisely conceived,
and, so far as depended on him, he sent to the new co-

110 THE HISTORY
lony only robust and industrious people, and some poor
families, recommended by their good morals, who
were indeed the only settlers that succeeded. Be
ing, however, soon tired of his privilege, and of the
great advances which the first settlements required, he
renounced the grant. He gave it up in 1717, and the
regent transferred the colony to the company of the
west.* Louisiana did not rise under this new govern
ment from the state of languor in which it had re
mained since its discovery. But the exaggerations and
falsehoods of a few traveflers ascribed to it riches in
mines of gold and silver superior to those of Mexico
and Peru.
The deplorable state of the French finances led the
people, and even the ministers, into these iflusions, and
they indulged them with an ardour which was soon
communicated to other countries.
A foreigner of an eccentric mind, though a skilful
calculator, had engaged the regent in operations the
most disastrous possible to the finances of a state. John
Law, after having persuaded credulous people that pa
per money might advantageously take the place of spe
cie, drew from this false principle the most extravagant
consequences. They were adopted by ignorance and
cupidity, and perhaps by Law himself, for he was frank
and high-minded, even in his errors.
There were, however, some men who were not de
ceived, and many members of the parhament of Paris
opposed to these iflusions the lessons of experience.
* The letters patent are dated August, 1T17.

OF LOUISIANA. I ] ]
Their prudence was without effect. John Law suc
ceeded in persuading the public that the value of his
stock was guarantied by the inexhaustible riches that
were concealed in the mines near the Mississippi.
These chimeras, called by the name of system, do not
differ much from the schemes that are brought forward
in the present age, under the name of credit. Some
have asserted that so many unjust operations, so many
violations of the most solemn engagements, were the
result of a deeply meditated design, and that the regent
had only consented to it in order to free the state from
a debt whose weight had become insupportable. We
cannot adopt this explanation. It is more probable,
that, after having entered on a pernicious course, this
prince and his council were led from error to error, to
palliate one evfl by another stifl greater, and to deceive
the public by deceiving themselves. Had they acted
according to a premeditated plan, their artifice would
have been even more disgraceful than the open injus
tice of the French directory, when in 1797 it reduced
the pubhc debt to one-third of its amount. Whatever
may be the fact, the name of Mississippi was soon as
sociated with that of bankruptcy, and it is only after
the lapse of a century that th'e real prosperity of the
country has effaced the infamy connected with its
name. We wfll not recafl the consequences of John Law's
system; it is sufficient to say, that, in order to give it
an apparent consistency, he kept up the relations of
the company with Louisiana. He had acquired for

il2 THE HISTORY
himself an estate of four leagues square, situated on
the Arkansas, in the neighbourhood of the Mississippi.
Its sofl was remarkably fertile, and he had obtained
permission from the regent to erect it into a dutchyJ
He brought together about two thousand French and
Germans, and embarked all the articles necessary to
found a large settlement. But the year 1720 was the
last of his ephemeral greatness. His projects in France
having faded, the colonial enterprise experienced great
embarrassments, and Dupratz calculates, "that the
grant occasioned the loss to L'Orient of more than a
thousand persons before the embarkation." The ves
sels which carried the remainder of the emigrants only
set sad from the French ports in 1721, a year after the
disgrace of this minister; and when he himself could
give no attention to this wreck of his fortune. The
grant was transferred to the company. The emigrants
were landed at Bfloxi, at Mobile, as well as on the
banks of the Mississippi. Thus dispersed and deprived
of the care of the person who had sent them to the
country, most of them became victims to the rigour of
the chmate. It was easy to conceal from the public
the calamities without number to which these French
men were subjected. The communications with the
metropolis were rare, and the only correspondence that
was carried on was conducted with secrecy. Europe
had not then any of those periodical writings, which,
* Dupratz's History of Louisiana, vol. i. page 170. Lower Ca
nada is still subjected to the feudal system, and the barons and
seignors are very much attached to their privileges and titles.

OP LOUISIANA. 113
as they are ofl,en independent and honest in spite of
all the shackles that, are attempted to be imposed on
them, ultimately givje, by proclaiming the truth, infor
mation to governments ias well as to the people.
Enlightened and prudent men, formed, however, a
sound judgment. on, the state of t,hings in Louisiana.
Father Charlevoix, a" Jesuit, travelled through it in
1720, 1721, and 1722. The extreme discretion of the
society of which he was a member did not permit him
to tell every thing; but he is honest in what he says',
especiafly in his relation of what he saw. When at
the end* of his contemptuous observations upon the
pretended metallic riches of Louisiana, he speaks of
the real riches which, agriculture must one day deve-
lope there, when he predicts the degree of splendour to
which the hamlet of New Orleans wifl rise, though it
then had no other place but a tent for the celebration of
the festivalsand ceremonies of religion,* we cannot but
admire his penetration and the solidity of his judgment.
" The mournful wrecks,'' says he, " of the settlement
on M. Law's^ grant, of which the company has become
the proprietor, are stifl to be seen opposite the village of
the Kappas.f It is there that the six thousand Germans
raised in the Palatinate ought to have been sent, and
it is very unfortunate that they did not go there. There
is not in afl Louisiana a district better adapted to every
kind of grain and the pasturage of cattle." It was at-
* New Orleans was founded in 1717. — Transl.
t Attakapas, almost opposite New Orleans, on the right bank
of the Mississippi. Dupratz and Charlevoix do not agree as to the
situation of this grant. 15

114 THE HISTORY
tempted to manage at Paris or VersaiUes plantations
which could only prosper under the eyes of a proprie
tor, who was in a condition to make great advances.
" The people who are sent there," Charlevoix fyrther
remarks, " are miserable wretches driven from France
for real or supposed crimes, or bad conduct, or per
sons who have enlisted in the troops or enrofled them
selves as emigrants, in order to avoid the pursuits of
their creditors. Both classes regard the country as a
place of exfle. Every thing there disheartens them:
nothing interests them in the progress of a colony of
which they are only members in spite of themselv^es,
and they are very little concerned with the advantages
which it may procure to the state; the greater part are
not even capable of appreciating them."
^' Others have only found misery in a country for
which they have incurred enormous expenses; and
they attribute to it, without reflection, those evfls which
should be solely imputed to the incapacity or negli
gence of the persons to whom its settlement was in
trusted." Then, alluding to the system, he adds: " You
are not ignorant of the reasons which led to its being
reported that Louisiana possessed in its bosom great
treasures, and that its occupation brought us into the
neighbourhood of the famous mines of St. Barbe, and
of others stfll richer; from which we flattered ourselves
with the prospect of easily driving away the present
possessors. The letters of this Jesuit were addressed to the Du
chess de Lesdiguieres; and were kept very secret. If

OF LOUISIANA. 115
they had then been pubhshed, the colony would infalli
bly have had. a different destiny: but this correspond-
encaonly appeared' twenty-five years afterwards.
Dupratz, author of a History of Louisiana, ingenu
ously states, " that all the letters which were, sent to
France were intercepted. We consulted. together on
the means of ferw^'ding them to; their destination; we
discovered it, and availed ourselves of it."*
" The writers of history are obliged," he farther ob
serves, " to treat with equal oaution the dead and the
living; and, so dehca,te a matter is it to give utterance
to the truth, that the pen often falls from the hands of
those who are most disposed to be accurate."
Afewcolonists, however, returned to France; theyre-
counted the misfortunes from which they had escaped,
and some truths began to make their way to the pub
hc. But, instead of taking advantage of this informa
tion, to found an agricultural settlement, the practice
stifl continued of transporting to Louisiana such vaga
bonds "and prostitutes as could be removed. No mea
sure wa:s adopted for giving order to this coflection of
drdnes; and if the instructions prepared at Versailles
eyerreftched the colony, they remained unexecuted.
A company for the Indies was created in 1723. The
Duke of Orleans was declared its governor. Its privi
leges embraced Asia, Africa, and America. In the de
liberations of „this association, composed of great no
blemen and merchants, India, China, the factories of
* History of Louisiana, vol. i. page 166, 168, 169; printed in
1758, with the Royal approbation.

116 THE HISTORV
Senegal and Barbary, the West Indies and Canada
were, in turn^ brought into view. Louisiana holds a
principal place in these discussions'. Pubhc utihty, as
much as the greatness and glory of the monarch,: had,
under Louis XIV., led to the favourable reception of
the first proposals for the foundation a powerful colo
ny. But nothing in the execution had answered to this
intention; the new company was conducted with even
less ability than those which had preceded it We in
vain seek in its acts the marks of the great colonial
design formed by the government. We find at almost
every page of the numerous registers which contain
the deliberations of the association, tariffs of the prices
fixed on tobacco, coflfee, and all the other productions
that were subjected to the monopoly. We also meet
with speeches made in the general assembly, setting
forth the flourishing state of the affairs of the compa
ny, which almost always terminate by proposing loanS,
to be guarantied by a sinking fund. But the sinking
fund was deceptive : the debts accumulated to such an
extent that the interest could not be paid, even by
mortgaging the capital. Statements of accounts,
bankruptcies, law-suits, and a multitude of documents
prove that the operations, ruinous in a commercial
point of view, were only profitable to a small number
of the partners.
Nothing useful or good could in fact result from such
a government. A single circumstance, selected from
a mass, will enable every one to judge how far these
abuses were carried.

OF LOUISIANA. 117
The governor and the intendant of Louisiana were
from the nature of their functions, in a manner inter
posed between the company and the inhabitants, to
moderate their reciprocal pretensions and prevent op
pression. But these magistrates were named by the
members of the association. We read in its proceed
ings that to aitath the governor and tfie intendant to the in
terests of the company, there' shall be assigned to them an an
nual gratuity and an alloioance on the exports of the staple
commodities to France. The consequences of this sys
tem were most injurious to Louisiana, without enrich
ing the stockholders.
A staftement, prepared in 1726, madetthem creditors
of the colony for the sum of 3,174,000 livres. This
debt was not disputed by the colonistpi, but there was
no means of constraining them to pay it. The pubhc
mind became exasperated, and the discontent mani
fested itself in revolts against the company. The su
perior councfl took part in them, and supported the
cause of the inhabitants. Its acts, were, however,
reversed or rejected, and the members removed from
office and recafled to France, which only increased the
resistance of the colonists.
Eight or nine hundred soldiers were distributed in
different garrisons; but they were not even adequate
to subject the colonists to the police regulations in a
country of such vast extent.
Another calamity, — misunderstanding with the na
tive tribes, — afflicted the French wherever they settled.
The friendly dispositions which the Indians had previ-

118 THE HISTORi^
ously exhibited, changed in consequence of the bad
treatment that they experienced from the agents of
the company, who had quitted France, seduced by the
hope of obtalining the fortunes which Law had offered
to their cupidity. Instead of the metaflic treasures'
which the earth refused them, they traded in furs with
the Indians; and as they had been at first obtained at
a cheap rate, they wanted to have them at the same
price when they became scarce. It was, indeed, to the
French hunters themselves that this scarcity was to be
attributed. The Indians had always a sort of regard
for the innocent communities of beaverg and otters.
They respected the peaceable families of these ani
mals, whose habits deserve to be studied. Our hunt;
ers, on the contrary, appeared to take pleasure in de
stroying their retreats, and in penetrating even to the'
subterraneous recess where the industrious tribe as
sembles after finishing the common labour. *
In the trade with the natives, the French being
the stronger and more cunning party, first gave the
law; but injustice on the one side was foflowed by
resistance on the other. The French posts and gar
risons were separated by great distances and could not
aflford one another mutual aid. Petty wars broke out
in all directions, and lasted from eight to ten years.
Sieges and conspiracies have furnished to travellers
and historians materials for narratives, which would at
this time be without interest or utility. It is only ne
cessary to remark, that in these quarrels the civilized
race was always unjust, which rendered in some sort

OF LOUISIANA. 119
excusable the acts of cruelty that the natives commit
ted. The war carried on against the Natchez, one of
those to which we refer, was attended, with dreadful
qonsequences. This nation, peaceable before our ar
rival, was considered' less cruel than the others. Irri
tated by the violent conduct of a French commander,
it ha4> recourse to horrible reprisals. The governor of
the, colony, conceived that the insurrection required
that a great example should be made; an 4 the tribe
was exterminated with the exception of a few famflies
who escaped the general massacre, and were received
and protected by the neighbouring tribes. From time
immemorial, the Natchez had been governed by a fa-^
mily of chiefs whom they behoved to be children., of
the Sun. * General Ferrier, the commanding officer,
had them all carried away and transported to Cape
Fran§ais. The most important member of this dynas
ty died there,- a few months after hig ^arrival. The
other Suns were maintained by the company for the
moderate sum of 1,888 livres 7 sous. The company
applied to M. Maurepas to defray this expense.* On
the 2^d of Aprfl, 173 J, the minister wrote to the direc
tors, as follows: "I am not aware that there is any
other course to adopt in this matter, than to order the
survivors of these two Indian families to be sold or
sent back to Louisiana."
The registers of the company contain the following
resolution. " It was resolved to order the sale of the
* Registers of the Company of the Indies, deposited in the ar
chives of the Court of Accounts. Appendix, No. 4. '

120 THE HISTORV
survivors of the said two famflies of Natchez Indians.''
At the very time that this order was given, the compa
ny was pretending to the glory of civilizing a people
whose chiefs were sold as slaves.
A few feeble detachments of French soldiers had
been sufficient to reduce these tribes, who had not yet
learned to use our weapons. They made war on. them
in a great ma,ny places, and with pretty constant, suc
cess. But these petty victories weakened the French
themselves. The chimeras of the system appeared no
longer, even to its greatest dupes, any thing but an au
dacious falsehoods*) Louisiana had become rather a
burden th3n an advantage to the company. In 1731
it gave up its privileges to the king, who declared , the
trade free to all his subjects. The company no longer
exists. To know what it cost the state during its con
tinuance and since its dissolution, requires the produc
tion of the registers of the time. In 1786,* 5,250,000
livres were paid to its cashier .by the treasury, to meet
expenditures for which there were no receipts; and this
payment was not the last.
It was in the Iflinois country that a covetous ignorance
had placed those mines of silver and gold, which the
speculators said were richer ahd more abundant than
those of Mexico. Many famihes, dupes of an error

* On the 11th of August, 1728, the company surrendered to
the king all its rights against John and William Law. This pro
ceeding was founded on a judgment in its favour for twenty mil
lions, the value of which had only been furnished in part. The
king accepted Ijie surrender the 3d of September following.

OF LOUISIANA. 121
that was almost general, had transferred their fortunes
there. They found, instead of treasures concealed in
the bowels of the earth, a sofl of almost inexhaustible
fertihty, one of the mildest climates in the world, se
veral navigable rivers, afl of which might have been
decorated with the title of beautiful river, which was
given to the Ohio. The colonists, recovered from their
iflusions, turned their attention to agriculture: this
smafl part of New France from that time made consi
derable progress. Honest and industrious agricultu
rists, merchants in easy circumstances settled there;
and such is the power of labour and property that the
colony began, between 1732 and 1740, to assume a
little more importance. It was at this time that the
French government wished to realize the great plan,
formed sixty years before, of uniting Canada and Lou
isiana, in the hope that this union would shutout from
the English colonies all access to the regions of the
west. Although no one was then at all acquainted
with the countries which extend from the Mississippi
to the Western Seas, their future importance was fore
seen. The memoirs written on this subject have been pre
served: their authors sagaciously prognosticate the
high destinies of the two colonies thus united. They
meet objections, and combat them all with one excep
tion: no one of them foresees that these provinces, as
they increase in population, and as a consequence even
of their prosperity, must aspire to and finafly attain in
dependence. They notice the discontent with which
16

122 THE HISTORY
the plan of the union of Canada and Louisiana must
inspire England; but nothing foretells to them that the
provinces of Enghsh America will rise up and free
themselves from the dominion of their mother country,
and that the colonies conquered from France wfll one
day be the only ones that Great Britain wfll retain on
that continent.
When knowledge is once diffused, its progress can
no longer be arrested; every thing contrary to nature
and reason has become impossible. But, in the mid
dle of the last century, the most penetrating minds^ the
most attentive statesmen were still far from foreseeing
the independence of the English provinces.
After the peace of 1748, the French ministry took
a deep interest in the settlement of Louisiana, and
held out encouragements to all who wished to es
tablish themselves there; but, at the same time, it
greatly neglected the measures necessary to the suc
cess of such a design. The plantations should have
been kept close together, and only gradually extend
ed. But the colonists, on their arrival in these sa
vage regions, thought themselves released from afl re
straint. The greater part of them did not even care
about obtaining for their titles the sanction of a grant;
it was not easy to restrain them from settling wherever
their hopes or fancy conducted them. The Indians,
however, were beginning to recover from the hatred
with which the French had momentarily inspired them.
The missionaries exerted themselves to make them
Christians, and laboured with an admirable zeal to

OF LOUISIANA. 123
render them more humane. The governors did not
allow fire-arms and strong, liquors to be given in ex
change for furSi They -distributed to them cattle and
instruments of tfllage. It is true that those benevo
lent cares did not produce the desired effect; but
the natives were grateful for them, and the French
were then able to scatter themselves among them,
without apprehension : they shared their idleness and
their misery. They oftentimes married Indian women,
and were then of right incorporated into the tribe. But
the Indian famflies preserved with pride the foreign
names of their new chiefs, which are stfll to be recog
nised, though altered by local idioms.
The chase, the amusement of civihzed man, is the
principal business of savages. The French, having
become equafly capable of fatigue with the Indians,
were always ready to accompany them, and to second
them in all circumstances; they therefore scarcely ever
experienced the treachery so commonly employed to
wards the English, who attempted to form isolated set
tlements. But, besides the inconvenience arising from
this dispersion, there was another obstacle to the pro
gress of the French colony; the officers from Europe
had, for the most part, only false notions with respect
to colonial government They were named through
favour, and the most important places were oftentimes
only filled by dependants, who accepted them in hopes
of making or re-establishing their fortunes.
The expenses resttltingfrom want of order had no
limits : in no condition to provide for them, the heads

121 THE HISTORY
Of the government had recourse to paper money, the
desperate resource of financiers without capacity. The
following remaks on this subject are from a despatch
of M. Rouflle, minister of marine.
"The disorder, which has for some time prevailed in
the finances and trade of Louisiana, principafly arises
from pouring into the province treasury orders and
other kinds of paper money; all of which soon fell
into discredit, and occasioned a depreciation of the
currency, which has been the more injurious to the co
lony and its trade, as the prices of all things, and par
ticularly of manual labour, have increased in propor
tion to the fafl in the treasury notes."
It was on the 30th of November, 1744, that this mi
nister thus expressed himself with regard to the chime
rical systems of credit, which' have never been more in
vogue than in our time.
This internal difficulty originated in the bad legisla
tion of the French colonies, whfle those of England
prospered by the aid of wise institutions. France was
always less powerful on the continent of America, and
she was there successively stripped by England of her
principal settlements. These losses are not foreign to
the circumstances attending the cession of Louisiana,
and we wifl point them out, commencing with the
earliest. The French were beginning to settle in Carolina,
when the English, by a better conceived enterprise,
took possession of it It remained theirs without trea
ty, without cession, and by the simple fact of occupancy.

OP LOUISIANA. 125
The treaty of Utrecht inflicted in 1713 a stifl se
verer blow on the French power in the new world.
Hudson Bay was by that treaty restored to England,
and Acadia, as well as Newfoundland, was ceded to
her, in fufl sovereignty. Acadia, which subsequently
received the name of Nova Scotia, was inhabited by
an exceflent race of Frenchmen. The circumstances
which reduced them to the most wretched state are
not generally known: we wifl relate them, not for the
purpose of nourishing national animosities, but in or
der that the indignation, which these persecutions must
inspire, may prevent the return of acts of injustice, as
much opposisd to humanity as to the law of nations.
The Acadians, always attached to the country of
their origin, even after it had been obliged to abandon
them, had obtained permission never to be compefled
to bear arms against it. Religious, docile, and loyal,
they persevered in retaining the language, manners,
and habits of France: they had succeeded in causing
themselves to be regarded as neutral, which is the
name that was at length given to them.
When the seven years' war broke out, those unfor
tunate people, forgotten by their native land, still bore
with pain their subjection to a foreign government.
They aflowed it to be too plainly seen that their wishes
were always favourable to the country of their origin.
The Enghsh, resolved to put an end to the influence
of France in the affairs of America, took umbrage at
some indications of this affection of the Acadians,
and fearing that they might be induced to afford aid to

126 THE HISTORY
the French in Canada, they determined not only to
banish them from Acadia, but to disperse them so as
to prevent, for the future, afl concert of such a nature.
The fate intended for them was with great care
kept secret. On a sudden, they were coflected by
districts under pretence of the harvest They were
hardly assembled, when it was notified to them that
they were prisoners; that their lands, cattle, and all
their moveables were confiscated. They were only al
lowed to carry away their sflver and the trifling effects,
which they could put on board of the vessels. Their
estates were laid waste, so that they might retain nei
ther the hope nor desire of returning to them. In one
single district two hundred and fifty-five dweflings, two
hundred and seventy-six barns, eleven mifls, and one
church were destroyed. A few famflies took refuge in
the woods, but they, were pursued with fire and sword:
some young persons were kifled in their flight by sen
tinels, and the other fugitives were obliged to deliver
themselves up. These unfortunate people were distri
buted in the Enghsh colonies, where they were hu
manely and charitably received. At Philadelphia, Be-
nezet, descended from a French family banished at
the revocation of the edict of Nantes, treated them
like brothers. Twenty-five years after this event, we
have seen this individual, who was a model of all the
charitable virtues, guide the Acadians like a father of
a family, and they really regarded themselves as his
children. The cares of this excellent man preserved
them; but he could not put an end to the misery and

OF LOUISIANA. 127
dejection into which this barbarous act had plunged
them. They stifl continued, even after so many years,
to regret France and the colony which they were'^ne-
ver again to see.*
Louis XV., touched by their fidelity, proposed,
through his ministers, to the Enghsh government to
send some vessels to the different provinces and plan
tations to bring 'them back to France. Mr. Grenville,
the English minister, hastened to reply: " Our naviga
tion act forbids it,— ^France cannot send vessels to our
colonies."! Some of these exfles fled to Louisiana. Several of
them settled in French Guyana-; and the French who
were banished to Sinnamari in 1798 found there an
Acadian famfly, that received them with these hospita
ble words : — " Welcome," said Madame Trion to one
of them ; " our fathers were banished like you, they
taught us to alleviate misfortunes: welcome, we feel
pleasure in offering you consolation and an asylum in
our cabins."
It is also proper to mention the other mitigations
that attended so great a calamity. Some Acadians
and Canadians had taken the part of the United States
during the war of the revolution. Congress, warned
by sad notoriety of the misery which these refugees
and those who had formerly been banished from their
country experienced, because they remembered that
* Minot. Continuation of the History of Massachusetts. Ch.
10. Entick. General History of the Seven Years' War.
t Letter of December, 1768, from Jasper Mauduit, agent of
Massachusetts at London. — ^Massachusetts Historical Collection.

128 THE HISTORY
their fathers had been Frenchmen, attempted to form
settlements of them. Having become rich in land
by the acquisition of Louisiana, it made them free
grants. It was in this country, formerly French, that
after so many vicissitudes they again met like a fami
ly.* Other Acadians had preceded them there. They
have given the name of Acadia to a district of Lou
isiana, where they have settled. It is bounded by the
parish of Ibbervflle and lake Maurepas. The Missis
sippi washes its shores, and its inhabitants have the
people of New Orleans for neighbours. Thus sur
rounded, they consider themselves in France, their
posterity will lose the remembrance of the misfortunes
which a jealous and suspicious pohcy made them ex
perience, and wifl for ever bless the beneficence and
humanity of congress.
France, when she abandoned Acadia in 1713, pre
served Canada and Cape Breton, likewise cafled Isk
Royal. This island wa.s of great importance on ac
count of its excellent harbours, and of its neighbour
hood to the fisheries of Newfoundland, the principal
school for seamen. England had conquered it during
the war, which the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle termi
nated in 1748. Reciprocal restitutions were stipulated
* This statement respecting the proceedings of congress is inr
correct. The settlement of the Acadians in Louisiana vras formed
soon after the melancholy transactions which are related' by the au
thor, and in consequence of a grant of land from the Spanish govern
ment. The United States have, however, in conformity with the
resolutions of the old congress, from time to time, passed laws,
making grants of land to the Canadians and Nova Scotians, who
became refugees on account of the American revolution.— Tkansl.

OF LOUISIANA. 129
by this treaty, and among others Cape Breton was
given up to France. Its lands are fertile. The har
bour of Louisbourg is one of the largest and safest in
the world; and the sea never freezes there. This
island was not long to remain ours. England had de
termined to leave to the French in those latitudes only
the rocks of St. Peter and Miquelon. Commerce is
friendly to peace, but the merchants of London, in
desphe of this maxim, were the most violent in ex
citing to war. They considered that they had a flou
rishing navy on their side, while the fleet of their
neighbours was entirely ruined. Too certain of their
maritime superiority, they continuafly called the atten-
tention of the parhament a^d the ministry to their inte
rests in the continental colonies of America. Without
troubling themselves about the reciprocal rights of
other nations, and without examining if the respective
limits were traced between the territories of the two
powers, they afleged in their petitions the injury that
the Canadian hunters occasioned, them, and the loss
which they would experience, if they were deprived of
the fine furs of the beavers and otters.
To these causes for a war, in which so much blood
was to flow, were added a general clamour which pro
ceeded from the thirteen colonies. Frankhn, as skil
ful in politics as he was zealous for the improvement
of natural science, was the principal organ of the com
plaints of the Enghsh colonists. Franklin, whom Pa
ris saw twenty-five years afterwards employed in ex
citing the opinion of France and of all Europe against
17

130 THE HISTORY
England, was, in 1754, the promoter of the expedition
against our remaining possessions in the northern part
of the new world. " No tranquiflity," said he^ " no
tranqufllity can be expected for our thirteen colonies,
so long as the French are masters of Canada." Nei
ther this ardent republican, nor any statesman then
foresaw that after this conquest, the provinces would
have too much repose to remain long in a dependent
state; and that twenty years later, freed from afl anxie
ty respecting the Canadian frontier, they might, with
more hope of success, undertake to throw off" the yoke
of the mother country.
The jealousy which the English had of the in
creasing power of France in India, confirmed their
determination for war. Negotiations were still pro
ceeding in Europe; or rather England, by a feigned
negotiation, was endeavouring to prolong the security
of the cabinet of Versailles. From the month of May,
1754, hostilities had begun on the Ohio. In June,
1755, the British ministers sent in their justificatory
memoirs; and, at the same period, almost on the same
day, a squadron of thirteen English vessels meeting
on the banks of Newfoundland two French vessels of
the line, approached them with pacific demonstrations,
and took possession of them.
Canada and the neighbouring countries became the
theatre, on which during five years the two powers dis
played all the resources of courage and skill. To see
the fury with which two rival nations disputed, not only
for the inhabited country, but even for totafly bar-

OF LOUISIANA. 131
ren spots, one would have thought that they attached
more interest to those territories than to their Euro
pean provinces. The French had for a long time the
advantage in this violent struggle, to which the capa
city of Montcalm contributed as much as his valour;
but the issue depended upon maritime superiority.
A part only of the destined succours in men and mo
ney arrived at Quebec. After deeds of high valour
and a battle in which the two chiefs, Montcalm and
Wolf, found a glorious death, the English completed
the conquest of Canada. This vast province, peopled
by French, its forts constructed with so miich expense,
two cities that were already flourishing, were all lost to
France; because in spite of incredible efforts to balance
the Enghsh on the ocean, in spite of the bravery and skfll
of the French mariners, her naval armanients were ne
ver as numerous, or as soon ready for sea as those of
the English.
While France was stifl in possession of Canada, she
neglected nothing to carry back its limits. She ad
vanced upon land designated in general terms in the
English charters. She opposed to those charters the
edicts and letters patents of our kings. These docu
ments and the memoirs produced on both sides could
not spread a great deal of light upon these discussions:
for the frontiers of the befligerents did not meet; they
were separated by territory, which the Indians stifl pos
sessed. The peace of 1763 terminated this great dis
pute. England retained her conquests, and thencefor
ward regulated according to her own wifl the frontiers

132 THE HISTORY
of Nova Scotia. Turning to her advantage in the ne
gotiation every thing that France had alleged in order
to establish the limits of Canada to the south, she
made her cede all the territory, which had depended on
her, to the left bank of the Mississippi. New Orleans
was excepted, and it was stipulated that a line drawn
through the middle of the great river should separatp
the part of Louisiana left to France from the posses
sions of England. English ambition seemed at first
satisfied with this great increase of power in America.
But a few years gave it quite another development.
The peace of 1763 only extended the cession to the
countries which we had possessed. It is, however, in
consequence of that treaty that England has since taken
possession of an immense territory to the north and
west, which extends even to the Northern Ocean, and
to the coasts opposite Asiatic Russia.
So many losses and a humiliating peace distressed
the French nation. The ministry accused and prose
cuted its own agents on their return to Europe. The
court of the Chdtekt for their coflusions and vexations
banished them, and condemned them to restore twelve
millions. At the sad remembrance of the loss of these pro
vinces, of so much bloodshed, of works executed at
such great expense, of debts contracted after peace to
discharge the expenses of a useless defence, we may
ask ourselves to what point of prosperity would France
have risen if afl these many efforts had been employed
within the kingdom, and in improvements for the

OF LOUISIANA. 133
benefit of our agriculture, manufactures, and com
merce.''* The bad system of government under which Louisi
ana long suffered, was attended with the consequences
which were to be expected from it; the sovereignty of
one of the finest countries in the world, a country
which might have become another France, was of no
use to the parent state, but was even a charge to her.
After the experience of several years, the government,
wearied with a possession which its faults and igno
rance had made burdensome, felt disposed at the peace
of 1763 to abandon it; and probably it only intended
to make, by ceding it to the Spaniards, an arrangement
which by diminishing its expenses would relieve the
finances of the kingdom.
In 1761, a family compact was concluded between
France and Spain.f From the title given to this trea
ty one might have supposed that there was only a
question of a contract, by which the mutual interests
of the different branches of the house of Bourbon were
* Appendix, No. 5.
t Fifty years afterwards, the cabinet of St. James took advan
tage of a favourable opportunity to agree with the court of Madrid
that this treaty should never be put in force. Some persons have
asserted that England, instead of being alarmed by it, should have
desired its renewal, by which means we might have been involved
in all the difficulties incident to a badly governed state, without
enjoying, after the loss of America, any compensation for a useless
burden. These questions are too complicated not to offer ground
for different opinions. But we are persuaded that Spain, even af
ter her irreparable losses, is a fine and powerful monarchy, and that
this union would sooner or later have contributed to strengthen the
repose of Europe.

134 THE HISTORY
regulated without regard to considerations truly na
tional. But the principal stipulations were not less fa
vourable to the one people than to the other. For, as
long as Spain was a maritime power and possessed the
sovereignty of her fine kingdoms in America, the union
was equally beneficial to the two nations, and it is
on account of the advantages which they both found
in it that it has been called a family compact. Ac
cording to the 18th article of this compact one of the
powers is obliged, by means of the conquests acquired
during a war, to indemnify the other for the losses
which it has sustained from it.
Havannah had faflen into the power of the English a
few months before the peace, and this conquest would
have secured to them the possession of the whole island
of Cuba, an island of which a less incapable government
would have made a flourishing kingdom. Such as it was,
it would have been a loss to the Spaniards which nothing
could repair. England consented to restore it, on con
dition that the countries which Spain claimed east of the
Mississippi should be ceded to her in exchange. Flo
rida was comprised in this cession, and the English de
rived from the treaty the advantage of rounding their
possessions. They had already the ocean for the east
ern boundary, the Mississippi for the western, and the
gulf of St. Lawrence to the north. At the south, the
possession of the Floridas secured them a great supe
riority in the gulf of Mexico. The cabinet of London
even supposed that these fine regions, thus united un
der a single master, would not only be safe from afl at-

OF LOUISIANA, 135
tacks, but that they would sooner or later guaranty to
England the greatest influence over all America,
France, on her side, had experienced greater losses
than her afly. The court of Madrid, however, asserted
that the abandonment of territory which it was making
put Spain in a situation to claim the execution of the
18th article of the famfly compact. The French mi
nistry received, in this case, the law from the Spanish
cabinet, and justified itself to^the nation by considera
tions derived from the disastrous events of the war.
« Canada," it said, " had been conquered by England,
and French valour had succumbed on the land, because
insufficient naval forces had badly seconded it. The
same fate threatened Louisiana, arid France therefore
abandoned what it could no longer preserve."
Afl the events of the war on the sea had proved that
without an equality of maritime means, the colonial
system was more ruinous than advantageous, and that
to be obstinately bent, whfle inferior in strength, on
the preservation of this colony, was to throw away,
without the shadow of utflity, the resources of the state
in men and money, and to give to England a new pledge
of dependence.
At that time, Forbonnais, a man of a great deal of
experience, wrote as follows : " Would it not be more
prudent to direct our attention to our internal resources.'* »
Our property at home would not be at the mercy of a
hostfle and jealous nation. The markets of Europe are
open to us. Her interest wifl make her unite with us

136 THE HISTORi
against the common rival. This commerce is less pre
carious than that of America and Asia."
Louisiana was abandoned to Spain by a private
treaty signed on the same day with the public one.
This agreement was kept secret by the two cabinets
for a year. It was only on the 21st of Aprfl, 1764, that
the governor, D'Abadie, received orders from Louis
XV. to acquaint the colony with it. This magistrate
was profoundly distressed with the duty which he was
instructed to fulfil, and the grief which it occasioned
was the cause of his death. The Louisianians ren
dered an honourable homage to his memory. The
foUowing eulogy on him is from a manuscript chroni
cle of the colony: —
"M. D'Abadie has died universafly regretted, and yet
he never made the least effort to gain partisans. A
disinterested ruler, just towards all, he was inflexibly
firm in causing the laws to be respected. He concili-
- ated the interests of the trade of the mother country
with those of the colony: he held a firm hand in the
execution of the judgments which condemned debtors
to pay their creditors, so that he easily induced a dimi
nution to be made on the interest of commercial afl-
vances. He severely repressed the excesses of mas
ters towards their slaves: the Indians were also pro
tected against every kind of oppression. He, by his
example, caused religion and morality to be honoured.
It was thus that, without making any effort to please
the colonists, he has left a memory which wfll always
be dear to them.''

OF LOUISIANA. 137
The government of colonies is absolute, and their
history has almost always consisted of the acts of those
who have administered them.
Aubri, the successor of M. D'Abadie, announced the
cession. At the news of it, the consternation was ge
neral throughout the province. The colonists had a
great aversion to the Spanish government, and they
publicly manifested it. The administration remained
in the hands of the French even in 1768. The court
of Madrid then sent, as Captain-General, Don Antonio
D'Ulloa. He was a discreet man, but his instructions
obliged him to re-establish the prohibitory system. He
attempted it without success. He could not openly
exercise afl his authority. The colonists at first de
bated whether they would not emigrate to the right
bank of the river. They renounced this project, and
sent deputies to Versaflles to obtain permission to re
main French. Louis XV. declared to them that the
cession was irrevocable.
The Spanish general, O'Reflly, replaced Don Anto
nio D'Ufloa. He brought to New Orleans three thou^
sand men, which he supposed to be a sufficient number
to put an end to resistance. The colonists attempt
ed to prevent their landing, which was only effected
through the intervention of the French magistrates,
O'Reifly, an enemy of conciliatory measures, a warrior
of reputation in his profession, thought that a colony
might be governed even more despotically than a con
quered country. The barbarian indulged in acts of
violence and ferocity, which he mistook for prudence

138 THE HISTOrt\
and firmness. He seemed not to know that subjects
do not renounce, at the wfll of treaties, an ancient al
legiance to which they have been long accustomed;
that it is aflowable for friends and relatives to regret
those from whom they are separating, and that the in
dications of their grief ought to be viewed with indul
gence. Scaffolds were erected at New Orleans. Six
colonists paid by their heads foi: the courage with
which they had manifested their attachment to France.*
The court of Madrid secretly disapproved of these acts
of outrage; but, fearing to endanger the authority of its
governors, it abstained from condemning O'Reifly, and
even from disowning him by an authentic act.
The colony, though immediately after this revolution
less flourishing than ever, was subsequently better go
verned. Don Carondelet, an enlightened governor, was
aware that the admission of foreign settlers of every
creed was one of the most certain means of promoting
the prosperity of the province.
Gayoso de Lemos, who succeeded him, reformed
some great abuses which had been introduced in the
granting of lands. These favours had been lavished
with so little prudence, that individuals had obtained
tracts of ten thousand acres. The regulations of this
governor would have left nothing to desire, had they
not been tainted with a violent spirit of religious into
lerance and proselytism.
* M. de la Fresniere, attorneip- general of the colony, Messrs.
De Noian, Caresse, Villeret, Marquiz, Millet, all of them officers,
¦were shot' by order of O'Reillj.

OF LOUISIANA. 139
Aversion for Spain was gradually eftaced; but affec
tion did not take its place, and nothing but indifference
could be hoped for from a colonial population of so
mixed a character. The greatest part were the de
scendants of the first French settlers of the colony, to
gether with whom were a few Spaniards and English.
Subsequently to the termination of the war of inde
pendence, many families from the United States were
likewise to be found there, as wefl as (though at a stfll
later period,) some French, who had escaped, almost
by a miracle, from the disorders to which a horrible
revolution at St. Domingo gave rise. Elements so in-
congruoiis could not produce that public spirit, that
xittachment which is felt for one's native soil. All that
could be expected from so mq,ny different interests was
that they should consent to be governed, and they were
the more easily managed, as Spain bore all the expense
of the colonial government from funds sent from Mexi
co, whfle the imposts were very hght, and the contra
band commerce with the United States was neither
attentively watched nor severely punished.
But, under its new system, the colony was of very
little use to the mother country. The facility of com
municating with different nations had made other in
terests than those of Spain predominate, and these fo
reign interests were every day acquiring new strength.
It was whflst Louisiana was experiencing these vi
cissitudes, that the great change which placed the
English colonies in the rank of the most important
states of the world was prepared and consummated.

S 40 'I'HE HISTORY
The first circumstances of this revolution have no im
mediate relation to Louisiana. But the alliance of
France With the new republics had the greatest influ
ence on the fate of its former province. Therefore, a
succinct mention of the negotiation, which was suc
ceeded by the treaties of alliance and commerce of
1778, wifl not be foreign to this history.*
It has been asserted in some of the memoirs of the
present day, that as the government of France was
not able to defend itself against the general resent
ment which the peace of 1763 had created in the na
tion, the Duke of Choiseul sent to America emissaries
empowered to sound the views of the most important
* The Count de Vergennes, in the memoir already referred to,
and which seems to have bepn prepared before the tfeaty of al'
liance of 1778, attempts to establish the claims of France to a
large portion of North America on the ground of prior discovery
and first occupancy. He gives, under the head of " practicable
means to reconcile the pretensions of the English and French as
to the limits of their North American possessions," a projet of a
treaty, by which England was to cede to France all the conquests
made by the former power during the war ending in 1763, and es
pecially renounce all claims to Canada, and to every portion of an-.
cient Louisiana, the Spanish part of which was also to be receded
to France.
It is hardly necessary to add that it was in consequence of the
events, then occurring in the British colonies, that France expect
ed to regain her lost provinces. By the sixth article, however, of
the first treaty, concluded between His Most Christian Majesty
and the United States, the French king renounced all claim to the
Bermudas and to the North American colonies, which had been pre
viously, or were by the treaty of 1763, acknowledged to belong to
the British crown. By the preceding article it was stipulated that
the British possessions in North America, or the Bermudas, if sub
dued, should be confederated with or be dependent on the United
States. — Transl.

OF LOt/lSIANA. 141
individuals in that country; and to foment, in concert
with them, the germs of an insurrection. V/hatever
mystery may attend intrigues of this description, it is
impossible that such a secret should be always kept,
and too many people must have been made acquaint
ed with it, to aflow of its not being sooner or later re
vealed. We have had direct relations with the princi
pal citizens of that country: memoirs in great num
bers have informed us of every thing which preceded
the revolution, and we sincerely declare that we have
no where been able to discover the least indication of
these practices, which are undoubtedly opposed to
sound policy, and still more so to the reciprocal obli
gations of nations. It is only known that, a few years
after the peace of 1763, the Baron de Kalb was autho
rized to visit the English colonies, and that he in fact
spent some months in them. But, on his return to
France, he was coldly received by the minister, and
his mission was unattended by any result. It was se
veral years after this time that a connexion began to be
formed, and if the cabinet of Versailles did not at first
aim at exciting the thirteen provinces to revolt, it was
not an indifferent spectator of the dissensions which
arose between the mother country and her colonies.
Towards the end of 1775, it listened to the overtures
of the agents of the American congress. Vergennes,
Turgot, and the other members of the king's councfl,
persuaded themselves that their temporizing and mys
terious measures, the execution of which was confided
to obscure or unknown agents, might stifl be kept se-.

142 THE HISTORY
cret; and that, without hostihties, without jeoparding
their neutrality, it was allowable to supply the insuy^
gents with money, provisions, and even arms.
According to the statements of the agents of con
gress, the French ministers only saw in an open course
of conduct, and in a declaration of war, the danger of
recoucfling the mother country and the colonies, whom
they called a couple of friends at variance- >
Beaumarchais, a man celebrated by his intrigues
and great talents, served as the medium for the first
communications, and the American agents in Paris
confidentially acquainted with them a committee, te
whom congress had judged it necessary to refer exclu
sively the secret of the negotiation.
The envoys at Paris, in conformity with the pressing
injunctions of Count Vergennes, required that the com
mittee should not give congress any knowledge of this
dehcate intercourse. Two only of the members of the
committee, Dr. Franklin and Robert Morris, who was
afterwards Ett the head of the finances of the United
Sates, were at Philadelphia when the messenger arrived.
They learned that, in the autumn of 1776, a shipment
of arms and munitions to the value of 5,000,000 livres
tournois would be made to St. Eustatius, Martinique,
and Cape Francais, where the Americans were to re
ceive them: that three raflhons of livres were put at
the disposal of the American commissioners, through
a banking house, under the form of a loan.* It was
* Secret Journals of the Acts and Proceedings of the Old Con-
ffress.

OF LOUISIANA. 143
m this way that men, distinguished for their discretion,
and who had had a long experience of the law of na
tions, conceived that they might aid a people engaged
in an insurrection, and at the same time avoid the ca
lamities of a war. But the injunction of secrecy suffi
ciently proved that the French ministry did not regard
its -proceedings as altogether safe from the censure of
a wise and just policy.
The attention of the English government was di
rected towards the conduct of France in this violent
crisis. Its suspicions were about breaking out in re
proaches of perfidy, when information was received in
Europe that, on the 16th of October, 1777, the Eng
lish general, Burgoyne, and all his army had been
made prisoners at Saratoga, in the state of New York.
The Americans, from that time equal, and perhaps su
perior to their enemy, seemed no longer rebels, and
the French government renounced the undignified
mystery, in which it had supposed that it might enve
lope itself.
We wifl here relate a circumstance calculated to
give an idea of the cautious character of Count Ver
gennes. The war for the Spanish succession, at the
beginning of the last century, and the one which ended
in 1762, had made him acquainted with the danger that
France must incur in fighting by sea and land at the
same time, and had convinced him that in the event
of such a double contest the advantage must be on
the side of her rivals. Europe was tranqufl in 1776;
but the Elector Maximflian was the last prince of a

144 THE HISTORY
house which had reigned in Bavaria for several centu
ries. It was feared that, to the prejudice of another
branch of his family, the Austrians, who have often in
reserve documents applicable to the most unexpected
occurrences, might intend, at his death, to take pos
session of a country which would be a most conve
nient acquisition for them. A war in Germany was
then to be dreaded; and, before exposing himself to a
rupture with England, Vergennes wished to know if
there was any reason to fear the early death of the
elector. Marbois, the king's charge d'affaires at Mu
nich, answered that there was no ground for expect
ing that this prince would meet a premature death, un
less from the smafl pox.* The minister of Louis XVI.
thought that so slight a chance of war was not suflB-
cient to prevent the execution of designs of a much
higher order. There was no delay in concluding the
treaties of afliance between France and the United
States, which were signed on the 6th of February,
1778. It is easier for us to point out the wise principles on
which they are drawn up, than it would be to justify
the conduct of France towards England. We had ac
cess, fifty years since, to the archives of France as
wefl as to those of congress. The originals of the do
cuments relative to these treaties, before and after
their conclusion, were in our hands. They are, as far
as respects the United States, the monuments of an
* Appendix, No. 6.

OF LOUISIANA. 145
elevated policy. France was never more magnani
mous; she treated with a state in its very cradle, re
signed to submit. to unequal conditions; but they were
all disinterested, and as equal as the respective situa
tions of the contracting parties permitted. The mys
teries and secrets of those times are already the pro
perty of history, and the narratives of them, may be
esteemed among the most important, of their kind that
belong to the last century. We would here express
our wish that they may occupy the attention of a wri
ter conversant with high matters of state policy, and
that he would make us acquainted With the history of
the treaty of afliance of 1778.
It is certain that, in signing it, no one thought either
of Louisiana, which had become Spanish, or of the
many other important colonies, that had passed from
the sovereignty of France under that of England. The
principle of reciprocity, so wise, especially when a treaty
is made with weak states, was alone consulted; and it
dictated conditions, which the most powerful as wefl
as the most feeble had an interest in respecting.
France had successively lost, during the last cen
tury, all her continental colonies. She scarcely re
tained a shadow of power in India, where for so long
a time the French and English companies had kept
one another reciprocally in check.
At the same period, a writer, who was also a states
man, made this prediction: "If France should, one
day, be deprived of her insular, as she is now of her
continental colonies, we shall see her prosper by her
19

14& THE HISTORY
own means as much as those states who retain ail
theirs, and she will probably even surpass them in hap
piness and tranquillity."
France, which had been dear to the Louisianians,
so long as they had been the object of her protection
and solicitude, was effaced in a manner from their me
mory, after she had transferred them to another power,
without any mark of regret.
A melancholy event, that happened at New Orleans
in 1778, afforded the French colony of St. Domingo
an opportunity of proving that the old attachment was
not entirely extinguished. In consequence of a great
fire, the finest quarters of the city were reduced to
ashes. The Marquis de Carondelet, the Spanish go
vernor, immediately informed the officers at the head
of the administration of St. Domingo of this misfor
tune, and requested them to communicate it to the
French merchants, and urge the sending of assistance.
The foHowing angwer was given to M. de Carondelet's
letter:— " On receiving the news of the conflagration, which
has laid waste your capital, we did not deem it
proper to confine ourselves to asking aid from our
merchants. The state of the timber yards and store
houses of our colony, as wefl as the condition of its
finances, permits us to do for you more promptly all
that you desire. A frigate is about to sail. It carries
to you every thing that is most immediately necessa
ry for the rebuilding of your houses. Merchant-ships
wifl sorni follow. We would have assisted, in the same

OF LOUISIANA. 147
manner, any other colony suffering under so great a
misfortune; but we feel double satisfaction in relieving
our former countrymen. " Vincent and de Marbois."
It was, in a great measure, owing to this aid that
the losses occasioned by the fire were promptly re
paired. But the colony, always enslaved by the pro
hibitory system, continued to languish, instead ^of ad
vancing in a degree proportionate to its extent and na
tural advantages.
The cabinet of Madrid seemed firmly persuaded
that, as the aflegiance and submission of its sub
jects in the two worlds had lasted for centuries, it
would never experience any alteration. It is, however,
possible that it saw the magnitude of the danger; but
that it feared, by showing a desire to prevent the disas
ter, to expose itself to the reproach of having created
it, and therefore preferred following the beateri track,
and leaving the matter to time and fortune.
The great change which is now attaining its con
summation in the condition of the former kingdoms of
Spain in America, iauthorizes me to make here a few
observations on the frequent warnings which the court
of Madrid received respecting the approaching crisis,
and the little regard it paid to them. These remarks
also affect Louisiana.
In the latter years of the reign of Louis XIV., and
on occasion of the Spanish succession, the question
was considered of admitting all commercial nations
to trade with the colonies of that monarchy. But

148 THE HISTORY
most of those, who pretend to a knowledge of the
future, are exposed to errors, and their false prophe
cies prevent attention being paid even to the opinions
of the wisest statesmen. M. Mesnager, whose name
is to be found in afl the proceedings at the peace of
Utrecht, belonged to the latter class. From the be
ginning of the last century, he regarded the admission
of the commercial states to all the ports of Spanish
America, as a means of removing one of the principal
obstacles to peace. " It would be advantageous," he
said, " even to the interests of that monarchy, to se
cure to all the nations of Europe the commerce of the
new world." This proposition was worthy of one of
the greatest politicians of Europe. M. de Torcy, who
has transmitted it to us, adds, " The king relished the
project."* But there was at Madrid a royal and su
preme council of the Indies, and this councfl knew no
prosperity for a state without colonies subjected to a
rigorously exclusive monopoly. It rejected the pro
position. The time, however, arrived for declaring
that the old rules were abandoned for new maxims, but
it was then too late.
The Count D'Aranda, a man to whose enhghtened
views Europe has rendered a just homage, foresaw, a
few years after the alliance of France with the United
States, the consequences of that event on the destiny
of the trans-atlantic kingdoms of Spain. Fully admit
ting that the independence of the thirteen colonies had
* 1707. Negotiations for the succession of Spain, by M. Colbert
de Torcy, vol. i. page 181, 182.

OF LOUISIANA. 149
been inevitable, he was soon alarmed at their aggran
dizement. He proposed, in 1789, to the king his mas
ter, to divide Spanish America into three great states;
each of which should be governed by one of the in
fants, with the title of king. They would have been
bound to pay a considerable subsidy to the mother
country, and she would only have retained her domi
nion over the islands of Cuba anfl Porto Rico. ¦ This
great -design was thwarted by the royal councfl, whose
importance it would have destroyed. It would have
been a tardy concession, and we wfll not inquire whe
ther the thrones, which the Count D'Aranda proposed
to erect, could have been lohg maintained in the neigh
bourhood of a people raised by independence to the
height of prosperity.
From 1778, a royal ordinance had aflowed a trade
between the colonies and the principal ports and places
of the mother country. The success of this experi
ment surpassed every one's expectations, and yet the
eyes of the Spanish ministers were not opened. Inter
course with the colonies was more rigorously than
ever forbidden to foreigners. The severity had dege
nerated into an absolute despotism, when, in 1785, in
ternal commotions announced dispositions tending to
a general insurrection of the aborigines, and even of
the colonists.
It was about this time that Miranda, a young, enter
prising, and bustling creole from Carracas, arrived at
Phfladelphia. He had there several interviews with
the writer of this history, to whom he made the foi-

150 THE HISTORV
lowing remarks: "Our American kingdoms wifl soon
experience a revolution simflar to the one which you
have witnessed here. A wise and prudent government
might moderate its violence or delay its effects. But
such warnings only offend ministers. They have a
great aversion for afl wisdom except their own, and
they always make those advisers, who are too weU in
formed for them, fe^l their anger. I have told them
that the rising of the Mexican Indians in 1778 was a
warning of the highest importance; I have spoken of
admitting foreigners into all our colonies. From the
manner in which this proposal was received, I have
thought it prudent to fly, as if I had been guilty of a
crime." The charge d'affaires of France transmitted
to the Count de Vergennes an account of this conver
sation.* Miranda has since been conspicuous in the troubles
of Europe, and in the civil wars of America.-' He
finished his stormy career in a melancholy manner in
1816. The Count Moustier, a discreet observer, filled in
1788, the office of minister of France in the United
States. He gave simflar information. His counsels
tended to produce great changes in the government of
the Spanish colonies. Their execution required as
much courage as ability. But the court of Madrid, re
garded as perpetual institutions, whose wisdom seemed
attested by the experience of three centuries. The
* Archives of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

OF LOUISIANA. 151
Statesmen of that period were far from thinking that,
before thirty years should elapse, Europe would cease
to have America as an appendage.
Spain thought that circumstances only required from
her an easy sacrifice. She consented in 1788 to cede the
free navigation of the Mississippi to the states, founded
on the. left bank of that river. But she so little under
stood the spirit of those republicans, that she had no
hesitation in proposing, as a condition of this grant,
that it should only take effect, in case they determined
to form an empire distinct from that of .the Atlantic
states.* This overture, in which the intention of destroying
the federal • union so indiscreetly appeared, was not
even taken into consideration.
What is stifl more surprising than this proposition
is, that Count de Vergennes, who had advised and ne
gotiated the afliance with the United States, afterwards
feared the effects of their example, and allowed a pre
sentiment of future calamities to escape him. This
minister to whom the affairs of Europe were so fami
liar, had not at that time foreseen, that this treaty
would hasten the emancipation of the rest of the new
world, and that the monopoly to which the islands in the
gulf were subjected, could not long be maintained near
a powerful repubhc, interested in rendering the com
merce of the whole world independent and free., Al
ways imbued with old notions, he was beginning to
* Marshall's Life of General Washington, 5tli toI. page 153-

152 THE HISTORY
fear the preponderance of the United States, when
death terminated his useful labours.
The Count Montmorin, the successor of Vergennes,
thought that it was possible to prevent the indepen
dence of the rest of America, and that it was his duty
to do so. The following lines are from the instructions
transmitted to the French envoy in the United States:
" It is not advisable for France to give America afl the
stability of which she is susceptible. She will acquire
a degree of power which she will be too well disposed
to abuse." Strange words to follow the alliance con
cluded in 1778. This epoch was stfll recent; the
French ministers, seconded by the wishes not only of
France but of afl Europe, had, by effectual and sincere
efforts, contributed to the independence of the thir
teen states; and ten years afterwards, the view of their
own success amazed them, and inspired them with
alarms thiat came too late. Instead of foflowing the
inevitable developments of this revolution, and con
forming their conduct to it, they had conceived the
idea of checking its course. They imagined that a
few lines of instructions, given by the cabinet of Ver
saflles to an envoy of the king, would arrest the pro
gress and change the views of many miflions of fami
lies settled in fertile and boundless territories, and
enjoying all the advantages of independence.
Montmorin was alarmed at the progress of the thir
teen states of the American Union. But, if his judg
ment respecting them was erroneous, afl the other ca
binets, that had then become hostfle to this revolu-

OF LOUISIANA. 153
tion, were equally blinded. Such were the dispositions
of Europe towards America, when troubles that had
|jeen long foreseen began to agitate France. Germs
of insurrection had hkewise been scattered, and were
fermenting in all parts of the new world. Events which
occurred in 1793 pointed out the influence that Lou
isiana would one day have in the affairs of that conti
nent, and from that time the lot of this great province
might have been predicted.
The revolution, that had taken place in France, had
put an immense power in the hands of men without
experience in pubhc affairs, and incapable of making
a good use of their authority. They had too little in
telligence to conceive that a state can prosper without
colonies. They sent to the United States a new mi
nister plenipotentiary, who was particularly instructed
.to sound the dispositions of the Louisianians with re
spect to the French republic; to omit no means of
taking advantage of them, if circumstances should ap
pear to him, favourable; and to direct, in a special
manner, his attention to the designs of the Americans
on the Mississippi.
This minister was Genet, a young man whom an
excellent education had prepared at an early age for
pubhc affairs; though he was by his restless, turbulent,
.and bold character, as wefl as by his views as a politi
cian, entirely on a level with the statesmen who had
chosen him. It was then seen to what errors the sen
timent of hberty may conduct even those who taste its
true benefits. The Americans, separating the liberty
20

154 THE HISTORY
which France had just assumed to herself from every
thing violent and criminal that she had connected with
it, received young Genet as the messenger of humanity
restored to its rights. He arrived at Charleston in April,
1793. The envoy of a rising republic, he was received
with demonstrations of joy that he might wefl have re
garded as universal. Intoxicated by a welcome of which
there had been no example, except at the epoch of the
alliance between France and the United States, he did
not wait, before announcing his character, to be recog
nised by the government; but, as soon as he landed,
he engaged in transactions that were justly considered
by those who were not blinded by their passions as a
real violation of the law of nations. Too soon invest
ed with a character which requires great maturity of
intellect, he authorized the fitting out of privateers, in
stituted consular courts of admiralty,^nd considered
himself entitled to confer on the French consuls the
power of pronouncing the condemnation of prizes
taken from the English, and ordering thQu- sale. The
instructions which he had received from the commit
tees of the convention breathed the hatred that they
bore to Washington, who was, they dared to say, en
tirely devoted to England. After Genet was recognised
by the American government as minister of the French
republic, he redoubled his boldness, and set no limits
to the rights which he claimed in his official character.
At fifteen hundred leagues from France he thought
himself as powerful as if he had been sent, supported
by a French army, to the court of an insignificant Eu-

OF LOllsI \.\A. 155
ropean prince. The federal government behaved "with
firmness and dignity, and effectually resisted his at
tempts; but the young minister renewed them with
out cessation, and as his official notes and memoirs,
swelled with citations from publicists and learned men,
made no impression on the cabinet, he scattered them
every where, and exerted himself to produce an excite
ment in the public mind. He had secret or avowed
adhwents in several of the states, and even in con
gress. Inflated by their support, and having become
truly formidable, he carried his audacity and impru
dence so far as to accuse Washington himself, who
was then president of the United States, of violating
the constitution. He even allowed the menace to es
cape him, " of appealing from the president to the peo
ple, of carrying his accusation before congress, and of
including in it afl the aristocratic partisans of England,
and monarchical government."
Soon apprized of the state of things there, by the
reports of his correspondents, and of the adventurers
who had advanced to the Mississippi, he believed, with
much reason, that if he could make a sudden attack
on Florida and Louisiana, he would find, not Only
acaong the inhabitants of the western territories, but
even at New Orleans, a numerous party prepared to
second him. He was assured that all Louisiana de
sired to return under the dominion of France, and he
seriously set about making the conquest of it: he pre
pared a co-operation of naval forces, which were to
Tendezvous upon the coast of Florida. The principal

158 THE HISTORY
body of land troops was to embark in Kentucky, and
descending the Ohio and Mississippi, to invade unex
pectedly New Orleans. He had regulated in advance
the pay of the troops, their rations, the distribution of
the booty, and even the division of the lands among the
soldiers, with the portion reserved to the French re
public. Finafly, he abused the privileges of legations
so far as to raise bodies of troops in the two states d*
South Carolina and Georgia, and" he received in them
French and Americans, without distinction. Though
restrained for a moment in his extravagances by the
moderation and firmness of the government, he soon
recommenced his attacks by exhausting afl the decla
mations which the conventional doctrines could furnish^
and thus resumed his ascendancy over the multitude.
The federal government was informed of the fa
vourable reception which the proposition of inva
ding New Orleans met with in several of the states.
These hostile preparations gave it the more uneasi
ness, as it was then carrying on, with the court of
Madrid, a negotiation relative to the navigation of
the Mississippi. Washington promptly addressed in
structions to the governor of Kentucky, with a view
of moderating this excitement. He informed him
that four Frenchmen, bearers of commissions from
M. Genet, were openly travefling through that state
preparing an expedition against Louisiana. That mi
nister himself, he added, was to be the commander-in-
chief. The inhabitants of Kentucky were but too wefl
disposed to second 'him. They resolved, in their pri-

OF LOUISIANA. 157
vate assemblies, to lay before congress their claim for
the most entire _ liberty of navigating the Mississippi,
and recommended to their representatives to employ
decent but imperative terms, and such as suit the lan
guage of a people speaking to their servants. The
governor replied to the despatches of the secretary Of
state, that " he had neither the power nor intention of
preventing the people from asserting rights necessary
to their existence; and, as to those who had planned
the expedition, he doubted whether there was any legal
authority to restrain or punish them, at least before
they have actually accomplished it." From the exag
gerated consequences to which the first magistrate of
Kentucky carried the abstract rights of man, we may
judge of the greatness of the crisis.
Washington, personafly insulted by the diplomatic
proceedings of Genet, considered the public tranquil
lity in danger. To appeal from the president to the
people, was to summon the people to sedition. Five
or six months after the arrival of this plenipotentiary,
who had become, as it were, the chief of a faction, the
American ministers informed the French government
"that the proceedings of its envoy in no respect cor
responded with the dispositions that animated the
French republic ; that, on the contrary, he was exert
ing himself to embroil the United States in war with
out, and to spread discord and anarchy at home, and
they demanded his recafl as necessary to the mainte
nance of a good understanding."

158 THE HISTORY
The answer to this demand was delayed ^by the dis
tance. Genet continued his bold pr9,ctices, and the
government was about to suspend his diplomatic func
tions and deprive him of the privileges attached to his
official character, when it received the news of his re
call. His successor arrived soon after, and through
this new plenipotentiary the United States were in
formed that the French government entirely disap
proved the conduct of Genet. This young man, who
seemed destined by his talents and acquirements to fill
honourably his public career, fell into a sort of obscu
rity, in consequence of his having been prematurelj'
called to perform duties that require experience and
prudence even more than learning. His active mind
was subsequently directed to the useful arts, and with"
out doubt his efforts in those riiatters have been at
tended with more fortunate results than his poHtical
proceedings. But the seditious and violent impulse to
insurrection which he had given to the people of the
west had been so well received, that it lasted after he
had ceased to be its principal mover. The inhabitants
of Kentucky, deprived of the hope of conquering Lou
isiana, presented petitions, in which, reducing their
demand to the free navigation of the Mississippi, they
a,ccused the administration of the United States of in
attention to the public interests, threatened it with a
dismemberment of the Union, and declared that "by
the law of nature, the navigation of the Mississippi be
longed to them; that they wished to have it, that they

OF LOUISIANA. 159
would have it, and that if the government neglected to
secure it to them, it would be guilty of a crime towards
them and their posterity."
The senate and house of representatives did not no
tice the violent language, and the disregard of the rules
of rational liberty, with which these representations
were drawn up, but they took into consideration the
state of a numerous agricultural population', without
manufactures, which, spread on the banks of the Mis
sissippi and its tributaries, could only exist and extend
itself by commerce, by the sale of the products of the
earth, and by a free navigation of that river. The
two houses declared that " the right of the United
States to this navigation was incontestable, and that
the necessary measures should be taken to secure its
enjoyment." After the recall of Genet, a small force which was to
have co-operated in the projected invasion, landed on
the coast of Florida. It was said to be only the ad
vanced guard of a more considerable body. On the
arrival of these feeble auxiharies, a few French and
Americans assembled in Georgia. But these volunr
teers, being deprived of their chief, dispersed; the
French passed over to the Indian territory to await
new orders* They were there in a most destitute con
dition, and many of them became victims of the In
dians. A few deserters from the army of the United States
had joined these bands of adventurers. They saw with
regret the rich booty, at which they had aimed, escape

160 THE HISTORY
them. These tumults were not entirely calmed tiU to
wards the middle of 1794; but other troubles broke
out, and were felt even in Pennsylvania. These dis
turbances affected the popularity of the great Wash
ington, and troubled the peace of his last years. By
prudent and vigorous measures, however, he succeed
ed in appeasing the clamours of the factions, but it was
easy to see that the navigation of the Mississippi and
the possession of what remained of Eastern Louisiana
would always be an object of ambition to the new states
of the Union. This truth did not reach the politicians
of the French convention. The committee of pubhc
safety thought that it might try other means of restoring
to France the province which she had not been able
to recover through the attempts of Genet.
During the negotiations of Basle, in 1795, this com
mittee gave instructions to M. Barthelemy, the ambas
sador of the republic, " to demand the restoration of
Louisiana and the cession of the Spanish part of St.
Domingo, or that France should retain the province of
Guipuscoa, and particularly Fontarabia and St. Sebas
tian, which had been conquered by her arms."
Louis XIV. had also entertained the design of uniting
the province of Guipuscoa to France, and at the time
of the treaty of partition of the 11th of Oct-ober, 1698,
for the Spanish succession, it had formed a part of the
Dauphin's portion.*
The lands of the Spanish part of St. Domingo are
* Coibert de Torci. Negotiations for the succession of Spain.

OF LOUISIANA. 161
not inferior in quality to those of the French: they are
better watered and much more extensive. But culti
vation had made the French colony twenty times more
valuable than the Spanish. The convention, glancing
at these advantages, had imagined that to acquire ter
ritory was to ensure productions. We believe that
such success could only have been attained after a long
course of years, and that it depended on conditions
which it was not in the power of France to fulfil. The
present state of St. Domingo renders useless the ex
amination of these i^uestions.
Barthelemy opened the negotiations on the three
propositions contained in his instructions. Spain
thought at that time that it was for her interest to re
tain Louisiana, and, though St Domingo was the old
est of her settlements in America, though its civil and
ecclesiastical jurisdiction extended over the islands of
Cuba, Porto Rico, and other possessions, it decided to
cede it.
The directory succeeded, at this period, to the na
tional convention. Principally attentive to the affairs
of Europe, it learned with a sort of indifference the sa
crifice to which Spain consented, as well in ord^ to
preserve peace as on account of the disordered state of
her finances, and the absolute impossibility of making
a resistance proportionate to the dangers to which she
was exposed.
England, on the other hand, according to the rules
of her ordinary policy, and conformably to maxims, the
31

162 THE HISTORY
soundness of which was guarantied by experience, di'-
rected her attention to all the islands, and to every
part of the American continent An incident, the par
ticulars of which deserve to be reported, sufficiently
showed that she would never be indifferent to the fate
of Louisiana.
Spain, by the treaty of October, 1795, had ceded to
the United States her possessions on the left bank of
the Mississippi, only reserving the Floridas. But after
wards, being closely allied with France, and foreseeing
an approaching rupture between that republic and the
United States, into which she was afraid of being drawn,
she had regretted the sacrifice. She refused, under, all
sorts of pretences, to proceed to the demarcation of
the new boundaries, and to the evacuation of the ceded
territories. The Spanish governor retained the post of
Natchez, which, according to him, was the only defence
of Louisiana against the English troops assembled at
Quebec, and against the Indians whom the governnient
of Canada was arming and disarming at pleasure. The
Americans of Kentucky and Tennessee did not appear
to him to be less objects of dread. In fact, the inha
bitants of the ceded territories, the greater part of
American or English origin, murmured at seeing their
new government show so little anxiety to enter on the
possession. They manifested great impatience to pass
from the arbitrary sway of the Spaniards under the free
government of the United States, and excited the sa
vages to keep themselves prepared for war.

OF LOUISIAINA. 163
It was under these circumstances, that the audacious
project of a man, important by his rank and official sta
tion in the United States, was discovered.
Mr. Blount, governor of the territory of Tennessee
and commissioner of the United States among the In
dian tribes, had acquired, during a long residence in
those districts, an intimate knowledge of the country
and its inhabitants, and enjoyed a great influence there.
Subsequently named a member of the senate, when the
territory was admitted into the Union as a state, he
fifled that office in ] 797, the last year of the presiden
cy of Washington. Blount was not worthy of the con
fidence of which his feflow-citizens had given him a
proof by sending him to congress. His affairs were
very much deranged, and he conceived the idea of re
trieving them by a signal service which he proposed to
render to England, at that time engaged in a war with
Spain. He formed the plan of invading Louisiana, by
means of forces sent from Canada. According to this
scheme, the English troops, secretly embarked on the
lakes in the autumn of 1797, would have landed at the
southern extremity of Michigan, from whencethe Illi
nois river is not far distant The invading army, de
scending this river to its junction with the Mississippi,
was to find the inhabitants every where prepared to
second it. It would have crossed in arms, it is true, a
part of the country belonging to the United States; but
this violation of their territory had not seemed to Blount
a circumstance of great importance. The troops, when
they arrived at the great river, would have found there

164 THE BISTORT
provisions in abundance, and boats in sufficient num
ber, sent from the Ohio, by the inhabitants of Kentuc
ky. A rapid navigation was to carry them in a few
days to New Orleans. This place had only a feeble
Spanish garrison, in no condition to offer resistance.
The capital once occupied, all the country was in the
power of the English, and the Floridas would have
been subjected with the same facility.
Blount first disclosed his plan to Mr. Liston, the Eng
lish envoy to the United States. This minister, a pru
dent observer of the usages of diplomacy, Without ei
ther welcoming or repefling confidence, let the senator
understand that he must address himself directly to
the British cabinet, which this intriguer accordingly
did. Obliged to deliver his plans and memoirs to an
intermediate agent, he betrayed himself by the care
which he took to recommend great secrecy, and by
the mystery with which he accompanied all his pro
ceedings. His memoirs, having been put on board of
the vessel in which his messenger was to embark, fell
into the hands of the captaui, who considered it his
duty to transmit them to the president of the United
States, who was then Mr. John Adams, the successor
of Washington in that station. The president com
municated them to congress, by whom they were
published. The envoy, Mr. Liston, gave formal as
surances of being a stranger to the plot, and the
American ministers pubhcly declared, "that it was
not probable that the English had any knowledge of
it." The offence committed by Blount was not pro-

OF LOUISIANA. 165
vided for by law. A committee of the house of
representatives proposed to prosecute him for the
crime of high treason; he was not, however, tried, but
the senate expelled him by a vote, not of two-thirds
only, as the constitution requires, but unanimously.
We are aware of only one other case of expulsion
from the senate. In the house of representatives not
a single one has occurred, from 1787, when the con
stitution of the United States was adopted, to the pre
sent day.
This enterprise, though abortive, was a warning for
Spain. Her means of defence in America were by no
means proportionate to the vast extent of the domi
nions which she possessed there, and the policy of
England was no mystery. ' '
The Louisianians supposed their country for ever a
stranger to the movements of Europe, when the events
of the French revolution, and the troubles in the West
Indies recafled it to the attention of the ephemeral au
thorities that then governed the new republic. From
the committee of public safety, the authority had passed
to a directory, stfll more incapable of managing the
affairs of a great state. The maritime war between
France and Great Britain had lasted for eight or nine
years. The United States were about to be drawn
into it by a party friendly to England, in spite of all
their efforts to preserve a neutrality from whence they
derived immense advantages. But France and Eng
land were exerting themselves with equal ardour to
break it for their own benefit, and they each calculated

166 THE HISTORY
that, by obtaining the assistance of these neutral states,
its own commerce would come in for a share of the
profits that they were then enjoying. The directdry,
through its imprudence, rendered a rupture inevitable.
It had pursued a course opposed to that long-sighted
policy, which, without imposing on the United States
unequal and onerous conditions, had dictated the trea
ties of 1778. These treaties, congress, in consequence
of the most offensive provocations, declared in 1798
to be broken and rescinded.
As France and the United States were separated by
great distances, the land-armies could not reach one
another, and there were only a few naval engagements.
Hostilities of the most unjust and vile kind that war
authorizes were not, however, on that account less fre
quent; — these consisted of attacks of privateers on dis
armed merchant vessels, incapable of defending them
selves, and the owners of which, in the regular course of
their own business, are constantly employed in forming
innocent and peaceable connexions among all the coun
tries of the world. Louisiana had rather gained than
lost by this state of things so favourable to contraband
trade, and the Spanish governors themselves willingly
lent their aid to the blows which were continuafly in
flicted on the prohibitory system. Its rigour was also
moderated in the other Spanish colonies, and such
great advantages resulted from it, that the cabinet of
Madrid shut its eyes to the consequences that this
relaxation might have on the maxims of its ancient
policy.

OF LOUISIANA, 167
At the peace of 1763, Spain had recovered the Ha^
Vannah, a conquest made by England, only by aban
doning to her the Floridas in exchange. This acqui
sition was then important for the English, because; it
covered Georgia "and the other continental colonies
which were still subject to them. Spain had again
made herself mistress of the Floridas during the war
of American independence; and England, to whom
their possession had formerly appeared so advantage
ous, found them almost a burden after the thirteen co
lonies had ceased to belong to her. They would have
been a subject of misunderstanding between the United
States and the British government. England, there
fore, abandoned them to Spain at the peace of 1783.
But by thus enlarging its territory, this power became
exposed to be attacked upon an immense extent of sea
coast. It also began to take umbrage at the rapid in
crease of the confederated states. On no side did it
see the means of safety, when an unexpected event en
tirely changed the aspect of affairs.
The directory of the French republic, in the midst
of the innumerable difficulties which its ignorance had
accumulated, after having involved the country in war
with the United States, had entirely lost sight of the
coloniesr which France stifl retained.' This incapable
and base government was, almost without- resistance,
stripped of its authority by a general, who, to great
mihtary talents, united most of those qualities which
constitute the statesman. To this day he is incontes-
tably the first among the fllustrious men of the world;

168 THE HISTORY
it may be doubted whether posterity wfll assign him a
place among the great men.
Bonaparte, in assuming the supreme conduct of af-
fairsi found those of politics and war in extremie con
fusion. This condition of the country did not surprise
him, and he thought that he was adequate to every
thing. It was, indeed, from the midst of this chaos
that he originated and brought to a happy conclusion
the most important negotiations. Still young, and al
ready celebrated by more victories than the most fa
mous captains have achieved in a long career, he as
pired to another kind of glory, when he saw himself at
the head of the government. He then only considered
peace as a means of carrying to the greatest height the
commerce, navigation, and manufactures of France,
and his passion for war seemed for a time to be put to
rest. The English, on their part, masters of the com
merce of the world, would have wished to retain it
without rivals. As to other matters, the two nations
were well disposed to a sincere reconciliations Equal
ly distinguished by almost incredible progress in the
sciences and arts, pursuing with the same zeal every
thing which can embellish and meliorate society, it
appeared that nothing farther was required from the
governments than to abstain from thwarting these
good dispositions. The first overtures of peace made
by France were, however, immediately repefled at
London, where the phantom alone of a French repub
lic, active and powerful, stfll inspired dread. But as
the cabinet of Madrid, encouraged even by its igno-

OV LOUISIANA. 169
Tance, was necessarily more inclined to negotiate, Bo
naparte considered the occasion a favourable one for
realizing the project in which the directory had faded.
The cession that France made of Louisiana to Spain
in 1763, had been considered in afl our maritime
and commercial cities as impolitic and injurious to the
interests of our navigation, as well as to the French
West Indies, and it was very generally wished that an
opportunity might occur of recovering that colony.
One of the first cares of Bonaparte was to renew
with the court of Madrid a negotiation on that subject.
He was then far from thinking that contributions for
cibly imposed on Europe could take the place of those
immense tributes, which she voluntarily pays to the
manufactures and navigation of commercial nations.
The possession of Louisiana seemed to him parti
cularly favourable to the project that he had formed of
giving to France a preponderance in America. He
connected with his views another design, which he
subsequently attempted to realize — a league of all the
maritime powers against the pretensions of England —
and he hoped in this way to put an end to the domi
nion which she had arrogantly assumed over the sea.
" France," said he, " cannot reconcfle herself to this
inert existence, this stationary tranquiflity, with which
Germany and Italy are contented. The English reply
with disdain to my offers of peace ; they have protect-
•ed the black rebels of St. Domingo, even so far as to
hberate them and give them arms. Very well, — I will
make of St. Domingo a vast camp, and I wifl have
23

170 THE HISTORY
there an army always ready to carry war into their
own colonies."
Reflection soon made him abandon these chimerical
plans; and, skilfully profiting by the great ascendancy
which the victory of Marengo and the fortunate events
by which it was succeeded gave him, he opened a ne
gotiation at Madrid, and easily persuaded the Prince
of Peace, the all powerful minister of the cathohc king,
that Louisiana, by being restored to France, would be
a bulwark for Mexico, and a security for the tranquflli
ty of the gulf.
*0n the 1st of October, 1800, a treaty was concluded
at St. Ildephonso, the third article of which is in these
terms: " His Catholic Majesty promises and engages
to retrocede to the French republic, six nionths after
the full and entire execution of the above conditions
and stipulations relative to His Royal Highness, the
Duke of Parma, the colony or province of Louisiana,
with the same extent that it now has in the hands of
Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and
such as it ought to be after the treaties subsequently
entered into between Spain and other states." The
treaty of Madrid of the 21st of March, 1801, renews
these dispositions; and the first article contains a de-
tafled account of the conditions on which the cession
was made. The motive specially assigned was, "that
the reigning Duke of Parma, as a compensation for
that duchy and its dependencies, as wefl as of the ces
sion which the king of Spain made of Louisiana,
should be put in possession of Tuscany, under the

OF LOUISIANA. l7l
name of the kingdom of Etruria." These stipulations,
which could not then be executed, became subsequent
ly the ground of many complaints on the part of the
Spaniards, and Louisiana continued for some time
longer under their dominion.
Spain, by uniting Louisiana in 1763 to her vast Ame
rican states, was not actuated by any intention of ex
tending her navigation or augmenting her treasures.
She stfll foflowed the ancient policy of those barbarous
nations, who only think their frontiers secure when vast
deserts separate them from powerful nations. The
ne^hbourhood of France seemed to her less to be
dreaded than that of the United States.
The English and Americans go in quest of vacant
countries in order to settle in them ; and it is by a nu
merous population that they provide for the defence of
the frontiers of their colonies. But the French were
the friends and aflies of the Spaniards, and tlieir con
tact was not dangerous ; since, notwithstanding con
tinued efforts during a century and a half, they had
never been able to make a single continental colony
prosper. Spain, in consenting to the retrocession, inserted a
condition, that she should have the preference, in case
France, in her turn, should be disposed again to cede
Louisiana. We shafl see, in the sequel, the embar
rassments which resulted from this stipulation.
Whilst these things were passing in Europe, the in
ternal and foreign policy of the United States under
went a great change, which had so much influence oe

172 THE HISTORY
the fate of Louisiana, that it is necessary that the
principal circumstances connected with it should be
known. From the time of Washington's presidency, two sys
tems of government had divided the opinions of the most
distinguished American statesmen. One party, extra
vagant champions of democracy, wished to restrain the
powers of the superior government and strengthen the
authority of each of the thirteen states, by giving to the
state governments whatever power could be taken from
the general confederacy. This party, which was called
republican or democratic, reckoned in its ranks the
most able men. The other party had Washington for
its head, and it could not have had a more virtuous
leader nor one more deserving of confidence. This
great man retired after a presidency of eight years.
His successor was Mr. John Adams, a statesman who
entertaining probably too high an opinion of his own
great superiority, had succeeded in impressing many
other persons with the same sentiments respecting
him. But, when he reached the presidency of the
United States, he did not entirely justify either his own
confidence in himself or that of the party which had
advanced him so high. He professed great admira
tion for the British government ; it has even been as
serted that he would have seen, without alarm, the
presidency of the United States held for life by the
same individual. He did not dissemble his aversion
for the French nation and the little esteem that he en
tertained for their government. The Anjerican peo-

OF LOUISIANA. 173
pie were, however, far from sharing his opinions. A
sort of instinct, the fervour of which was not yet re
laxed, drew them towards the doctrines and principles
which the French revolution had adopted.
It was this difference of opinion between the people
and their rulers that ruined . the party of Mr. Adams.
The federalists, who had abused their power to remove
the repubhcans altogether from the management of
affairs, after having had the control of the government
for a few years, lost their influence in most of the
states of the Union, and their efforts could not effect
the re-election of Mr. John Adams for a second presi
dential term.
Mr. Jefferson, the most distinguished citizen in the
repubhcan party, succeeded him, and the aspect of
things immediately changed.
Mr. Adams, yielding to the general opinion, had,
probably contrary to his own wishes, commenced ne
gotiations with the directory. They acquired more
consistency when Bonaparte took the reins of govern
ment. This negotiation and that of Madrid were ter
minated at the same time. The convention with the
United States was signed at Paris on the 30th of Sep
tember, 1800, and, on the next day, October 1st, the
treaty with Spain was concluded at St. Ildephonso.
The war with England still continued. The cession
of Louisiana by Spain to France,- stipulated by the
treaty of St. Ildephonso, was not yet made public, and
Bonaparte was careful not to divulge it by taking pos
session of the province.

174 THE HISTORY
A maritime peace was an essential preliminary to
the undisturbed enjoyment of this acquisition by
France; but, in treating of peace with England, it
would have been embarrassing to have asked the con
sent of that power, or even its tacit acknowledgment;
the negotiation would have been fettered by it, and
perhaps broken Off. It cannot be doubted that Lou
isiana might have been attacked by the English and
easily conquered, had they been informed during the
war that it had again become a French colony. Un
der such circumstances, secrecy was the most prudent
advice that could be offered to the newly formed cabi
net of the Tuileries.
England had in fact found herself obliged to listen
to new propositions of peace. All the powers were
eager to negotiate with Bonaparte, and treaties of
peace rapidly succeeded one another. After having
had numerous allies, Great Britain was on the eve of
being left alone. A negotiation vvas then commenced
at London. All the difficulties were soon removed,
and preliminaries were signed on the 1st of October,
1801, a year after the treaty of St. Ildephonso.
The first consul then regarded the termination of
the war as the surest means of confirming his authori
ty. Those who closely observed his conduct and heard
his remarks, would have thought that he was animated
by really pacific intentions, if his conditions of defini
tive peace had not been at the same time directly op
posed to the maxims of the power with which he had
just signed the preliminaries. He desired an entire re-

OF LOUISIANA. 175
ciprocity and equal tariffs in matters of commerce.
He reminded the people of Europe that the new mari
time code, of which England pretended to dictate the
articles, was only an abuse of force, and that all the
other powers ought to unite to prevent its being acted
on. He raised their courage by his own example,
and he hoped to be able to revive the league, honour
ably formed under Louis XVI., for the free navigation
of neutrals, and which was so unfortunately dissolved
before it had acquired consistency. Disposed to make
a sincere peace, he was not the less persuaded of the
necessity of «sing against. England the means by which
that power sustains its supremacy over the seas. In
the state of depression to which afl the nations whom
navigation formerly enriched were fallen, he was con
vinced that, in case of new aggressions, they must
agree to shut the ports of the continent to English ves
sels. It was in this view, as yet scarcely developed,
that he required that the treaty should secure a free
navigation to afl flags; that the naval forces of the ma
ritime powers should at the peace be reduced to what
might be necessary for the protection of the coasts
and adjacent districts. He wished that their employ
ment, when not at war, should be confined to putting
an end to piracy, to cultivating naval science with
more advantage than merchant navigators are capable
of doing; and, finally, to affording to commerce such
assistance as may be necessary in difficult circum
stances. There was an interval of six months between the

176 THE HISTORY
conclusion of the preliminaries and the peace of
Amiens, which was signed on the 27th of March,
1802, The slowness with which the business pro
ceeded disappointed the public impatience at London,
where open murmurs were already heard. However,
these six months had been sufficient to produce a great
change in the political state of the world.
A man of an elevated genius, of a decided and de
termined character, too young to have reflected on the
rights of other nations, and on the danger of wound
ing their independence, was continually hurried on, to
omit nothing which could increase his own glory and
render the nation, whose destinies he had undertaken
to direct, powerful and formidable.
The first acts of his government, after the treaty,
augured favourably, however, for the duration of peace.
The general amnesty to the emigrants was, as it were,
a first pledge of his sincerity.* Numerous classes of
banished Frenchmen, who were flying from place to
place, suffering all the ills of poverty, were, in spite of
menacing and barbarous laws, recafled by degrees to
their common country. The restoration of the altars
was felt as a general want, and this work was entered
on without intolerance or fanaticism. Wise laws were
promulgated, and treaties of peace concluded with dif
ferent powers. In this same year, 1802, the finances
of France were in a more flourishing state than at
any previous or subsequent period.
* April 20th, 1802.

OF LOUISIANA. 177
This prosperity was not owing to those foreign tri
butes which afterwards gave to the treasury a tran
sient opulence, the source of hatred and reprisals.
There was no longer a war establishment: far from
fearing new taxes, there was an expectation that
old ones would be lightened, and the continuance of
peace was calculated on as the necessary condition of
the re-establishment of order.
France found in peace all the advantages to which
she had long aspired ; she obtained for her northern
provinces a frontier conformable to the great divisions
traced by nature, and which had been, for centu
ries, the object of her ambition; for her commerce
and navigation she had the most- justly founded expec
tations, that the possession of Louisiana and the sub
jection of St. Domingo, enlarged by the whole part
that had belonged to Spain, would enable her to re
sume her rank among the maritime powers and com
mercial states.
The republic, in these new circumstances, and un
der a wise and pacific government, might, without
giving umbrage to its neighbours, have attained to a
sufficiently high degree of prosperity. The earnest
desire for peace, which had been entertained in Eng
land during the latter part of the war, had caused the
prehminary articles to be received there with that
joy and enthusiasm which indicate the assent of the
people. But these feelings of good-wfll were not of long
continuance. It was early perceived that the genius

178 THE HISTORY
of Bonaparte, so vigilant, so well calculated to con
ceive and to act in war, would not be long resigned to
the repose of peace. His activity was soon directed
towards foreign commerce, and ardently bent on the
navigation and colonies, which before the revolution
secured to France advantages that peace had not en
abled her to recover. Then, this ambition, though al
together legitimate, awakened in the English govern
ment those distrusts and fears from which ministers,
who are really responsible, can never be free.
It was in the interval between the signing of the pre
liminaries and the definitive treaty of peace, that the
first consul caused himself to be recognised as presi
dent of the Italian republic. The English ministry did
not, however, think it requisite on that account to
break off the negotiations, and it even abstained from
making any observations on so extraordinary a pro
ceeding. Bonaparte had been named, in 1799, first consul for
ten years. On the 8th of May, 1802, a decree of the
senate added ten years to the first term. Three months
afterwards, he was named for life, with the privflege of
designating his successor. Europe was astonished at
these innovations, when other decrees of the senate
spread stfll more lively alarms. These acts, of a de
scription altogether new to the public law of Europe,
successively united to France different countries, with
out any other motive than that of convenience; and
the first consul even disdained to enter on an explana
tion of these bold measures. It was from the parha-

UF LOUISIAiNA. 179
ment of England that his pride received the first
lesson. Opinions can be openly expressed in those assem
blies with a pubhcity, which, if it is sometimes indis-
discreet, has the inestimable advantage of keeping
rulers constantly on their guard against their own
faults; of making them acquainted with the wishes
and opinions of the people; of informing them of eve
ry thing that relates to the good of the country, and of
enhghtening them on its real interests. The truth, thus
made public, benefits every one, and oftentimes even
the censures by which the ministers appear the most
offended, are those from which they expect to derive
in secret the greatest advantage. This was the case
at the conjuncture to which we refer.
The sessions of parliament for 1802 and 1803, were
distinguished at their commencement by the ability of
those who attacked and defended the terms of the
peace,* and, at a later period, by the agreement of all
parties in a desire to recommence the war. We wifl
only refer to the discussions which relate to Louisiana,
and to the interests of. France and England in Ame
rica. The address of the house- of commons in May,
1 802, on occasion of the definitive treaty, contained
these remarkable words : "We rely on his majesty's pa
ternal wisdom for resisting every fresh encroachment,
(of whatever nature,) which shall be attempted on the
* Signed on the 27ih of March, 1802.

180 THE HISTORY
maritime, commercial, or colonial rights of the British
empire." There was nothing, however, in the first debates
that announced an approaching rupture. Some dis
tinguished statesmen approved of the peace. They
considered it bad policy to keep a rival nation in a
state of inferiority, and without the power of unfold
ing the means of prosperity for which it is indebted to
its genius, or which it derives from nature; and they
were of opinion that no reconcihation is sincere, if
there is not a reciprocal advantage in it, and that it is
thus that generosity benefits even those who practise
it. " Let us allow," said they, " let us aflow the French
to have at heart the glory and happiness of their coun
try, as we desire the glory and happiness of our own.
France has only obtained by the peace advantages
suitable to her situation; they will be the surest gua
rantees of her tranquillity and moderation abroad,
and the pledge of the contentment and repose of the
people at home."
About this period the plan of reconquering St. Domin
go was more fully known ; it powerfully contributed to
awaken the jealousy, with which our prosperity has so
often inspired England. "This expedition," said a
member in addressing the house of commons, " is for
midable, and surpasses any heretofore seen in the
American Archipelago. It seems to menace Touis-
saint-Louverture, but we shafl probably see the French
turn the black regiments of that chief towards the con
quest of Jamaica." The chanceflor of the exchequer,

OP LOUISIANA. 181
but too clearly foreseeing the future, replied; "This
expedition should be for us a source of tranquillity ra
ther than alarm; for the usurpation of authority by the
blacks is an event truly to be dreaded, and one which
puts in jeopardy the security and repose of our West
India colonies."
Several articles of the treaty gave rise to more ani
mated discussions; and the ministers, whose work the
last peace was, were defended by their own friends
with so little warmth, that from that time an imputa
tion, too grave to be lightly entertained, gained ground.
Many members of parliament condemned the facility
with which Lord Cornwaflis, a distinguished warrior,
but inexperienced in negotiations, had acquiesced at
Amiens, in several demands of France; it was, they
said, a proof that it was only intended to gain time.
These traducers of the peace were not so numerous,
but they were more clamorous than its advocates; they
wished to establish it as a point of national law, that
no change of sovereignty, no accession of territory
could take place in Europe or America, without the
acquiescence of England.
Thirty years before, whilst Great Britain was ex
tending its sovereignty over the finest parts of Asia,
without any other state's thinking of demanding an
account of her conquests,, we had seen her jealousy '
carried so far as to wish to make war on France and
Spain, in order to prevent the latter power from occu
pying a few desert islands in the neighbourhood of the
straits of Mageflan.

182 THE HISTORY
The opposition blamed Lord Cornwaflis for not
having expressly inserted the usual clause, by which all
previous treaties are maintained and confirmed, so far
as they are not at variance with the last. " This omis
sion was," they said, " an indirect ratification given to
the abandonment made by Spain to France, agreeably
to the treaty of Basle, of half of the island of St. Do
mingo. The sflence of the treaty of Amiens, is, as it
were, a confirmation of the union of Belgium with
France, a union very dangerous to England, as the
shores of that province are opposite the Thames, that
is to say, of London itself In a word, not to revive
the former treaties, particularly those of Utrecht and
Fontainebleau, is to put in question the rights of
England to Nova Scotia, Canada and Cape Breton."
Thus the English claimed the stipulations agreed on at
Utrecht, while they, a few years afterwards, considered
as abrogated the articles of the same treaty which had
consecrated the rights of neutrality. The clamours on
the subject of the cession of Louisiana to France were
stifl more ardent " It wounded essentiafly," it was said,
" the interests of England. The ports which France was
about to have at its disposition would afford facilities
for her naval depots, and multiply the dangers of the
English colonies, in case of war. Canada, which was
adjacent to northern Louisiana, would be soon exposed
to the attacks of the French. They would acquire
over the United States an ascendency, which would,
sooner or later, draw that republic into an afliance
against the naval greatness of England, and the superi-

OF LOUISIANA. 183
ority of her flag. New Orleans was the key of Mexi
co: the two 4mericas ought to be alarmed at a change,
which above afl threatened the Spanish kingdoms of
that great continent; and the cabinet of Madrid could
only have consented to the treaty in obedience to force.
If it had been known by the two houses of parliament,
when the preliminaries were communicated to them,
they would have paused- before they approved them.
But the ministers were acquainted with it before sign
ing the definitive treaty, and they were inexcusable for
not having considered it an obstacle to making peace."
Lord Hawkesbury conceived that he ought to give
explanations, and his answer deseryes to be reported.
" To judge of the value of Louisiana in tfie hands of
the French," said he, " let us recoflect that they have
heretofore possessed it for a long period, without being
able to render it prosperous; though they, at the very
same time, derived great advantages from their insular
colonies. As to the United States, this transfer does
not expose them to any danger. I have too high an
idea of their power and resources, to entertain any
fears for them on account of their new neighbours.
Were it, however, otherwise, their alarms could but
lead them to unite more closely with us."
This minister also uttered these other words, so ex
traordinary in the mouth of a statesman : " We only
wished to make an . experimental peace." Lord
Hawkesbury thus expressed himself, immediately after
the signature of a treaty, all the articles of which both
parties had promised to execute with sincerity and

184 THE HISTORY
good faith. Such words sometimes escape from a
speaker, who, in his desire to please, forgpts that they
wifl be echoed elsewhere than in the chamber which
he is addressing. However, the explosion of public
discontent in England did not long permit the first con
sul to deceive himself. He could from thenceforth
judge of the effect which would be produced by a
knowledge of the design that he entertained of se
curing to France commercial advantages in America^
and of creating for her great maritime interests.
The treaties of peace, which he dictated as a con
sequence of his victories, left him alone formidable in
Europe, and it depended on him to execute them at his
pleasure, whilst he could prescribe a mute obedience
to the other powers : this unnatural situation could only
last so long as they were in no condition to change
it. But Napoleon, who did not then foresee the near
return of war, but was, on the contrary, drawn by his
disposition to the adoption of prompt and decisive
measures, thought that he ought to proceed without
delay to the execution of the plan that he had formed.
It consisted in first subjecting the revolted colony, by
sending there such considerable forces that- he might
be justified in regarding success as infaflible. After
the reduction of the rebels, a part of the army was to
be conveyed to Louisiana.
The events, of which St. Domingo was then the
bloody theatre, are closely connected with the history
of the treaty of cession. We shall therefore anticipate
the course of the principal narrative, and state summa-

OF LOUISIANA. 185
rily the issue of tlie expedition, which had for its ob
ject the re-establishment of the French sovereignty in
that island.
At the end of the last century, and after the frightful
catastrophes that resulted from a manumission impru
dently proclaimed, order had begun to^be re-established
in that fine colony. But ambition soon after induced
a black man and a mulatto to take up arras, and the
rivalry of these two men kindled anew a civfl war,
which the mother country had not excited, but which
she probably witnessed without dissatisfaction.
The two factions and their chiefs were equally ar
dent in the profession of attachment to France, and
it was difficult to refuse credence to their declara
tions; for they had both equally contributed to the ex
pulsion of the English. But the character of their
fidelity was affected by the difference of their casts.
Rigaud, a free born mulatto, had wished, while he re
stored the colony to France, to maintain slavery, and
to keep for his party the plantations conquered from
the whites, who had emigrated or been aflies of our
enemies. He united with a remarkable capacity the
advantage of an exceflent education. He had become
chief of afl the people of colour, who were born free
or had been manumitted before the revolution. These
men, for the most part owners of blacks, refused to
obey the laws of the convention, which, by proclaim
ing the abolition of slavery, only left them "land with
out value, for they did not conceive the possibility of
its being cultivated in any other manner than by slaves.
24

186 THE HISTORi-
Liberty, moreover, appeared to them to be less pre
cious, since the multitude were admitted to enjoy it in
the same manner with themselves. This chief com
manded, in the south of the island, an army com
posed of about six thousand mulattoes and blacks, and
a few whites. This band was very much attached to
him; but a feeling of hatred, which was sometimes
open and declared, and at others secret and dissembled,
divided the mulattoes- and blacks, even though they
foflowed, whilst under his orders, the same standard.
Touissaint-Louverture, a black, and formerly a slave,
commanded at the Cape and in all the northern and
central parts of the colony. He had recalled the former
proprietors who had emigrated, had protected them
and restored their lands, with the exception of a few
plantations that had been seized on by his friends and
himself. But he had only exhibited this generosity in
tranquil times. He acted very differently in war, and
being persuaded that it was necessary to carry it on
without mercy, when the sword is once drawn, he
pushed his success without giving his adversaries any
intermission, and if he met with a reverse, he revenged
it by fire and plunder. His enemies accused him of
hypocrisy and dissimulation. He was, they said, cold
ly cruel, and the extermination of the whites formed
part of his plan for rendering the colony independent.
His partisans made him a hero and a statesman.
Touissaint may be more impartiafly judged from a
view of his life. Obliged in his infancy to obey as a
slave, unexpected events suddenly made him the equal

OF LOUISIANA. 187
of the whites, and he filled his new place without em
barrassment or arrogance. He entirely forgot what
he had suffered in his first condition, and was generous
even towards many of whom he had reason to com
plain. His activity and strength were prodigious, and
he moved with extraordinary rapidity from one extre
mity of the colony to the other, according as circum
stances required his presence. Vigilant, sober, and
abstemious, he quitted the table and gave up every re
laxation the moment that business demanded his atten
tion. An upright judge, without learning or education,
an able general from the very day that he ceased to be
a private soldier, he was dear to his army, and the ne
groes obeyed with a sort of pride a man of colour,
whom they considered the superior, or the equal, at
least, of the most distinguished white man.
He was aware that a community, without labour or
industry, soon falls into a state of barbarism, and he
had revived agriculture by regulations which had been
attended with the most happy results. The privfleged
productions, the precious aliment of a flourishing com
merce, had become as abundant as formerly; but their
destination was much changed. The plantations were
sequestered, and the greatest part of the revenue was
paid into the colonial treasury, instead of being sent
to France. Touissaint and his government thereby
disposed of immense riches, which gave rise to the
opinion that he possessed a hidden treasure. . There
is no sufficient authority for this conjecture, though
we are far from rejecting it. He exacted labour, not

188 THE HISTORY
in order to accumulate treasures, but to fulfil one of
the conditions of the social state. "I know how," he
frequently said, " to unite liberty and labour." To this
end all his proceedings were directed, but as soon as
he perceived that its attainment was questionable, he
became, though he was not without elevation of soul,
suspicious and implacable. He saw flow, without pity,
the blood of every one who was convicted of having
put in danger that liberty which was so dear to him,
on his own account, as wefl as on that of afl the peo
ple of his colour, and he no longer treated of business
with the candour and good faith that smooth all difficul
ties. According to him, it was the safety of the blacks,
his own safety that obliged him to oppose cunning to
perfidy; and the secret intelligence which he kept up
with the emissaries of the government of Jamaica was
rendered necessary by the condition of St Domingo, at
the period that he was acknowledged as its master.
His army was composed, in 1800, of about twelve
thousand blacks. War between men who are distin
guished from one another by the colour of the skin is al
ways terrible, because they at last believe themselves to
be of two different species; thus when a black man and
a mulatto met, each saw in the other an enemy. The
slightest hostflities had then an exterminating character
scarcely known among savages. Treason and secret
violence destroyed in this colony more human beings
than battles. Rigaud, too weak against adversaries
infinitely superior in number, had thought proper to
abandon an unequal contest, and had fled to France.

OF LOUISIANA. 189
Touissaint made a constitution for the colony; he sent
it to the first consul, who was very much dissatisfied
with it, and declared that it should never be put in
force. Such was the state of .affairs, when Bonaparte, on the
faith of the prehminaries of London, and on the point
of concluding the definitive peace, conceived the de
sign of sending to the colony a fleet and army under
the ccflhmand of General Leclerc, his brother-in-law.
Eighteen thousand troops were, at first, embarked on
board of thirty ships of the line, for he was afraid to
give, by freighting transport vessels, too much publici
ty to an expedition which he wished to keep secret.
It was, however, wefl known at St. Domingo, as the
English did not neglect to apprize the mulattoes and
blacks of it.
Suspicions and jealousies are the ordinauy relations of
cabinets with one another, and at the very moment that
they are making mutual professions of entire confi
dence, they fear not only probable perfidies, but even
afl such as are possible. Although the first consul had
only been a short time at the head of affairs, foreign
statesmen conceived that they were acquainted with
his character, and they did not rely enough upon his
political probity to have their impressions of his real
intentions removed by a simple declaration.
Re-enforcements were, from time to time, sent both
to the fleet and army. There was among the French
officers an extraordinary emulation to be of this expe-
•4ition. Accustomed to glory, the attendant on great

190 THE HISTORY
successes, they had foreseen none of the dangers,
which are incurred by all who are exposed to the sun
or even the night air in tropical regions. It was con
sidered a high favour to belong to the expedition, and
the number of generals and officers, compared with
that of soldiers, far surpassed the ordinary proportions.
A part of these forces was composed of Spaniards
and Germans; some Poles were also among them.
These legions, which had been drawn from theis coun
try to contribute to the great events that changed the
face of Europe, had become embarrassing to France
in her new state of peace. The idea occurred of
sending them to St. Domingo. Thus these soldiers,
many of whom were scarcely manumitted from servi
tude, were destined to restore to the bonds of slavery,
Africans, with whom they had no ground of quarrel.
The French troops landed on the 3d of February,
1802. On the arrival of these forces, the black gene
ral, Christophe, set fire to Cape Frangais, and this
beautiful city was partially consumed. The blacks
adopted it as their law tb lay waste their own country,
and to burn down the houses, in order to deprive the
enemy of resources. This rage, and these conflagra
tions but too well announced the disasters which en
sued. From the beginning, the success of the Euro
peans, who gained several battles from the blacks, was
balanced by the losses that they sustained from the
climate. There was no longer any question of rebel
lion, but the hostilities had assumed the character of a
war between two independent nations.

OF LOUISIANA. 191
A great change had followed the abolition of slavery.
During a century and a half, an habitual terror had
kept the blacks in the most abject subjection to their
masters. They had then such an idea of the superior
ity of the whites, that, in the thickest and most solitary
forest, the sight of a white man would have been suf
ficient to inspire twenty blacks with dread. This al
most supernatural power, which had vanished at the
proclamation of liberty, had been suddenly renewed,
on the arrival of a numerous army of white troops,
and, for some time, it only required a mere patrol to
put to flight a battalion of blacks. Some, however,
resisted with success, and then almost every engage
ment became a battle. These whites, so long dreaded
as beings of a superior species, were but ordinary ene
mies, when the negroes discovered that it was so easy
to make them prisoners, or put them to death. They
daily recovered their courage, and soon had as their
raflying words, wherever the French were found in
smafl numbers; "Let us kifl our oppressors." The
mulattoes and free negroes practised atrocious ven
geance on the whites; they were in their turn thrown
by hundreds into the ocean, and the sight of their car
casses, washed back on the shores, drove this unfor-
unate race to horrible reprisals. Where they could
not massacre, they set fire to the house.
Leclerc committed still greater faults in his political
conduct than as general of the array. It is doubtful,
however, whether these faults should be imputed to
him alone. Government had wished to direct every

192 THE HISTORY
thing from Paris. His pubhc instructions ordered him to
make use of the influence of those who were free be
fore the revolution, in order to bring back all the newly
manumitted population to an intermediate state, which
it was wished to assimflate tothe condition of serfs.
He had also been authorized to hold out the expecta
tion, that the estates would be soon restored to the
former possessors. This he announced, and his pub
lic acts, which at first conformed with his declarations,
did not entirely satisfy any party.
But another design, of which the first consul had
confided to him the secret, was to convert the estates
of the emigrants into military grants, and to indemnify,
by these usurped riches, the generals and other officers
to whom the peace of Amiens had closed in Europe
the career of glory and fortune. There is reason to
believe, that many of them would not have wished to
profit by this spoliation, which it would, moreover,
have been difficult to carry into effect. The negroes,
although they had been brought back to labour by
Touissaint and his officers, would have resisted new
masters, who would only have had over them the right
of conquest. The right of property, resulting from
purchase, was consecrated by the practice of so many
centuries, that the slave himself deemed it entitled to
respect. The first consul had been advised, but not
convinced, that if there was any means of re-establish
ing discipline, and even slavery,' it was only to be ef
fected by recafling to their former plantations the mas-

OP LOUISIANA. 193
ters, to- whom the blacks had for so long a time be
longed. At the sight of them, habit, fear, affection,
that consciousness of degradation, which in an abject
state debases a man in his own eyes, would have ren
dered obedience comparatively easy.
Leclerc commenced the execution of the unjust plan
of making a distribution of lands to officers of the army.
He was obliged to renounce it almost immediately, in
asmuch as he had only a short and precarious posses
sion of the different parts of the colony. He had re
course to other expedients; but, instead of making
concessions with sincerity, deceptive promises were
profusely given. Sometimes there was a show of mo
deration, at others of severity, but never either frankr
ness or firmness.
The first consul had been advised, that, if Rigaud
returned to St. Domingo, his presence would occasion
an open schism between the blacks and mulattoes,
which, according to the vulgar maxim, would advance
the authority of the French government. He was,
therefore, sent to serve under the general-in-chief; but,
when he left France, the change that had occurred in
the views of Leclerc and his Counsellors towards the
mulattoes was not known. The French general had
at first apparently shown a disposition to employ the
aid of this cast, but the mulattoes soon became objects
of suspicion and jealousy to his habitual associates. Ri
gaud, who was welcomed on his return by afl the peo
ple of his colour with transports of joy, inspired the
white population with great dread. Touissaint was also
25

194 THE HISTORY
alarmed by the presence of his old enemy, and Rigaud
was re-embarked for France, by order of General Le
clerc. The other mulattoes soon perceived, that, af
ter they had been employed against the blacks, they
would be sacrificed in their turn. Wearied by frequent
accusations, and by the constant watch that was kept
over their conduct, they became so many secret ene
mies. Touissaint-Louverture maintained a defensive
position, which differed little from actual hostilities.
"He seelned for a moment disposed to submit to retire
ment, but he soon found that a person, once all-pow
erful in arms, and supreme chief of the government,
cannot safely return to obscurity. The parties sought
him, and he again engaged in intrigues, which were
not long kept secret. Lecterc, after some hesitation,
conceived that he ought to open a secret negotiation
with him, for the war and climate had already destroyed
eight thousand Europeans.
Great caution was at first employed in treating with
Touissaint. Trusting to friendly expressions, which
were communicated to him through his children, he
by degrees approached the general-in-chief.
Stifl treating as an equal with the French generals,
he consented to lay down his arms on the foHowing
conditions; "The sovereign dominion of the island to
be restored to France ; the soil, bufldings, and other
immovable property, to the old proprietors; liberty to
the slaves, who are to labour for wages." These prp-
positiqns, the sincerity of which appeared doubtful,
were rejected with disdain; and, after having sent back

OF LOUISIANA. 195
to France the chief of the mulattoes, the design was
entertained of depriving the blacks of a still more for
midable leader.
Violence and stratagems, which it has been in vain
attempted to justify, placed Touissaint in the power of
Leclerc. This general made him embark for France.
The blacks foresaw but too well the fate that was re
served for their idolj who was thus removed from their
affections and their cause. But the whites began to re
gain their courage. They might have believed, during
a few months, that the colony was restored to its obe
dience to the French repubhc. Commerce was car
ried on with confidence; many of the proprietors re
turned to their plantations. The blacks seeing them
selves without any guide appeared confounded; but
this manifest violation of plighted faith had spread
among them a secret indignation and the desire of
vengeance. The confidence of the mulattoes had
been destroyed by sending away Rigaud; the resent
ment of the blacks was excited when Touissaint was
stolen from their affection. These feeflngs were soon
openly manifested, and the rising was general, be
cause it was the wqrk of reflection: the perfidious then
experienced the effects of their own treachery, as all
their proclamations passed for gross falsehoods, and
not a black remained faithful to the French.
The fleet ahd army at their departure from Europe
had been furnished with abundant supplies for six
months : those who had advised the expedition had not
fafled, in order to remove all objections, to say that it

196 THE HISTORV
was sufficient to provide the first supphes, that so rich
a colony offered immense resources, and that the war
would support itself But great difficulty was soon ex
perienced in corabining vast operations in a country
destitute of most things necessary for a European
army. The commanding general had supposed that,
as he was the near connexion of the first consul, he
might, on his arrival at the place of destination, ren^
der afl interests subordinate to the success of his ex
pedition. In such circumstances, a general, removed
for some thousand leagues from any authority superior
to his own, pushes to extreme consequences the princi
ple, " I must support my army." What had happened
forty years before in Canada and India was here repeat
ed; the colony was made acquainted with requisitions
against which afl France had risen in arms, forced loans,
and every thing that could irritate it against its pretend
ed liberators. The embarrassments were not diminished
by this abuse of authority, and in the distress which
the army experienced, the chiefs, whfle they took pos
session of every thing that could be useful to them,
adopted the plan of making payments in bflls of ex
change" drawn on the treasury of France. Destined
at first to satisfy real wants, they were soon used to re
ward friends and appease the discontented. Those
who had been plundered, under pretence of requisi
tions, found afterwards the means of settling amicably
the price of their effects and the rate of compensation
for their losses; and as the sums, thus stipulated to be
paid, occasioned no other trouble than that of manu-

OF LOUISIANA. 197
facturing drafts, they were given with such profusion,
that they were presented in a short time, at the French
treasury, to the amount of more than sixty miflions.
The French also sent to the United States to ask as
sistance and credit, but all these resources were insuffi
cient; for when a design miscarries, the disorder is un
bounded. Other chiefs rose up in the place of Touissaint-Lou
verture. Dessahnes, who assumed the command of
the black army, was very inferior to him in capacity.
He was, however, endowed with a vigorous and perse
vering character. Naturafly sanguinary, he had by ter
ror and executions acquired a great authority over the
blacks. His army was every day increased by those
who abandoned the labour of the plantations. The
month of August, so fatal to Europeans, had arrived,
and the French army was constantly weakened by ir
reparable losses. The crews of most of the merchant
vessels were reduced to a fourth of their complements.
Debauchery, strong drinks, and unhealthy food likewise
contributed to. destroy the army; and an epidemic,
more murderous than the sword of the negroes, car
ried its horrible ravages into the French camp.
The general-in-chief, attacked nine months after his
arrival with a mortal malady, began to reproach him
self for the faults which his inexperience and interest
ed counsels had led him to commit. He died on the
2d of November, 1802, as much in consequence of
chagrin as of the unhealthfulness of the chmate.

198 THE HISTORY
Rochambeau assumed the command after Leclerc's
death. Considerable re-enforcements were sent, and
he at first obtained some advantages. But after a year
of alternate successes and reverses, he was obliged to
shut himself up at the Cape with the wreck of his
army. Besieged by the negroes on the land side,
blocked in on that of the sea by an English squadron,
he had recourse to some desperate measures to pro
long his resistance; He imposed contributions on the
inhabitants, which could only be levied by violent acts.
A merchant, who had probably exhausted afl his means,
declared that he could not pay the sum at which he
was assessed. The general caused him to be shot,
while even the blacks viewed the execution with hor
ror. He capitulated on the 18th of November, 1803,
with Dessahnes for the evacuation of the town, and,
on the 29th, with the Enghsh for the surrender of the
ships of war and merchant vessels. Six or seven thou
sand whites, who were received on board the English
fleet, considered themselves fortunate in having thus
got away from the fury of the rebels.
These voluntary exiles fled to Louisiana, the United
States, Cuba and Jamaica. Some of them, who were
in an entirely destitute state, awaited in those coun
tries better circumstances, which never arrived. Others
had opportunely sent a few slaves before them; they
carried with them their activity and experience, and
the. countries of their adoption were enriched by the
dispersion of these planters, and the ruin of the richest

OP LOUISIANA. 199
agricultural and commercial settlement that the world
has ever seen.
Dessahnes had caused himself to be named general-
in-chief of the array. Many white inhabitants, impru
dently confiding in his solemn promises,* had remained
in the colony. On the 1st of January, 1804, about a
month after the evacuation and departure of the
French, he made a declaration of independence. He
continued to hold a language calculated to encourage
the white proprietors. But soon using as a pretext the
information, either real or fictitious, that the whites-
were preparing to rise up against him, his fears, and
still more his natural ferocity, carried him to horrible
excesses. He repeated that, if ever the French should
be re-estabhshed in their plantations, they would be
forced, for their own preservation, to strengthen the
irons of slavery; that there was no middle state for-
the blacks between liberty and the most horrible ser
vitude, and that the safety of the colony depended on
the entire extermination of the whites. From all sides
dreadful words were re-echoed, announcing a general
massacre. " Let us avenge ourselves of these tigers
who thirst after our blood. The Almighty commands
us to shed theirs. If a single individual among us
feels the least pity, let him fly, he is unworthy of
breathing the pure air of august and triumphant li
berty." He went through the colony from north to south,
marking his passage by the massacre of afl the whites
* Dessahnes' Proclamation of the 25th of November, 1805.

200 THE HISTORY
that could be discovered. They were coflected by
hundreds, and when, they were thus asserabled he took
pleasure in seeing them shot or cut down by the
sword. These executions commenced at Cayes, in
February, 1804, and were coniiaubd frora town to town
tifl they reached the Cape, where Dessahnes redoubled
his crUel excesses. The massacre lasted there from
the end of Aprfl to the 14th of May. Neither age nor
sex was spared; and violations of the person often pre
ceded the murder. The whole number of victims was
¦two thousand four hundred and twenty.
I. have brought together in a few words the princi
pal circumstances of the disasters of St. Domingo.
The loss and ruin of this magnificent possession have
caused to the commercial affairs of France injuries,
which active internal industry alone can repair. But
another direction must be given to trade, and this
wifl be effected by a transfer of business, which the
new condition of the former Spanish possessions in
America renders easy. Without considering these re
verses irreparable, except with reference to the gene
ral plan which the first consul had formed, it is suffi
cient to say that Louisiana had been destined to sup
ply the other colony with provisions, cattle, and wood;
and as St. Domingo was lost to France, the impor
tance of Louisiana was also diminished: but these dis
asters were not yet known to Bonaparte. He expect
ed to make use of the one colony to preserve the other,
and he was particularly fond of occupying himself with
his new acquisition.

OF LOUISIANA. 201
It was agreeable to him to suppose that, notwith
standing their long separation, the Louisianians had
preserved their aftection for their mother country, and
that they would be happy to resume their French cha
racter. Recollecting the regrets manifested at the time
of the cession to Spain, thirty-five years before, he per
suaded himself that the re-establishment of the French
authority would be a matter of general rejoicing. He
had been led into this error by reading letters written
from New Orleans by some of the St. Domingo colo
nists who had escaped there. The cession revived all
their hopes ; for the two colonies being in the neighs
bourhood of one another, the one which was tranquil
might facilitate the subjection of the blacks in the other,
afford succour, and above all furnish subsistence to the
army sent to conquer it, and at that time hopes of suc
cess were not abandoned.
But if these colonists, stripped of their wealth, had
an interest in drawing the inhabitants of Louisiana
into their cause, the Louisianians had contrary inte
rests. They had reason to fear for themselves the ca
lamities which had been, for many years, ruining the
other colonies of France. St. Domingo was the most
agitated and unfortunate of all. The colonists repeat
ed with horror, at New Orleans, these words which
the first consul had caused to be proclaimed, in his
name, in the revolted colony, and which were there
addressed to all classes. " Inhabitants of St. Domin
go, whatever may be your colour or your origin, you
are all free, all equal in the eyes of God and the re~
36

202 THE HISTpRS?
public." General Leclerc, on his arrival in the colo
ny, had said; " I promise liberty to all the inhabi
tants." It is true that, a few months afterwards, these pro
mises had, been retracted by a law of an entirely con
trary nature, which re-established slavery, and autho
rized the slave trade as it existed before 1789.
Nothing is more calculated to destroy confidence
than these changes in the wifl of rulers, and the hold
ing out of expectations which are given or withdrawn
according to the circumstances and interests of the
moment. The intercourse is prompt and easy between
Cape Fran§ais and New Orleans, and few weeks passed
without information being received in the latter place
of some new disaster that had. occurred in St. Do
mingo. The whites themselves tifl the land in some parts of
Louisiana, but the great plantations, and especially the
sugar estates are cultivated by black slaves. Even the
drivers are chosen from among this class, and the
slavery of the blacks is deemed a necessary condition
of the riches of the whites. Some of the refugee co
lonists had brought a part of their negroes to Louisia
na, and were therefore secretly far from desiring ano
ther removal or participating in the views of those who
had lost every thing. They easily made the Louisia
nians acquainted with the danger that they would in
cur, in case the French repubhc, as the supreme legis
lative power, should one day proclaim manumission and
freedom in their colonv.

OF LOUISIANA. 203
They foretold, what was subsequently verified in St.
Domingo, an appropriation of the land in large and small
portions to all the blacks who had borne arms,from the
generals down to the private soldiers, and to afl the civil
agents ; the men to whom hberty was new avenging them
selves with fury of their former abject state; the rights
of property disregarded; the negro, the usurper and
master of the sofl which he had fertilized by the sweat
of his broVv, but living on little, placing the supreme
good in repose, and having no regard for the enjoy
ments of luxury or the profits of a laborious commerce.
It was then said, that " the free Africans in America
would do stfll less labour than the slave in Africa."
From afl these disasters the Louisianians expected to
be preserved if the sovereignty, of the cathohc king
was not transferred to the French republic.
We must add to these just causes of uneasiness, the
revolution which had been operating on the mind for
thirty years, and which had penetrated even to the least
enlightened classes. It was no longer thought that
princes had the right, except in consequence of a dis
astrous war, to dispose of their provinces according to
their own wifl, to mortgage or hypothecate them, to
exchange them or transfer the sovereignty to others
without the consent of the people; and maxims, which
had been long received as part of the pubhc law, had
thus lost their authority.
Scruples of this kind did not even occur to the first
consul, impatient to establish the French government
in Louisiana.

201 THE HISTORY
He at first selected for the chief command in the
colony a- distinguished personage,-^General Berna-
dotte,*-T-of whose ambition and activity he entertained
fears. This important employment would have re
moved him frora Europe in an honourable manner, and
the first consul expected marks of satisfaction from the
general. Bernadotte, whose character for firmness and
boldness without rashness is wefl known, thought that
he ought, before accepting this mission, to prepare the
means of securing his success. He made it a condi,
tion of his departure, that he should carry with him, be
sides three thousand soldiers, an equal number of cul
tivators of the sofl, and that he should, moreover, be
provided with every thing that was necessary in a re
mote place, where he might be prevented, for an inde
finite period, from communicating with France. Bo
naparte rephed to these proposals; "I would not do as
much for one of my brothers:" and he named General
Victor governor, and appointed at the same time the
prefect and chief judge.
Always uneasy, however, at the presence of Berna
dotte, he determined, at the beginning of 1803, to send
him to the United States in the character of minister
plenipotentiary of France. This was a kind of exilej
and, to diminish its bitterness, he was given to under
stand, that it was in contemplation to cede to tho^e
states a part of Louisiana, and that he Would be em
ployed in the negotiation. Personal advantages were
* The present king of .Sweden. — Transl.

OF LOUISIANA. 205
held out to him as the price of the success that he
might obtain.
Bernadotte accepted .the mission. He repaired to
Rochelle, and the frigate in which he was to embark
was about putting to sea, when he learned that a rup
ture between France and England was on the eve of
breaking out. He immediately returned to Paris with
out waiting for leave, and firmly declared that he would
not engage in any civfl employment so long as the war
lasted. He did not even see the first consul, whQ had
evinced a great deal of dissatisfaction at a return,
which he had not authorized. Some time elapsed be
fore common friends could reconcile them.
General Victor, the captain general, Laussat, the
prefect, and Ayrae, the chief judge, had been appoint
ed. A consular decree of the 11th of September,
1802, had regulated their functions. Victor was pre
paring to set sail from Helvoetsluys with the garrison
intended for New Orleaps, and the other troops that
were to be sent to the colony. He had sO little idea
of a change of destination, that he was purchasing and
putting on board of the vessel in which he was to em
bark the presents that he intended for the Indians.
Hostilities between England and France commericed
about this time, and the general's departqje jjid not
take place.
M. Laussat had received his instructions, and the
order for his departure on the very day that the dissa
tisfaction that was manifested in the English parlia-

2i06 THE HISTORV
ment was knowp at Paris. He set sail on the 12th of
January, 1803;
He was cordially welcomed. at New Orleans by the
Spanish government, and iramediately announced by
a proclamation, the expected arrival of his two col
leagues; but General Victor was alone authorized tb
receive the colony from the hands of the Spanish offi
cers. This formality necessarily preceded afl others,
and as he did not come, the colonial prefect was with
out duties or authority. He, however, published several
laws of the republic that were calculated to give confi
dence to the colonists and particularly the one of the
20th of May, 1802, for the maintenance of slavery and
thoislave trade, as' they existed before 1789. A few
public .officers who accompanied him, were likewise
without any active duties, and a sum of one hundred
and eleven thousand Spanish doHars, delivered to him
on his departure, remained unemployed.
The events, of which he was informed on landing,
were not calculated to make him augur .great success
from his mission. A ship that arrived from Cape Fran- ¦
eais, almost at the same time with him, brought the
news of the reverses and disasters of every kind which
had succeeded the death of the gf neral-in-chief A se
rious diffe^gnce had also just arisen between the United
States and the government, of Louisiana, the particu
lars of which wifl be hereafter mentioned.
M. Laussat not having as yet any character that au
thorized him to take part in the administration, the

OF LOUISIANA. 207
powers of the government remained in the hands of
Don Manuel de Salcedo, and of the Marquis of Casa
Calvo. • In a proclamation, in which they took the title
of commissioners of the king for the cession of the
province to the French republic, they announced the
change of sovereignty and gave the inhabitants assu
rances respecting the preservation of their rights and
of their property in the lands that had been granted
to them, and farther promised, that the titles to grants
that had been confirraed, and even to those that were
not confirmed, should be respected.
These officers of the former government, in concert
with the one who had just arrived, apphed themselves
in good faith to inspire the inhabitants with sentiments
favourable to theinrnew masters. But those, who weire
in any condition to foresee the future, did not think that
the situation of the population would be meliorated by
the cession, or that France could derive any real ad
vantages from it. Even the merchants, eager as they
always are to welcome flattering expectations, did not
promise themselves any benefit from this change.
Thesre was, therefore, no open indication of those
marks of satisfaction, which the return of the French
would, at other times, have produced- An eye-witness,
speaking of the sentiments which were manifested on
occasion of the arrival and reception of M. Laussat,
expressed himself in these terms: —
" Every one wifl be astonished to learn, that a people
of French descent have received without emotion and

208 THE HISTORY
without any apparent interest a French magistrate, who
comes to us, accompanied by his young and beautiflil
family, and preceded by the pubhc esteem. Nothing
has been able to diminish the alarms which his mis
sion causes. . His proclamations have been heard by
some with sadness, and by the greater part of the in
habitants with the same indifference as the beat of the
drum is listened to, when it announces the escape of a
slave or a sale at auction."*
How much gratitude, oh the other hand, wouldhave
been shown to the first consul, if instead of prohibit
ory laws, his envoy had proclaimed freedom of trade,
and declared that France renounced for ever the sys
tem which has been pursued for the settlement of co
lonies in modern times. It would*kave been a mea
sure of enlightened policy to have solemnly admitted
that their prosperity continually advances with a free
system, and that their relations with the parent states
become useful in proportion as their commerce is ex
tended without restraint. For exclusive privileges and
monopoly, the best quality of merchandise, and the
most moderate profits should have been suhstituted; in
a word, according to the example of the ancients, the
colony ought only to have been retained by the ties
which favours create, by the recollection of a common
origin and the affection which lasts a long while, when
the parent state and her offspring have the same
habits and language, and interests that are easily re
conciled. * Appendix, No. 7-

OF LOUISIANA. 209
If such a plan could have been adopted, instead of
the practices that s^have prevailed for two centuries, it
wouldhave silenced England, calmed the disquiet of
the western states of the American Union, and France
would have found inestimable advantages in the re
turn to the ancient principles on which colonies were
founded. At the same time Louisiana would have efficaciously
contributed to the prosperity of the insular colonies;
and if thbse fine settlements could have been pre
served, this province, united to the Floridas, would
have built up the navy of France and revived its navi
gation. But the principles of free trade were very far
from being followed in relation to Louisiana. The
Spanish intendant had, a short time before, re-esta^
blished there the prohibitory system in afl its rigour,
and his conduct had caused great excitement in the
very bosom of congress.
Twenty-five years had scarcely elapsed since the
United States had assumed a place among nations,
and their population was already increasing with asto
nishing rapidity, especially in the territories situated to
the west of the Afleghany mountains. The federal go
vernment had not interfered, except to give to those
new communities a direction conformable to the spirit
of the general association, and in a little time the super
intending care of a wise government had contributed
more to afl kinds of improvenient than the European
states had effected in the colonies subject to them
during three centuries. The best lands were every
37

210 THE HISTORT
where offered to the choice of settlers, and the irids-
genous inhabitants yielded them up without much re-
.sistance. They only lived by the chase, and as the
game quitted the places that were inhabited, and
stripped of their forests by the new clearings, they
were obliged, with the deer, tosfafl back on more re
mote wildernesses.
Whilst in Europe the occupation of a single viHage
may give rise to a war, the Americans laid, without
any apprehensions, in their recently explored- territories,
the foundation of ten new states, any one of which
is equal in extent to a quarter of France. Nothing
arrests these peaceable conquests. If the natives
require an acknowledgment of their rights, if? they
even make a serious resistance, a few bales of goods,
some presents of little consequence, or a moderate
annuity most frequently suffice to quiet them. Far
from there being any difficulty in finding, in the United
States, lands suitable to the enlargement of the t^-
ritory, its very extent already alarms the inhabitants
of the old states, who are interested in checking the
emigrations which take place to the new ones. It
is in fact very certain that the increase of the territo-
ries of the confederacy is one cause of the weakness
of the older portions. The augmentation of their
population, however great it may be, does not com
pensate for the continual emigrations. This draining
wifl not abate tfll the banks of the rivers which flow
from the west of the mountains to the Mississippi are
occupied and cultivated. It is there, that by an inde-

QF L0UI.SIANA. 211
fatigable activity, the face of the sofl is constantly
changed. Even the emigrants who have commenced
settlements soon' find themselves straitened for room in
a country, which was a few years before a wflderness.
The .heads of famflies prefer to all other enjoyments,
that of giving to every child fertfle lands with a virgin
soih Many sell the farms which they themselves have
cleared, in order to settle at a greater distance. There
is a continual flowing in one. direction without any re
turn. The knds, the most remote from the country
already settled, are the cheapest. Some of exceflent
quality are to be had for less than two dollars an acre;
and the farther the colonists advance in the interior,
the more can they enlarge the inheritance of their pos
terity. But a condition indispensable to the success
of .afl these emigrations Was, that the rich and abund
ant crops of the west should have access through the
•mouths of the Mississippi to all the markets of the
world. The Americans had already, for more than
twenty years, asserted, as an incontestable right, the
free navigation of that river to the sea; and neither
Spain, nor subsequently France, had been inchned to
this concession, so contrary to the exclusive system.
At that time sufficiently powerful to refuse and effectu
ally sustain their refusal, they did not suppose that the
moment could ever arrive when their new neighbours
would be in a condition to give them the law. For this,
however, every thing wjas preparing, without the go
vernors that, were sent from Europe paying the least at
tention to the progress of the Americans, and the change

212 THE HISTORI
was already effected when they remarked its conse
quences. ,,'
At the close of the year 1802, congress was in
formed of the cession which Spain had made to
France of Louisiana; and, almost- at the same Ijme,
it learned that this last power was preparing to take
possession. The news of this change of sovereignty
excited lively alarms in all the western settlements. It
was feared, and congress partook of the apprehension,
that the neighbourhood of the French would not be so
pacific as that of the Spaniards.
The Spaniards, nevertheless, considered themselv^
masters of the province, so long as the formalities of'
the cession to France were not fulfilled. The severe
regulations, which in the other Spanish colonies main
tained the monopoly of the mother country and -pro
tected its exclusive commerce, had not been observed
in Louisiana. This wise relaxation suddenly ceased.
Those absurd systems, which by means of prohibitions
more or less rigorous, keep the finances and commerce
of two neighbouring states in a situation resembling
war, and which sometimes bring about real hostilities,
were all at once put in full force in this colony. Don
Juan Ventura Morales, the intendant, said, with igno
rant confidence, that " colonies were only useful under
the prohibitory system, and that if produce, received
in transitu, was not subjected to import and export da-
ties, the indulgence would have all the bad effects of
authorized smuggling."
A treaty, concluded on the 27th of October, 1795,

OP LOUISIANA. • 213
with -Spain, had granted to the* United .States "the
right to deppsite their merchandise and effects at New
Orleans for the space of three years, and at the end of
that time the privilege was either to be continued or
an equivalent establishment assigned on another part
of- the banks of the- Mississippi."
The intendant, after the expiration of this term of
three years, had not interrupted the operation of the
grant, and it had been prolonged by a kind of tacit
agreement But, in 1802, he suddenly imagined that
an indulgence introduced during the war should cease
with the peace.
< M. Morales, contrary to the opinion even of the Spa
nish governor, who looked upon every suspension of
the entrepot, without an equivalent, as an infraction of
the treaty, put an end to the enjoyment of a privilege
which he was afraiid to see perpetuated by a sort of
proscription. He declared, by a proclamation of the
16th of October, that th» right of deposite no longer
. existed. This measure spread great consternation among the
American planters in the western territories. Congress
was beset from all quarters with complaints and state
ments of grievances. The excitement redoubled as
soop as the petitioners heard the news of the cession
to France, and, according to the generally received
opinion, the suspension had only taken place in conse
quence of the demand of that power.* Louisiana, by the
* Memoir of Mr. Monroe, page 7^

214 THE HISTORY
terms of the treaty^ "was to be delivered up'in its pre
sent state."* This present state was, they said, the
exclusion of the Americans from the port of New Or
leans. }They drew from this circumstance the infe
rence that the intendant had not acted without orders;
that the return to the prohibitory system had beeU' con
certed between the two powers, and that it was in or
der to ensure its execution that France was sending
an army.
A census of the nevv states, east of the Missis§i]i>pi,
made their population amount to nearly 800,000 souls*
The old states sent there by land the merchandise ne
cessary for these. new colonies. The numerous fiiie
rivers which flow from the north-east, empty into the
Mississippi to the west; and this river, with the gulf of
Mexico, served to export the productions of the new
settlements, and especially their abundant harvests of
every description of grain. The trade, which was car
ried on from the continent through the gulf, was the
only means that the planters of the new western states
had to pay for what they received from the other states
of the American Union. No rivers of Europe are more
frequented than the Mississippi and it^ tributaries. To
impose obstacles on this navigation was to stifle these
new communities, and to condemn vast regions to the
barrenness, which, after so many centuries, had just
been replaced by an admirable fertihty. The prohi
bition affected this prosperity, and the agricultural
» The Decree of the king of Spain of the 30th. of July, 1802.

OP LOUISIANA, 215
productions suddenly lost half their value as well at
New Orleans as at Natchez, the place from whence
they were forwarded. Already the cry of alarm was
.heard, not only in the states of Ohio, Tennessee^ and
Kentucky, and in the territories of Indiana and Misr
sissippi, but even in all the old states, whose limits
extend beyond the western mountains, and it was re
peated by the numerous emigrants who flocked from
all quarters to share in the magnificent inheritance so
long •neglected, by the savage tribes.' The new set
tlers coihpared the feeble and unarmed population
of Louisiana with their own numbers. Proud of the
superiority of their strength, they found in it the
basis of an incontestable ' right. They longed for
a rupture, when they might occupy New Orleans.
" The Mississippi is ours," they said, '*by the. law of
nature; it belongs to us by our numbers, and by the
labour which we have bestowed on those spots which,
before our arrival, were desert and barren. Our innu
merable rivers swell it, and flow with it into the gulf
sea. Its mouth is the only issue which nature has
given to our waters, and we wish to use it for our ves
sels. No power in the world shall deprive us of this
right. We do not prevent the Spanish and French
from ascending the river to our towns and villages.
We wish in our turn to descend it without any inter
ruption to its mouth, to ascend it again and exercise
our privflege of trading on it and navigating it at our
pleasure. If our most entire liberty in this mat
ter is disputed, nothing shafl prevent our taking pos-

216 THE HISTORY
session of the capital; and when we are once masters
of it, we shall know how to* maintain ourselves there.
If congress refuses us effectual protection, if it for
sakes us, we wifl adopt the measures which our safety.
requires, even if they endanger the peace Of the Union
and our connexion with the other states. No protec
tion, no aflegiance !"
, These maxims are not, in afl respects, those of the
publicists; but such proceedings, and the roughness of
the language were to be expected from men, stifl sur
rounded by the vestiges of a primitive sta'te, where
every individual thinks that he has a right to whatever
he considers necessary for his preservation and well-
being. The country of the Natchez had passed under the
dominion of the United States. Mr. Daniel Clarke, a
rich proprietor, and a man of activity and cleverness,
who had his plantation there, had neglected no means
of exciting discontent. At the first news of the retroces
sion to the French, he had gone in haste to Paris, and
had sought by different means to produce a misunder
standing between the French general, for whom the
command was intended, and the colonial prefect. On
his return- to Louisiana he found the disposition of the
pubhc favourable to his designs.
In the uncertainty which then existed as to the part
that would be adopted, either by France or Spain, re
specting the right of deposite at New Orleans, the Ame?
ricans of the west favourably received Mr. Clarke's
proposal to establishing at Natchez the entrepot that

OF LOUISIANA. 217
had been refused them by the Spaniards. This port is
situated on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, in the
territory of the United States, forty leagues above New
Orleans, and the climate was said to be more agreea
ble than at the latter place. Much stress was laid on
the advantages of a situation that was more protected
from the insults and attacks of a maritime power. But
the two towns being equally exposed to the epidemical
diseases, with which these countries are afflicted as
soon as the lands begin to be cleared, the project
failed. There was much excitement likewise in congress, of
which the parties endeavoured to take advantage. Mr.
Jefferson was president, and in order to maintain the
flourishing condition of the confederacy, this magis
trate made every exertion to prevent, by all possible
means, the disturbances that might result from these
occurrences. They, nevertheless, appeared to him
so grave, that though he aflayed the fears of the go-,
vernments of Kentucky, and the other western states
and territories, as to the consequence of the measures
adopted by the Spanish intendant, he brought the sub
ject to the knowledge of the house of representatives,
by a message of the 22d of December, 1 802, in which
he added, " that he was aware of the obligation to
maintain in all cases the rights of the nation, and to
employ for that purpose those just and honourable
means which belong to the character of the United
States,"

2l8 The HISTORY
Tb this message and another one that was trails-*
mitted to them shortly afterwards, the house of repre
sentatives replied^ that " relying, with perfect confi-*
dence, on the vigflance and wisdom of the executive^
they wfll wait the issue of such measures as that de
partment of the government shall have pursued for as
serting the rights of the United States— holding it to
be their diity^ at the same time, to express their unal
terable determination to maintain the boundaries and
the rights of navigation and commerce through the
river Mississippi, as established by existing treaties."
It was at first not known whether France would not
attempt to assign new frontiers to her province and re*-
vive old titles, in opposition to treaties and the inte
rests of the United States. Every thing appears sus
picious to a people, when they have once conceived
distrust. They recollected the expeditions of the
French governors to the frontiers of Canada. The
armaments, which the first consul was preparing at
Flushing, were, they said, intended to usurp the terri--
tories of the Union, and re-estabhsh the ancient limits
of Louisianai
The proclamation of the Spanish intendant, exe
cuted with rigour, only served to make more apparent
truths, which were not even suspected by him, namely,
that exclusive privileges are useless barriers against
local and natural necessities, and that no opposition
could move the Americans on these two principal
points — the free navigation of the Mississippi, and the

OP LOUISIANA. 2l9
privflege of exporting their productions and importing
their merchandise through that great river.
The prohibition soon became very injurious even to
the inhabitants of New Orleans. Flour and other sup
plies were no longer brought there. The fear of famine
obliged the intendant to permit their importation and
exportation, at first, indeed, on conditions almost as
onerous as the prohibition itself, though he was after
wards obliged to connive at the total disregard of his
own regulations.*
But this indulgence might be precarious, and the
Americans Avished to exercise rights that were free
from all dispute. In vain had a letter been published
from Mr. Livingston, the minister in Paris, containing
assurances that the treaties with the United States
would be strictly executed. These explanations had
not been sufficient to tranquillize the public mind, and
delays wqre no longer in season.
It is necessary to take advantage of the favourable
months, in order to navigate the Mississippi. At other
periods of the year, stationary or floating masses of
ice are not less to be dreaded than the rocks or sand
banks that are hid under the water. Trees of a
prodigious size, which the river carries along with it
when the thaw is accompanied by inundations, often
obstruct its channel. It is again made navigable
by labour, and the obstructions cease on the return
of spring. The month of May was approaching, and
* Proclamation of the 5th of February, 1803,

220 THE HISTORY
at that period the Mississippi and the minor rivers,
swollen by the melting of the snow, are every year
covered with boats, men, and agricultural produc
tions. But the usual course of trade was interrupt
ed, and the inhabitants considered themselves devoted
to certain ruin, unless it was averted by vigorous
arrangements. The excitement was so great that
some officers of the American army proposed plans
both for offensive and defensive operations. They
were urged on by a party, which had been as ardent
for war as its opponents were zealous for the mainte
nance of peace.*
The treaty, by which the independence of the thir
teen colonies was acknowledged by England, had been
on the part of that government an act of great wis
dom. There were, however, in the two countries,
some persons so badly informed respecting public opi
nion, that they believed it possible to bring back those
provinces, not indeed under the sceptre of the king of
England, but under an influence which would procure
for the mother country all the political advantages of so
vereignty. Their intrigues had encouraged the forming
of the party, denominated federal, whose conduct and
proceedings were for a long time directed by the prin
ciple of attachment to England, and enmity to France.
The principal leaders had influence only in four or
five states of the north, and it was supposed that their
secret object was to separate them from the Union.
' Mr. Monroe's Memoir, page 7.

OF LOUISIANA. 221
"The interests of the northern states cannot," they
said, " be reconcfled with those of the southern and
western states." And, in fact, the climate, productions,
navigation, and the existence of slavery had introduced
very different habits in the various sections of the
United States. But there is no country of so great an
extent where such differences are not founds and they
do not prevent all the parts of the confederacy from
being united by a common bond. Many federalists
had really the public good for their object, and the pu
rity of their intentions cannot be doubted, when we
know that Washington had given them his support.
But it was also suspected, and with too much founda
tion, that some ambitious men had been introduced
among them, who, under the guise of zeal for liberty,
only aspired to power. A treaty had been signed at
London by Mr. Jay, the American plenipotentiary,
which contained clauses favourable to England, preju
dicial to the United States, and was not ratified with
out difficulty.
The governor of Canada secretly excited the fede
ralists, and it must be admitted that England might
have effectually profited by a separation, which, by
placing five states under her protection, would have
created two factions in the bosom of her rival, and
rendered the cabinet of London the arbiter of their
differences. The party known under the name of repubhcan,^
was more independent of all European intrigues, and,
though it was not devoted either to England or France,

222 THE HISTORY
it saw less danger in preferring the friendship of this
latter power, in which it found a surer guarantee of the
coraraercial and maritime independence of the confe
deracy. The practices of the ambitious could not be long
concealed, and they lost all their influence as soon as
their true designs were known. It was even in the
northern states that they experienced the strongest op
position, and at the moment that we are writing a
great change is accomplished. Animosities and feel
ings of hatred have been, by degrees, dissipated. Har
mony is now the soul of this great confederacy. Frora
New Hampshire to Louisiana the prevafling principle
is, that a good understanding between the different
parts of the Union ought to be maintained, even at the
price of some sacrifices, as the basis of the public
tranquiflity, and of the piutiperity of each individual
state. Party names are almost always an artifice of those
who wish to have among the same people, in the same
nation, two hostile nations, and it is in this way that
enmities are perpetuated. The names of federalists
and republicans are now no longer in use. The title
of opposition is, however, stifl given to a party, which
is really composed of observers, who, far from being
opposed to the government, confine themselves to cau
tioning it against fafling into errors. During a period
of forty years congress has made a great and honour
able experiment: it has constantly observed the funda
mental laws, to which it owes its existence, and it has

OF LOUISIANA. 223
scarcely ever been found in direct opposition to the
opinion of the people. What had long been pnly a
matter of hope and theory has become a truth con
firmed by fact; namely, that the confederacy has with
in itself the principle of its own strength and perma
nency, and that nations are the only sure guarantees of
their own repose and happiness.

THE

HISTORY OF liOUISIA^fA.

PART II.

CESSION or LOUISIANA BY FRANCE TO THE UNITEll STATES.

THE

HISTORY OF liOriSIAXA.

PART THE SECOND.

CESSION OP LOUISIANA BY FRANCE TO THE UNITED STATES.
Whilst even in congress a very active faction was
secretly endeavouring to induce a declaration of war
by the United States against France, the rulers of the
confederacy sincerely desired to maintain a good un
derstanding. On its side the consular government ap
peared to wish to pursue towards this repubhc an op
posite course of conduct from that of the directory.
War between France and England seemed inevitable,
and the American cabinet easfly perceived that, in case
it should break out, the first consul would be under the
niecessity of putting, off the occupation of Louisiana.
On the 15tb of December,«l802, Mr. Jefferson thus ad
dressed congress: "The cession of the Spanish pro
vince of Louisiana to France, which took place in the
course of the late war, wfll, if carried into effect, make
a change in the aspect of our foreign relations." The
circumstance in question presented, in fact, to the
United States a chance,,which might never again oc
cur, of commencing negotiations for an amicable ces-

'J2B THE HISTORI
sion of territories which it was extremely desirable
that they should possess. " Besides," said the friends
of peace, ". we are not prepared for war. Ten years
of peace are necessary to make us respectable and
powerful, we shafl then be in a situation to face every
danger." It was determined that an eUvoy extraordi
nary should be sent to Europe to treat with the first
consul, and if no satisfactory arrangement was to be
made with him, to enter into ceramunications with the
courts of London and Madrid. The choice of Mr.
Jefferson fell on Mr. Monroe, ex-governor of Virginia,
a man zealous for the interests of his country, who en
joyed great pop'ularity in the western states, was very
influential in the republican party, and was already ad
vantageously known in France, where he had resided,^
as envoy, in the time of the directory. In 1786, Mr.
Monroe, then a member of congress, had written a
memoir to prove the right of the western country to
the navigation of the Mississippi. The president con
fided to his friend the most important transaction of
his administration, and he regarded hira as the nego-"
tiator best calculated by his experience to ensure its
success. •
Mr. Livingston, the minister of the United States at
Paris, had warmly pursued this affair for many months.
He had sent to the minister of foreign affairs a note in
which his arguments were supported by intimations that
were almost menacing. He did not confine himself to
demanding the cession of New Orleans; he also pro
posed that France should cede the vast territories that

OF LOUISUNA. 229
are.. to the north of the river of the Arkansas and on the
right bank of the Mississippi.* But his overtures re
mained unnoticed, the suspicions that he had long en
tertained, that new Orleans could only be obtained by
forpe of arms, became with him in some sort matters
of certainty, and his official and private correspond
ence urged the adoption of extreme measures. We
have seen that Mr. Jefferson did not participate in
these hostfle dispositions.f
* * Appendix, No. 8.
t The course of President Jefferson at this crisis was very de
cided. Notwithstanding the charge of partiality to France, usual
ly imputed to him, it will be seen by the instructions, from the
secretary of state to Messrs. Livingston and Monroe, dated April
18, 1803, and published in 1826, that war with the first consul
was regarded by the administration at Washington as probable.
In case the free navigation of the Mississippi or the right of de
posite at New Orleans was denied to the United States, the Ame
rican ininisters were directed to consult with England, with the
view of making common cause with her against France. See Ap
pendix, No. 18.
Mr. Jefferson also wrote to Mr. Livingston, as follows: —
" The day that France takes possession of New Orleans, fixes the
sentence which is to restrain her for ever within her low water
mark. It . seals the union of two nations, who, in conjunction,
can maintain exclusive possession of the Ocean. From that mo
ment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.
We must turn all our attention to a maritime force, for which our
resources place us on very high ground, and, having formed and
connected together a power which may render re-enforcement of
her settlements here impossible to France, make the -first cannon
which shall be fired in Europe the signal for tearing up any settle
ment she may have made, and for holding the two continents of
America in sequestration for the common purposes .of the united
British and American nations. This is not a state of things we
seek or desire. It is one which this measure, if adopted by France,
forces on us as necessarily, as any other cause, by the laws of na
ture, brings on its necessary effect."' — Transl.

230 THE HISTORV
The confidential letters, by which he informed Mr.
Monroe of his nomination, form a proper prelude to
the negotiation, and are calculated to make us ac
quainted with the views and foresight of this . states
man. They deserve to be preserved.
" Washington, Jan. 10, 1S03.
" Governor Monroe : —
" Dear Sir — I have but a moment to inform you,
that the fever into which the western mind is thrown ¦J-
by the affair at New Orleans, stimulated by the mef-
cantile and generally the federal interest, threatens to
overbear our peace. In this situation, we are obliged
to cafl on you for a temporary sacrifice of yourself, to
prevent this greatest of evils in the present prosperous
tide of our affairs, I shafl to-morrow nominate you to
the senate, for an extraordinary mission to France, and
the circumstances are such as to render it impossible
to decline; because the whole pubhc hope wifl be rest
ed on you. I wish you to be either in Richmond or
Albemarle tifl you receive another letter from me,
which wfll be within two days hence, if the senate de
cide immediately; or later, according to. the time they
take to decide. In the meantime, pray work night and
day, to arrange your affairs for a temporary absence—
perhaps for a long one. Accept affectionate saluta
tions. ThoMas Jefferson."
The senate sanctioned the nomination; and on the
13th of January the president wrote to his friend the
following letter: —

OF LOUISIANA. 231
" fVashington, Jan. 13, 1803.
" Dear Sir —
"L dropped you a line on the 10th, informing you
of a nomination I had made of you to the senate, and
yesterday I enclosed you their approbation, not having
then time to write. The agitation of the public mind
on occasibn of the late suspension of our right of de
posite at New Orleans is extreme. This in the west
ern country is natural, and grounded on operative mo
tives. Remonstrances, memorials, &c. are now circu
lating through the whole of that country, 9,nd signing
by the body of the people. The measures which we
have been pursuing, being invisible, do not satisfy their
minds; something sensible, therefore, has become ne
cessary, and indeed our object of purchasing New Or
leans and the Floridas, is a measure likely to assume
so many shapes, that no instructions could be squared
to fit them. It was essential, then, to send a minister
extraordinary 'to be joined with the ordinary one, with
discretionary power, first however, wefl impressed with
all our views, and therefore qualified to meet and mo
dify to these every: form of proposition vyhich could
come from the other party; This could be done only
in frequent and full oral communication. Having de
termined on this, there could not, be two opinions as
to the person. You possessed the unlimited confidence
of the administration, and of the western people, and
were you to refuse to go, no other man can be found
who does this. AU eyes are now fixed on you; and
were you to decline, the chagrin would be great, and

232 the history
would shake under your feet the high ground On whicli
you stand with the public. Indeed I know, nothing
which would produce such a shock; for on the event
of this mission depends the future destinies of this, re
pubhc. If we cannot, by a purchase^ of the country,
ensure to ourselves a course of perpetual peace and
friendship with afl nations, then, as war cannot, be far
distant, it behooves us immediately to be preparing for
that course, without, however, hastening it; and it may
be necessary, (on your failure on the continent,) to
cross the channel. We shall get entangled in Euro
pean politics, and figuring more, be much less happj?
and prosperous. This can only be prevented by a sup-
cessful issue to your present missiom- I am sensible,
after the measures you have .taken for getting into a
different line of business, that it wfll be a great sacri
fice on your part, and presents, from the-' season and
other circurastances, serious difficulties. But sqme
men are born for the public. Nature, by fitting them
for the service of the human race on a broad scale,
has stamped them with the evidences of her destina
tion and their duty."
It is apparent that New Orleans and the Floridas
were stfll the only objects of consideration. However,
it was natural to ask of the French republic, the neW
sovereign of the country, at the moment that the pos
session of Louisiana was passing from Spain to France,
redress fbr a grievance of which the intendant. Mora
les, seemed the only author, but of which nothing an-

OF LOUISIANA. 233
nbunced the definitive termination. Mr. Monroe Was,
therefore, instructed to state that a solemn treaty with
Spain had not prevented a simple depositary of the
royal authority frora ordering, at his own suggestion,
a suspension of commerce that was necessarily preju
dicial to both parties; that it was dangerous and con
trary to all rules of prudence that colonial officers, at
a distance of two thousand leagues from their sove
reign, should have the power to jeopard, by arbitrary
and capricious measures, the peace and good under
standing which their governments were desirous of
maintaining; that the surest way of preventing every
source of dispute would be the cession of the city of
New Orleans, situated on the eastern bank of the Mis
sissippi, and that this measure would tend to benefit
Western Louisiana, now the property of France, as
well as more effectually secure its possession to that
power. The directory no longer existed, but it had
made the disorders of the French finances too well
known for a foreign state to expect to treat in any
other way than with ready money. Mr. Monroe was
authorized to offer the price of this cession, which had
been fixed by the American government at two millions
of doflars.
, Untfl then the Americans had only asked that the
course of the Mississippi should be divided hy a line
that would put New Orleans within the territory of the
United States, which they declared to be the sole means
of securing to them the free navigation of the river.
Projects for the cession of the entire colony were at
30

234 the history
that time neither popular nor the subjects of much dis
cussion. It was, indeed, natural to fear that if the so
vereignty of the United States should be extended on
the right bank of the Mississippi, the unity of inte
rests, so necessary to the strength of a community,
would not only be relaxed, but that it might be entire
ly destroyed by the continual emigrations from east to
west. If the future consequences of the increase of
this new population were regarded, it could not be
hoped, without contradicting history and experience,
to embrace within the federal union regions so remote,
nor expected that congress, whatever might be its
place of meeting, could long govern the countries on
the right bank of the Mississippi. It was, on the con
trary,, indisputable that these acquisitions becoming
powerful, in their turn, would detach themselves from
the old states -whenever their interest should require it.
These observations had reference to a remote futu
rity. But a present, object, which ajffected a great
number 'of the merchants and ship owners of the
United States, was to form part of the negotiation in
trusted to Mr. Monroe. We refer to the injuries as
cribed to the directory, the government that had im
mediately preceded that of the first consul, the^ repa
ration of which the envoy was instructed to demand,
It is necessary to go back^a few years in order to
understand the object of this important part of the ne
gotiation. The interests of commerce, colonial set
tlements, and navigation have effected great changes
in the reciprocal relations of the nations of Europe.

OF LOUISIANA. 235
The independence of the United States has rendered
them stifl more complicated. But such changes are not
often remarked by statesmen themselves, tfll they have
committed great faults by persevering in old errors.
The directory, led astray by false notions of the si
tuation of the French colonies, had not remarked that
their existence depended upon the preservation of a
good understanding with the United States. Instead
of re-establishing friendly relations with the American
Union, it had, after more than once putting it in jeo
pardy, finafly broken the afliance which had been the
precious fruit of the policy of the councils of Louis
XVI. Mutual discontent had not yet resulted in direct
hostilities; but even in peace captures were made by
privateers bearing the French flag. Which became the
subject of great complaints on the part of the United
States. It was likewise, at this period, that the first
disasters of the French colonies led to the emigration
of many families, who from great opulence had fallen
into deep distress. Numbers of them took refuge in
the United States. Never was hospitality more nobly
exercised than under these circumstances; never were
more sincere and effectual consolations offered to mis
fortunes by a grateful people. This generosity towards
refugees, the objects of the persecutions of the direc
tory, was not regarded by its members as a motive for
recojicfliation with the American republic. They had in
herited the animosities of the convention, and the West
Indian possessions were the victims of them. These
colonies, prosperous in time of peace, are exposed to

236 the history
all sorts of calamities as soon as war breaks out.
Their intercourse is interrupted; a parent state, weak
at sea, can neither supply them with provisions nor ex
port their prqduce, and is most frequently incapable of
defending them. If they iresort to netitrals, this relax
ation of the prohibitory system habituates the colony
to privfleges, which make them look on the return of
peace with indifference. The directory, in order to
maintain their prohibitory laws, had permitted the lo
cal authorities to provide for the preservation of the
colonies by arming privateers, and these ageiits en
couraged them to fall indiscriminately on afl flags.
They carried their disregard of the rules of justice
and the laws of nations so far as to condemn, as law
ful prizes, ships that had entered the ports with sub-.'
sistence and provisions intended for the inhabitants of
the islands that they governed. Victor Hugues, one
of these colonial rulers, openly professed and put in
practice the raaxira, that — "In time of want all kinds
of provisions are good prize." The American go
vernment, before commencing hostilities with France,
wished to exhaust all pacific measures. It had sent
three ministers to the directory towards the end of
1797.* On their arrival at Paris they were circum
vented by all sorts of intrigues. Their correspondence
is a monument of the base manner in which the French
government at that time managed their political affairs.
" The most disgraceful cupidity," they wrote to their
* Messrs. C. C. Pinckney, Marshall, aiid Gerry.— TnAiisi..

OF LOUISIANA. 237
constituents, " was openly manifested at Paris." The
American comraissioners were told that"their govern
ment paid money to obtain peace with the Algerines
and with the Indians; and that it was doing ho more
to pay France for peace."
This negotiation lasted for six or seven months : it
was broken off when it was found impossible to con
tinue it on such erroneous principles.
Congress, without, declaring war, had announced
through the president, (John Adams,) on the 28th of
May, 1798, that, "whereat armed vessels, sailing un
der authority or pretence of authority from the repub
hc of France, have committed depredations on the
commerce of the United States in violation of the law
of nations and treaties; it should be lawful for Ameri
can armed vessels to retake any ship so captured, as
wefl as to seize and bring into port such armed ves
sels as had committed depredations on vessels belong
ing to citizens of the United States,"
The animosity was stifl increasing in 1799; when
congress, renouncing vain attempts at moderation, re
solved that all intercourse with France should be sus
pended; that the treaties had ceased to be obli:gatory;
and that the capture of French vessels was permitted.
From the beginning of the consular government a
wise policy had put a stop to all reprisals : a convention
had been signed on the 30th of September, 1800;* hut
according to a stipulation, without which the reeonci-
* The Anierican plenipotentiaries were Messrs. Ellsworth, Da
vie, and Murray.— Transl.

238 the history
hation would have been impossible, indemnities were
to be paid for afl prizes unlawfully made. Ministers
had been subsequently interchanged, and the envoy of
the United States had calculated on prompt satisfaction.
The communications which he addressed to his go
vernment authorized this hope; but the expectations
were not realized, and in fact the finances of France
had scarcely begun to emerge from the chaos in which
the bad government of the directory had plunged them.
This part of the convention of 1800 therefore re
mained unexecuted ; and this contempt of the most or
dinary rules of justifee carried the general irritation
in the United States to its greatest height. The pre
sident and his cabinet, compromitted by their modera
tion, were beginning to make their reproaches heard,
and talked of doing themselves the justice that was
refused them. The American minister at Paris had
received orders to make this discontent known, and
his notes were drawn up with a firmness to which Bo
naparte was not accustomed. If one of the continen
tal powers of Europe had dared to employ similar lan
guage, the invasion of its territory would' have been
the consequence. Congress, separated by the Atlan-',
tic Ocean, could without danger assume a menacing
attitude; and the first consul was cautious how he ex
hibited a resentment, which would have only manifest
ed his own weakness. But as the notes of Mr. Living
ston, the American minister, remained unanswered, the
injured merchants and ship owners lost their patience,
and murmured against their government The ene-

OF LOUISIANA. 239
mies Qf France in the United States, attenjtive to this
general discontent, hoped to avafl themselves of it, in
order to force the Union into an alliance with England.
These matters were discussing with warmth, when
news from the west greatly increased the public excite
ment.* Not only had the Spanish intendant put his
proclamation invforce,butnew orders forbade all com-
munication between the Louisianians and Americans,
In the number of the colonies, formed in the western
part of the United States, was one, not yet admitted
injo the Union, situated on the left bank of that river,
and denominated, not without reason, the territory of
Mississippi. It was the nearest to New Orleans, and
openly expressed more animated complaints when it
deemed moderation useless. " We saw," said these
planters, in a memorial to congress of the 5th of Ja
nuary, 1803, "our trade flourishing, our property rising
rapidly in value, and we felicitated ourselves in bejng
the free and happy citizens of an independent repub
lic. Reposing in national faith for a continued obser
vance of 5^«joMtoerf privileges, we had indulged the san
guine expectation that this , state of prosperity would
not have been so soon interrupted. A recent order
by the government of Louisiana has considerably in-
crieased the embarrassment upon our trade^ and
bfeathesa spirit of stfll greater enmity to the United
States. Conscious of the wisdom, justice, and energy
of the general government, we tender to our country
our lives and fortunes in support of such measures as
* Appendix, No, 9, 10.

240 the HISTORY
congress may deefi necessary to vindicate the honour,
and protect the interest of the United States."
This petition led to a proposal which the federal
party had secretiy prepared. About the middle of Fe
bruary, 1803, Mr. Ross, a senator from Pennsylvania,
offered a resolution, in a public sitting of the house to
which he belonged, to take possession of New Orleans
by force, " Let us not await," said he, " the arrival of
the French, but since a solemn treaty is violated, let
us not hesitate to occupy places that ought to belong
to us. The people of the west are quite ready, and
there would be excessive simplicity in supposing that
the city wfll be yielded to Us spontaneously, or even by
virtue of a treaty with the first consul."
On his pronouncing these words, another senator,
seeing the danger of a public discussion, required that
the galleries and tribunes should be cleared and the
doors closed. The proposition was opposed by those
who, with Mr. Ross, wished to inflame the pubhc mind.
But as the rule of the senate provided that the demand
of a single member should be sufficient to exclude
strangers, the sitting became secret. Mr. Ross con
tinued thus : " We must no longer await the uncertain
results of dipfomatic correspondence, Louisiana ought
to belong to the United States, the people of, the west
are irapatient to do theraselves justice; and if the
French are aflowed time to arrive, the Americans, in
those parts of the Union^ wfll refuse to pay taxes to a
government too feeble to protect them. Never will
there be so favourable an occasion to annex to the fe-

OP LOUISIANA. 241
deral union a country without which half of our states
could not exist; it is easy to seize on it, as France is
on the eve of going to war with England; the Enghsh
on their part will neglect nothing to gain the friendship
of the United States; the advances which they make
to obtain our alliance prove that they value it at a
high price, and consider it indispensable to the success
of the new measures that they are forced to adopt. It
is time to teach the world that the balance of Ameri
ca is in our hands, that we are as dominant in this
part of the globe as other nations are in Europe, that
we fear none of them, that our period of youth is over,
and that we are entering on the age of manhood and
are prepared to make use of our strength." He con
cluded his remarks by proposing to place five miflions
of doflars at the disposition of the president, and to
raise fifty thousand men to take possession of Louisi
ana by force.
The house of representatives, on its part, took up
the question, and its deliberations were likewise se
cret. When the doors were again opened, it was an
nounced that the president had been requested by the
house to correspond with the goverijors of the diffe
rent states, to urge them to organize their mflitia and
put it on the footing estabhshed by law.
The senate continued its deliberations. After two
sessions, with closed doors, it was decided that Mr.
Ross' motion should be pubhcly discussed.
Gouverneur Morris, who was in France, as the envoy
of the United States, at the beginning of the revolu-
31

242 the HISTORY
tion, was a member of this assembly. He had not
awaited this pubhc occasion to say, " that the arrival
of the French should be anticipated, that the acts of
the intendant were not revoked, that the decree of the
king of Spain announced no modification, that the
French troops were already at sea, that the inhabitants
of the menaced territories were losing patience, and
that it was tirae to come to an open rupture."
This senator was considered one of the most distin-
tinguished writers of the party denominated English.
This English policy wfll be discovered in most of the
circumstances which we are now about to narrate.
From the beginning of the revolution of the United
States, Mr, Morris had been recommended to the pub
lic suffrages by his easy and elegant elocution, and by
his talents, but stifl more by his boldness and self-con
fidence. Such qualities give to their possessors in times
of violent excitement a sort of importance, though men
of this character are rarely fit to manage pubhc affairs;
and Gouverneur Morris soon saw the end of the consi
deration which he had enjoyed. He fefl in a great
measure into obscurity, as soon as the cloudy times
passed by.
Mr. Livingston, the American minister at Paris, was
persuaded that the United States would never possess
New Orleans by treaty, and that it ought to be taken
by force. His intercourse with the French ministry
conprmed him in this impression,* and it is probable
that the opinions of Mr. Ross and Gouverneur Morris
" Mr. Monroe'.s Memoir, page 10.

OF LOUISIANA, 243
were derived from the correspondence of this envoy;
but the wise Jefferson persisted in his hopes, and tem
porized in order to avoid adopting any false measures
in the midst of so much uncertainty. Placing great
reliance on Mr. Monroe's mission, he took the utmost
care to prevent any violent proceedings in the neigh
bourhood of the Mississippi.
But this envoy had not yet quitted America; the un
certainties of navigation, and the distance did not au
thorize the hope of a prompt issue frora so many diffi
culties. England, on her side, was making seductive
proposals, and her friends, in order to induce their re
ception, might take advantage of the five or six months
which must elapse before the result of the negotiation
intrusted to this plenipotentiary could be learned at
Washington. It was known, on the 20th of February, 1 803, and
before Mr. Monroe sailed for Europe, that the com
mander of the squadron, on board of which the divi
sion of troops intended for Louisiana was embarked,
had received orders to postpone his departure. This
news, which was very agreeable to the friends of peace,
momentarily disconcerted the partisans of war or ex
treme measures. But soon resuming courage, they
had recourse to pubhcations and different artifices by
which it would be so easy to excite troubles, if the free
presses that are employed for doing mischief, were
not a stifl surer instrument of correcting it, even when
they have not been able to prevent it.

244 THE HISCORY
The discontented party had recourse to a stratagem
that did not long succeed.
An article was pubhshed in a Kentucky newspaper,
in which the eastern states were accused of sacrificing
to their own views the interests of the western states,
and the latter were advised to separate from the Union
and contract an afliance with the French republic.
The author of the piece, who was an inhabitant of
Kentucky, bore a French name. A general outcry
obliged him to keep concealed. His effigy and his
writings were burned by the people to show the hor
ror with which counsels tending to the division of the
country inspired them. At the opening of the federal
court, the grand jury, who alone could take cogni
sance of the matter, indicted the editor. The Ameri
cans have never supposed that there ought to be a dis
tinction made between political and other crimes, and
that special tribunals should be established to try them.
They know that if such a weapon was in the hands of
a party, every accused person of the other party would,
when arraigned, have to encounter the fatal preposses
sion of his judges.
The flight of this libeller put an end to the prosecu
tion; but it was fully established that every faction that
attempted to fortify itself by the support of either Eng
land or France, would draw on it the animadversion
of afl good citizens.
Congress adjourned on the 3d of March, 1803, after
having received frora the different legislatures proofs

OP LOUISIANA, 215
of their entire confidence in its wisdom, and the pro
mise of seconding it by all those measures of vigour
that circumstances might render necessary,
M. Pichon, the charge d'affaires of France, consi
dered this crisis so important, that he took it upon
himself to write to the Spanish governor of Louisiana
to conjure him to prevent hostflities by revoking the
prohibitory ordinances, of which the intendant was the
sole author.
The public mind was a little calmed by the assu
rances given by the Marquis Casa Yrujo, the minister
of Spain, in a note of March 10th, 1803, in which he
officially declared that the intendant had acted without
authority, and that, in conformity with the treaty, a
place of deposite instead of New Orleans would be
assigned, Mr, Monroe safled frora New York on the 8th of
March, 1803, but as the object of his mission was stfll
kept secret, the public apprehension was not quieted.
President Jefferson, feeling full confidence in the
measures on which he had decided, did not think pro
per to reply to those who charged him with pusiflani-
mity.* The first consul, informed of the purport of
Mr. Monroe's public instructions, supposed that the
president had also left it to the plenipotentiary's pru
dence to enter, if necessary, into more extended stipu
lations, in relation to the projected acquisition. The
possibility of a war between France and England,
*^ Appendix, No. 11.

246 THE HISTORY
which this statesman foresaw at the distance of a
thousand leagues frora Europe, had suggested to Mr.
Jefferson the raeasures which he had just adopted.
The history of the negotiation renders necessary
some details respecting the difference which arose be
tween the cabinets of the Tuileries and London in the
early part of 1803. Europe was enjoying a momenta
ry respite after the many revolutions she had, under
gone. She then witnessed the recoramenceraent of
the most violent crisis that ever perhaps affected her
repose, and which continued to agitate her during ten
years. The events that I am now going to relate are
the forerunners of every thing connected with the ces
sion of Louisiana.
The Grenvflle party, as the English termed it, was
composed of men of great capacity. They were ear
nestly intent on the increase of the royal prerogative,
which was already strengthened by the persevering po
licy of Mr. Pitt: they reckoned this statesman in their
ranks, although he affected independence, confining
himself to manifesting that hatred for France which
he had inherited from his father.
Mr. Fox was the soul of an opposition which seemed
less ambitious than zealous for the public good. He
was a worthy rival of William Pitt, and would have
triumphed over his adversary, if his private conduct
had been more in accordance with the uprightness of
his political principles.
The ministry, as it ordinarily happens, maintained a
position between the parties. It had, at its head, Mr.

OF LOUlSlAiVA. 217
Addington* and Lord Hawkesbury, since known under
the name of Lord Liverpool. Doubts have been raised
as to the sincerity of their intentions when they con
cluded the peace of Amiens; but we believe that Mr.
Addington reafly desired that it might be durable. It
has been said that the chief consul placed from the
beginning little reliance on its continuance, and that he
only regarded the peace as a truce. He pursued without
any intermission his designs in Upper Italy, and united
to France under equivocal denominations those coun
tries which had been so long disputed between her and
Austria. When these changes, and those which he was
effecting in Holland and Switzerland, had given him a
great preponderance in the affairs of Europe, he felt
that in order to confirm this new order of things and
exercise this vast supremacy, he in his turn required
the maintenance of peace. But he desired it on con
dition of being in some sort the universal dictator, and
he was so much the more averse to every concession,
as the revocation of one single act of his power would
have been foflowed by his rival's requiring the revoca
tion of afl the others.
Like all conquerors, this great captain had placed
his happiness and glory in transporting from one
country to another bodies of youthful warriors; in put
ting masses of population in motion, and in astonish
ing the world by the promptitude and success with
which he executed the vastest and most complicated
designs. But there was at this time reason to think
* Subsequently created Viscount Sidmouth, — Transl.

248 THE HISTORY
that the convulsions of erapires had less attraction for
him; he spoke of them with a sort of disdain, and ap
peared to direct the prodigious activity of his genius
to works which in peace embeflish society and secure
tranqufl enjoyments to nations.
To give to France better civfl laws, to plan a reform
of the codes, to re-establish order in the finances, to
revive comraerce and industry, were the objects to
which, assisted by able counsellors, he consecrated his
time, prolonging his labours even to midnight. If, with
these generous sentiments, he had thought that liberty,
under good laws, was the most noble present that he
could make to men, the age in which we live would
have been called by his name. Withdrawn, for a short
time, from the designs of a continental war, he con
ceived that his republic could not be flourishing with
out a commercial marine, sustained and protected by
great naval forces. He often repeated the foflowing
maxims: "Without the hberty of the sea, there is no
happiness for the world. But, to obtain this liberty, it
is requisite that the continental powers should impress
the English with serious alarm for their comraerce. In
stead of opposing to their maritime forces inefficient
fleets, instead of constructing vessels of war, which
wifl sooner or later increase the English navy, they
should, on the first appearance of hostflities, arm pri
vateers, which, issuing from afl the ports of the conti
nent of Europe in pursuit of merchant ships, would be
protected by their nuraber, and even by their disper
sion. The English cannot have recourse to reprisals,

OF LOUISIANA, 249
for they have taken possession of almost every branch
of commerce. If they leave us a few colonies, it is for
the purpose of exhausting us in vain expenses for their
preservation, and to mak-e us, in spite of ourselves, dis
posed to 'peace through the fear of losing them. Fi
nally," he added, "the hberty of the seas must be
odious to the English, because it would confine them
to their natural share in the. general prosperity."
That the possession of colonies is a dangerous bur
den to a nation, to whom the ocean is closed as soon as
a maritime war commences, was then but imperfectly
perceived, though twenty-five years later it became an
admitted truth.
The two powers were still at peace, when, in the
middle of January, 1 803, the news of the death of Ge
neral Leclerc was received; and the chief consul, per
sisting notwithstanding that event in bis first views, had
with reluctance abated his exertions for the speedy de
parture of the new forces which he purposed sending
to America.,. . .
These armaments had oply St. Domingo and Lou
isiana for their object; but nothing was farther from
the habitual policy of Napoleon than half measures
and timid efforts. There never had been an example,
while the powers of Europe were at peace, of sending
such considerable forces into remote countries. The
anxiety of the English for their colonies in the gulf
of Mexico might be easily justified, and their ambassa
dors and ministers were excusable for not putting en
tire confidence in the protestations of the first consul
32

250 THE HISTORY
on that subject. We believe that they were sincere;
but France, once great, strong, and powerful in those
seas, who could answer for the future and guaranty
Jamaica and the other British West India islands.? By
what means could the French be prevented frora get
ting possession of all the trade of the Spanish domi
nions in America.? Moderation rarely continues with
a great increase of power.
After the peace of 1802, Egypt and the Cape of
Good Hope were evacuated by the English; but they
continued to occupy the island of Malta. The first con
sul demanded that it should also be evacuated in cori-
forraity with the last treaty. He farther asked that cer
tain editors of newspapers who abused him should be
expelled from England, by virtue of the ah en law; and,
finally, he complained of plots that were formed against
him even in London, and under the direction of men
who held high offices.
The English government increased his resentment
by causing the courts of justice to interpose in these
complaints. Bonaparte was also offended with the le
niency of the punishment adjudged against the authoi:s
of the libels.
The parhament had been opened on the 23d of No
vember, 1802, and from that time it had been expe(;t-
ed, as well in consequence of the king's speech, as of
the debates to which it gave rise, that the opposition
would make every effort to render war inevitable.
"The last treaty of peace," Lord Grenville said, "was
ratified in May, and the incorpoi;atiou of Piedmopt

OF LOUISIANA. 251
took place in the ilionth of June following. Parma
and Placentia have had the same fate, and Louisiana
has been extorted from Spain by treaty." "Our natu
ral and inveterate ehemy," said Mr. Canning, " unre-
mittedly pursues his designs against our commerce and
navigation. The hostfle intentions of France towards
this country can no longer be questioned."
Both sides were far from being amicably disposed,
and the grounds Of dispute were only increased by se
veral public proceedings. The first consul, on the 8th
of Februa,ry, 1803, laid before the Corps Legislatif a
statement of the affairs of the republic, in which he
bitterly complained of a party in England that had
sworn implacable hatred to France, as well as of the
refusal of the cabinet of London for the last eleven
moiiths to execute the treaty of Amiens. In this pa
per was the following phrase: " Five hundred thousand
men must and shall be ready to defend and avenge the
republic." The English government- appeared firmly determined
not to retrograde one step, and it manifested this reso
lution ill the most public manner. On the 8th of
March the king Of England sent a message to the tWo
houses of parhament, in which he gave intimation^' of
an approaching rupture. It stated " that His Majesty
thought it necessary to acquaint them, that, as very
considerable mflitary preparations were carrying on in
the ports of France and Hofland, he had judged it ex
pedient, though these preparations were avowedly di
rected to colonial service, to adopt additional mea-

252 THE HISTORY
sures of precaution for the security of his dominions;
and that he relied with perfect confidence on their
public spirit and liberality to enable His Majesty to
adopt such measures as circumstances might appear
to require for supporting the honour of his crown and
the essential interests of his people."
Two days afterwards the two houses received a mes
sage to the foflowing effect: "That in consequence
of the formidable mihtary preparations carrying on in
the ports of France and Hofland, pending the discus
sion of an important negotiation between His Majes
ty's government and that of France, His Majesty had
thought it necessary to exercise the power vested in
him by acts of parliament for calling out and embody
ing forthwith the militia of these kingdoms."
This first cry of alarm, on the part of the ministry,
was regarded in France as the precursor of approach
ing hostflities. The governments of the two coun
tries, however, looked on the war with a sor|; of dread,
which became proportionably greater as its certainty
increased. The first consul himself, although resolved
not to yield on any point, regretted that, after having
advanced so far, he could not get out of the difficulty
with honour. But, according to his usual practice, he
soon pretended that this rupture was a fortunate oc
currence, and that had it happened two or three years
later, the vigour of his armies might have been weak
ened by repose.
The two messages of the king of England had been
foflowed by a vote for ten thousand seamen. The rage

OP LOUISIANA. 253
of the first consul was at its height. The minister of
foreign affairs received orders to throw off all disguise
with the English ambassador, and the following expla
nation only served to show that an open rupture was
near breaking out:
" Afl the world knowsj" said M. Talleyrand to Lord
Whitworth, " that the naval expedition which we were
preparing at Helvoetsluys was intended for Araerica,
and that it was on the eve of rsafling. The embarca-
tion of our troops and the departure of our fleet have,
however, been countermanded in consequence of the
messages of the king of England."
This readiness to stop the safling of an. armament,
commenced at great expense, did not at all accord
with the character of the first consul ; but, in fact, he
yielded nothing. Before he was- acquainted with the
message of the 8th of March, 1803, he had looked on
war as inevitable; he had therefore, without hesita
tion, renounced the intention of sending troops to
America, being well aware that the fleet would have
been captured during the voyage and carried into Eng
land. Thus, what M. Talleyrand promised accorded
with the new plan which had just been decided on.
After making this easy concession, the French mi
nister added : " We have wished to give proofs of our
anxious desire to calm the uneasiness of the British
government, and we hope that it wfll give us in its
turn a satisfactory answer respecting its preparations.
If our expectations are deceived, it will be necessary
that the first consul should send twenty thousand men

254 THE HISTORY
to Holland; a natural consequence of this movement
wfll be the forming of a camp on the frontiers of Ha
nover; there wifl be another one at Calais. Even the
most ordinary prudence wifl require that the French
army should be put on a war footing, and that prepa
rations should be raade for placing France in a' situa
tion to act either offensively or defensively. The first
consul was on the eve of withdrawing the troopS from
Switzerland; but he now is necessarily obliged to keep
them there, as wefl as to send new forces to Italy. Re
flect, my lord, on this state of things: if it is not one
of war, it is very near it" There was also some con
versation on the occupation of Tarentum, a post as
important as Malta for a new invasion of Egypt.
After this conference, the first consul sent DuroC to
Berlin, Colbert to Petersburg, and persons in whom he
had the greatest confidence to other courts to acquaint
them with the measures which the message of the 8th
of March had rendered necessary.
A private and almost domestic incident was then
very much commented on, and we wifl now relate it
on account of the importance of the circumstances
with which it wfis connected.
Bonaparte had not obhged himself, like other princes
little initiated in the mysteries of their own policy, to
treat with ambassadors and envoys exclusively through
a minister. He conversed with them tete-^-tete, and
even in public, and frequently avafiled himself too free
ly of his privilege of speaking in the name of a pow
erful nation. Only a few days had elapsed siUce the

OF LOUISIANA. 255
date of the two messages of the king of England.
The respective ambassadors of the two countries were
not on that account less assiduous in their attend-*
ance at audiences and formal receptions. At Paris,
these assemblies, which yvere held at the Tufleries,
were frequented by a great many persons, and the fo
reign ministers mixed with the crowd of courtiers.
One evening the first consul was seen entering in a
thoughtful, pensive mood surrounded by his usual re
tinue. He shortened the circuit which he commonly
made in the reception room, and approaching the Eng
lish ambassador, said to him in a loud voice : " You
are then determined on war.?" "No," replied Lord
Whitworth, " we are too well acquainted with the ad
vantages of peace," To these measured Avords, the
first consul, without being restrained by the presence
of so raany attentive and inquisitive personages, re
phed with warmth; " We have made war on one ano
ther for fifteen years; the storm thickens at London,
and appears to menace us. Against whom do you
take precautions.? Wherefore your armaments.? Is it
that you desire apother fifteen years' war.? I do not
arm. My good faith is manifest. . Full of confidence
in a treaty, the ink of which is hardly dry, I have not
listened to any malevolent rumour, but have banished
that mistrust which would make peace as detestable as
war. I have not a single ship of the line armed in my
ports; I have shown no hostile intentions. The con
trary supposition is an egregious calumny. I am taken
unawares, and glory in it. If the English are the first

256 THE HISTORY
to draw the sword, I will be the- last to sheathe it If
we must cover solemn treaties with black crape, if
those who have signed the peace desire war, they must
answer for it before God and man."
It was by these haughty .menaces rather than by
good arguments, — by this harsh and immethodical elo
quence, — that Napoleon meant to estabhsh his claims,
or make his enemies fear measures that he had not
yet entirely decided on.
But the English could defend their conduct by simi
lar arguments, and they were not more just in their
proceedings. Both sides had, however, in fact dis
armed, and both sides also pretended to act by way of
reprisals. The excitement Was confined, at Paris, to the pa
lace and the hotels of the ministers. At London, it
had been raanifested in parliament and among the peo
ple. The ministers were drawn on farther than they
had anticipated ; the message of the 8th of March had
rendered the opposition triumphant, and it flattered the
national vanity by offering the hope of imraediately
restoring England to the first rank which she had lost
The conquests of .Bonaparte had substituted to di-
ploraatic forms and discussions, hasty decisions adopt
ed, as it were, on the field of battle. England, so long
accustomed to interfere in afl raatters, was now in the
habit of learning, all of a sudden and without being
previously consulted, that a province or vast country
had^ changed its master and its constitution. She ex
claimed against the overthrow of the European system,

op LDUISIAiXA. U.O?
as well as against the acquisitions made by France
of the Spanish part of St. Domingo and of Louisiana;
and whilst she was complaining, the accession of other
territories disturbed still more the former condition of
Europe. The English ministry had long refused to state
clearly its complaints. At length, on the 16th of
March, Lord Hawkesbury sent a note respecting them
to the English ambassador at Paris, with orders to
communicate it. It was in* these terms : " The treaty
of Amiens, like every other antecedent treaty or con
vention, was negotiated with reference to the actual
state of possession of the different parties, and to the
treaties or public engagements by which they were bound
at the time of its conclusion; and if that state of pos
session and of engagements is so materially altered
by the act of either of the parties as to affect the na
ture of the compact itself, the other party has a right,
according to the law of nations, to interfere for the
purpose of obtaining satisfaction or compensation for
any essential difference which such acts may have sub
sequently made in their relative situation. If the in
terference of the French government in the general
affairs of Europe; if their interposition with respect to
Switzerland and Holland, whose independence was
guarantied by them at the tirae of the conclusion of
the treaty of peace; if the acquisitions which have
been made by France in various quarters, but particu
larly those in Italy, have extended the territory and in
creased the power of France, His Majesty would be
S3

258 THE HISTORY
warranted, consistently with the spirit of the treaty of
peace, in clairaing equivalents for these acquisitions
as a counterpoise to the augmentation of the power
of France. Under these circumstances, His Majesty
feels that he has no alternative, and that a just regard
to his own honour, and to the interests of his people,
makes it necessary for hira to declare that he cannot
consent that his troops should evacuate the island of
Malta until substantial security has been provided for
those objects which, under the present circurastances,
may be raaterially endangered by their removal."
On both sides the object was by the plunder of a
third party to restrain or punish a rival; but it is ma
nifest that in this career of injustice, Bonaparte had,
in Europe, at least, gone very much beyond the other
power. These important matters were discussed at the Tui
leries, at one of those private conferences, in which
the first consul, carried away by the abundance of his
ideas, energetically stated the wrongs done by his ad
versaries, without admitting that he had committed
any himself
" The principles of a maritime supremacy," he said
to his counseflors, " are subversive of one of the no
blest rights that nature, science, and genius have se
cured to man: I raean the right of traversing every sea
with as rauch liberty as the bird flies through the air; of
making use of the waves, winds, climates, and produc
tions of the globe; of bringing near to one another,
by a bold navigation, nations that have been separated

OF LOUISIANA. 2,59
since the creation; of carrying civilization into re
gions that are a prey to ignorance and barbarism.
This is what England would usurp over afl other na
tions." One of the ministers who were present enjoyed the
privilege of speaking to him with freedom. He said:
" Have not the English as raany motives for dreading
a continental supremacy and being alarmed at your
great influence over afl Europe.?" He seemed to reflect;
but, instead of replying to so direct an argument, he
turned to the extracts, which were always raade for him
from the debates in the English house of commons,
and read a passage, with which he appeared very
much irritated. "France," said the speech referred
to, " obliges us to recollect the injury which she did
us twenty-five years since, by forming an alliance with
our revolted colonies. Jealous of our commerce, na
vigation, and riches, she wishes to annihilate thera.
The proceedings of the first consul, at the end of a
peace made with too much facility, compel us to ap
peal anew to arms. The enemy, by a dash of the pen,
appropriates to himself territories more extensive than
all the conquests of France for many centuries. He
hastens his preparations; let us not wait till he attacks
us, let us attack first."
"Now," continued the first consul, "propose your
theories and your abstract propositions, and see if they
can resist the efforts of these usurpers of the sove
reignty of the sea. Leave commerce and navigation
in the exclusive possession of a single people, and the

260 THE HISTORY
globe will be subjected by their arms, and by the gold
which occupies the place Of armies." He then added
these words, in which are found the first indication of
his policy respecting the United States, and which a
sort of inaccuracy renders still more energetic. " To
eraancipate nations from the commercial tyranny of
England, it is necessary to balance her influence by a
maritime power that may one day become her rival;
that power is the United States. The English aspire
to dispose of all the riches of the world. I shall be
useful to the whole universe, if I can prevent their
ruling America as they rule Asia."
Circumstances apparently less important than con
ferences with ambassadors or speeches in parliament,
tended to redouble the habitual irritation of the first
consul. Out of the two houses the English expressed them
selves with stfll more vehemence than in the parlia
mentary debates. It was to be seen from the newspa
pers, in which public opinion manifests itself, that the
people would soon know how injurious to England had
been the policy of those who had strengthened by a
solemn treaty the establishment of a powerful repub
hc in Europe, and that liberty, once acclimated in a
country so happily situated as France, would make
advances there, which England would sooner or later
have reason to regret,
A French Journal, published in London, was particu
larly distinguished by the extreme violence with which
it was written. The intention of exciting the nation to

OF LOUISIAiNji. 261
a war plainly appeared ; and of this object, indeed, the
abuse aimed at the Chief of the French government,
did not permit a doubt to be entertained. It was known
how easfly he was irritated, and he was insulted even
in the persons of the members of his faraily. The pa
pers printed at Paris were not more moderate with re
spect to England and the reigning house, and they ex
cited more attention, as it was wefl understood that
the first consul was no stranger to their composition.
The opinion of the English was not unanimous for the
resumption of arms. Those who paid the most at
tention to the complaints raised against the treaty,
easily reraarked that coraraercial jealousy and mari-
tirae interests had the greatest share in them. Every
permanent agreement seemed impossible between two
nations, whose pretensions were so irreconcilable. The
one wished a monopoly of the commerce of the world;
the other desired to participate in it.
These discussions were to be terminated by war,
and Bonaparte, who relied on himself alone to carry it
on with success on the continent, well knew that colo
nies could not be defended without naval forces; but
so great a revolution in the plan of his foreign policy
was not suddenly made. It may even be perceived,
from the correspondence of the minister of foreign af
fairs at this period, how gradually and in what man
ner the change was effected. M. Talleyrand renewed,
after a long sflence, his communications with Mr. Li
vingston.* Bonaparte had only a very reduced navy
* Appendix, No. 12.

262 THE HISTORV
to oppose to the most formidable power, that has ever
had the dominion of the ocean. Louisiana was at the
mercy qf the English, who had a naval armament in
the neighbouring seas, and good garrisons in Jamaica
and the Windward Islands. It might be supposed that
they would /jpen the campaign by this easy conquest,
which would have silenced those voices in parliament
that were favourable to the continuance of peace. He
concluded frora this state of things that it was requisite
to change without delay his policy in relation to St.
Domingo, Louisiana, and the United States. He could
not tolerate indecision; and before the rupture was de
cided on, he adopted the same course of measures, as
if it had been certain.
He had no other plan to pursue when he abandoned
his views respecting Louisiana than to prevent the loss,
which France was about sustaining, being turned to
the advantage of England. He, however, conceived
that he ought, before parting with it, to inform himself
respecting the value of an acquisition, which was the
fruit of his own negotiations, and the only one that had
not been obtained by the sword.
Though full of confidence in himself, and in his me
thod of forming a prompt and bold decision on state
affairs,' he willingly consulted those who possessed
practical experience, and he had too much reliance in
his own powers to fear engaging in a discussion. He
Soraetiraes allowed it to be perceived to which side he
inclined, and he was not above that pahry artifice, so
common with many persons, who, though they ask ad-

OF LOUISIANA. 263
vice, forra beforehand an opinion which they desire to
see triumph.
He wished to have the opinion of two ministers, who
had been acquainted with those countries, and to one
of whom the administration of the colonies was fami
liar. He was in the habit of explaining himself, with
out preparation or reserve, to those in whom he had
confidence. On Easter Sunday, the 10th of April, 1803, after
having attended to the solemnities and ceremonies of
the day, he called those two counsellors to him, and ad
dressing them with that vehemence and passion which
he particularly manifested in political affairs, said; "1
know the full value of Louisiana, and I have been de
sirous of repairing the fault of the French negotiator
who abandoned it in 1763. A few lines of a treaty
have restored it to rae, and I have scarcely recovered
it when I must expect to lose it But if it escapes from
me, it shafl one day cost dearer to those who oblige
me to strip myself of it than to those to whom I wish
to dehver it The English have successively taken
frora France, Canada, Cape Breton, Newfoundland,
Nova Scotia, and the richest portions of Asia. They
are engaged in exciting troubles in St. Domingo. They
shafl not have the Mississippi which they covet. Lou
isiana is nothing in comparison with their conquests in
afl parts of the globe, and yet the jealousy they feel at
the restoration of this colony to the sovereignty of
France, acquaints me with their wish to take posses
sion of it, and it is thus that they wifl begin the war.

264 THE HISTORY
They have twenty ships of war in the gulf of Mexico, they
safl over those seas as sovereigns, whflst our affairs in
St. Domingo have been growing worse every day since
the death of LeclerC. The conquest of Louisiana would
be easy, if they only took the trouble to make a de
scent there. I have not a moment to lose in putting it
out of their reach. I know not whether they are not
already there. It is their usual course, and if I had
been in their place, I would not have waited. I wish,
if there is stifl time, to take from them any idea that
they may have of eVer possessing that colony. I think
of ceding it to the United States. I can scarcely say ¦
that I cede it to them, for it is not yet in our possession.
If, however, I leave the least time to our enemies, I
shall only transmit an empty tide to those republicans
whose friendship I seek. They only ask of me one
town in Louisiana, but I already consider the colony
as entirely lost, and it appears to me that in the hands
of this growing power, it wfll be more useful to the po-
Ucy and even to the commerce of France, than if I
should attempt to keep it."
One of these ministers had served in the auxiliary
army sent by France to the United States during their
revolution. The other had, for ten years, been in the
pubhc employ, either as secretary of the French lega
tion to the continental congress, or as the head of the
administration of St. Domingo.
"We should not hesitate," said the last minister,
" to make a sacrifice of that which is about slipping
from us. War with England is inevitable; shafl we be

OF LOUISIANA. 265
able with very inferior naval forces to defend Louisi
ana against that power.? The United States, justly
discontented with our proceedings, do not hold out to
us a solitary haven, not even an asylum, in case of re
verses. They have just becorae reconcfled with us, it
is true; but they have a dispute with the Spanish go-
vernraent, and threaten Nevv Orleans, of which we shall
only have momentary possession. At the tirae of the
discovery of Louisiana the neighbouring provinces
were as feeble as herself; they are now powerful, and
Louisiana is stfll in her infancy. The country is scarce
ly at all inhabited ; you have not fifty soldiers there.
Where are your means of sending garrisons thither.?
Can we restore fortifications that are in ruins, and con
struct a long chain of forts upon a frontier of four hun
dred leagues.? If England lets you undertake these
things, it is because they will drain your resources, and
she wifl feel a secret joy in seeing you exhaust your
self in efforts of which she alone wfll derive the profit.
You wifl send out a squadron; but, while it is crossing
the ocean, the colony will fafl, and the squadron will in
its turn be in danger. Louisiana i^ open to the English
from the north by the great lakes, and if, to the south,
they show themselves at the mouth of the Mississippi,
New Orleans wifl imraediately fall into their hands.
What consequence is it to the inhabitants to whom they
are subject, if their country is not to cease to be a co
lony.? This conquest would be stifl easier to the Ame
ricans; they can reach the Mississippi by several navi
gable rivers, and to be masters of the country it will be
34

266 THE HISTORY
sufficient for them to enter it The population and re
sources of one of these two neighbours every day in
crease; and the other has maritime means sufficient to
take possession of every thing that can advance her
commerce. The colony has existed for a century, and
in spite of efforts and sacrifices of every kind the last
accounts of its population and resources attest its
weakness. If it becomes a French colony and acquires
increased importance, there wifl be in its very prosperi
ty a germ of independence, which will not be long in
developing itself. The more it flourishes, the less
chances we wifl have of preserving it. Nothing is more
uncertain than the future fate of the European colonies
in America. The exclusive right which the parent
states exercise over these remote settlements becomes
every day more and more precarious. The people feel
humbled at being dependent on a small country in Eu
rope, and wfll liberate themselves, as soon as they have
a, consciousness of their own strength.
" The French have attempted to form colonies in
several parts of the continent of America. Their
efforts have every where proved abortive. The Eng
lish are patient and laborious, they do not fear the so
litude and silence of newly settled countries. The
French man, lively and active, requires society; he is fond
of conversing with his neighbours. He willingly enters
on the experiment, but at the first disappointment, quits
the spade or axe for the chase," The first consul, in
terrupting these observations, asked how it happened
that the French, who were incapable of succeeding in

OF LOUISIANA. 267
a continental colony, had always made great progress
in the West Indies. " Because," replied the minister,
" the slaves perform afl the labour. The whites, who
would be soon exhausted by the heat of the cliraate,
have, however, the vigour of body and mind necessary
to direct their operations." — " I am again," said the first
consul, " undecided as to maintaining or abolishing sla
very. By whom is the land cultivated in Louisiana.?"
" Slavery," answered the minister, " has given to Lou
isiana half her population. An inexcusable imprudence
was comraitted in suddenly granting to the slaves of
St. Domingo, a liberty for which they had not been pre
pared. The blacks and whites have both been the
victims of this great fault. But, without inquiring at
this day how it would be proper to repair it^ let us ac
knowledge that the colonies where slavery is preserved
are rather burdensome than useful to France, At the
same time, let us beware how we abandon them; they
have not the means of governing themselves. The
Creoles are French, they have been encouraged in that
mode of culture, and in that system which now causes
their misfortunes. Let us preserve thera frora new ca-
laniities. It is our duty to provide for their defence,
for the administration of justice and for the cares of
government. But for what good purpose would you
subject yourself to stifl greater embarrassments in
Louisiana.? You would there constantiy have the co
lonial laws in colhsion with those at home. Of afl the
scourges that have afflicted the human race, slavery
is the most detestable; but even humanity requires

268

THE HISTORY

great precautions in the application of the remedy,
and you cannot apply it if Louisiana should again be
come French, Governments still half resist eman
cipation: they tolerate in secret what they ostensibly
condemn, and they are themselves embarrassed by
their false position. The general sentiment of the
world is favourable to emancipation ; it is in vain
that the colonists and planters wish to arrest a move
ment which pubhc opinion approves. The occupation
of Jjouisiana — a colony with slaves — wifl occasion us
more expense than it wfll afford us profit,
"But there is another kind of slavery of which this.
colony has lost the habit: it is that of the exclusive
system. Do you expect to re-establish it in a country
contiguous to one where commerce enjoys the great
est liberty.? The reign of prohibitory laws is over,
when a numerous population has decided to throw ofi"-
the yoke. Besides, the productions which were so
long possessed exclusively by a few commercial peo
ple, are ceasing to be. privileged articles. The sugar
cane and the coffee tree are every where cultivated,
and at a very small expense. Every people expects to
raise on its own account all the provisions adapted to
its territory and climate. There are on the globe, be
tween the tropics, lands a thousand times more exten
sive than our islands, and susceptible of the same kind
of culture. Monopoly is rendered impossible when the
productions are so multiphed, and the Louisianians
wifl not permit it to enslave their commerce. Would
you subdue resistance by force of arms .? The male-

OF LOUISIANA. 269
contents wifl find support in the neighbourhood, and
you wfll make the United States, with whom recipro
cal interests ought to connect us for centuries, enemies
of France. Do not expect from the Louisianians any
attachment for your person. They render homage to
yOur fame and to your exploits; but the love of nations
is reserved for those princes whom they regard as the
authors of their happiness; and, whatever maybe your
sohcitude with respect to theirs, it will be for a long
time and perhaps for ever without effect. These co
lonists have lost the recoflection of France; they are
of three or four different nations, and hardly regard
Louisiana as their country. Laws which are incessant
ly varying, chiefs who cannot know those whom they
are sent to govern, and are not known by them, changes
effected according to the unsettled interests of the
ruling state or the inexperience of ministers, the con
tinual danger of becoming befligerents in quarrels to
which they are really strangers; such are the causes
which have for a hundred years extinguished in their
hearts every sentiment of affection for masters who
are two thousand leagues distant from them, and who
would exchange thera or convey thera away like an ar
ticle of merchandise. In order that a country should
exist and possess citizens, the certainty of stability
must be united with the feeling of prosperity. The
Louisianians, on learning that they had again become
French, said to one another, ' This change will not last
longer than the others.' If, citizen consul, you, who j;|ave
by' one of the first acts of your government made suf-

270 THE HISTORY
ficientiy apparent your intention of giving this country
to France, now abandon the idea of keeping it, there
is no person that wifl not admit that you only yield to
necessity, and even our merchants will soon acknow
ledge that Louisiana free, offers to them more chances
of profit than Louisiana subjected to a monopoly.
Commercial establishments are at this day preferable
to colonies, and even without commercial establish-
inents it is best to let trade take care of itself"
The other minister was of a totally opposite opinion.
"We are stifl at peace with England," said he, " the
colony has just been ceded to us, it depends on the
first consul to preserve it. It would not be wise in him
to abandon, for fear of a doubtful danger, the most im
portant establishment that we can form out of France,
and despoil ourselves erf it for no other reason than
the possibility of a war: it would be as well, if not bet
ter, that it should be taken from us by force of arms. If
peace is maintained the cession cannot be justified, and
this premature act of ill-founded apprehension would
occasion the most lively regrets. To retain it would,
on the other hand, be for our comraerce and naviga
tion an inestimable resource, and to our maritime pro
vinces the subject of universal joy. The advantages
which we have derived from the colonies are stifl pre
sent to every mind. Ten flourishing cities have been
created by this trade; and the navigation, opulence,
and luxury which embeflish Paris are the results of co
lon^ industry. There can be no marine without co
lonies; no colonies without a powerful marine! The

OF LOUISIANA, 271
political system of Europe is only preserved by a skil
fully combined resistance of many against one. This
is as necessary with respect to the sea as to the land,
if it is not intended to submit to the tyranny of a uni
versal sovereignty our commerce and the loss of the
immense advantages of a free navigation. To this you
will not submit ; you will not acknowledge by your re
signation that England is the sovereign mistress of the
seas, that she is there invulnerable, and that no one
can possess colonies except at her good pleasure. It
does not become you to fear the kings of England. If
they should seize on Louisiana, as sopie would have
you fear, Hanover would be imraediately in your hands
as a certain pledge of its restoration. France, de
prived of her navy and her colonies, is stripped of half
her splendour, and of a great part of her strength.
Louisiana can indemnify us for all our losses. There
does not exist on the globe a single port, a single city
susceptible of becoming as important as New Orleans,
and the neighbourhood of the American states already
mali.es it one of the most commercial in the world.
The Mississippi does not reach there tfll it has re
ceived twenty other rivers, most of which surpass in
size the finest rivers of Europe. The country is at last
known, the principal explorations have been made, and
expenses have not been spared, especially by Spain.
Forts exist: some fertile lands suitable to the richest
kinds of culture are already fully in use, and others
only a^ait tlie necessary labour: this colony, open to

¦272 THE HISTORY
the activity of the French, wfll soon compensate them
for the loss of India.
" The chmate is the same as that of Hindostan, and
the distance is only a quarter as great. The naviga
tion to the Indies, by doubling the Cape of Good Hope,
has changed the course of trade frora Europe, and ru
ined Venice and Genoa. What wfll be its direction, if
at the isthmus of Panama a simple canal should be
opened to connect the one ocean with the other.? The
revolution which navigation wifl then experience wfll
be stifl more considerable, and the circumnavigation
of the globe* Myll become easier than the long voy
ages that are now made in going to and returning from
India. Louisiana wifl be on this new route, and it will
then be acknowledged that this possession is of ines
timable value.
" A boundless country belongs to us, to which the
savages possess only an imaginary right. They over
run vast deserts, with the bow in their hand, in pursuit
of wfld beasts. But the social state requires that the
land should be occupied, and these wandering hunters
are not proprietors. The Indian has only a right to
his subsistence, and this we will provide for him at a
smafl expense.
" Afl the productions of the West Indies suit Lou
isiana. This variety of products has already intro
duced large capitals into countries that were so long
an uninhabited wflderness, ! If we must abandon St,
Domingo, Louisiana wifl take its place. Consider

OF LOUISIANA. 273
likewise the injury which it may do us if it becomes
our rival in those productions, of which we have so
long had the monopoly. Attempts have been made to
introduce there the vine, the olive, and the mulberry
tree; and these experiraents, which Spain has not been
able to prevent, have but too well succeeded. If the
colony should become free, Provence and our vine
yards raust prepare for a fearful competition with a
country new and of boundless extent. If, on the other
hand, it is subjected to our laws, every kind of culture
injurious to our productions wfll be prohibited^
" It is even for the advantage of Europe that France
should be rich. So long as she shared with England
the comraerce of America and Asia, the princes and
cabinets that consented to be subsidized, profited by the
competition in their offers. What a difference wifl it
make to them all, if there is to be no more competi
tion, and if England alone is to regulate this tariff of
amity among princes! Alone rich, she alone would
give the law.
"Finally, France, after her long troubles, requires
such a colony for her internal pacification; it wfll be
for our country what a century ago were for England,
the settiements which the emigrants from the three
kingdoms have raised to so high a degree of prospe
rity: it wfll be the asylum of our religious and politi
cal dissenters, it wfll cure a part of the maladies which
the revolution has caused, and be the supreme con^j
ciliator of all the parties into which we are divided.
35

274 THE HISTORY
You will there find the remedies for which you search
with so niuch solicitude."
The first consul terminated the conference without
making his intentions known. The discussions were
prolonged into the night. The ministers remained at
St. Cloud; and at daybreak he summoned the one who
had advised the cession of Louisiana, and made him
read the despatches that had just arrived from Lon
don. His ambassador informed him that naval and
mflitary preparations of every kind were making with
extraordinary rapidity.
" The English," said Napoleon, " ask of me Lampe-
dousa, which does not belong to me, and at the same
time wish to keep .Malta for ten years. This island,
where mflitary genius has exhausted all the means of
defensive fortification to an extent of which no one
without seeing it can form an idea, would be to them
another Gibraltar. To leave it to the English would
be to give up to them the comraerce of the Levant,
and to rob my southern provinces of it. They wish
to keep this possession, and have me imraediately eva
cuate Holland.
" Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in sea
son. I renounce Louisiana. It is not only New Or
leans that I wfll cede, it is the whole colony without
any reservation. I know the price of what I abandon,
and I have sufficiently proved the importance that I at
tach to this province, since ray first diploraatic act with
Spain had for its object the recovery of it. I renounce

OP LOUISIANA. 275
it with the greatest regret. To attempt 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 in
terview this very day with Mr. Livingston; but I re
quire a great deal of money for this war, and I would
not hke to commence it with new contributions. For
a hundred years France and Spain have been incurring
expenses for improvements in Louisiana, for which its
trade has never indemnified them. Large sums, which
will never be returned to the treasury, have been lent
to companies and to agriculturists. The price of all
these things is justly due to us. If 1 should regulate
my terms, according to the value of these vast regions
to the United States, the indemnity would have no li
mits. I will be moderate, in consideration of the ne
cessity in which I am of making a sale. But keep this
to yourself I want fifty millions, and for less than that
sum 1 wifl not treat; I would rather make a desperate
attempt to keep these fine countries. To-morrow you
shall have your full powers." The new plenipotentia
ry then made some general observations on the ces
sion of the rights of sovereignty, and upon the aban-
donraent of what the Germans call the souls, as to whe
ther they could be the subject of a contract of sale or
exchange. Bonaparte rephed; "You are giving me
in afl its perfection the ideology of the law of nature
and nations. But I require money to make war on the
richest nation of the world. Send your raaxims to
London; I am sure that they wifl be greatly admired

276 THE HISTORY
there, and yet no great attention is paid to thera when
the question is, the occupation of the finest regions of
Asia. " Perhaps it wfll also be objected to me, that the
Americans may be found too powerful for Europe in
two or three centuries: but my foresight does not em
brace such remote fears. Besides, we may hereafter
expect rivalries among the members of the Union.
The confederations, that are called perpetual, only last
tifl one of the contracting parties finds it to its, interest
to break them, and it is to prevent the danger, to
which the colossal power of England exposes us, that
I would provide a remedy."
The minister made no reply. The first consul conti
nued : " Mr. Monroe is on the point of arriving. To
this minister, going two thousand leagues from his
constituents, the president must have given, after de
fining 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 pre
pared for a decision which goes infinitely beyond any
thing that they are about to ask of us. Begin by
making them the overture, without any subterfuge.
You wfll 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. Ob
serve the greatest secrecy, and recomraend it to the
American ministers; they have not a less interest than

OF LOUISIANA. 277
yourself in conforming to this counsel. You will cor
respond with M, de Tafleyrand, who alone knows ray
intentions. If I attended to his advice, France would
confine her ambition to the left bank of the Rhine, and
would only make war to protect the weak states and
to prevent any dismemberment of her possessions.
But he also admits that the cession of Louisiana is
not a dismemberment of France, Keep him informed
of the progress of this affair."
The conferences began the same day between Mr.
Livingston and M, Barbe Marbois, to whom the first
consul confided this negotiation. But the American
minister had not the necessary powers. He had re
sided at Paris about two years. The first object of
his mission had been indemnities claimed by his coun
trymen for prizes made by the French during peace.
The vague answers, and even the expectations that
had been held out to him, had been attended with no re
sult The repubhcan pride had been irritated, and Mr.
Livingston, who had becorae distrustful, feared that the
overtures relating to Louisiana were only an artifice to
gain tirae. He received, without putting entire confi
dence in it, the overture which was raade to hira by
Marbois of a cession of the whole province. Howe
ver, after some discussion on a sura that was vaguely
brought forward, he refused to go beyond thirty mil
lions, saving an augmentation of this price by the
amount of the indemnity to be given for the prizes
taken frora the Americans in time of peace. He was,
indeed, unwifling to agree upon so high a price, unless

278 THE HISTORY
the stipulation was accompanied by a clause of not
making any payments till after the ratification by con
gress. These preliminary discussions were scarcely entered
on, and their results could not have been anticipated,
when information was received of the landing of Mr.
Monroe at Havre.
Mr. Livingston, always inclined to feel distrust, in
which he seemed to be justified by the raany decep
tions that had been previously practised on him, wrote
to Mr. Monroe, on his arrival, that the true means of
succeeding in his negotiation was, " to give an assu
rance that the United States were already in possession
of New Orleans."* Mr. Monroe arrived at Paris on
the 12th of Aprfl, and immediately had with his col
league a conference, little calculated to make hira ex
pect success from his mission. " I wish," said Mr. Li
vingston to him, " that the resolution offered by Mr,
Ross in the senate had been adopted. Only force can
give us New Orleans. We raust employ force. Let us
first get possession of the country and negotiate after-
wards."t Mr. Monroe, anxious, though not discouraged, began
his conferences the next day with M, de Marbois.
Up to this period the controversy had its branches
on the Mississippi, at Washington, at Paris, and at Ma
drid. The French and Spanish courts, having their at
tention drawn to other subjects, did not even corres-
* Appendix, No. 13.
t Journal of the mission by Colonel John Mercer. Mr. Mon
roe's Memoir.

OP LOUISIANA. 279
pond respecting it with their ministers at Washington ;
and these envoys, left to theraselves, were under the
necessity of acting at a venture. The arrival of Mr.
Monroe changed this state of things. The powers of
which he was the bearer were common to him and Mr.
Livingston. The French and American ministers had
an equal interest in not allowing the negotiation to lin
ger; it had at last a central point, and made rapid pro
gress. The first difficulties were smoothed by a circum
stance, which is rarely raet with in congresses and di
plomatic conferences. The plenipotentiaries having
been long acquainted, were disposed to treat one ano
ther with mutual confidence.
Mr. Livingston, chancellor of the State of New
York, had been a meraber of congress and minister of
foreign affairs. He was the head of one of those pa
trician families, which in consequence of former ser
vices, honourable conduct, and a large fortune worthily
employed, are the ornaments of the states to which
they belong. Mr. Monroe, who had previously been
governor of the state of Virginia, is the same indivi
dual, who has since been president of the United States
for eight years, and justified in that high office the con
fidence of his feflow citizens. Marbois, who was em
ployed to negotiate with them, had been engaged for
thirty-five years in public affairs of great iraportance;
for which his qualifications had been a correct judg
ment, and a character thoroughly independent. He
bad during the whole war of the American revolution

280 THE HISTORY
resided near the congress. The affairs of this new
power had long been familiar to him, and those of the
southern continent had become equally so by a parti
cular circumstance. The French directory, whose im
proper measures he had always opposed, had revenged
themselves by banishing him to Sinnamari, and two
years and a half of exfle had raade him stifl better ac
quainted with the wants, and general condition of the
colonies. The three negotiators had seen the origin of the
American repubhc, and for a long time back their re
spective duties had established between them an inter
course on public affairs, and an intimacy, which does
not always exist between foreign envoys, and the mi
nisters of the power to which they are sent. They
could not see one another again without recollecting
that they had been previously associated in a design,
conceived for the happiness of mankind, approved by
reason and crowned after great vicissitudes by a glo
rious success. This good understanding of the pleni
potentiaries did not prevent their considering it a duty
to treat, on both sides, for the conditions most advan
tageous to their respective countries.
Mr. Monroe, still affected by the distrust of his col
league, did not hear without surprise the first overtures
that were frankly made by M. de Marbois. Instead of
the cession of a town and its inconsiderable territory,
a vast portion of America was in some sort oftered to
the United States. They only asked for the mere right
of navigating the Mississippi, and their sovereignty

OF LOUISIANA. 281
was about to be extended over the largest rivers of the
world. They passed over an interior frontier to carry
their limits to the great Pacific Ocean.
Deliberation succeeded to astonishment. The two
joint plenipotentiaries, without asking an opportunity
for concerting measures out of the presence Of the
French negotiator, immediately entered on explana
tions, and the conferences rapidly succeeded' one ano
ther. The negotiation had three objects. First, the ces
sion, then the price, and^ finally, the indemnity due for
the prizes and their cargoes. After having comrauni-
cated their respective views on these different points,
it was agreed to discuss them separately, and even to
make three distinct treaties. The subject of the ces
sion was first considered. The full powers of the Ame
rican plenipotentiaries only extended to an arrange
ment respecting the left bank of the Mississippi, in
cluding New Orleans. It was impossible for them to
have recourse to their government for more ample in
structions, Hostflities were on the eve of commencing.
The American plenipotentiaries had not to reflect long
to discover that the circumstances, in which France
was placed, were the most fortunate for their country.
In the space of twenty-five years, the United States
had, by treaties with the European powers and the In
dians, gradually advanced to the Mississippi, By the
proposed cession, vast regions to the west were about
to belong to them without dispute* It relieved them
from the necessity of erecting forts and maintaining
36

282 IHE HISTOR\
garrisons on a French frontier, Whflst ambition and
passion for conquests expose the nations of Europe to
continual wars, commerce, agriculture, equitable laws,
and a wise liberty must guaranty to the United States
afl the benefits of the social state, without any of its
dangers. A serious but pacific struggle might then
take place between the enlightened and improved in
dustry of the old nations, and the territorial riches of
a new people; and this rivalship, useful to the world,
was going to be exercised in the most extensive career
that has ever been opened to the efforts of man.
At the same time, a consideration of another de
scription was presented to the view of the negotiators.
They were about once more to dispose of Louisiana,
not only without consulting its inhabitants, but with
out its being possible that they should suspect, at the
distance of two thousand leagues, that their dearest
interests were then to be decided on. The three mi
nisters expressed their sincere regrets at this state of
things. But a preliminary of this nature was rendered
impossible by circurastances, and to defer the cession
would have been to make Louisiana a colony of Eng
land — to render that power predominant in America,
and to weaken for Centuries the state whose aggran
dizement in that part of the globe the whole world
must desire. This difficulty, which could not be solved,
was at once set aside.
As soon as the negotiation was entered on, the Ame
rican ministers declared that they were ready to treat
on the footing of the cession of the entire colony, and

OP LOUISIANA,

283

they did not hesitate to take on theraselves the respon
sibility of augmenting the gum that they had been au
thorized to offer. The draft of the principal treaty
was communicated to thera. They had prepared ano
ther one, but consented to adopt provisionafly as the
basis of their conferences that of the French negotia
tor, and they easily agreed on the declaration contained
in the first article; "The colony or province of Louisi
ana is ceded by France to the United States, with all
its rights and appurtenances, as fully and in the same
manner as they have been acquired by the French re
pubhc, by virtue of the third article of the treaty con
cluded with His Catholic Majesty at St. Ildephonso, on
the 1st of October, 1800." Terras so general seemed,
however, to render necessary some explanations, rela
tive to the true extent of Louisiana. The Americans
at first insisted on this point. They connected the
question of limits with a guarantee on the part of
France, to put them in possession of the province, and
give thera the enjoyment of it
In treaties of territorial cession, the guarantee of
the grantor is a usual clause. Publicists even assert
that where it is omitted in terms, it is not the less obli
gatory of right.
There were some historical and diplomatic research
es on the first occupation and earhest acts of sove
reignty. But they were only attended with the results
usual in such cases. Travellers and historians had
not left on this subject any but vague and general no
tions : they had only narrated some accidents of na-

284 THE HISTORY
vigation, some acts of occupation, to which contradic
tory ones might be opposed. According to old docu
ments, the bishopric of Louisiana extended to the Pa
cific Ocean, and the limits of the diocess thus defined
were secure from afl dispute. But this was at the most
a matter in expectancy, and the Indians of these re
gions never had any suspicion of the spiritual jurisdic
tion, which it was designed to exercise over them.
Besides, it had no connexion with the rights of sove
reignty and property. One important point was, how
ever, beyond afl discussion; according to the then ex
isting treaties, the course of the Mississippi, in descend
ing this river to the thirty-first degree of north latitude,
formed the boundary line, leaving to. the United States
the country on its left bank; to the right, on the other
hand, there were vast regions without well defined boun
daries, although France had formerly included a great
part of thera in what was cafled Upper Louisiana: this
was particularly the case with the territories to the
south of the Missouri.
The liraits of Louisiana and Florida, to the south
of the thirty-first degree, were not free frora some dis
putes, which possessed importance on account of the
neighbourhood of the sea, and the embouchure of the
rivers. However, this country, disregarded by the Eu
ropean powers, that successively possessed it, was
scarcely mentioned in the conferences. France had
had only the smaflest portion of it. The name of Flori
da could not have been inserted in the treaty without
preparing great difficulties for the future.

OP LOUISIANA, 283
The boundary to the north and north-west was stifl
less easy to describe. Even the course of the Missis
sippi might give rise to some border disputes; for that
great river receives beyond the forty-third degree se
veral branches, then regarded as its sources. A geo
graphical chart vvas before the plenipotentiaries. They
negotiated with entire good faith ; they frankly agreed
that these matters were full of uncertainty, but they had
no means of quieting the doubts. The French nego
tiator said; " Even this map informs us that many of
these countries are not better known at this day than
when Columbus landed at the Bahamas; no one is ac
quainted with them. The English themselves have ne
ver explored them. The circumstances are too press
ing to permit us to concert matters on this subject with
the court of Madrid. It would be too long before this
discussion could be terminated, and perhaps that go
vernment would wish to consult the viceroy of Mexico.
Is it not better for the United States to abide by a ge
neral stipulation, and, since these territories are still at
this day for the most part in the possession of the In
dians, await future arrangements, or leave the matter
for the treaty stipulations that the United States may
make with them and Spain.? In granting Canada to
the English, at the peace of 1763, we only extended
the cession to the country that we possessed. It is,
however, as a consequence of that treaty, that Eng
land has occupied territory to the west, as far as the
great Northern Ocean." Whether the American ple
nipotentiaries had themselves desired what was pro-

286 THE HISTORY
posed to them, or that these words afforded thera a
ray of light, they declared that they kept to the terms
of the 3d article of the treaty of St. Ildephonso, which
was inserted entire in the first article of the treaty of
cession.* M. Marbois, who offered the draft, said several times;
" The first article may in time give rise to difficulties,
they are at this day insurmountable; but if they do not
stop you, I, at least, desire that your government should
know that you have been warned of them."
It is in fact important not to introduce ambiguous
clauses into treaties: however, the American plenipo
tentiaries made no more objections, and if, in appear
ing to be resigned to these general terras through ne
cessity, they considered them reafly preferable to more
precise stipulations, it must be admitted that the event
has justified their foresight. The shores of the West
ern Ocean were certainly not included in the cession;
but the United States are already estabhshed there.
The French negotiator, in rendering an account of
the conference to the first consul, pointed out to him
the obscurity of this article and the inconveniencies of
so uncertain a stipulation. He replied, " that if an ob
scurity did not already exist, it would perhaps be good
policy to put one there."
We have reported this answer in order to have an
opportunity of observing that the article finds a better
justification in the circumstances of the time, and that
sound policy disavows all obscure stipulations. If they
* Appendix, No. 14.

op Louisiana. 287
are sometimes advantageous at the moment of a diffi
cult negotiation, they may afford matter in the sequel
for the greatest embarrassments.
Before passing to the other articles of the treaty, we
wifl conclude our remarks on the subject of the boun
daries. The negotiations which took place several years af
terwards with Spain, relative to the limits of Louisia
na, were long and difficult* The government of the
* Louisiana was ceded by France to the United States, with all
its rights and appurtenances, as fully and in the same manner as
they had been acquired by the French republic. The treaty of St.
Ildephonso retrocedes to France, "the province of Louisiana, vith
the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that
it had when France possessed it; and such as it should be after the
treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other states."
To understand the question, long agitated between the United
States and Spain, it is necessary to remember that Louisiana was
dismembered by France in 1762-3; the portion east of the Missis
sippi, excepting the island of Orleans, being conveyed to England,
and the remainder of the province to Spain. The section which
was ceded to Great Britain includes what is now Illinois, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Mississippi, and PFest Florida.
By the same treaty that France ceded the eastern part of Lou
isiana to England, Spain also yielded to her Florida and all that
she possessed on the continent of North America to the east and
south-east of the Mississippi. By the treaty of 1783 between Spain
and Great Britain, the latter power, granted to the former not only
all of Florida that she had lost in the preceding war, but also a con
siderable portion of what had been held by France as Louisiana.
Under these circumstances, it was contended by the United States
that they were entitled by the treaties of cession from Spain to France
and from France to the United States, not only to the portion of Lou
isiana, which Spain had received direct from France in 1762-3, and
to which it was attempted to restrict their claim, but to the whole of
the province possessed by France before the dismemberment, so
far as Spain was capable of ceding it at the date of the treaty of

288 THE HISTORi
United States, instead of frankly acknowledging that
there was ground for reasonable doubts, attempted to
establish their claims as incontestable. The ministers
of the catholic king put forward maxims which appa
rently belong to the law of nations, but which are with
out any efficacy when they have only publicists for
champions. The following passage is extracted from
a note addressed by Don Louis de Onis to the secre
tary of state, on the 5th of January, 1813, ten years
after the cession : " It is a principle of public law that
the property of a lake, of a strait of the sea, or of a
country, whatever may be its extent, is acquired by the
occupation of its principal points, provided no other
power has made a settlement in the interior." Thus
spoke the minister. A few years afterwards, the vast
possessions of Spain in America were withdrawn from
her sovereignty.
The cession of the Floridas, by confounding the two
territories, put an end to a discussion tifl that time inex
tricable respecting the eastern boundaries of Louisiana;
the western were then the more easily settled, as Spain
already found herself under the necessity of removing
every obstacle that might tend to render her interests
complicated in those countries; and the treaty con
cluded on the 22d of February, 1819, terminated one
of the disputes in which this power was involved. It
was then agreed that the Sabine should separate the
dominions of the two states,
St. Ildephonso, and including, of course, a part of what was then
called Florida, See Appendix, No. 19. — Transl.

OP LOUISIANA. 289
This same treaty determines their boundary line, in
going from the sources of the Arkansas to the Pacific
Ocean. It follows the course of the Arkansas to its
sources in the forty-second degree, and thence pro
ceeds by that parallel of latitude to the South Sea,
An ukase of the Emperor Alexander of the /^th of
September, 1821, asserts that the claims of Russia
to the north-west coast of Araerica extend from the
northern extremity of that continent to the fifty-first
degree of north latitude,* It is likewise at the fifty-
first degree that the United States, setting out from
the forty-second degree, limit their pretensions. They
have even shown a disposition to stop at the forty-ninth
degree. England and the United States have not been able
to agree on the occupation of these regions. By a
convention of the 20th of October, 1818, the territory
respectively claimed by thera was to be open for ten
years to the subjects of both powers. This terra has
' recentiy expired, and the arrangement has probably
terminated.t In pursuance of the treaty of Ghent, the
important post on the Columbia river was restored by
the Enghsh to the United States.
* By the 3d article of the convention of iSt, Petersburg, of the
¦5^tli of April, 1824, it was agreed that no Russian establishment
should be formed on the north-west coast of America, south of 54°
40' north latitude, and no American north of the same parallel. —
Thansl. 1
t This agreement was indefinitely renewed by the convention of
the 6th of August, 1827, as will be seen in a note to Part HI. —
Transl, 37

290 THE HISTORT
The cession of Louisiana was a certain guarantese
of the future greatness of the United States, and op
posed an insurmountable obstacle to any design formed
by the English of becoming predominant in America.
They afterwards supposed that the negotiations for
peace, opened at Ghent, offered them the means of re
covering the advantages that they had lost Their ple
nipotentiaries renewed their pretensions to a free na
vigation of the Mississippi. They demanded, as a sine
qua non, that a neutral Indian district should be taken
from the territory of the United States for the purpose
of separating the contracting powers by liraits, within
which all acquisition of the lands of the Indians should
be prohibited; and their declarations on this subject
were announced as irrevocable. It was even reported
that they would require that Louisiana should be re
stored to Spain.* But no mention of so strange a pre
tension was made at the conferences at Ghent.
The charter given by Louis XIV. to Crozat in
cluded afl the countries watered by the rivers, which
empty directly or indirectly into the Mississippi. Whh-
in this description comes the Missouri, a river that has
its sources and many of its tributary streams at a little
distance from the Rocky Mountains. The 1st article
of the treaty of cession to the United States meant to
convey nothing beyond them, but the settlement in the
interior, which has resulted frora it, and the one on the
* Letters of Mr. Monroe to the ministers plenipotentiary of the
United States, of 35th June, 1814, and 19th August, 1814=

OF LOUISIANA. 291
Pacific Ocean, at the west, have mutually strengthened
each other.
The acquisition of Louisiana and of the Floridas,
together with the extinction of some grants or Indian
titles has cost the United States about 160,000,000
francs: the land that has been acquired contains more
than 300,000,000 acres, of which only 18,000,000 have
been sold.* What yet remains to be sold wfll, in less
than a century, be worth to the United States many
thousand miflions of francs: the value that these lands
wifl possess, in the hands of individuals, defies afl cal
culation. The cession was followed by judicious and bold ex
plorations, made by order of congress, as well as by
travellers and traders who arrived at the shores of the
Western Ocean, after having crossed a country until
then unknown to civihzed nations. They found hos
pitable and pacific tribes, and were only opposed by
natural obstacles. These regions are of greater ex
tent than the whole original states of the Union. There
is room there for nuraerous republics, and centuries may
pass away before population and civflization are there
carried to the highest point of which they are suscepti
ble. It would be idle to inquire respecting the form of
government that will be adopted by these communities,
or the bonds that will connect them with one another
or with a parent state. It is sufficient to foresee that
those that shall be formed upon the model of the
* See Appendix, No. 20.— Transl.

292 THE HISTORY
United States will certainly be happy, and that the new
world wifl witness what the old world has never seen; —
communities founded for the benefit of all their mem
bers, and not for that of their founders, or to augment
their riches, increase their power, or administer to
their vain glory. Even if the new states separate
frora the confederacy, they will remain united by the
protecting laws of peace, and by every thing that se
cures the public happiness.
By the 2d article, " all public lots and squares, vacant
lands, and afl public bufldings, fortifications, barracks,
and other edifices that were not private property were
included in the cession. The archives, papers, and
documents relative to the domain and sovereignty of
Louisiana and its dependencies, were to be left in the
possession of the commissioners of the United States,
and copies were afterwards to be given in due form to
the magistrates and municipal officers, of such of the
said papers and documents as might be necessary to
them." The plenipotentiaries, being afl three plebeians, easi
ly agreed on the stipulations of the 3d article, founded
on a perfect equality between all the inhabitants of the
ceded territories.
It provided, "that they should be incorporated in the
Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as
possible, according to the principles of the federal con
stitution, to the enjoyment of afl the rights, advan
tages, and immunities of citizens of the United States;
and, that they should in the meantime, be maintained

OF LOUISIANA. 293
and protected in the free enjoyment of their hberty,
property, and the religion which they profess."
These provisions prepared the way for a great
change in the constitution of Louisiana, or rather gua
rantied to it the advantage of having at length a con
stitution, laws, and self-government. There was not a
single family in the colony but must profit sooner or
later by this revolution. i
The first consul, left to his natural disposition, was
always inclined to an elevated and generou^ justice.
He himself prepared the article which has been just
recited. The words which he employed on the occa
sion are recorded in the journal of the negotiation,
and deserve to be preserved, " Let the Louisianians
know that we separate ourselves frora them with
regret; that we stipulate in their favour every thing
that they can desire, and let them hereafter, happy in
their independence, recoflect that they have been
Frenchmen, and that France, in ceding them, has se
cured for them advantages which they could not have
obtained from a European power, however paternal it
might have been. Let them retain for us sentiments
of affection; and may their common origin, descent,
language, and customs perpetuate the friendship."
The character of the Indians was wefl known tothe
negotiators. The efforts that had been made, and the
expenses that had been incurred for three centuries have
nbt effected any change in the habits of these tribes;
but they obstinately avoid civflization. Far from
loving their country, as some writers have pretended,

294 THE HISTORY
they abandon their native soil without rauch resistance,
as soon as the white men settle in their neighbour
hood. They prefer their own dispersion, and even
annihilation to the meliorations which would impose
restraints on them or subject them to labour; but they
do not like to be despofled by force.
These Indians whom we treat as barbarians and sa
vages, when they defend their lakes, their rivers, and
their forests, whom we reproach with perfidy, when
they oppose stratagem and cunning to tactics and su
perior arras, have sometimes been our friends. But
they treated us as enemies or usurpers when we came
to disturb their peaceable possessions. When they
were encouraged by better treatment, they called the
king of France their father, and this title among them
carries with it even more authority than that of king.
These tribes, always chfldren, require to be paternally
governed. They preferred the French to other nations,
and willingly adopted them into their tribes. Though
ever ready to use freely whatever in our huts and
houses suited their convenience, or to appropriate it to
theraselves, they were submissive to our orders. They
were well inclined to render us services, and even as
warriors to unite their arms with ours.
Many of the treaties concluded between the powers
of Europe since the discovery of America dispose of
the territories of the Indiannations without any reserve
of their rights. More attention was this tirae paid to
the interests of these tribes. The treaty of cession se
parated us from them for ever. The three negotiators

OP LOUISIANA. 295
regarded them as an innocent people, who, without
having any participation in the cession, were to be in
cluded in it.
By the 6th article, " The United States promise to
execute such treaties and articles as may have been
agreed on between Spain and the tribes or nations of
Indians." " This stipulation," Mr. Monroe observed,
« becomes us, though these people must be for ever ig
norant of the care that we take of their interests."
This article prepared the good understanding that
now exists between the Indians and the United States.
They are treated with humanity: it is wished, it is true,
to remove them from the settled parts of the Country,
a plan which is resisted by some of the tribes. The
Cherokees have even given themselves a constitution,
which appears to have been dictated by some whites
settled among them,* This phantom Of a government
has not seemed to deserve much attention. The inter
mixture with the whites has, however, introduced into
the tribe the first elements of civflization.
The 7th article contained a reserve which was then
deemed important for the commerce of France and
Spain, namely ; " the privflege of bringing in French
or Spanish vessels frora the ports of those two king
doms or of their colonies, into the ports of Louisiana, the
produce or manufactures of those countries or of their
colonies, during the space of twelve years, without be
ing subjected to any other or greater duties than those
paid by the citizens of the United States."
* July 18,. 1827.

296 THE HISTORY
The commerce of the colony had been to that time
almost exclusively carried on by the French under the
Spanish flag. The 7th article would have preserved
this advantage to France, if the peace of Amiens had
not been broken at the same tirae that the treaty of ces
sion was signed. The war lasted nearly twelve years,
during which period this trade passed into the hands
of the English and Araericans: and the loss of St Do
mingo put the seal to the separation. It is not be
hoved that a single French ship profited by the provi
sions of this article.
The 8th article, which secures to French ships the
treatment of the most favoured nation, has given rise
to discussions, the result of which we ought not to an
ticipate.* * " Art. 8. In future, and for ever after the expiration of the
twelve years, the ships of France shall be treated on the footing of
the most favoured nations in the ports above-mentioned."
By an act of congress of March 3, 1815, the several acts im
posing discriminating duties on the tonnage of foreign vessels, and
on the goods, &c. imported therein, so far as they were the pro
duce or manufacture of the nation to which such foreign vessel be
longed, were repealed in favour of such nations as should not levy
a discriminating or countervailing duty to the prejudice of the
United States.
Conventions, in compliance with the overtures thus made, were
early concluded with Great Britain and Sweden, and arrange
ments by mutual legislation wfere entered into with other states;
several of which have been recently confirmed by treaty. France,
however, did not immediately accede to these propositions of reci
procity; but began to maintain in 1817, and has ever since conti
nued to assert, that she was entitled to enjoy gratuitously in the
ports of Louisiana all the privileges which the vessels of England,
whom she considered as the most favoured nation, possessed there
under the treaty of commerce, and for wliieh an equivalent was

OP LOUISIANA, 297
Such are the principal stipulations of the treaty of
cession.* The contracting parties would have desired that
Spain should join in this negotiation; and, as this power
had reserved, by the treaty of the 1st of October, 1 800, a
right of preference, in case of cession, its previous as
sent was undoubtedly necessary. On the other hand,
the least delay vvas attended with very many dangers;
and the distance from Paris to Madrid, with the usual
paid. It was urged, in reply to the demands of France, that she
claimed to enjoy a privilege without fulfilling the condition on
which it was granted. She asked to be treated not as favourably,
but more favourably than the nation she called most favoured.
"The stipulation," said the American secretary of state, "to
place a country on the footing of the most favoured nations, neces
sarily meant, that, if a privilege was granted to a third nation for
an equivalent, that equivalent must be given by the country which
claimed the same privilege by virtue of such stipulation."
The practical importance of this question h.ns been greatly di
minished by the treaty of 1822, by the operation of which all the
discriminating duties upon the vessels of the United States and
France, in either country, ceased on the 1st of October, 1827. By
a separate article, also attached to tliat convention, the extra du
ties, levied exclusively on French vessels by the act of the 15th of
May, 1820, as well as those imposed on American vessels by a
French ordonnance of the same year, were directed to be refunded.
But, the general discriminating duties on foreign vessels, which
were demanded from those of France in the ports of Louisiana, as
in the rest of the Union, anterior to the treaty of commerce, are
still brought forward as a harrier to the settlement of American
claims for spoliations and seizures under the imperial government.
These reclamations, besides the cases arising from condemnations
under illegal decrees against neutral commerce and the burning of
ships at sea, include large demands for property sequestered in the
ports of France and provisionally sold, respecting which no adju
dication has ever taken place. — Transl.
* Appendix, No. 1.

298 THE HISTORY
tardiness in the deliberations of that cabinet, would
have led to a total failure of the negotiation. The
treaty was therefore not communicated to the Spanish
ministry tfll after its conclusion. They coraplained bit
terly of the little regard that had been paid to a right
that was incontestably reserved to Spain, and for near
ly a year it was impossible to obtain from that court
an approbation of the treaty. Its complaints were wefl
grounded. It was only on the 10th of February, 1804,
that Don Pedro Cevallos wrote to Mr. Pinckney, mi
nister of the United States, " that His Catholic Ma
jesty had thought fit to renounce his opposition to the
ahenation of Louisiana, raade by France, notwith
standing the sohd reasons on which it is founded:
thereby giving a new proof of his benevolence and
friendship to the United States."
The draft, which the American plenipotentiaries had
at first proposed, contained an article, according to
which the first consul was to interpose his good oflSces
with the king of Spain, in order to obtain the cession
of the country situated to the east of the Mississippi,
and in the neighbourhood of their southern frontier.
These stipulations of good offices are not rare in trea
ties, but their execution is almost always attended with
embarrassments ; and the French negotiator induced
the Americans to be satisfied with the assurance, that,
should the occasion arise, the first consul would afford
them all the assistance in his power.
Spain had manifested, on several occasions, her
dread of having the United States in the iraraediate

OP LOUISIANA. 299
neighbourhood of her continental or insular colonies.
Marbois communicated to the American ministers the
apprehensions of this power, and added that a great
many politicians were also alarmed for the French
West Indies, as they conceived that sooner or later
the United States would aira at their possession, and,
finafly, conquer them. Livingston said, in reply; —
"Mark well the answer that I am going to give you; I
believe that I can assure you that it will be confirmed
by the event The French West Indies are far from
aspiring to an independence which would soon put the
European inhabitants, who are not numerous enough
to sustain themselves, in the power of the slave popu
lation. The whites require to be governed, protected,
and defended against this internal enemy; but it would
be contrary to our institutions and even our interests
to undertake this charge. The principal trade of these
islands will sooner or later belong to us on account of
our proximity, and all the prudence of the European
governments will not retard this change half a centu
ry. Should these colonies hereafter wish to belong to
us and to enter into the Union, we could not receive
them; we could stfll less have them as dependent and
subject possessions. I do not foresee what wfll hap
pen if, in their emergencies, they should resort to our
generosity and protection. But do not fear that we
shall ever make the conquest of that which we would
not wish to accept even as a gift."
Two important conventions, signed the same day,
were annexed to the treaty as well as referred to in it,

300 JHE HISTORY
in order that they might have the same force and ef
fect as if they had been inserted in terms.
The first related to the payment of the price of the
cession. This instrument was made separately from
the treaty, as some embarrassment was felt in mention
ing, at the same time, the abandonment of the eminent
right of sovereignty and the sale for money of the pro
perty of the territory.
The necessity of the cession being acknowledged,
it was easy to justify the conditions. The motives
which determined them had been pointed out by the
first consul himself, and we will refer to them here.
For a century the settlement and government of
Louisiana had required frora France and Spain ad
vances, for which they had never been indemnified by
the commercial imposts. The churches, the forts upon
both banks of the Mississippi, as well as many other
pubHc bufldings, had been erected at the expense of the
two powers. There were also there magazines and
arsenals ; funds had been advanced to comraerce and
agriculture; a great many other expenses, having in view
the benefit of the colony, had likewise been incurred.
The acts of cession, made to Spain in 1764, contained
provisions respecting the moveable property. We find
the following passages in a letter of the 21st of April,
1764, from Louis XV, to M. D'Abadie: "It is my par
ticular desire that an inventory, in duplicate, should be
signed by you and the comraissioner of His Catholic
Majesty of all the artillery and other military stores,
magazines, hospitals, ships, &c. which belong to me in

OK LOI ISiVNA. i^lOl
the said colony, in order that, after having put the said
coraraissioner in possession of the ships and bufldings,
a statement may be prepared of the value of all the
ailicles that shall reraain there, the price of which
shall be reimbursed by His Catholic Majesty, accord
ing to the said estimate." The same reimbursement
is required in a letter written on the 15th of October,
1802, by the king of Spain to the captain general, to
order him to deliver up the province of Louisiana to
the coraraissioner of the French governraent. These
reservations were, it must be admitted, of httle conse
quence, and were moreover merely formal stipulations.
But the first consul regarded in another point of view
the condition of the price. Though this valuation in
money of a right of sovereignty, formerly so familiar
to the princes of Europe, was a necessary clause of
the bargain, he wished at least that it should never be
a charge on the country ceded. The price, whatever
it might be, could not be stipulated for an advantage
such as that of independence, the lustre of which it
would have tarnished. The amount was paid by the
United States not exclusively, as in the case of pre
vious cessions and retrocessions, for moveable effects,
but as the price of vast territories which they acquired,
and of the great augmentation of power which vi^ould
result from them to the Union in general. The cession
made France lose nothing, and it possessed great ad
vantages for the United States.
The first consul, supposing that he carried his valu
ation very high, had said that he calculated on fifty

302 THE HISTORi
millions. The French plenipotentiary, without enter
ing into any explanation with hira, considered this es
timate a good deal too low, and, as soon as the price
became the subject of conference, stated that it was
fixed at eighty mfllions, and that it would be useless to
propose a reduction.*
The American plenipotentiaries could not have fore
seen that the negotiation, which their government had
intrusted to thera, would become so important, and
they were without special powers to consent to pay
the price that was demanded, " Our feflow-citizens,"
said Mr. Livingston, " have an extreme aversion to
pubhc debts; how could we, without incurring their
displeasure, burden them with the enormous charge
of fifteen millions of doflars.'"'
M. de Marbois, on his part, insisted upon the first
demand of eighty mfllions, and said, that for the United
States, this was a sura very rauch below the true value
of these immense territories. The negotiators them
selves were but very imperfectly acquainted with them;
but they knew that, on passing to the right bank of the
Mississippi, the Americans would find unknown tribes,
or a wilderness that had never yet tempted the ambi
tion or cupidity of any European nation, which culti
vation could not fail to enrich, and which would be
gradually annexed to the territory of the Union. These
adventitious domains would possess the peculiar ad
vantage of acquiring every day greater importance and
a higher value, without any other attention on the part
* Appendix, No. 15.

OP LODlSIAlNA. 303
of the sovereign poWer than that of directing their ex
ploration and survey.
The two plenipotentiaries finally acquiesced,* on
condition that twenty mfllions out of the eighty should
be employed in a manner settled by a special conven
tion. This becarae the third instrument of the nego
tiation, and we will here enter into some explanations
relative to the origin of the claim for which it provided.
The convention of the 30th of September, 1800, had
for its object the securing of reciprocal satisfaction to
the citizens of the two states, and the preventing as
far as possible of any thing that could for the future
affect their good understanding. We there find the
principle, the wisdom and legahty of which only one na
tion in the world disputes: "that free ships make free
goods, although they are the property of an enemy."
A special promise had been given to pay the debts
arising from requisitions, seizures, and captures of ships
raade in tirae of peace; but the execution of the agree
ment had not followed the treaty. For two years and
a half the minister of the United States had been re
iterating his reclamation and demanding in vain the re
paration of these losses.f
* Appendix, No. 2.
t Between 1793 and 1800 serious injuries had been inflicted on
out commerce by the capture and confiscation of our vessels by
France, in violation of the law of nations and existing treaties.
Losses had also been sustained by our merchants from embargoes,
and from the neglect of the different revolutionary governments to
comply with their contracts, many of which arose from forced re
quisitions for supplies.
These claims, the justice of some of which, abstractedly consi-

304 THE HISTORY
The cession of Louisiana afforded the means of re
alizing promises that had been so long fllusory. The
dered, was not denied, were resisted on the grourid of the failure
of the United States to comply with the guarantee of the French
possessions in America, contained in the treaty of 1778, and with
the provisions of the consular convention of 1788. The retaliatory
measures of the American government in authorizing the capture
of vessels of war, belonging to France, hovering on our coasts, and
in repealing the treaty of alliance had also, since 1798, interposed
additional obstacles to the payment of indemnities.
Of the means taken to procure redress, anterior to the mission
of Messrs. Ellsworth, Davie, and Murray, it is not necessary here
to speak. By a convention, which these gentlemen signed with
the French plenipotentiaries on the 30th of September, 1800, it
was declared, —
" Art. 2. The ministers plenipotentiary of the two parties not
being able to agree at present respecting the treaty of alliance of
the 6th of February, 1778, the treaty of amity and commerce of
the same date, and the convention of the 14th of November, 1788,
nor upon the indemnities mutually due or claimed; the parties will
negotiate farther on these subjects at a convenient time, and until
they may have agreed upon these points, the said treaties and con
vention shall have no operation, and the relations of the two coun
tries shall be regulated as follows:"
By the 3d article, the public ships that had been captured were
to be mutually restored.
" Art. 4. Property captured and not yet definitely condemned,
or which may be captured before the exchange of ratifications (con
traband goods destined to an enemy's port excepted,) shall be mu
tually restored on the following proofs of ownership, &c."
" Art. 5. The debts contracted by one of the two nations vvitl;
individuals of the other, or by the individuals of the one with thi
individuals of the other, shall be paid, or the payment may be pW-
secuted in the same manner as if there had been no misunderstand
ing between the two states. But this clause shall not extend t» in
demnities claimed on account of captures or confiscations."
The senate of the United States, on the convention being sub
mitted to them, expunged the second article, and the first consul,
on giving his ratification, assented to the retrenchment, on condi
tion " that the two states should renounce the respective preten-

OF LOUISIANA. 305
Americans consented to payr^eighty miflions of francs
on condition that twenty millions of this sum should
sions which are the object of the said article." After these condi
tional ratifications and their exchange, President Jefferson submitted
the convention anew to the senate, who resolved that they consi
dered it as fully ratified.
The French government failed to comply with their engagements
under the 4th and 5th articles, though repeatedly" urged to do so by
the United States, and a discussion tooL place between the Ameri
can minister in Paris and the French mitiister of foreign affairs,
which was not terminated when the Louisiana treaty was negotiated,
as to the extent to which the 5th article applied. -
Notwithstanding the mutual ab|indonment of the claims forming
the object of the 2d article of the "treaty of 1800, the third con
vention of the 30th of April, 1803, purports to be expressly found
ed on the 3d and 5th articles of that of the" 30th of September,
1800; but the provision which it minces for the liquidation of claims'
does iaot embrace all the cases faMing within the purview of either
article. The specifications of the debts, included by it, are given
in the fallowing words: —
" Art. 2. The debts provided for, &c., are those whbse result is
comprised in the conjectural note annexed to the present conven
tion, and which, with the interestjjcannot exceed the sum of twen
ty.. millions of francs. The claims comprised in the said note,
which fall within the exceptions of the following articles, shall not
be admitted to the benefit of this provision;"
, ' " Art. 4. It is expressly agreed that the prece'ding articles shall
comprehend no debts but such as are due to citizens of the United
.States, who have been and are yet creditors of France,. for sup
plies, embargoes, and for prizes made. at sea, in which the appeal
has been properly lodged within the time mentioned in the said
convention of tha 8th Vendemiaire, tenth year, (30th September,
1800.)" Art. 5, points out the cases to which the preceding articles ap
ply, and thfr exceptions fo them.
The terms of this convention, by which some classes of cases
were totally excluded, while others having no greater merit were
to be paid in full, with interest, met with a very unfavourable re
ception at Washington. The article also, which required every
decision to be made within.a year, excluded any bona fide demands,
39

306 THE H1ST0R5
be assigned to the payment of what was due by France
to the citizens of the United States.
The two ministers fixed this condition of an indem
nity at twenty mfllions of francs, and they probably ex-
the presentation of which was at all delayed, and 'there was no
provision for an apportionment among the claimants, confessedly
within the meaning of the treaty, in the event of a deficiency of
the fund; but eacli debt, &c. due by France to American citizens
was to be satisfied as soon as it was certified by the commission
ers, named under the authority of the convention.
Mr. Livingston, the then minister at Paris, was instructed to
propose the e;stension of the provisions of the convention of 1803
to all those who had claims under that of 1800, but were not in
cluded in the subsequent treaty. The French government declined
making a new oonvention, but stated that if the liquidationSof
the claims in the conjectural n^e should not absorb the twenty
millions of francs, the residue of that sum might be employed to
satisfy other cases; though in any event the whole of the American
claims were to be placed tothe accouiit of the federal government;
The reclamations, comprised in the conjectural list, appears to
have been principally for supplies received by the French, and for
losses sustained by the detention of ships at Bourdeaux, in conse
quence of the embargo of 1793.
Immediately after the promulgation of the convention of 1800,
accompanied by the declaration of the first consul as to the effect
of expunging the 2d article, it was contended by those who had
had claims on France for captures and confiscations, that they were
entitled to look to their own country for indemnity, inasmuch as
their rights had been renouticed for a release of the guarantee and
other valuable considerations, the benefit of which accrued to the
nation at large. These demands on the United States acquired
new force from the transactions connected with the Louisiana trea
ties. They have been repeatedly presented to congress, with va
rious success in the committees to whom the subject was referred,
but without any final decision on them in either house.
. It is hardly necessary to add that the claims, which are referred
to in this note, are wholly distinct from those which the American
government has been pressing for many years on the attention of
France, all of which are of a date subsequent to the convention of
1800.— -TnANSL,

OF LOUISIANA. 307
pected that they would be required to state the grounds
of this estimate, in order that they might be discussed
and a reduction effected, put no opposition was made,
and it was instantly agreed that this amount should be
deducted from that of the eighty millions. The inten
tion of e.xtinguishiTig all former clairas was sincere on
both "sides. The round sum of twenty miflions was
evidently an estimate formed on reasonable conjec
tures, and could not be an absolute result established
by documents. But the American negotiators agreed
that if there was any difference, the amount rather
exceeded than fell short of the claims, and the French
plenipotentiary gave assurances that in no case should
this excess be cla.imed by France. - Thus the respec
tive deraands were easily agreed to. A mutual frank
ness, which smooths all the difficulties from which the
most simple negotiations are not always exempt, was
the only address employed by the ministers of either
p^rty. The manner of raaking-the payment at first present
ed some difficulties : it seemed natural that the French
treasury, which was the debtor, should, after having
acknowledged its debt, acquit it with the twenty mfl-
Hons. ' On the other hand, the American creditors be
ing better known in their own country than they could
be in France, the disputes among the claimants might
be more easfly settled before their own tribunals. We
must add that the liquidations or settlements of cre
dits, made under the authority of the French govern
ment, did not then inspire enture confidence. It ap-

.308 THE HISTORV
peared more convenient that the respective govern
ments should name comraissioners, who should exa
mine each particular debt, and then leave the payment
to be afterwards made, in Arhericaj by the treasury of
the United States.
This third convention, just in its object, was, more
over, connected with the treaty of cession by a great
political interest, which was to destroy every cause of
discontent between the two nations and extinguish that
animosity that always arises from the refusal to acquit
a legitimate debt. The time sometiraes arrives when
a nation repents not having seasonably done an act of
justice, which costs dearer when it is obliged to repair
the omission. The relations of amity and good faith,
which are not deferred till the moment of danger, lay
the foundation of lasting confidence between nations.
Those who were well aware of the iraportance of
having a perfectly good understanding between the two
countries, estiraated at a ranch higher price the twen
ty miflions thus employed than the sixty that were re
ceived by the treasury of France.*
The payment of this last sura was effected in a man
ner which deserves to be mentioned. ' The war be
tween France and England could be no longer doubt
ful. No French banker was willing to become the me
dium of so considerable a pecuniary transaction. The
bank of France, to which the proposal was made, re
fused it, under the pretext that such affairs were not
within its province, and probably, also, because the re-
* Appendix, No. 3.

OF L0U1M\NA. 309
gents of the bank were afraid of rendering it depen
dent on an authority that was too ready to interfere in
matteTs of which a reciprocal confidence ought to con
stitute the basis.
On the other side, the American ministers were very
desirous that the payments should be made through the
intervention of the most stable house in Europe. The
partners of this house were estabhshed at Amsterdam
and London. Bankers from these two cities did not
fefl to be at Paris at the appointed day. They were
eager to reap the profits that were disdained by the
French bankers, and the first consul perceived no in
convenience in their being abandoned to them. It is
heheved that, on its part, the British ministry, not-
jvithstanding the certainty of war, saw, without re
gret, an English house undertake so profitable a
Negotiation. The terras agreed on, as well for the
¦payment of what was due to the treasury as for the in
demnity to the American merchants, were punctually
..observed. The' United States, which still sustained
the weight of a part of the debts contracted during
the war of the revolution, were only incumbered by an
addition of eighty miflions of francs to the public bur
dens; and this people, whose riches are acquired by
irfdustry and economy, kept their engagements with a
punctuality that would have done honour to the bank
ing house in the highest credit. The payments were
to have been made at successive days; but the United
States had inspired an entire confidence in their good
faith, and the bankers made all the advances that Avere

310 THE HISTORV
asked of them' without being sohcited or requiring ex
traordinary profits, and they undoubtedly found their
own advantage in this evidence of confidence.*
At the raoraent of signing them< the Americans asked
that the three instruments should be drawn up in French
and English. They admitted, however, that it was im
possible to have two original texts in two languages;
it was declared," adopting the form with which the trea
ties of 1778 concluded, "that the original had beeri
agreed on and written in the French language." * The
translation required three days; and from this incident
it happened that the treaties, whiph were concluded on
the 30th of Aprfl, 1 803, and are dated on that day,
were only actually signed four days, afterwards. ..Two
months had not then elapsed since Mr. Monroe had
set safl from New York to proceed to Paris.
The authors of those solemn instruraentSy that re
gulate the lot of nations, cannpt be insensfljle to the
honour of having done acts useful to their country.
A sentiment superior even to glory se'emed to animate,
the three ministers, and never perhaps did negotiators
taste a purer joy. As soon as they had signed the trea
ties, they rose and shook hands, when Livingston, ex
pressing the general satisfaction, said: "We have hyed
long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives,
The treaty which we have just signed has not bee^obT
tained by art or dictated by force; equally advantage^
ous to the two contracting parties, it wfll change vast
* Messrs. Hope and Labouchere of Amsterdam, and Barings of
London.

OP LOUISIANA. 311
sofitudeV into flourishing districts. From this day the
United States take their place among the powers of
the first rank; the English lose afl exclusive influence
in 'the affairs of x\raerica. Thus one of the principal
causes of European rivalries and aniraosities is about
to cease. However, if wars are inevitable; France will
hereaftei- have in the new world a natural friend, that
must increase in strength frora year to year, and one
which cannot fail to becorae powerful and respected in
every sea. The United States will re-establish the ma
ritime rights of afl the wbrfd, which are now usurped
by a single nation. These treaties wifl thus be a gua
rantee of peace' and concord among commercial states.
The instruments which we have just signed will cause
no tiears to be "shed: they "prepare ages of happiness
for innumerable generationg^of human creatures. The ¦
Mississippi and Missouri wifl see them succeed one
another, and multiply, truly worthy of the regard and
care of 'Providence, in the bosom of equality, under
jastlaws, freed frora the errors of superstition and the
scourges of bad governraent."
, The first consul had followed with a lively interest
tBe progress of this negotiation. It will be recollect
ed that he had mentioned fifty mfllions as the price
which he would put on the cession; and it may wefl
be behoved that he did not expect to obtain so large a
sum. He learned that eighty miflions had been agreed
on; but that they were reduced to sixty by the deduc
tion stipulated to be previously made for the settlement

312 THE HISTORY
of the debt due by France to tlie" Americans. Then
forgetting, or feigning to forgigt, the consent that he had
given, he said with vivacity to the French minister: "I
would that these tweiity miflions be paid into the tr,ea-
sury. Who has authorized you to dispose of the mo
ney of the state? The rights of the claimants cannot
come before our own." This first excitement was
calmed as soon as he was brought to recoUett that he
had previously consented to treat for a much smaller
sum than the trfeasury would receive, without including
the twenty miflions of indemnity for the prizes. "It is
true," he exclaimed, " the negotiation does hot leave
me any thing to desire: sixty mfllions for an occuga->=^
tion that Wifl not perhaps last but a day ! I wotld that*
France should enjoy this unexpected capital, and that
it may be employed in wo^k^ beneficial to her marine."
At the very instant he dictated a decree for the con
struction of five canals, the projects of which had oc
cupied him for some time. But other cares made him
in a few days forget this decree. The negotiation,
so happily terminated, had required so little skiU, and
had been attended with so little labour that the'profes- ,
sions of Napoleon's satisfaction would bd deemed ex
aggerated, if history stopped at these detafls.
The foflowing words sufficiently acquaint us -with
the reflections that then influenced the first consul:
" This accession of territory." said he, " strengthens
for "ever the power of the United States; and I have
just given to England a maritime, rival, that will sooner
or later humble her pride."

OF LOL'ISIA.NA. 313
Fifteen days after the signature of the treaties, Mr.
Monroe set out for London; he remained there a con
siderable tirae unsuccessfufly employed in endeavour
ing to settle articles of navigation and neutrality.
War w^as inevitable : the sixty miflions were spent on
the preparations for an invasion that was never to be
carried into effect, and these demonstrations were suf
ficient to oblige the English government to make de
fensive arrangements which cost a much greater sum.
The arrival of Mr. Monroe at Paris had attracted
the attention of the English ambassador. The object
of this envoy's mission was not known at London, ex
cept from the purport of the resolutions of congress.
The secret of the conferences was well kept, and Lord
Whitworth did not even suspect that they had for their
result a cession of all Louisiana. This affair being
terminated, the French cabinet ceased to temporize.
The British government, on its side, considered inde
cision out of season. However, the respective ambas
sadors, after having received their recall, had stifl some
communications that seemed pacific. On the 4th of
May, the day after the signature of the treaty of ces
sion, and four days after its conclusion, the first consul
caused a note to be sent to Lord Whitworth, in which
he demanded that Malta should be dehvered over pro
visionally to Austria, Russia, and Prussia, which powers
should be the guarantees of the independence of the
island. The note concluded with these words : " If this
proposal is rejected, it wfll be manifest that England
has never wished to execute the treaty of Amiens,—
40

314 THE HISTORV
that she has not even had good faith in any of her de
mands." England only proposed to keep Malta during the
time necessary to put the island of Larapedousa upon
the footing of a naval station; but she wished tfiat
France should bind herself by a secret article not to
require its evacuation before the end of ten years, and
that Switzerland and Holland should be evacuated a
month after the ratification of the convention. The
knights, assisted by all the powers of Christendom, had
employed two centuries and a half to fortify Malta, and
the Enghsh had made themselves masters of it with
out effort and without expense. The first consul was
heard to say on this subject: "They wifl never restore
that island except by force, were it even reclaimed by
the knights." From thenceforward, their perseve
rance in the decision to keep possession of this sta
tion, authorized the presumption that they aspired to
the same dominion in the Mediterranean as in the other
seas, and that they aimed at ruling there more abso
lutely than any of the states that occupy its shores.
Perhaps readier and easier communications with India
then likewise entered into the designs of England.
The king of Great Britain also demanded for the
king of Sardinia an indemnity in Italy, and, on these
conditions, he consented to acknowledge the Itahan
and Ligurian republics.
France, in rejecting these overtures, offered to ac
cept the mediation proposed by Russia. These com
munications, in appearance pacific, were insincere;

OP LOUISIANA. 31.5
both sides knew that they would not be accepted.
The negotiation was broken off, and the ambassadors
quitted, the one France, the other England, on the
same day, the 17th of May, 1803.
War was the result of the jealous policy and pas
sion of aggrandizement, which actuated the two pow
ers. It was rekindled, with an ardour inspired, on the
one side, by the necessity of self-preservation and, on
the other, by pride leading genius astray.
In France were to be seen military talents of the high
est order, a boundless capacity, a bold character, a firm
and persevering wfll, which presaged long and brifliant
success. These qualities were, however, blended with
an immoderate passion for glory, an unbridled arabi-
tion, and a disregard of the rights of others. Sorae
men, whose foresight then seemed pusfllanimous, from
that time dreaded the most deplorable catastrophes.
In England, there were raore able councfls, a better
regulated state of affairs, an adrainistration friendly to
national liberty, strong in the esteem and confidence
of the people, and by their support superior to afl the
factions. At the sarae tirae, the statesraen, who were at
the head of the British councfls, badly dissembled their
determination to retain the direction of the affairs of
Europe, and to make constant acquisitions in Asia and
America. Hostilities commenced on the 22d of May by the
capture of some French merchantraen. On the same
day Bonaparte gave his ratification to the treaty of
cession, without waiting for that of the United States.

316 THE HISTORY OP LOUISIANA.
It was important that the accomplishment of this for
mality, on the part of France, should not leave any
ground for considering the colony as stifl French. The
ratifications and their exchange could experience no
delay at Washington, and after these proceedings and
the delivery of possession, every attempt of the English
on Louisiana would have been directed against a pro
vince of the American Union, and would have afforded
room for just reclamations on the part of the whole
confederacy.

THE

HISTORY OF liOUISIAXA.

PART III.

EXECUTION OF THE TREATY OF CESSION.  EVENTS ARISING
FKOM THE CESSION.

THE
HISTORY OF liOUISIAXA.

PART THE THIRD.

EXECUTION OF THE TREATY OF CESSION.  EVENTS ARISING
FROM THE CESSION.
The foresight of the first consul and his anxiety re
specting the part which England would adopt under the
then existing circumstances were fully justified. The
English rainisters, when inforraed of the object of Mr.
Monroe's raission, conceived that there was no longer
time to undertake the conquest of Louisiana, unless it
was attempted with the concurrence of the United
States. They raade a proposition to that effect to Mr.
Rufus King, the American envoy at London, giving him
to understand that the province would be retroceded
to his government at the peace. A few days after the
signature of the treaty, the two American plenipoten
tiaries at Paris were made acquainted with this over
ture by Mr. King. It was easy for them to conjec
ture at what sacrifices the United States would have
had to purchase the profferred retrocession, even if Eng
land, once in possession, had consented to carry it into
effect: they were, therefore, far frora regretting that they
were no longer in a situation to accept the British pro
posal. On another account, it was important that the

320 THE HISTORV
British government should know the result of the ne
gotiation, and it was accordingly communicated to it
without delay.
The war with France having commenced, the Eng
lish were interested in preserving a good understand
ing with the United States. The proposition to take
possession of Louisiana being set aside, Mr. King re
ceived from Lord Hawkesbury a satisfactory answer
respecting the cession. He transmitted it without de
lay to his governraent. But, in the uncertainty in which
Bonaparte stifl was on this subject, he adopted the
course of having the ratifications exchanged at Wash
ington instead of Paris. He wished above all, by thus
gaining time on England, to hasten the transmission
of the money that had been stipulated to be paid.
The treaties, forwarded to Washington with as much
despatch as possible, arrived there on the 14th of July,
] 803. ¦ The original documents intended for Louisiana
were sent with them. M. Pichon, the charge d'affaires
of France, had orders to transmit them to M. Laussat,
the prefect of the province, as soon as the ratifications
were exchanged.
The prohibition respecting the entrepot at New Or
leans was finally taken off, and the intendant had, by a
proclamation of the month of May, ]803, annulled
the one of the 16th of October preceding, which had
excited so rauch agitation.
This diflSculty had scarcely ceased, when the Spa
nish minister at Washington stated, " that he had or
ders to warn the federal government to suspend the

OF LOl'ISIANA, 321
ratification and execution of the treaties of cession of
Louisiana, as the French government, in receiving the
province, had contracted an engagement with Spain
not to retrocede it to any other power: and, besides,
one of the conditions, in reference to which the king
his master had transferred it to France, was that the
latter power should obtain from afl the courts of Eu
rope the acknowledgment of the king of Etruria,
France not having executed that engagement, the trea
ty of cession was null."
The Marquis de la Casa Yrujo had given publicity
to his protest, and this complication of embarrass
ments, arising from distrusts and contradictory inte
rests, had nearly again thrown the business into the
state of confiision from w^hich the treaty of Paris had
extricated it Some pretended to see in the opposition
of His Catholic Majesty's minister a concert between
Spain and England to prevent the effect of the cession.
Others, imputing to France the most disgracefiil de
ception, asserted that Spain was only acting under her
infloence: and they insisted, especiafly, that the price
agreed on should not be paid tfll after possession was
taken. M.'Pichon had orders so to combine his proceed
ings and commonications that the two cessions, name-
ly, from Spam to France and from France to the
United States, should be made without leaving such
an interval of time as might justify an expedition on
the part of the Enghsh. He was informed of the sus-
jncitms which it was attempted to throw on the good
41

'322 THE HISTORY
faith of the cabinet of the Tuileries; a few raalecon-
tents also raised clamours respecting the enormity of
the price that had been agreed on. This excitement
checked the good intentions of the American govern
ment, which would otherwise have been disposed to
deliver without delay the money and stock that were
impatiently expected at Paris. M, Pichon, in no way
diverted from his purpose by the protest of M, Yrujo,
sent by land to M. Laussat on the 14th of October the
orders which he was instructed to transmit to him.
Those who censured the treaty were obstinate in as
serting that the apparent dissension between the two
ministers was only an artifice contrived by the cabinets
of Paris and Madrid.
Mr. Jefferson, on his part, rising superior to the
alarms that had been circulated, and disdaining all
want of confidence, convened congress, anticipating,
on account of the crisis, ^he usual period. He opened
the session on the 17th of October, 1803, and submitted
the treaties to the examination and constitutional sanc
tion of the senate. The magnitude of the sura, and
even the nature of the contract, gave rise to discus
sions. The senators who opposed the ratification,
men deserving of esteem, but advocates of rigorous
theories, invoked in support of their argument those
maxims of universal justice, which necessity and even
expediency so often sflence. " Congress," they said,
" had not the power of annexing by treaty new territo
ries to the confederacy. This right could only belong
to the whole people of the United States." These se-

OF LOUISIANA, 323
nators likewise required the free acquiescence of the
Louisianians. " This was their natural right; and the
formal consent of the two people was," according to
them, "indispensable; namely, the consent of the one
party to belong to the Union, and that of the other to
enlarge its territory. Neither the constitution nor any
act that had emanated from thera had authorized the
president to conclude such a treaty."
These opponents brought forward, in the very bo
som of a republican legislature, the example of the
absolute sovereigns of Europe. "We have seen,"
they said, " these princes show more respect for the
original and primitive rights of the people, and not
dispose of a state and its inhabitants as if it was a
. question respecting the sale of a manufacture or a flock
of sheep. Maria Theresa, in abandoning to the king
of Prussia certain fiefs which depended on the king
dom of Bohemia, acknowledged that the abandonment
could not be consummated till the states of that king
dom had made a solemn renunciation of them; and
are we, the citizens of a free country, about to give an
exaraple of a violation of this natural right!"
Jefferson himself, a zealous republican, would have
wished to diminish the powers of the government in
stead of extending them. The branch of the federal
government, to which the general powers of the con
federacy at home and abroad are confided, seemed
to him to menace the republic with a consohdation
prejudicial to the authority of the individual states.
He considered his own authority too monarchical.

324 THE H1ST0R\
He would have desired to have had the assent of the
people to the treaties previously to their ratification.
But there was a real danger in the delay, and he, on
this occasion, did violence to his own principles.
It was not. difficult to demonstrate to him the great
advantages which would result from the treaty as well
to the United States as to the Louisianians. The
confederacy had only aspired to the enjoyment of a
free navigation of the Mississippi, and the treaty gave
it almost another world.
The senate approved the treaties at the very mo
ment that the Marquis de la Casa Yrujo was protest
ing with the most violence. The constitution requires
the concurrence of two-thirds of the senators present,
and there was a majority of twenty-four votes against
seven. The president ratified them the next day, the
21st of October, 1803, without awaiting the return of
the messenger, who was carrying to Laussat the orders
of his government. There was no where any reserve,
and the exchange of the two instruments was executed
purely and simply in the ordinary form. Mr. Jefferson,
in giving his ratification, declared that as soon as the
United States should be in possession of the colony, by
a legal transfer to them through the French comrais
sioner, the treaty should be deeraed to have had its
entire execution.
Afl the documents relating to this affair were imme
diately afterwards communicated to the house of re
presentatives, A few of the members raised objec
tions, which were principally drawn from the exorbitant

OP LOUISIANA, 32.5
price that the plenipotentiaries had stipulated. They
were rephed to with force, and one of the delegates,
who approved the treaties, pronounced on the occa
sion the foflowing words, which this history ought to
preserve: "In a few years," said he, " we shafl rank
with the most powerful states of the world. Even the
acquisition that we are now making wifl promptly ex
tinguish the debt that we are going to contract. The
possession of Louisiana will enrich all the eastern
states. Others wifl be formed from it that wfll contri
bute to our public revenue. Let us religiously observe
the rules of justice, and let us fulfil our engagements
with the utmost exactitude. We wifl soon be a power
formidable to afl the states that succumb under the
weight of their debts."
The three powers* of the American government
concurred in ratifying the treaties without any modifi
cation. The necessity of this concurrence to carry a
treaty into full effect might embarrass the most simple
negotiation, if one of them was against it; but the op
position were in a very smafl minority. The acts,
which it was requisite that congress should pass, en
countered no difficulty. They gave the president power
to cause possession to be taken, and by other laws
* The president, with the advice and consent of the senate, con
cludes treaties which are declared by the constitution to be the su
preme law of the land; but where an appropriation of money is re
quired, it is necessary to pass an act of congress, in which the
house of representatives must of course concur. In such cases,
however, it has been supposed that the national faith is pledged to
enact the laws proper to carry the treaties into effect. — ^Transl.

326 THE HISTORY
they created the public stock. The American minis
ters at Paris had previously authorized, under their
guarantee, an anticipation of the public credit for two
miflions of dollars, and the advance of this payment
to the French treasury had been generally approved at
Washington. Some even regarded this partial exe
cution of the contract as a means of rendering the ces
sion irrevocable. This general eagerness, an authen
tic sign of the good faith of congress, was also an evi
dence of the opinion which it entertained of the great
advantages of the acquisition that had been made.
The laws and royal ordinances were provisionally
maintained in Louisiana, but for only a very short
time. The president and the two. houses of congress
ordered that the laws of the American Union should
be proclaimed and executed there.
The orders sent to M. Laussat and the American
officers had anticipated the possible case of a resist
ance on the part of the Spanish authorities, and, as
the concurrence of the latter was indispensable, there
was some uneasiness respecting the final issue of the
affair. Spain abdicated the sovereignty of the coun
try. The French dominion was only to last a few
days. The United States had not yet any authority
there. The articles of the treaty were not known.
The present was for raany a raotive for regretting the
past: the future offered to all only uncertain hopes.
The Spanish authorities and officers feared for their
old settleraents the influence of the neighbourhood of
a free and independent colony. The French prefect

OP LOUISIANA. • 327
and other officers saw vanish, with regret, the hope
that they had entertained of concurring in the founda
tion of a great colonial establishment, which was
deeraed necessary to the prosperity of the French
commerce. St Domingo seeraed irreparably lost: re
fugee planters arrived every day bringing most raelan-
choly news; and Louisiana, where they had hoped to
find a new France, no longer appeared to them an
asylum. M. Laussat had resided for nine months at New Or
leans, without assuming his public character. M. Lan-
dais, the French officer who was sent to him from
Washington by land, traversed the countries inhabited
by the Creeks and Cherokees. We would here reraark
that these tribes have not yet evacuated these territo
ries, and would also add, that the federal city of Wash
ington communicates at this day, (1828,) with New
Orleans by an easy and safe road, frequented by nume
rous travellers who pass through the Indian country.
M. Landais arrived on the 23d of November, 1803.
On the 26th the French prefect had a conference with
Messrs. De Salcedo and Casa Calvo, the comraission
ers of the catholic king, and iraraediately afterwards,
preparations of every kind announced to the public the
cession that was about to be made to France.
On the 30th of November, Laussat, in his character
of comraissioner of the French governraent, announced,
by the following proclamation, addressed to the Lou
isianians, the mission with which he was charged :
" This mission," said he, " less agreeable to me than

328 THE HISTORY
the one which I had come to fulfil, however, offers me
the consolation that it will be more advantageous to
you than the first could have been. The return of the
French sovereignty wifl be only momentary. The ap
proach of a war, which threatens the four quarters of
the world, has given a new direction to the beneficent
views of France towards Louisiana. She has ceded
it to the United States of America.
" The treaty secures to you all the advantages and
immunities of citizens of the United States. The parti
cular government, which you wifl select, wifl be adapt
ed to your customs, usages, chmate, and opinions.
" Above all, you will not fail to experience the ad
vantages of an upright, impartial, incorruptible justice,
where the publicity and invariable forms of the pro
cedure, as well as the limits carefully interposed to the
arbitrary application of the laws, wfll concur with the
moral and national character of the judges and juries
in effectuafly guarantying to the citizens their property
and personal security.
" The Mississippi, which washes not deserts of burn
ing sand, but the most extensive, the most fertile, and
the most favourably situated plains of the new world,
wifl, at the quays of this new Alexandria, be forthwith
crowded with thousands of vessels of afl nations,
"I have great pleasure, Louisianians, in opposing
this picture to the touching reproaches of having aban
doned you, and to the tender regrets, to which this in
delible attachraent of very many of you to the coun
try of your ancestors makes you give utterance on the

OP LoulSIA^A, 329
present occasion, France and her government will hear
the account of these regrets with affection and grati
tude; but you wifl soon be convinced that they have
marked their conduct towards you by the most eminent
and most memorable of favours.
" By this proceeding the French republic gives the
first example in modern times of the voluntary emanci
pation of a colony; — an example of one of those colo
nies of which we are delighted to find the prototype in
the glorious ages of antiquity: may a Louisianian and
a Frenchman never meet now or hereafter in any part
of the world without feeling sentiments of affection,
and without being mutuafly disposed to call one ano
ther brothers,"
On the morning of the same day, the Spanish
troops and mflitia were drawn up in front of the City
Hall, The French and Spanish commissioners came
there, foflowed by a procession of the merchants
and Other inhabitants of their respective nations.
Three chairs were arranged in the council chamber,
and Salcedo occupying the middle one, Laussat pre
sented to him the decree of October 15th, 1802, by
which the king of Spain ordered his representative to
deliver the colony to the French plenipotentiary. This
order was dated more th«n a year back. M, Laussat
produced, at the same time, the authority of the first con
sul to take possession of the country in the name of the
French people. After the public reading of these acts,
the Spanish governor, leaving his seat, delivered him
42

330 THE HISTORY
the keys of the city, and the Marquis de la Casa Calvo
announced, " that the Louisianians, who should not de
clare that they wished to retire under the Spanish au
thority, were absolved from their oath of fidelity to the
catholic king." At a signal, given by the firing of can
non, the Spanish colours were lowered and the French
hoisted. The French forces only consisted of a smafl num
ber of officers of artiflery and engineers. The charge
of the forts and of the different posts on the Missis
sippi was confided to the local militia.
The French sovereignty lasted from the 30th of No
vember to the 20th of December, 1803. M. Laussat,
in his character of chief of the government during this
interval, provided for the adrainistration of justice in
summary and urgent matters. In spite, however, of
his anxious care, this short space of tirae was not ex
empt frora troubles.
The districts of Attakapas and Opelousas, in the
neighbourhood of New Orleans, but on the other side
of the river, were coraposed of plantations, whose
proprietors, imperfectly informed of the circurastances
of the change, explained it in different ways accord
ing to their particular interests : these quarrels would
have led to acts of violence, had they not been ap
peased by the proclamations of the prefect and sorae
measures of the actual government, which, though
transitory, were sufficient to show that the colony was
not entirely given up to anarchy.

OF LOUISIANA. 331
Messrs. De Salcedo and Casa Calvo had exercised
an absolute authority: but, far from their being re
proached with any abuse of power, it was admitted
that they had administered the government with wis
dom, moderation, and justice; the inhabitants, in
deed, only waited till the cession was made to the
United States, and their authority had entirely ceased,
to render them a public proof of affection and grati
tude. Thenceforth no favour was hoped for from thera,
and these testimonies of respect had a much more cer
tain character of sincerity than those which are inva
riably addressed to rulers on their accession to power.
The United States had garrisons on the frontier
posts. General Wilkinson, having taken command of
thera, advanced to the left bank of the Mississippi, and
estabhshed his carap, on the 17th and 18th of Decem
ber, 1803, at half a league frora New Orleans. As
soon as this division was in sight, the Spanish troops
embarked and set safl for the Havannah.
The next day, discharges of artillery frora the forts
and vessels in the road announced the farewefl which
the French magistrates were then taking of the colo
ny. They became for ever strangers to a province al
ternately Spanish and French, and which bore the
name of one of our greatest kings; they once more
addressed as countrymen those whom they were never
again to see. This colony, which had been always ex
posed to inevitable vicissitudes under the laws of a state,
from which it was separated two thousand leagues,
was now undergoing its last crisis. This event put

332 THE HISTORY
an end to uncertainties that had lasted for a century,
and fixed for ever the fate of these fine regions. The
spontaneous acknowledgment of the independence of
Louisiana, its annexation to the confederacy of a pros
perous people were the acts of the wisest policy; and
those who shall hereafter be in a condition to observe
their consequences, wifl admit that they ought to rank
with the most important occurrences in the history of
our times.
On the 20th of December, the day fixed for the de
livery of the colony to the United States, Laussat, ac
companied by a numerous retinue, went to the City
Hall, At the same instant the American troops were,
by his orders, introduced into the capital,
Claiborne and Wilkinson were received in form in
the City Hall, and were placed on the two sides of the
prefect. The treaty of cession, the respective powers
of the comraissioners, and the certificate of the ex
change of ratifications were read. Laussat then pro
nounced these words : " In conformity with the treaty,
I put the United States in possession of Louisiana and
its dependencies. The citizens and inhabitants, who
wish to remain here and obey the laws, are from this
moment exonerated from the oath of fidelity to the
French republic." Mr. Claiborne, the governor of the
territory of Mississippi, exercising the powers of go
vernor general and intendant of the province of Lou
isiana, delivered a congratulatory discourse, addressed
to the Louisianians. " The cession," said he, "secures
to you and your descendants the inheritance of liberty,

OF LOUISIANA. 333
perpetual laws, and magistrates, whom you wifl elect
yourselves." These formalities being fulfilled, the com
missioners of the two powers, on retiring, might have
witnessed an incident produced by the last impressions
which this transfer occasioned.
On the arrival of M. Laussat, nine months before his
recall, the colony might have considered itself again
French, and a little time had sufficed to revive in the
hearts of some old inhabitants sentiraents, which so long
a separation had not been able entirely to extinguish.
They manifested them on occasion of the change of
the flag. During the twenty days that the French sove
reignty lasted, the French colours had been displayed
on the City Hall. Some French soldiers retired for many
years to Louisiana, others, brought together from dif
ferent places on the Mississippi by accident or their re
spective interests, had asserabled at the sight of the na
tional colours. To the nuraber of fifty, they had, at their
own suggestion, constituted themselves guardians of a
flag rendered illustrious by so many victories, and they
watched over it as if it had been specially intrusted to
them. The change of the flags was effected by rais
ing the one and lowering the other. When they met
midway, they were kept stationary for a few instants,
and the artillery and trumpets celebrated the union;
when the flag of the United States rose to its fufl
height and waved in the air, the Americans expressed
their joy by the usual shouts; at the same time, the
colours of the French republic were lowered and re-

334 THE HISTORY
ceived in the arms of the French who had guarded
thera; their regrets were openly expressed, and to ren
der a last homage to this token, which was no longer
that of the sovereignty of the country, the sergeant-
major wrapped it around him as a scarf, and, after tra
versing the city, proceeded towards the house of the
French commissioner. The little troop accompanied
him; they were saluted in passing before the lines of
the Americans, who presented arms to them. The
officers of the mflitia, for the most part of French ori
gin, foflowed in a body. They said to Laussat, on his
receiving thera; " We have wished to give to France a
last proof of the affection, which we wfll always retain
for her. It is into your hands that we deposite this
syrabol of the tie which had again transiently connect
ed us with her." Laussat replied: "May the prospe
rity of Louisiana be eternal."
This magistrate only quitted the colony, the 23d of
April of the ensuing year, leaving there an honourable
reputation. Mr. Claiborne, the comraissioner who ad
ministered the government, declared that the authority
of the United States was established, and the public
officers installed in the exercise of their functions. His
proclamation guarantied to the inhabitants the preser
vation of their religious, civfl, and private rights. The
promises which he made to them would have seemed
too magnificent, if they had not had a sort of guaran
tee in the prosperity of the other states of the confe
deracy.

OF LOUISIANA. 33.0
The Spanish, French, and x^merican chiefs had ne
glected nothing to maintain harmony between the
.three nations. On the first days, however, after the
occupation, several accidents were occasioned by the
diversity of language, usages, and habits, as well as by
the regret which many felt at seeing broken for ever
the ties that had united thera to another people, Cora-
plaints were also made of the insolence of some Ame
rican patrols to the inhabitants,* The discretion and
firmness of the magistrates easfly repressedi these move
ments. The revolution which had just taken place, was in fact
very different from that which in 1763, had caused such
violent commotions, and led to the shedding of the blood
of the colonists, who were discontented with a new
sovereignty. The Americans and Louisianiaps coa
lesced after having been near engaging in a war, and
even after coraraercial hostflities had actually com
menced. On the eve of the change, it was supposed
that agriculture, commerce, and navigation, were ru
ined. A few reflections had sufficed to calm this agi
tation. Afl the white inhabitants of every class were
about to participate in the advantages of liberty.
The treaty had only placed Louisiana in the situa
tion most favourable for liberty, and if France had at
tempted to keep it and maintained the exclusive sys
tem there, no human effort could have prevented its in
corporation into the American confederacy.
' General order of December 26fh, 1803.

336 THE HISTORY
From that moment we were authorized to believe
that the hopes entertained by the negotiators of the
treaties were realized. Their correctness may at this
day be stfll better appreciated. Has Louisiana, during
the last twenty-six years, raade any progress in agri
culture and commerce.-' Have the laws meliorated
the condition of the inhabitants ? Is it now a matter
beyond all doubt, that there exists a vast portion of the
world, where agriculture, navigation, sciences so high
ly favourable to the happiness of mankind, are going to
be freely developed.'* These questions naturally pre
sent themselves as a sequel to the history of the trea
ty. We wifl answer them by giving a statement of the
situation of the colony under these different points of
view. On the 20th of March, 1 804, congress divided Louisi
ana into two territories. The southern section was
called Orleans, and the northern Louisiana, but they
did not long retain these names, and we wfll hereafter
mention the reasons for their being changed.
The Louisianians of the lower country, governed
after the cession as inhabitants of a territory not yet
admitted to the rank of a state of the confederacy, as
pired to that privilege. It was not tifl eight years af
ter that event, that congress authorized them to form a
constitution, in order to their being received into the
Union, on the footing of the original states.
This fundamental law was framed by a convention,
assembled at Xev,- Orleans. It bears date January

OF LOUISIANA. 337
22d, 1812, It was subsequently submitted to con
gress, who approved it under the title of the constitu
tion of Louisiana, It wfll be sufficient to point out its
principal provisions.
The three departments of the government are sepa
rate and distinct,
" The legislative power is composed of a senate and
house of representatives. To be a representative, it is
necessary to be a free white citizen, of the age of twen
ty-one years or upwards, to possess landed property to
the value of five hundred doflars, and to have resided
within the state for two years. Every free white citi
zen of the age of twenty-one years, paying a state tax,
is an elector after one year's residence.
" To be a senator, it is necessary to have resided
within the state for four years, to be twenty-seven years
old, and to hold landed property of the value of one
thousand doflars,
" No person, whfle he continues to exercise the func
tions of a clergyman, priest, or teacher of any religious
persuasion, society, or sect, is eligible to the general as
sembly, or to any office of profit or trust under the state.
" No bifl shafl have the force of a law, untfl, on three
several days, it be read over in each house of the ge
neral assembly, and free discussion allowed thereon;
unless, in case of urgency, four-fifths of the house where
the bifl shafl be depending, may deem it expedient to
dispense with this rule.
"The governor is elected for four years: he must
be at least thirty-five years of age, have been an inha-

338 THE HISTORT
bitant of the state at least six years preceding his elec-'
tion, and shall hold in his own right a landed estate of
five thousand doflars value.
" No meraber of congress or person holding any of
fice under the United States, nor a minister of any re
ligious society, is eligible to the office of governor.
" Every bill that has passed both houses, is presented
to the governor. If he approves it, he signs it; if not,
he returns it with his objections, to the house in which
it originated. After being thus returned, the bifl can
only become a law, if approved by two-thirds of all the
merabers elected to each house."
Louisiana had, tifl the adoption of this constitution,
been governed by the civfl and criminal laws of the
kingdom of France; and those, who, a century before,
had prepared this first legislation, had thought so little
of accommodating it to the climate and local circum
stances, that to abridge their labour, they had subjected
the province to the custom of Paris, (coutume de Paris.)
This is, however, still the law of Lower Canada and of
other colonies which either now are, or formerly were
French. Before the cession, an appeal from the judgments of
the tribunals, was carried to the superior councfl of
Havannah, and, in certain cases, to the council of Ma
drid. Justice was oftentimes not rendered tifl after a
lapse of several years. Justice long delayed or which
must be sought for at a distance, is not true justica
The laws of Spain, France, and the United States,
have ceased since 1825, to prevail in this country,

OP LOUISIANA. 339
where these three powers have successively ruled : com
petent and learned men have undertaken the great task
of recoucfling thera. A civfl code has been adopted,
and the one which is now established in France has
been of no little service in its compflation.*
The new constitution, granted to the Louisianians
the important right of habeas corpus; a jury trial in civil
cases at the request of either of the parties; the power
of giving bail in all cases not capital, and, finafly, the
trial by jury in all criminal prosecutions. The French
settlers thus found again on the borders of the Missis
sippi, the trial by their country and their peers, which
was so dear to their ancestors, and which they might
consequently receive as the restoration of a right.
Mr. Edward Livingston, a brother of the minister
who signed the treaty of cession, has since prepared the
plan of a criminal code, in which he proposes the abo
lition of capital punishment.
The convention that formed this constitution, was
composed of forty representatives, of whom twenty-two
were of French origin, and eighteen Americans from
the United States.
The name of Louisiana was at first that of the whole
ceded province. It was then apphed only to the coun
try washed by the Missouri, from its mouth to a de
fined boundary at the west. New Orleans gave its name
to the territory situated below that of Louisiana and to
the right of the Mississippi; but these denominations
have since been changed. The territory of New Or-
* A dio-est of civil laws for Louisiana was prepared and adopted
by the legislature of the then territory of Orleans in 1808.— Transl,

340 THE HISTORY
leans has become the state of Louisiana, and the dis
trict which bore this latter name, is now called the
state of Missouri. It was not till the ] 0th of August,
1821, that Missouri was admitted into the Union.
The general assembly of Louisiana held its first ses
sion in 1812. Congress had authorized it to include
in the liraits of the state a territory situated to the east
of the Mississippi, and which Spain persisted in claim
ing, as a part of West Florida. The Louisianians
theraselves agreed that it had been considered to be
long to Florida, but, nevertheless, the assembly de
clared, by one of its first acts, that this district of coun
try was a portion of Louisiana. It was certainly a very
convenient possession for New Orleans, which drew
from it a great part of its supplies; but this eager
ness to strengthen doubtful pretensions by possession,
does not accord with the spirit of justice that charac
terizes the other political acts of the United States.*
Ten years later the state would have obtained the
sarae augmentation of territory by an incontestable ti
tle. But, at the period when the Louisianians seized,
on' it, Spain was far from admitting their right. As
early as the year 1 803, whflst Mr. Monroe was nego
tiating at Paris the treaty of cession, Mr. Pinckney,
the minister of the United States at Madrid, was ask
ing of Don Pedro Cevallos that the Floridas should be
ceded to them; and he proposed, as a sort of equiva
lent, to guaranty to the king and his successors cer
tain dominions of Spain situated beyond the Mississip-
* See Part II, page 287, note.— Transl.

OF LOUISIANA. 31 1
pi. This offer of guarantee was at that time disdained
by the court of Madrid, and when, in 1818, it mani
fested an an.xiety to accept it, and include within its
operation Mexico and the northern colonies, circum
stances had changed: the revolt had every where
broken out. The United States were far from interfe
ring in this quarrel, which in no way alarmed them,
and which they did not desire to see terminate other
wise than in the establishment of those principles of
hberty, to which they were so fondly attached. Mr.
Erving, their envoy, declared that the offer, not accept
ed fifteen years before, was the same as if it had never
been made. Reciprocal complaints, reclamations for
indemnities on account of prizes iflegally made at sea,
had in this long interval rendered the negotiation com
plicated. Spain was engaged in difficulties which did
not permit her to give any farther attention to the Flo
ridas: she ceded them, and the United States thus ac
complished, by the treaty of the 22d of February, 1819,
the great design which they had formed many years be
fore, of having only the sea for a boundary to the east
and south.
As the price of this new cession, they took on them
selves claims for indemnities of their own ship-owners
and merchants, to the amount of five mfllions of dollars.
Thus, they were indemnified by Spain, as they had
been by France, for spoliations, which privateers, fur
nished with the instructions of a doubtful authority,
and disavowed by the law of nations, had been able to
practise with impunity on their comraerce; and these

342 THE HISTORY
states, scarcely admitted to the rank of nations, proved
to the world that they would never suffer any unjust
aggression. This acquisition added new value to that of Louisi
ana. Some navigable rivers, which traverse the Flori
das to their embouchure in the sea, have their rise and
a considerable part of their course in the old states.
The United States became masters in the gulf of Mex
ico of naval stations suitable for the reception of ves
sels of the first class. Finally, by means of afl these ag
grandizements, they have formed one of the most pow
erful empires in the world.
The wretched and miserable races, who have inhabit
ed for centuries these various and extensive countries,
have not left a single one of those monuments of ge
nius and the arts, which attest that human creatures
have embellished their abodes and meliorated the
land where Providence gave them birth. Some traces
are, however, to be seen of an incipient civflization.
In many places are to be found conical or pyramidical
mounds of earth, of a height that could only have been
raised by many thousand labourers, employed during a
great number of years. Some of them are at their base
more than twenty-five hundred feet in circumference,
and nearly two hundred in height. The pyramid is
terminated by a platform of several feet in diameter.
There are also others of smafl dimensions, which are
placed without any regularity, and so close together
that the voice is without difficulty heard frora one to
another of them. These elevations could not have

OP i.ouisiAN.\. 343
been places of asylum or defence, and the Indians them
selves, when interrogated as to their destination, do
not assign them any.
Some more extensive and less elevated platforms are
likewise to be noticed. They are formed on a regular
plan, and are either oval or square. The means em
ployed to render the access to thera difficult, seems to
indicate an intention of defence. In other parts of the
country these constructions are different, and sorae
have supposed that they distinguished in them courses
of stone. Near the junction of the Muskingum with
the Ohio, in the neighbourhood of the Miamis, and in
the vicinity of Zanesville, a great number of these
mounds are to be seen. Some are surrounded by ram
parts, and are excavated within. The ramparts are
sometiraes even two hundred feet in height, and enclose
areas of twenty-five or thirty acres. A great many hu
man bones are scattered in them, which would induce
us to take them for tombs, if the enclosure was not
too large to have had only such a destination. It is
calculated that there are nearly three thousand of these
hillocks in the parts of the country that have been exa
mined. Travellers have thought that they recognised
in them places consecrated to the worship of idols.
These monuments, as ancient perhaps as those of
Egypt, do not in any other respect resemble them.
But, though rude, they could not have been construct
ed without the co-operation of a great many men ac
customed to obedience, habituated to discipline, and
directed by chiefs not wholly strangers to the practical

344 THE HISTORY
rules of geometry. The native inhabitants of the pre
sent day would be neither sufficiently docfle, nor suffi
ciently numerous for their chiefs to undertake similar
works. They consequently attest the presence of races
less ignorant than those which we see there, though
they might not have been much farther advanced in
civilization. The first races to which we refer have
not existed for several centuries, the others are about
to disappear. Their imperfect traditions scarcely go
back a thousand years, and we may conclude that they
were arrested in their career by some political or na
tural catastrophe.
History makes us acquainted with man, as an inha
bitant of the earth, for upwards of fifty or sixty centu
ries. But, during this great number of years, the two
hemispheres have continued unknown to one another,
and a circumstance so extraordinary can only be ex
plained by the slight progress which navigation had
made up to the period of the discovery of America.
Researches have been in vain raade to ascertain
whether the inhabitants of the old and new world were
of the same origin, and whether the one race was more
ancient than the other; nothing has led to the solution
of the doubts on these questions,
A treaty of peace and friendship has been concluded
between the Osages, on the one part, and the Delaware
nation, its allies the Shawnees, the Kickapous, the Pi-
ankashaws, the Weas, the Peorias, and the Senecas
on the other. These tribes reside in the countries
ceded by France on the Missouri and Arkansas. This

OF LOUISIANA. .345
pacification took place in the town of St. Louis on the
.7th of October, 1826. We cannot rely on its durabi
lity. An unfortunate circumstance occasions frequent
hostflities among the Indian nations who occupy the
countries situated between the Mississippi and the
Rocky Mountains. The white hunters, settled on the
frontiers, ruin these tribes by destroying their game.
They, on their side, pressed by want, fall back on the
other Indians of the north and west, and, although in
ferior in numbers, almost always attack them with suc
cess, because their neighbours, the whites, furnish
them with arms, and sometimes join with thera. The
United States hold it as a principle that the erai-
nent right of sovereignty over these territories belongs
to them, but that they cannot have the proprietorship
of the soil without giving to the aborigines an equiva
lent in money or merchandise. This is an abstract
distinction. A few years since some Trapists, who had emi
grated frora Europe, were found on one of the great
prairies. Brackenridge, who visited them in 1812,
says that their viflage contained an enclosure of a hun
dred acres, five little cabins, and afl the other build
ings necessary for agriculture. " They have," says
this traveller, "renounced the use of speech, one of the
noblest gifts of God to man; and they attempt to live
in society, deprived of the principal agent of all socie
ty." These fathers, whose nuraber was about thirty
or forty, were alraost all J'rench or Gerraans. They
seemed to seek in solitude and sflence a place of re-
44

346 THE HISTORY
pose, which, however, soon ceased to satisfy them.
The people, who are beginning to settle in this country,
are not disposed to encourage such exaltations. The
Trapists, weary perhaps at having so few witnesses
of their sflence, and tired of a kind of perfectibility
which no one admired, have within a short time dis
persed. The Mississippi, one of the greatest rivers of the
universe, and which had for so many centuries only
served for the navigation of a few canoes, is already
equal in importance to the finest water comraunica-
tions in the world. Frora its mouth to the first cata
racts, it traverses, in a course of fourteen or fifteen
hundred miles, lands of excellent quality. In some
spots, where its banks approach near together, it flows
with a rapidity of four or five miles an hour. It re
ceives the Missouri and other rivers, which bring it a
prodigious quantity of trees that are torn up by the
inundations or by the ice. These waters depOsite in
the plains a rich slime, formed from vegetables that
were decomposed centuries ago. The river carries off
the greatest portion of it to the gulf of Mexico, where
it is swallowed up and lost for reproduction. The accu
mulation of this slime sometimes obstructs the channel
and alters its position. The bed of the river successive
ly rises in different places. The western or right banks
become higher than the plains which they are to defend
against the inundations; and these immense volumes of
water are, with an admiration mingled with dread, seen
to move on, increase in bulk, overrun the banks, and

OF LOUISIANA. 347
inundate those superb vafleys, the sofl of which is
lower than the level of the shore. Unfortunately these
dykes, which are not capable of arresting the inunda
tion, afterwards prevent the return of the water to the
bed of the river. The evaporation which comes on
in summer, without having any effect on the deep de-
posites, increases the calamity, and the ground being
only half drained, stagnate pools are every where
formed, which render the atmosphere unhealthy, and
the country almost uninhabitable. Some elevations,
the work of nature, or of these very inundations, exist
beyond the strands which extend along the river. But
the waters reach even these little islands, and if a few
cultivators have dared to settle on them, they must with
their families and cattle hasten to gain a height, from
whence they see their houses and fields completely un
der water.
This calamity, too general on the lower Mississippi,
wfll, for a long tinie, prevent iraproveraents being made
proportionate to the extent of the country. But these
inundations wifl one day be changed into an artificial
irrigation ; breaches wfll be opened by the cultivator
himself for the waters to run off after having deposited
on the land a fertfle slime. Thiis another Egypt is
gradually forming. The climate of lower Louisiana,
the immense river which runs through it, the sources
of which have been for so long a time unknown, its in
undations, its falls, its embouchures, the neighbour
hood of a gulf, wfll unite in rendering the resemblance
with the Delta and the Nfle complete.

348 THE HISTORY
However, these sub-marine afluvions at its mouth
begin to obstruct it by a bar, which make^ the entrance
of the river every day mor'e and raore difficult. To ob
viate this inconvenience, it is proposed to open a ca
nal frora New Orleans to the gulf Large ships wfll
be able to navigate it, and the undertaking ^offers ad
vantages very superior to the expense.
The course of the Mississippi is twelve hundred
leagues, and the Missouri fifteen hundred, of the Ar
kansas a thousand, and of the Red River seven or
eight hundred. These rivers and their tributc^ries wa
ter two hundred thousand square leagues, within the
space of country called the basin of the Mississippi,
This internal navigation, prepared by nature, has al
ready been wonderfufly extended and improved by ca
nals, excavated by the labour of man; and steam-boats
descend and ascend against wind and tide, brave the
most rapid currents with more speed, and with raore
convenience than the finest roads in Europe can be
travelled. Wood and coal, indispensable agents in this
navigation, abound on the shores of the rivers, and the
steam engine has put an end to the difficulty of com
munication, heretofore one of the greatest obstacles
that were ever opposed to the iraproveraent of colo
nies. At the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri, the
lands lying towards the north-west are of adrairaWe
fertflity ; eraigration already inclines there, and these
districts, though very reraote from the sea, wfll one day
be as wefl peopled as any other country of tjie world.

OP LOU IS IAIN A. 349
A vast plain and prairies extend beyond the Missouri
and Red River, foflowing the base of the great chain
which separates the tributary waters of the Mississip
pi from those which flow into the Pacific Ocean. This
vafley is neither a perfect level nor mountainous, but
is gently undulating; it is divided into. spacious plains
where only a few streams flow, the waters of which
are remarkably clear. The most abundant pasture-
grounds are there adorned with an infinite variety of
flowers and flowering shrubs. Those who have tra
versed this country have admired the beauty of the si
tuation, the mildness of the' cliraate, the excellence
and purity of the air. Very few Indian villages are
to be seen; but there are numerous flocks of buffaloes
and wfld bisons. These animals keep together in or
der to defend themselves against the hunters, who only
succeed in kiUing the stragglers. There are sometimes
five or six hundred of thera together.
This district is not subject to the sudden and violent
rains which between the tropics fall in torrents and
destroy the productions of the fields. The night and
morning dews are sufficient to refresh the land and to
supply with water a multitude of little trenches. But
whether it be the consequence of several conflagra
tions, or arises from sorae other natural cause stifl un
known, large tracts of country are to be seen there,
so entirely- without wood, that a settler could not find
on thera the branches and bark necessary to construct
and repair his cabin. For many days' journey not a
tree is to be found, and if the winds bring seeds there,

350 THE HISTORT
if some of them begin to shoot up, they only produce
a feeble degenerate shrub. The exceflence and depth
of the soil make this singularity inexplicable. The
country in question is scarcely inhabited. A pastoral
population wifl settle there, an agricultural one wifl
foflow, and under the effects of industry, it wifl no longer
have any occasion to envy the advantages of other
lands. A few Europeans have already built some huts there.
They do not yet avail theraselves of the plough; it is
enough for thera slightly to stir the mould, which has
been at rest for many centuries. They confide the
grain to it, which they then leave to nature, by whom
they are liberally recompensed.
On the two sides of the river Plate, are vast plains
of sand from a hundred to a hundred and fifty leagues
in extent, where no indication of living creatures is to
be found. These arid regions bear marks of the pre
sence of the Ocean at a very reraote period. It is be
lieved that its waters have washed the base of the
Rocky Mountains, at the foot of. which the desert ter
minates. To the south of this district, vegetation has resumed
all its vigour. The Red River and the Arkansas, in a
part of their respective courses, intersect these fine
countries so long uninhabited. The ridges frora which
they descend are covered with forests. Every year the
inundations of the Red River tear up by the roots and
carry away trees of an extraorduiary size. They are
heaped up on the rocks, which, in several places, ob-

OF LOUISIANA. .351
struct or contract the current of the waters, and they
have forraed, even above the bed of the river, a natu
ral vault, which is from twenty to twenty-five leagues
in length, in the direction of the river : it is not, how
ever unbroken, but the river reappears from time to
time. This accidental formation must have com
menced several centuries ago; for a new forest has al
ready covered the rubbish, and one may cross the river
on these bridges, and consider himself on the firm
ground. The lower Mississippi presents the sarae sin
gularities. From time to time, subterraneous noises, hke dis
tant thunder, are heard in the valleys and extend under
the bed of the rivers. Different reasons are given for
this phenomenon, but every explanation would be pre
mature, till a greater mimber of observations are col
lected. The Rocky Mountains offer a stfll more extensive
field for conjecture. These peaks touch one another
at their bases, and form a chain which is more than
three hundred mfles in length. The summit of the
largest is perceived at the distance of one hundred and
forty mfles. Their steepness and entire nakedness does
not leave the least room for vegetation.
The clearing of the land frequently leads to the dis
covery of considerable heaps of bones. These remains
have belonged to a species of animals, which, accord
ing to the accounts of them, must have been two or
three times larger than the elephant: the species is un-

352 THE. HISTORY
known at this day, and seems to have wholly disap
peared from the globe. ,
Mineral salt, of an excellent quality, is found in abun
dance in a great raany places at the surface of the
earth. In ascending the Arkansas, and at nearly two
hundred leagues from the great village of that name,
are the salt plains. A water strongly saturated with salt,
soaks thoroughly in the ground, and penetrates it during
the darap and rainy weather. During the droughts of
suramer, it forms on the surface a solid and firm layer of
salt of from two to six inches in thickness. Its quahty
is equal to that which is obtained by artificial crystalli
zation and evaporation. This inexhaustible treasure
is possessed by the Osages, who were for a long
while one of the most savage of the Indian tribes.
They plundered the caravans, when they were not suffi
ciently numerous to defend themselves, and continually
alarmed the inhabitants of the frontier. In the mid
dle of 1825, the United States concluded an important
treaty with them. By the terms of it, the nation of the
great and little Osages, cedes to the United States aU
the country situated west of the territory of Arkansas,
and the state, of Missouri, north and west of the Red
River, south of the Kanzas river, and east of a line
drawn from the sources of the river Kanzas through
the Rock Saline. This treaty, as wefl as several others
of the same nature, contain stipulations and grants of
land in favour of a mixed race, the descendants of
French and Indians.

OF LOUISIANA. 353
A part of the salt bed has passed under the sove
reignty of the confederacy. A day may come when its
products will be more useful, ahd as much sought after
as those of the silver and gold mines of Mexico.
The first phenomena observed in a country of which
only the rivers are known, and in which the popula
tion is confined to their shores, do not present any
great distinctions between the physical state of the
new and old world. They have, however, seemed suf
ficient to render it doubtful, whether this other hemis
phere has not emerged later than ours from the bosom
of the waters. The disorders which follow a great
natural revolution are so much the more evident on
the surface of this new continent, as human industry
has not as yet done any thing to cause them to disap
pear. But, however this raay be, a new career in
all branches of knowledge has been opened to man
kind, and we may predict that very extraordinary dis
coveries await those who examine the interior of this
country in search of the productions of our globe, and
to study its revolutions.
Caravans of Americans crossing arid deserts, have
gone with wagons from the vfllage of the Arkansas to
Sahtafe in Mexico, in twelve days. They have been
hospitably received by the Mexican officers. The po
pulation of Santafe passed without the least disturb
ance from the royal government to a republican con
stitution. In 1724, Charlevoix, the best historian of our disco
veries in America, confidently asserted, that the metal-
45

354 THE HISTORY
lie riches promised in 1721 to the partisans of Law's
system, were not to be found in Louisiana. Char
levoix was probably mistaken. There are some indi
cations of gold and silver raines. and if the prediction
of another traveller should be verified, this country, be
fore the lapse of a century, will have returned to the
United States a hundred times the weight of gold
which it has cost them. Other metals of eveiy kind
are found in abundance in afl the old and new states.
They already afford facflities for the developement of
industry to a degree which Europe has only attained
by efforts prolonged through many centuries. Agri
cultural riches, disdained a hundred years ago, are
now estimated at their proper value, and they have in
a few years raised the inhabited parts of this country
to a high degree of prosperity. If the metallic trea
sures had been realized, they would never have equalled
those which are acquired by agriculture, commerce,
and manufactures. Twenty years "of good government
have effected what ages could not have accomplished
under the prohibitory system. General and local inte
rests have sprung up and made rapid advances. The
population, which, under an absolute government, was
stationary, has been tripled since the cession.
The lands are capable of producing every thing
useful to man, from articles of primary necessity, to
those of opulence and luxury. Louisiana has been en
riched by the disasters of St. Domingo, and the indus
try that formerly gave so much value to that island.
ROW fertflizes the vafley of the Mississippi.

OP LOUISLA.NA.

355

Since the end of the last century, the Louisianians
have begun to understand better the riches of the sofl
that they possessed: the sugar cane was then cultivated
in the gardens. The sugar now made in the ceded
territories is adequate to the consumption of almost
half the United States. The other productions of the
territory have made proportionate advances.
The temperature of Louisiana is that of the coun
tries most favoured by nature. The inconveniences
inseparable from new settlements, the dangers from the
neighbourhood of the Indians, diminish in proportion
as the new population increases. The Indians have
even taken an active interest in an important branch
of commerce. It is through their means, that heaps of
furs of every kind are now to be seen on the quays of
New Orleans. The ermine, the martin, and the beaver,
are brought there frora the highlands on the north
shores of the Mississippi, and the store houses in which
they are deposited, likewise receive the sugar, the to
bacco, and the cotton, that are grown on the southern
borders of this river. New Orleans, which was found
ed in 1707, and which languished for nearly a century,
is, after enjoying a free system for twenty-five years,
one of the most flourishing cities of America. The
increased facihties of its intercourse with Europe has
diminished the price of all kinds of merchandise that
the colony receives from thence, and it pays for them
by. its own crops of corn, cotton, and sugar. Some of
its riches are obtained without effort, viz, horses, cattle,

356 THE HISTORY
&c., which only cost the trouble of bringing them to
market. The lands in the interior, which were sold at an in
significant price under the French and Spanish domi-^
nion, acquired imraediately after the cession a consider
rable value. Ancient titles, forgotten for a century,
were searched for, and it was in the archives of the
French colony of the Iflinois, that the descendants of
Phflip Renaud found the document containing the great
grant made to their ancestor by the Mississippi Com
pany. It includes the lead mines of St Genevieve,
which are so abundant, that veins and heaps of the
metal are obtained by only digging a few feet in the
ground. Other grants were made, whfle the colony was sub^
ject to France and Spain. But the grantees, though
at first very eager, had subsequently neglected their
rights; as the lands soon acquired a high value under
the repubhcan government, this indifference ceased,
and the number of clairas was rapidly increased.
The smafl planters, for a long time humbled by their
poverty, have since the cession been in the situation
which accompanies an easy independence, and the rich
ones have probably considered themselves lowered by
the elevation of the other classes. Their opulence and
a superior education had given them an importance,
which has diminished since fortune and instruction
have been within the reach of afli Mechanics, rich in
consequence of their industry, capitalists and foreign

OF LOUISIANA, 3.57
merchants have assumed their place in a class previ
ously exclusive, and to these causes is perhaps to be
attributed the dissatisfaction of a few great proprie
tors, whose influence has vanished. The inhabitants
of French origin have not as yet been able to amalga
mate with the Americans. The two races retain their
habits, and carry this spirit of jealousy even into the
public affairs.
The population is likewise composed of Spaniards,
English, and Germans: the difference of language and
customs keeps them separate. But the public tran
quiflity is rarely disturbed, and liberty and equality wifl
one day make one nation of these people of heteroge
neous origin. The race of the Indians alone persists
in keeping separate frora afl others. Faraihes of them
appear from time to tirae in the capital, but they re
tain their independence and their indolence; and though
stifl deprived of the enjoyments of the social state,
they have no longer as heretofore the advantage of be
ing ignorant of their existence.
It is only requisite to pass from the left to the right
bank of the Mississippi, in order to find other customs
and inhabitants that may be alraost considered as be
longing to another species. The shepherds and plan
ters of Opelousas and Attakapas are nearly all of
French origin. They are in general without much in
struction, and stfll speak the French of the time of
the bucaniers; but the rudeness of their language
does not extend to their deportment: they are of mild
manners; hospitality is no where exercised with more

358 THE HISTORY
cordiality, and the rusticity which is blended with it
proves its sincerity stifl raore fully. Here the luxury
of the city has entirely disappeared, and the cloth-loom
is oftentimes the only ornament of the drawing room.
Those who are q^cquainted with Europe, and the
nuraberless enjoyments which it offers to all ages and
ranks, know also with how much wretchedness ithis
luxury is accompanied. At Attakapas there is no mag
nificence, and no poverty. Afl are happy at little ex
pense, and on the same conditions. The dwellings
in this settlement are very much scattered, churches
are rare, and the number of priests is very small. It
is, however, observed that the people are extremely re
ligious. The head of the faraily is its spiritual pastor,
and the divine morality of the gospel is transmitted to
the future generation by the discourse and example of
men who, for the most part, cannot read.
All the unsettled lands that had not been granted by
France or Spain became, in consequence of the trea
ty, the property of the United States. They had
scarcely taken possession of Louisiana when they sent
out exploring parties in all directions to examine those
western regions, which geographers stfll distinguish by
the name of unknown countries or wfld deserts. To
explore them, to traverse thera was in sorae sort to ac
quire the sovereignty of thera.
Jefferson iraraediately perceived how iraportant it
was that the United States should extend by land to
the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Some parts of its
coasts were stifl undiscovered by European navigators,

OF LOUISIANA. 359
or were not occupied by other powers : it is wefl known
that they all considered theraselves in possession of
vast countries, when one of their officers erected, at
the place of landing, a flag-staff, on which he wrote the
narae of the state he was serving.
Two persevering and courageous men, Messrs.
Lewis and Clarke, were intrusted with the conduct of
the first expedition, which was attended with truly use
ful results. As they foflowed the course of the rivers,
their journey, including the return, extended to nearly
four thousand leagues. A new world was in some sort
discovered, and the United States learned the import
ance of their acquisition.
Another exploring party, under the direction of Ge
neral Ashley, ascertained that it was possible to cross
the Rocky Mountains towards the sources, of the River
Platte. The forraidable barrier formed by this long
.chain becomes lower in this place, and opposes to the
communication of the vafley of the Missouri with the
Pacific Ocean no more obstacles difficult to surmount.
Conquerors extend their states by war: they distin
guish their reigns by the blood of the men and the de
solation of the countries which they subject. They
only leave after them the reraerabrance of disasters.
The republic of the United States is enlarged by send
ing geometers and men of science to a distance of
fifteen hundred leagues. It establishes, without any ob
stacle, the hmits of its peaceable conquests, and se
cures by good laws the lasting happiness of the com-

360 THE HISTORY
munities that may settle within them, as well as that of
the innumerable generations that are to succeed.
The decrees of the kings of Spain were the only
title of these monarchs to countries where their sub
jects had never yet penetrated, and which were five or
six times more extensive than all their European domi
nions. These regions were only inhabited by tribes
separated by great deserts. The mother country had
intended to treat them with mildness. Its agents, how
ever, too much disposed to believe that the trade of
furs and other merchandise, sold or exchanged with
the Indians, was their own patrimony, granted and
farmed out the privilege of carrying on this trade, and
those who obtained the contract abused it to the pre
judice of the natives. The latter, instructed in this
school, became in their turn deceitful. Acts of vio
lence, robberies, and assassinations were the conse
quences of this bad faith.
The independence of Louisiana has re-established
the intercourse, which so bad a system of govern
ment had interrupted. Rich cargoes of furs annually
arrive at St, Louis, which are brought from the coun
tries to the east of the Rocky Mountains by a river na
vigation of twelve hundred leagues, and good faith has
restored confidence to these same savages whom fraud
had frightened away.
France, in forming this colony, had imposed on it
afl the shackles which the jealousy of commerce is
capable of forging. She had even forbidden the rais-

OF LOUISIANA. 361
ing of corn. The Louisiana planters can now culti
vate their lands according to their own interest or ca
price. They have theraselves proclairaed the happi
ness which they enjoy: it was after an experience of
more than twenty years that the house of represen
tatives expressed by a unanimous resolution, " its ve
neration for Mr. Monroe, and its gratitude for the part
which he had taken in the proceedings that united Lou
isiana to the American confederacy,"*
Mr, Jefferson, during his lifetime, received the sarae
marks of respect This iflustrious citizen having died
in want, the senate and house of representatives of
Louisiana, animated by a just sense of gratitude, came
to the succour of his faraily.t >
Should any one suppose that he sees in the account
of so many meliorations a picture of the losses which
the cession has occasioned to France, we would merer
ly observe that our comraerce with Louisiana has in
creased tenfold since that colony has becorae indepen
dent. It was not, however, tfll it had passed through many
trials, even after the cession, that the country attained
this high degree of prosperity.
The peace of the Union, and more particularly that
of Louisiana was, for a moment, endangered by the
bold enterprise of one of those men, whom great qua
lities seem to destine to the honourable service of their
country, but who, to satisfy the ambition by which they
* February, 1825. ^ t Appendix, No. 16.
46

362 THE HISTORY
are led astray, disregard the happiness of their native
land. Aaron Burr had aspired to the place of presi
dent of the United States, and this active, enterprising,
and energetic raan had balanced the party that sup
ported Jefferson. The votes had been at first equally
divided between thera. His wise competitor was, how
ever, preferred.
Burr was one of the most ardent leaders of the re
publican party. Haniflton, a distinguished raan on the
opposite side, knew the disorder of his affairs. He
happened one day to say publicly that Burr was a man
without principle ; and, as he declined either retracting
or explaining his words, the latter challenged him to a
duel. Haraflton detested this practice, which has de
scended to us from barbarous times; he went, howeverj
to the appointed place, saying to the witnesses, " I wifl
receive his fire, but intend to fire in the air," He fell
by the ball of his adversary.
Burr, the murderer of one of the best citizens of
America, returned to preside over the senate. But
this unfortunate event had destroyed his influence even
in the repubhcan party, and, after the first four years
had expired, he was not re-elected. His affairs beco
ming worse every day, he gave another direction to his
efforts for re-establishing them. He announced, in
1805, a great plan for a settlement at Wachitta on the
shores of the Mississippi. He concealed under this pre
tended undertaking a project which he had confided
to a few adventurers as indiscreet as himself. The
United States were at peace with all their neighbours,

OP LOUISIANA. 363
and Colonel Burr attempted to involve them in war
with Mexico, where the Spanish forces were very su
perior to those which the United States then had in
that part of the continent. The rumour had been
spread that the Spaniards had crossed the Sabine, and
carried their arms into the territory of the United
States, Under this pretext, those who engaged in
the plot said that the honour of the country required
that reprisals should be made on Mexico, and this de
sign was but too generally approved in Kentucky and
Tennessee. It was there that Burr made his prepara
tions to descend the Mississippi to New Orleans, to
pass the Sabine, and to march against the capital of
"Mexico. He had found partisans even in New Orleans,
among whom was named Mr. Daniel Clarke, the same
Louisianian who had appeared at Paris at the period
when the cession was made to France. It was, indeed,
asserted that there were conspirators in the two houses
of congress. The interests of the western states
seemed, in fact, to have assumed a new direction in
consequence of the treaty. One party had forraed the
plan of a division of the United States, and asserted
that the line of separation was marked by the Allegha
ny Mountains.
This plot, which had been for some time prepared,
assumed a grave character at the end of 1806, and
too raany important persons were engaged in it for it
to reraain a secret. As early as the raonth of Novem
ber, Jefferson apprized the citizens of the Union that a
criminal expedition was prepared, that arms and ships

364 THE HISTORY
were collected, and officers commissioned. This vigi
lant raagistrate found in congress and the several states
afl the support of which he stood in need; and, in spite
of the efforts of the factious, the plan of dissolving the
sacred compact of the Union was repelled by an almost
unanimous sentiment. It may, however, be conceived
that the danger had been imminent, since even the chief
justice, when Burr was indicted before the federal court
of Kentucky, dared not proceed with the prosecution.*
Far from being intimidated, Burr continued his pre
parations, and embarked at Nashvflle on the 22d of
December, 1806, but he was arrested and brought to
Richmond in Virginia. Accused a second tirae, he
ultimately escaped a capital sentence by giving bad.
He did not appear to answer the indictment, and fefl
into a sort of general neglect, from which his talents
might have raised hira, had it been possible to forget
that he had once jeoparded the public peace. A few
years afterwards Louisiana was the theatre of events
of greater importance, which are connected with this
history. The United States had just made the world aware
that England had new rivals, and that the commerce
of the globe did not belong to her without competition.
Her apprehensions were increased after the cession of
Louisiana. The influence of the violent crisis, which Europe ex
perienced soon after that period, became so extended
about the year 1808 that it was impossible that the
* November 11th, 1806.

OF LOUISIANA, 365
United States should not feel its eflects. England had
in her orders in council proclaimed, without disguise,
her isolated and absolute maxiras.* On all sides, she
had been answered by acts equally hostile, under the
denominations of ukases, cedules, and decrees; and
France invoked, in the name of all Europe, the princi
ples estabhshed at Utrecht, as the rules of the law of na
tions in relation to these matters. The United States
found themselves involved in the general excitement,
and published their embargo and non-intercourse acts.
The ports of the old and new world were closed to Eng
lish vessels, as much on the principle of reprisals as in
obedience to Bonaparte. England had to suffer from
three bad harvests, which completed her embarrass
ments. The price of all articles of the first necessity
was very much augmented. Manufactures and naviga
tion were suspended, and internal discontents carried
to their height. The coalition of the maritime powers
then appeared to her truly formidable: but two unex
pected circumstances changed the aspect of affairs — ¦
the revolt of the Spanish colonies and the transfer of
the throne of Portugal to the Brazils. A new career
was thus opened to the policy, navigation, and indus
try of the English, and they entered on it with ardour.
On re(?dvering their liberty of action, their attention
was directed to the conduct, far from generous, of the
American government The profits obtained by this
new people, in the trade which they carried on with
all parts of the globe which were then accessible to
* Orders in council of 1807'.

366 THE HISTORY
their seamen, made the English anticipate and dread
the period when their marine would no longer be able
to sustain an unequal struggle, and commercial jealou
sy was revived raore actively than ever. Their efforts
were not ineffectual, and two years sufficed, if not to
restore to England all her preponderance, at least to
enable her to reassume a high rank among the powers
of the world.
The French forces had evacuated Portugal; the Bri
tish arms had obtained signal advantages in the Penin
sula, Russia had emancipated herself frora a yoke too
hard to be endured: Sweden had not incurred the dis
grace of it. Other powers, it is true, stfll appeared to
bend under the triumphant arm of Napoleon: but they
assisted hira with reluctance, fully deterrained to turn
their forces against him on the first favourable oppor
tunity; and he alone seemed to be ignorant of their se
cret understanding with his declared eneraies. It was
then that the English ministiy, tranquil on the side of
Europe, supposed that the moment had arrived for re
covering ,the ascendency that they had possessed in
America. Canada, conquered by England fifty years before, for
the advantage of her thirteen continental colonies, was
useless in that respect since their independence. Closed
to navigation by the ice diiring a part of the year, and
too remote from the English colonies in the gulf of
Mexico, it was far from occupying the place of those
thirteen provinces which were accessible to vessels at
all seasons, and which were rich in grain, in cattle^ and

OP LOUISIANA, 367
in timber for ship building. New Brunswick was slowly
peopled, Nova Scotia, our ancient Acadia, was without
doubt of great importance on account of the port of
Halifax. But these countries, a feeble counterpoise to
the United States, showed no smafl disposition to ren
der themselves independent. The means best calcu
lated to connect them in interest with the mother coun
try, was to detach Louisiana from the confederacy, to
limit the United States to the Mississippi, and perhaps
to realize the great project formed by Louis XIV,, of
uniting Canada to Louisiana,
The conduct of the French governraent had not a
little contributed to strengthen the English party in the
United States, The right of capturing and confiscat
ing property, which Napoleon attempted to exercise, a
right till that tirae unknown, was not directed solely
against his enemies: it reached the mercantfle marine
of afl the powers that did not effectually resist the ar
bitrary rules of the English maritime code. According
to this code, merchandise belonging to neutrals, found
in an enemy's ship, was not acquired by the captors of
the vessel. But if merchandise, the property of an
eneray, was found on board of a neutral vessel, it was
good prize. This jurisprudence, which the siraple no
tions of justice do not recognise, was in every way con
formable to the interest of a people that arrogated to
themselves the empire of the sea. In this competition
of injustice and hatred, the most extraordinary acts on
the part of the two governraents succeeded one another.
They ordered embargoes, and declared contraband afl

368 THE HISTORY
merchandise that was not protected by formalities dif
ficult and sometimes even impossible to be executed.
A remedy was in vain sought in modifications; the first
measures were changed or revoked, but the revocation
was accompanied by conditions that only made the si
tuation of the navigators worse.
To the peaceable and useful intercourse by sea, which
should be open to afl nations, universal piracies were
substituted. The most innocent navigators were vic
tims of these excesses. The exceptions aggravated
the evfl and augraented the general loss to the profit of
a few. Licenses, certificates of origin and permis
sions to trade fraudulently with the enemy, on con
dition of exporting certain domestic productions were
granted. The enemy, in its turn, prohibited the in
troduction of these articles; but the cargo was then
composed of merchandise of no value, and thrown
into the sea during the passage, so that both the or
der to export and the prohibition to import were
obeyed. New laws, in contempt of the rights of neuf
trality, subjected to confiscation every neutral vessel
that had any intercourse with the eneray, and at the
same time the ships of the befligerants constantly went,
under false colours, from the one country to the other.
During ten years of war, more than twenty thousand
licenses were annually granted.* But cupidity soon
drew greater advantages from these inventions, and it
has been stated, that the officers in London and Paris,
* The Report of the Diike of Bassano of the 10th of March,
1810.

OF LOUISIANA. 369
had at last such a perfect rautual understanding, that
this coramerce, which had become in a manner regu
lar, even in the midst of hostilities, only afforded pro
fits, which were faithfully divided among the subordi
nate officers employed in the transaction.
The imperial government, indeed, conceived the idea
of benefiting the treasury by those fraudulent transac
tions; but England denied herself this source of reve
nue, and prohibited these deceitful practices. What
had never before occurred, she forbade the trade in her
Own productions, and the hcenses, instead, of being a
protection, afforded sufficient grounds for pronouncing
the confiscation, when a cruiser found them on board
of its prize.
At the same period, the Americans professed and
practised rules whose justice and moderation are ad
mitted by all who have meditated on the laws of na
tions. But, after having enjoyed as neutrals the pro
fits of a commercial navigation, that was almost uni
versal in its extent, they became the principal victims
of those violent proceedings. The nuraber of vessels
which they lost in less than eight years is estimated at
two thousand five hundred, of which five hundred and
thirteen arose frora prizes made by the French, and
nine hundred and seventeen from captures by the Eng
lish. The others were the prey of the allies of the two
belligerant states.
Such was the deplorable condition of the commerce
of the Americans at a time that they desired to be at
peace with afl nations. 47

370 THE HISTORV
The English had roused the Araericans by putting
forward pretensions, with an arrogance, that was found
ed on the false opinion that so feeble and tiraid an ad
versary would not dare to make resistance. They at
tempted to subject Araerican ships to an exaraination
on the high seas, and even in neutral ports. They had
invented the new principle of an iraaginary blockade,
which all the navies in the world could not have rea
lized. This rule, unknown even in the times of ex
treme barbarism, was no longer limited to places real
ly blockaded, or to the carrying of munitions of war
to an eneray; it embraced, by an absurd fiction, im
mense countries,* and extended to the most innocent
comraunications with neutrals. France atterapted to
repel it by a blockade equally chimerical, but accom
panied by measures more effectual for excluding all
English merchandise from the continent. Napoleon
declared that he would not permit any flag going from
the ports of England to enter those of France, and,
according to the British orders in council, no inter
course could take place with France except through
the ports of England,]" These two powers competed
* In May, 1806, the continent from the Elbe to Brest was de
clared in a state of blockade. ,
t " Such," said the British minister, Mr.Percival, " will be our
law of reprisals as long as the continental system is maintained."
The principal secretary of state of His Britannic Majesty was at
Paris in the month of May, 1814. This plenipotentiary, speaking
of the crisis which England had just experienced, said: "Bona
parte brought us within two inches of our destruction." He pro
bably made thie same remark to others, as well as to the author of
this history.

OF LOUISIANA. 371
with one another in inflicting injuries on the Ameri
cans, in order to force them to depart from their neu
trality. The French envoy at Washington wished
again to unite the two nations by treaty. The Eng
lish minister made similar efforts to effect an alliance
with his country, and, at the same time, increased the
irritation of the public mind by the haughtiness of his
language and his insulting proceedings.
The Americans, however, foresaw that England,
once relieved from her European war, would fall on
the United States with afl her strength. They knew
that if the English principles should prevafl, their ma
ritime comraerce, the raost flourishing in the world, af
ter that of Great Britain, would be entirely ruined, In-
forraation was daily received of new affronts; they even
went so far as to press sailors from on board of Ame
rican ships of war and force them to spifl their blood
for a cause which was foreign to them. The public
indignation increased. So many violent acts excited
the strongest suspicions, and the best citizens were ac
cused of treason. The truth is, that the government,
calculating on the duration of peace, had neither land
nor naval forces; a few ruined forts did not present
even the phantom of a defence. To declare war sud
denly against the Enghsh seemed a desperate resolu
tion, and yet the governraent was induced to it by cir
curastances that becarae every day more serious.
The Enghsh in Canada, taking improper advantage
of their proximity, had by means of presents and soli
citations excited the savage tribes to lay waste the

372 THE HISTORY
frontier. For several years a sflent discontent had
been remarked in the northern states, and the separa
tion of the confederacy, which had been so long a
source of only distant apprehension, became every day
more to be dreaded.
Powerful states have no more solid foundation for
their greatness and prosperity than justice and mode
ration. These rules, at the same time so useful and
of such easy application, and which in consequence of
their very wisdom have become common-place, were
particularly adapted to England, where so many pub
lic raen invoked with good faith the laws of equity and
respect for treaties and the rights of others.
The practices of the governor of Canada wifl then
be learned with astonishment. Under the pretence of
good neighbourhood. Sir James Craig attempted to
kindle civil war in the United States.* An able and
bold intriguer, by the name of Henry, succeeded in
gaining the confidence of this governor. Craig sent
hira to Boston and the northern states, in order to en
gage in a plot sorae persons of consideration among
the federalists.
He instructed him to observe the parties, so as to
form as correct an opinion as possible respecting the re
sult of an open struggle between them. He was to ne
glect nothing to effect a schism, and to ascertain whe
ther the federalists would, if it took place, apply to
England and be disposed to unite their interests with
* January 36th, 1809-

OF LOUISIANA. 373
that power. He had been provided with a cipher, and
precautions were taken to secure the secrecy of the
correspondence. Craig even signed instructions, and
delivered to him a sort of letter of credence, which he
was authorized to shpw-to those who were sufficiently
open in their comraunications to raerit such a mark of
confidence. It- was couched in the foflowing terms: —
. " (Seal.) The bearer Mr. John Henry is employed
by me, and fufl confidence may be placed in hira for
any coraraunication which any person raay wish to
make to me, in the business committed to him. In faith of
which, I have given him this under my hand and seal,
at Quebec, this 6th day of February, 1809.
"J.H.Craig."
Henry, thus empowered to act, commenced his im
portant mission. In less than a month, he conceived that
he had made sufficient progress to give the governor
assurances that, in the event of a war, the inhabitants
of that part of the state of Vermont, which borders on
Canada, would refuse obedience to congress; and that
they might be considered allies of Great Britain, On
. his arrival at Boston, his hopes haying increased with
the mformation that he had collected on the journey,
he wrote to him that Massachusetts would declare
against the general government, and that open resist
ance would be made by the establishment of a con
gress of the eastern states.
The agent pursued his design with some address.
Persuaded that as the northern states were devoted to

374 THE HISTORY
commerce, and those of the south were agricultural,
such discordant interests could not fail to separate
them, he concluded that whether they were eneraies
of England, or on good terras with her, a dissolution
of the confederacy could not but be favourable to
the pohcy of the British cabinet. He saw in it the
guarantee of the preservation of Canada and Nova
Scotia; and concluded that the jealousy of the two
parties would ultimately render the influence of Eng
land so powerful that the states, though free in name,
would in fact be dependent on her. " Another revolu
tion," said he, " raust be brought about in this coun
try, in order to overturn the only republic whose e.x-
istence would prove that a government founded on po
litical equahty could secure, in the midst of tumults
and dissensionsy the happiness of a nation, and be in
a condition to repel foreign attacks. It should then
be the particular object of Great Britain to foster
divisions between the north and the south, and extin
guish any remaining attachment for France, By suc
ceeding in this, she may carry into effect her own pro
jects in Europe, with a total disregard of the resent
ments of the American democrats. Her superiority
at sea wfll enable her to dictate to the ship-owners of
the north, and even to the agriculturists of the south,
whose productions would be of no value if our naval
forces prevented their exportation."
A part of the predictions of this emissary were sub
sequently verified, and, when war was declared, Mas
sachusetts refused to put her militia at the disposal of

OF LOUISIANA, 375
the United States. However, patriotic sentiments in
the end prevailed, even among the federalists, and
Henry at last discovered that the menaces of separa
tion could never be realized.
After having resided five months in the United States,
he returned to Quebec, only bringing back from his
journey the information, little favourable to the Eng
lish system, that the love of country and of liberty was
the governing principle of the whole population. His
mission was without result : he had compromitted the
governor of Canada, and as his promises were not ac
complished, his employer seemed little disposed to
fulfil those that had been made to hira.
Henry valued his services at 32,000 pounds sterling.
Craig heard his reclamations, but, obliged to fafl in
his promsies, he induced him to apply to the Bri
tish government. At London, he was told that the af^
fair concerned the governor of Canada, and that he
should be recoramended to the successor of Sir James
Craig. But good offices of this sort are almost always bad
ly requited by a successor. Henry understood that
the British government wished to get rid of his impor
tunities, and wearied with ineffectual solicitations, and
irritated at the contempt with which he was treated,
he conceived the project of taking vengeance of those
who had deceived him. He came to Washington in
1812, and discovered to the American government the
whole secret of his mission, placing in its hands the

376 THE HISTORY
original docuraents, which the English ministers had in
vain atterapted to withdraw frora him.
By bringing forward the charge himself, he becarae
protected frora all judicial prosecutions ; but it was of
such great importance to the United States, that Pre
sident Madison did not hesitate to comraunicate it to
the senate. He had, at the same time, the prudence to
avoid afl investigations and proceedings which could
compromise the Americans who had engaged in cri
minal comraunications with Henry; and he confined
himself to establishing, " that Great Britain had, in
the midst of peace, and of amicable professions for
the United States, atterapted to bring about a dissolu
tion of the Union, and to involve their citizens in the
horrors of a civil war." These facts, thus discovered,
were raade public through the journals. To divide
the states into two factions, and to excite a civil war
was the greatest offence which it was possible to com
mit against thera.
The Enghsh minister at Washington solemnly dis-
clairaed having had the least knowledge of the raission
of Henry, and expressed his conviction that frora what
he knew of those branches of his government, with which
he was in the habit of having intercourse, no counte
nance whatever was given by them to any schemes hos
tile to the internal tranquillity of the United States. But
the very form of this justification badly disguised hostile
projects, and the hand of the English always appeared
in every circumstance, where they could have any hope

OF LOUISIANA. 377
of detaching from the Union countries, the acquisition
of which would for ever strengthen their power. This
discovery gave extraordinary strength to the republican
party, and the partisans of the parent state, relieved
from apprehension by the prudent resolution which the
government adopted of making no inquiry respecting
those who had taken part in Henry's intrigues, united
with the true friends of their country. The official
comraunications ceased on the 6th of June.
War was declared a few days afterwards, (18th of
June, 1812,*) and this resolution was less the work of
congress than the consequence of the resentraent of
the people. •
From this moment the Union made incredible ef
forts to obviate the inconveniences occasioned by long
neglect Congress, to afl the dispositions of vigour
and prudence required by the circumstances in which
they were placed, united means which European go
vernments do not always employ. They concealed no
thing from the people with regard to the dangers of
their situation, and proved to them by a multitude of
facts that England, considering the United States as her
commercial rivals, also regarded their happiness, their
aggrandizement, and their independence as incompa
tible with her prosperity; in a word, they informed them
of the causes and justice of the war, with the circum
stances of which the most inconsiderable citizens might
have acquainted themselves as fully as the ministers at
* Appendix, No. 17.
¦IS

378 THE HISTORY
the head of affairs. Public speeches, pamphlet^, and
newspapers exposed, with perfect sincerity, the motives
for having recourse to arras, and the necessity of a vi
gorous defence. Even the instructions that had been
given to the envoys and ministers were made public.
Frora the simple labourer to the first raagistrate^ from
the admiral. to the most insignificant saflor, afl knew
that the dearest interests of their comraerce and na
vigation were in question, and this appeal to the honour
of the flag was for thein neither vain nor deceptive: it
expressed a sentiment truly national.
The English governraent at first directed its atten
tion to Canada, and made arrangements for assuming
the offensive. It also turned its views to the eastern
coasts of the Union. The Araericans, on their side,
had been fufly aware that it would be impossible for
them to resist the efforts of so formidable a power
without a great change in their naval tactics, and they
had entirely reformed their system of ship budding.
They had increased the size and force of their frigates,
the calibre of their guns, and strengthened their crews
in proportion.
It is well known with what violence this war was
conducted on the part of the English. Slaves were
armed against then- masters or carried off and sold to
the West India colonists; the Indians massacred afl the
inhabitants of the frontiers who had delayed making
their escape; cities and defenceless places were given
up to pfllage or as a prey to the ffarties. The results
of this struggle are also known. Europe, which had

OF LOUISIANA. 379
at first seen in the resistance of the Americans only
an excess of audacity and imprudence, learned with
astonishment that they had appeared as equals in the
naval engagements, in which they were, indeed, more
frequently the victors than the vanquished party. The
case was not the same on the American continent.
The war was not carried on with ability by either the
federal or English armies. Canada remained in a de
fenceless state.
Among a great number of faults, for which even in
experience could not afford an apology, the following
has been cited. The entire frames of two large fri
gates were sent from England to Quebec on board of
several vessels. They were forwarded by the river St.
Lawrence to Lake Ontario, where they were to be put
together and completed. It was expected that this su
perior force wouW easily destroy the American flotfllas.
But the other party, on their side, built a vessel of stifl
greater strength. They eraployefl for the purpose the
wood of the fine forests in the neighbourhood of the
lake. Only three months were required for its con-
structiouj and their vessel was sailing when the Eng
hsh ships were stifl in the yard without deck or side
planks,* England would have inevitably lost Upper
Canada, if the Americans had not likewise committed
great faults.
The English theraselves were astonished at not ob-
* It was stated in parliament, in July, 1828, that the transporta
tion of the materials of one of the two frigates from Montreal to
Kingston had cost 30,000 pounds sterling.

380 THE HISTORY
taining any advantage over their former colonies?
when the aspect of affairs in Europe entirely changed.
They had subdued Napoleon, their implacable enemy.
The numerous armies whiph Wellington had com
manded were now unemployed. Considerable forces
could at last be directed against the United States, and
brilliant successes were to efface unexpected humiha-
tions. Untfl that time Louisiana had been at peace.
Admitted into the great confederacy a long time after
the war of independence, the Louisianians wanted that
glorious, though melancholy consanguinity, which re
sults from victories obtained by common efforts. They
unexpectedly learned that their country was about to
have its turn in the perils of the war.
The precautions required for defence had been ^till
more neglected there, than in any other part of the
United States. It was easily believed, that a peace
which had endured for a century would not be dis
turbed, and New Orleans had, to defend it, only a few
men barely adequate to the purposes of police.
The English were aware of this situation of things,
but foreseeing that other states of the Union, that were
more populous and better trained to war might hasten
to the defence of the place, they formed the plan of
keeping them back by combining an attack on the side
of Canada with the one which they directed by sea
against New Orleans.
England assigned fourteen thousand regular troops to
the expedition by the gulf of Mexico. Such a force
is considered very great iu that country, and the pil-

OF LOUISIANA. 381
lage of New Orleans was announced to the army as a
magnificent recompense for its dangers and toils. In
fact, the crops of cotton and other rich productions
of these vast countries were stored in this city, it be
ing the limit and entrepot of the navigation of the
Mississippi and Missouri, The English, however, in
aiming at the conquest of Louisiana, did not announce
the intention of keeping it. They even pretended
that they only wished to take it from the United States,
in order to restore it to Spain at the price of a few
advantageous stipulations for their islands. It appears
more certain that they likewise calculated on the inac
tion, and perhaps on the concurrence of the northern
states of the Union, where they still had partisans.
One would wish, that the history of a great and il
lustrious nation should never recall any events unwor
thy of its glory. But culpable, not less than glorious
actions, fall within the province of true history.
One circumstance, in particular, shows tb what a de
gree England conceived herself interested in wresting
from the confederac}?, the countries which it had re
cently acquired, and in preventing its dominions ex
tending to the right bank of the Mississippi.
After the conclusion of treaties with the Indians to
arm them against the United States, the English offi
cers sought one of those afliances which the law of
nations, the law of all civilized people, condemns.
British commanders had no hesitation in treating with
a community of pirates then wefl known, who, they be-

382 THE HISTORY
lieved, would oppose an additional obstacle to the na
vigation and comraerce of the Americans.
Tifl that time, the governraent of Louisiana had
neglected to take possession of sorae islands near the
Lake of Barataria and the mouths of the Mississippi.
After having been for a long time inhabited by mere
fishermen, pirates seized on thera, and estabhshed
their quarters there. These sea robbers had as their
chief a raan of the narae of Lafitte : his bravery, his
activity, and his piracies, but too well recalled the ex
ploits of the bucaniers who, a century before, had ex
ercised their infaraous trade with impnnity in the gulf
sea. They respected no flag, not even that of the
United States, In the course of two years, more than
one hundred merchant ships became their prey. After
having pillaged their cargoes and murdered their crews,
they burnt the vessels and kept the comraerce of those
seas in continued dread.
Wflliam H. Percy, commanding the English forces
in the gulf, gave orders to one of the officers on his
station to hasten to Barataria, in order tO enter on
negotiations with Lafitte.* If this chief refused to
commit hostilities against the United States, the officer
was, while he stipulated at all events for neutrality, to
request him to join the English. Percy even wrote to
Lafitte to urge hira, "to enter with his naval and mfli
tary forces, into the service of the king of England."
* August 30th, 1814.

OF LOUISIANA. ,383
The skfll of these pirates in the use of cannon rendered
thera valuable auxiliaries,
Edward Nichols, one of the principal English offi-
c^ers, in a proclaraation to the inhabitants of the left
bank of the Mississippi, promised them the free na
vigation of the river. Then, addressing the natives
of Louisiana, he said to thera: "Put an end to the
Araerican usurpation over this country, that it raay be
restored to its legitiraate proprietor. I ara at the head
of a numerous body of Indians; we wfll make the
Americans return to the liraits prescribed by my sove
reign." This was the same thing as saying in suffi
ciently clear terras: "The dominion of England over
the seas of America is at an end, if the United States
maintain themselves on the right bank of the Missis
sippi." Lafitte and his band, in which there were some Lou
isianians, rejected these overtures of the English with
indignation. These men saw no dishonour in enrich
ing theraselves by plunder, but they had a horror of
treason. The" government of the state was inforraed of these
proceedings, and, having no knowledge of the disposi
tions of the Baratarians, considered it to be its duty
to reduce them by arms. A flotifla, collected with
great despatch, sailed from New Orleans, and was soon
in sight of Barataria. The pirates prepare^ for re
sistance; but vigorous demonstrations inspired them
with so much fear that they abandoned the nine ships
which composed their marine. They dispersed, and

384 THE HISTORY
their store-houses, vessels, and a considerable booty
fell into the power of the Americans,*
Lafitte, who had escaped, wrote from his place of
retreat to Governor Claiborne, and sent him the origi
nals of the correspondence with the British officers.
He proposed, at the same time, to surrender himself.
This confidence appeared to require that indulgence
should be shown to this man and his party, and a par
don, grounded on the services which he had rendered,
was announced to him, and a few months after grant
ed in the narae of the United States.
Congress, informed of the danger of Louisiana, di
rected all its attention to that quarter. It had learned
to appreciate the importance of this province, and no
one would then have dared to repeat what some had
said at the period of the cession, that the territories
beyond the river were only a troublesome burden. All
admitted that the object of England, when she under
took to make this conquest, was to hmit the extent oT
the states, to balance their influence in the general
affairs of America, and to prevent their becoming a
preponderating power.
In the sumraer of 1B14, the English landed a- few
troops upon the Spanish territory of the Floridas, and
all their movements announced an early attack on
Louisiana, There were in this state neither troops
nor a general; the local bank had suspended its pay
ments. Love of country seemed frozen at the ap-
* September 20th, 1814.

OP LOUISIANA. 385
proach of an army still inflated with the successes'
which it had met with in Europe. To reanimate it re
quired one of those men whose appearance creates
resources and raises courage. Such a man was found.
He was Andrew Jackson, a major-general in the Ameri
can army. On his arrival at New Orleans, he was nei
ther alarmed at finding great consternation there, nor
in learning that some English emissaries were carrying
on their intrigues iu; the very bosora of the legislative
asserably. At the sound of his voice, coraraittees were
forraed, a city peopled with merchants and planters
changed in a day the habits of a century. An extra
ordinary activity took the place of an inexcusable ne
gligence. Expresses, arriving in succession from the
upper country of the Mississippi, announced that a po
pulation of two miflions of inhabitants would not allow
themselves to be subdued, and that imposing forces
were about to descend the river. The decisive mo
ment approached. By the first day of December, the
Enghsh had on the coasts of Louisiana one hundred
and forty vessels of afl sizes, among which were several
ships of the hne. They brought a numerous ffotflla,
through difficult passes and the lakes in its neighbour
hood, to within a very short distance of the capital.
In the mean time, the succour which had been pro
mised and was expected at New Orleans, did not arrive.
The English, infortaed that this city had scarcely more
than two thousand men in arms to oppose to thera, ad
vanced towards it, and were, on the 23d of December,
at only four leagues distance. Calculating on fears
49

386 THE HISTORY
which no longer existed, and on their numbers, which
could be at a moraent's warning increased, they had
taken none of the precautions that prudence requires
in an enemy's country. Jackson profited by this secu
rity. His little army Was formed of Louisianians, re
solutely determined to defend themselves with courage,
though uninitiated in war, of Tennesseans, excellent rifle
men, and a battalion of free coloured people, emigrants
from St. Domingo. This militia, of various origin, no
longer formed but one people. A battalion that wished,
however, to retain the name of Orleans was composed.
of men of the two nations. No rivalry disturbed their
good understanding. A detachment, marching out of
the city at night, fefl suddenly on the enemy's camp,
killed four hundred men, and retired with little loss.
This bloody lesson warned the English of the neces
sity of awaiting the reunion of their forces. The de
lay afforded time to the Kentucky militia to arrive, and
on the 4th of January, 181,5, they entered the city to
the number of two thousand two hundred and fifty
men, but scarcely one-third of them had brought arras.
They were not, however, useless. An old canal, seven
teen hundred yards in length commencing at a cypress
marsh, terminated on the left bank of the Mississippi,
in a direction perpendicular to the river. These men
raised a rampart behind this canal, and called it Jack
son's lines.
An express, sent from Quebec to the comraander of
the English array, informed hira that the severity of the
season, and the danger of too much weakening the

OP LOUISIANA. 387
Canadian army, would prevent the garrisons in that
country from making the promised diversion.
On the 8th of January, 1815, the Enghsh, having re
assembled afl their forces with the exception of two
thousand men, who had crossed to the right bank of
the river, advanced in columns against the lines. A few
of the bravest reached them, after having made for
themselves a road by filling the ditch with fascines of
sugar cane. They were all killed. This day was to
decide the fate of Louisiana. Ten or eleven thousand
combatants began the general attack, at daylight, with
intrepidity, but with a rashness and improvidence for ¦
which their chiefs were inexcusable. The fire of the
Americans made terrible carnage in their columns.
They fell back a moment, but were twice brought up
to the assault, though without success, and the gene
ral-in-chief, Packenham, remained on the field of bat
tle the victim of his imprudent valour. The affair only
lasted an hour. In this short space of tirae the Eng
lish lost nearly three thousand men. The Araericans
experienced scarcely any loss. The defeat of an army
of fourteen thousand brave men, well disciplined, and
exercised in a long European war, was the work of
four thousand mflitia, hastily levied, and armed with
fowlmg pieces, which to that, day had never been used
for the purposes of war. Their eneraies, raade ac
quainted at their own expense with the energy and re
sources of a free people, that defend their, own fire
sides, and, inforraed that the city was about receiving
new succours, feared that they would soon have to re-

388 THE HISTORY
sist the population of the west, which from afl quarters
was flocking to the common defence. The diversion
made on the right bank experienced scarcely any re
sistance on the part of the Americans, and yet it could
not second the principal attack on the left of the river.
The English seriously contemplated a retreat, and, on
the 19th of January, Lambert, who had become gene
ral-in-chief, declared that they abandoned the expedi
tion agahist New Orleans. The campaign only last
ed a month, but it settled for ever the fate of Lou
isiana. The legislature of the state solemnly thanked the
troops of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi. The,
name of General Jackson was not included among
those to whom the approbation of the assembly ex
tended. This ingratitude arose from the resentraent
of a few delegates. At the moment of peril, Jackson
had made use of violence against several citizens; but
this disregard for the laws had preserved the province,
and we cannot consider that as a crime which ensured
its safety. Perhaps he was even excusable, while the
public mind was stifl very much agitated, to prolong
after victory the dictatorship that he had assumed. He
had likewise suspended the power of the legislature;
and this violation of the pubhc rights is the one which
most keenly wounds and irritates a free people. Ho
nourable marks of approbation, emanating from con
gress, repaired the injustice; thanks were voted to
him, as wefl as to his army. The government acknow
ledged, in express terms, that the difficulties had been

OP LOUISIANA, 389
unprecedented, and that it would be unjust to use se
verity against one who had secured, even by fllegal
acts, the triumph of liberty.* Congress likewise ex
pressed their high esteem for the patriotisra, fidelity,
and valour with which the people of Louisiana had
defended all their political and social rights. They
praised the benevolence and humanity manifested not
only by the succours given to the wounded of the Ame
rican army, but also by the generous care bestowed on
the prisoners taken from the enemy.
Thirteen years afterwards, Jackson returned to New
Orleans, invited by the legislature of the state, and was
received there with joy and gratitude. The period of
the election of a president of the United States having
arrived, some Louisianians endeavoured to secure him
the votes of the state. But one of his best friends
thus combated the proposition: "Services in a parti
cular department, however eminent, do not afford a
title to universal confidence. If we were again obhged
to defend our country, sword in hand, we would with
one voice cafl Jackson to the chief command. But,
as we enjoy a profound peace, the suffrages of Lou
isiana for the supreme presidency should be given to
a citizen endowed with the virtues of peace."
During this important election, each party puts fijr-
ward the pretensions of its candidate, and, severely
* Letter from Mr, Dallas, acting secretary of war to General
Jackson, Mr, John Quincy Adams, now at the end of his presi
dential term, has likewise borne the same testimony to his ser
vices.

390 THE HISTORY
scrutinizes the life of his competitor. Looking to the
violence of the aniraosities, some are alarmed, and
consider them the precursors of an approaching sepa
ration between the northern and southern states. But
each party exists in the interior of all the states, and
the clamours are appeased as soon as the new presi
dent is named. Up to the day that we are writing, the
votes are pretty equally divided between Mr. John
Quincy Adams, now president, whose re-election is
powerfufly supported, and Andrew Jackson, eminent
by his great services. We shall know in a very short
tirae whether the qualities of the warrior, and a cou
rage superior to all obstacles, will be preferred to the
modest virtues which, with less eclat, have secured the
happiness of the nation. But whatever may be the re
sult of this domestic contest, the wisdom of the con
stitution is a guarantee as well for the moderation of
the general as for the firmness of the magistrate.*
The Ebglish ministers were stfll ignorant of the re
sult of the expedition against Louisiana, when they
opened at Ghent negotiations for peace: they were ter
minated by a treaty which contains an imphed renun
ciation of that conquest even in case it had been raade.
It was signed on the 24th of Deceraber, 1814, fifteen
days before the dehverance of New Orleans. The pre
cipitation with which it was concluded left many im
portant points undecided, and it was only in the month
* General Jackson was elected president, and inaugurated in that
office on the 4th of March, 1829.— Transl.

OF LbUlhLA.NA. 391
of September, 1827, that several new articles were set
tled by plenipotentiaries of the two nations.*
*Mr, Gallatin during his mission to England in 1836-7, con
cluded four conventions with the plenipotentiaries, specially ap
pointed to negotiate with the United States, namely, Mr. Huskis-
son, to whom, on his resignation in the summer of 1827, Mr. Grant
was substituted, and Mr. Addington,
1. A convention, signed the 13th of November, 1826, by which
gl,240,960 were paid to the United States in lieu of their demands,
under the 1st article of the treaty of Ghent.
The claims for slaves, &c. taken away at the peace of" 1815, had
been referred to the Emperor of Russia, who gave in 1822 an
award conformable to the American construction of the treaty of
Ghent; but new difficulties having arisen in carrying this decision
into eflFect, it was agreed by the United States to accept a gross
sum, to be by them distributed to their citizens.
2, A convention, signed the 6th of August, 1827, to continue in
force the commercial convention of 1815, originally made for four
years, and extended in 1818 to ten years from that tirae.
It regulates the trade between the United States and Great Bri
tain, including her possessions in the East Indies. By its provi
sions, as mentioned in a previous note, equality df duties is esta-
. blished on American and British vessels in the respective ports of
the two countries. We are also allowed to trade vidth the principal
settlements in the East Indies, our vessels paying in the permitted
ports no higher or other duties than the most favoured European
nation. By the 2d article of the commercial convention of 1827, it
is competent for either party to annul it, on giving twelve months'
notice. 3, A convention, signed on the same day with the one last men
tioned, to continue in force the third article of the convention of
1818, By the article referred to, it had been agreed that the country
claimed f>y either party, westward of the Stony Mountains, should
be free to both powers, without prejudice to their respective claims,
for ten years. The new convention, concluded by Mr. Gallatin,
extends indefinitely the term of joint occupancy, but contains the
same provision as the commercial convention, permitting either
party to put an end to it, on giving to the other twelve months'
notice. •>

392 THE HISTORY
The war had cost raany lives to the two countries.
It added three hundred raiflions of doflars to the debt
An attempt was made, but without success, to settle a perma
nent boundary between the United States and Great Britain on the
Pacific Ocean. . The discussion, however, induced the plenipoten
tiaries of the two powers to place on record statements of their re
spective claims,, which were attached to the protocols of their 6th
and '7th conferences, and laid before congress at the session of
1827-8. As one of the principal points, on which the right of the
United States is maintained, grows out of the Louisiana treaty, the
subject naturally connects itself with the present history.
¦ It is remarked, at the <;ommencement of the British paper, that
"from the 42d to the 49th degree north latitude, the United States
claim full and exclusive sovereignty. Great Britain claims no ex
clusive sovereignty over any portion of that territory. Her pre
sent claim, not in respect to any part, but to the whole, is limited
to a right of' joint occupancy in common with other states, leaving
the right of exclusive dominion in abeyance. "
The 49th degree of north latitude was proposed by the Ameri
can government as a boundary in the spirit of compromise, it be
ing conceived that the pretensions of the United States extend
much farther. They are, howeve^-, prevented by the convention
with Russia frora forming settlements north of 54° 40'.
The claims of the United .States, as examined by the British
plenipotentiaries, result, 1st, from their own proper right: 2d. from
Spain, which power ceded to them by the treaty of Florida, all its
rights north of the 42d degree: 3d. from France, to whom the
United States succeeded as possessors of Louisiana.
Great stress is laid by Great Britain on the binding effect of the
Nootka Sound convention, concluded by her with Spain in 1790,
and which allows access to the subjects of both powers to places on
the Pacific Ocean not then occupied. This argument is brought
forward as applicable as well to our title derived through Lou
isiana, which province belonged to Spain in 1790, as to that de
duced from the Florida treaty of 1819. The Nootka Sound con
vention, however, expressly left the sovereignty in abeyance, and
is considered by us to have been only intended to regulate the con
flicting pretensions to the trade with the natives^
Our claims, as founded on the prior discovei'y and first occupan
cy of the country, are also contested, with what justice raay be

OF LOUISIANA, 393
of England, The losses and expenses of the United
States are estiraated at one hundred and twenty mil-
seen by a reference to the statements of the respective plenipotentia
ries. The American title is farther sustained by the old charters
of the Atlantic colonies which extended westward to the Pacific
Ocean — by the settlement of the northern boundary of Louisiana
by the commissioners under the treaty of Utrecht at the 49th de
gree of latitude, and by the contiguity of the inhabited territory of
the United States.
It is to be observed, though the fact is overlooked by the author,
when speaking, at page 290, of the extension of the American so
vereignty to the country on the Pacific Ocean, that Crozat's grant
did not include the whole of Louisiana, even as it was held by
France herself before the cession to Spain. The soui'ces of the Mis
sissippi were supposed in 1712 not to extend beyond the forty-se
cond degree. Louisiana was bounded on the north by the Illinois,
then a part of Canada, and on the west by Mexico, whose limits
were at that time understood to be north of the forty-second degree.
Consequently, no territory west of the Rocky Mountains was then
granted. But, by an ordonnance of 1717, the Illinois was annexed
to Louisiana, and, after the acquisition of Canada by the British,
the line of demarcation between their possessions and those of
France, west of Lake Superior, was fixed at the forty-second de
gree of north latitude. By the convention of 1818 between the
United States and Great Britain, this boundary was recognised as
far as the Rocky Mountains.
4. Convention, signed 29th of September, 1827, to regulate the
reference to a friendly sovereign or state, in conformity to the 5th
ai'ticle of the treaty of Ghent, of the dispute relative to the north
eastern boundary.
' The treaty of Ghent provides several commissions for fixing the
boundary line between the United States and Great Britain, as de
fined in the treaty of 1783, and stipulates, in the event of the dis
agreement of the commissioners of the two powers, that their re
ports should be submitted to a friendly sovereign or state, whose
decision should be final. The case contemplated having occurred,
with respect to the part of the boundary embraced in the 5th arti
cle, the object of the convention of London was to settle the time
for appointing the arbiter, and to simplify the duties to be re-
50

394 THE HISTORY
lions of dollars, but the peace left them tranqufl pos
sessors and exclusive sovereigns of the Mississippi.
quired of him, by substituting to the voluminous papers in the con
troversy, statements on which a decision might be founded.
The ratifications of this last convention, as well as of the two
concluded on the 6th of August, 1827, were exchanged at London
on the 2d of April, 1828, and, in pursuance of its provisions, nego
tiations were immediately thereafter commenced between the Bri
tish secretary of state and Mr. Lawrence, the American charge
d'affaires, which resulted in the selection of the king of the Nether
lands as sovereign arbitrator, before whom the question of our north
eastern boundary line is therefore now pending.
The right of the United States to navigate the St. Lawrence was
also discussed between Mr. Gallatin and the British plenipotentia
ries, but without the negotiations leading to any result.
The trade with the British colonies formed the subject of a long
correspondence between Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Canning, which was
continued with his successor, the Earl of Dudley. At the negotiation
of the commercial treaty in 1815, it was the wish of the United States
to make the same arrangements for the colonies as for the mother
country. This was then refused by England, though the proposition
was subsequently brought forward, particularly at the conferences
of 1818 and 1824, with well-grounded expectations of the two par
ties coming to a satisfactory understanding. In consequence of
the British act of 1822, the trade, which had been for some time
closed by the operation of the previous regulations of the two pow
ers, was opened to a modified extent. After the suspension, how
ever, of the negotiations of 1 824, and before they could be re
sumed, the British government passed the act of 1825, regulating
the trade of foreign states with the West India possessions. Not
supposing that it was intended that this law should apply to us,
and having no intimation that vi^e were to consider the suspended
negotiations as terminated, congress failed to comply with the re
quirements necessary to entitle us to the provisions of the act of
parliament. Taking advantage of this omission, an order in coun
cil was issued by England in July, 1826, a few days before Mr.
Gallatin's arrival in London, closing the West India ports against
our vessels from and after the 1st of December following — a mea
sure that was met by putting iu force our countervailing prohibi
tions, which had been suspended in 182;2. ''

OF LOUISIANA. 395
They were thenceforth authorized to calculate that
nothing could prevent the extension of their sove
reignty to the Western Ocean. A settlement has
been formed on its shores at the mouth of the Colum
bia River. The founder is Mr. Astor, who called the
post Astoria.
It is especially in the neighbourhood of the Missis
sippi that indications of former French colonization are
to be found. Ruins of forts and bastions which they
erected are still to be seen even on the Missouri. In
dian faraihes, who aflied themselves, a century ago,
with a Norman or a Briton, boast of their origin, and
bear with pride the names of their ancestors. Those of
Ibervflle, Pontchartrain, Maurepas, and Jumonvifle are
It may be here remarked that the course pursued by the British
government, in relation to the colonial trade, ought not to be ascribed
to any proceedings on the part of the United States. The treaties
of reciprocity, concluded in 1824 with several of the powers of
Europe, had made the ministry very unpopular with the ship own
ers, and to gratify that important interest it was deemed expedient
to exclude the Americans. from the West Indies. In corroboration
of this assertion, it may be added, that though the act of parliament
of ] 825, with the exposition intended to be given to it in England,
was ill no way brought to the attention of our government, (with
whom a negotiation on the subject was then pending,) it is within
the knowledge of the writer of this note that it was not only com
municated to, at least one European state, but that the power re
ferred to was strenuously, though ineffectually urged, through its
minister in London, by Mr. Huskisson as well as Mr. Canning, to
comply with the conditions of the British statute.
It is not improbable that, owing to the changes in the English ad
ministration, since the date of the discussions with Mr. Gallatin,
particularly the retirement of Mr. Huskisson, an arrangement may
soon be made that will secure to the United States a participation
in the trade in question.— Transl.

396 THE HISTORY
preserved with a kind of gratitude. It is a similar feel
ing which in the old states of the Union has given to
counties and towns the names of Bourbon, Luzerne,
Lafayette, Steuben, Louisvifle, and Fulton. Th« city
where congress sits, and a great number of districts
bear the name of Washington.
Ta the south of the regions watered by the Red
River, runs the Trinity, which traverses the province
of Texas. This country, for a long time considered
a part of Louisiana, remained by treaty in possession
of Spain: and the United States, as ambitious as old
monarchies, regret having too easily abandoned it.
It vvas there, a few years ago, that some Frenchmen,
exiled from their country, attempted to form a settle
ment. The narrative of their misfortunes wfll conclude
ray account of the cession of Louisiana.
The sudden and unexpected return of Bonaparte to
France frora the island of Elba, had brought around
hira half of that youth who, under this great captain,
had known no other glory than that of arms, and no
other happiness than that of triumphs and victories.
His party, hastily forraed, incautiously brought toge
ther, was soon crushed. Several chiefs, raenaced by
the tribunals, preferred exile to the dangers of a trial,
and retired to the United States. They were there
hospitably received. In March, 1817, congress grant
ed them lands* on the borders of the Alabama, at the

* By the act of congress of the 3d of March, 1817, 92,160 acres
were granted, on condition of introducing there the vine and olive.

OF LOUISIANA. 397
confines of Florida, and the country of the Creek In
dians. They fixed a very moderate price, payable in
fourteen years, and the grant of congress was a libe
ral present disguised under the form of a sale. The
lands were well selected; the gift was worthy of being
oftered by a free people to courageous, though raisled,
men. But the grantees, habituated to raflitary activi
ty or to the leisure of a camp, novices in agriculture
and in the art of clearing new land, soon abandoned
their undertaking. Several of them retroceded their
portions, and dispersed. Others, while they removed
frora Alabaraa, persisted in the design of forming an
agricultural settlement.
It was towards Texas that their expectations were
turned. Generals Lallemand and Rigaud conducted
thither a small body of soldiers and labourers. The
hope of finding in this country another France offered
to them an attraction which those who never have been
banished cannot appreciate. They had advanced ten
mfles within the territory, and acknowledged Lallemand
for their commander. He supposed that he could sub
ject to agricultural labour men who knew no other ac
tivity than that of Vi^ar. There were in the country a
great many wild bulls, cows, and horses. Game and
fish abounded, but the clearing of the ground is labo
rious, and requires so long a time that it can never be
foflowed by a harvest within the year. Even on the
best soil one must expect to be opposed by the climate,
and an extraordinary drought interrupted their labour
and suspended all vegetation. They were not, howe-

398 THE HISTORY
ver, discouraged, and, while they waited for the season
to become more favourable, they lived on the provi
sions they had brought with them, and on what they
obtained from hunting and fishing. The natives had
received thera kindly, and a petty traffic had been es
tabhshed with thera. Lalleraand had given the name
of Champ d''Asile to the post that he had chosen. He
was beginning to fortify it, to prescribe regulations, and
to invite other emigrants, when his feeble progress was
arrested by obstacles which he had not foreseen.
The Spaniards directed hira to discontinue the clear
ing of the land and his other labours, or acknowledge
the sovereignty of the catholic king. They even
marched in arms against Champ d''Asile. The little
colony was in no state of defence, and did not under
take to make a useless resistance. These unfortunate
men, fugitives from their own country, were expelled
from a territory where the aborigines had received
them with hospitality, and which ought tO have be
longed only to those who were the first to occupy it
beneficially. This little community no longer exists;
its chiefs have perished, or their fate is unknown,
Texas is one of the finest countries in the world;
and yet the Europeans, eager as they have been to
make conquests in America, have seeraed almost to the
present day ignorant of its existence. The nevv inha
bitants, notwithstanding their weakness, supposed that
they might take advantage of the troubles which agi
tated Mexico, and in 1826 declared their independence.
The emigrants, who fly from the old world in search

OF LOUISIANA. 399
of happiness in the new, expect to obtain it without ef
fort. They wfll not be disappointed in finding hberty
there, and they will become proprietors at little ex
pense. But unless they are laborious, persevering, and
economical they will be deceived in their hopes of for
tune. Those who have preceded thera have sraoothed
for thera a great raany difficulties. The country is now
known, the Indians are either dispersed or little to be
feared. Lands of an excellent quality are sold there at
the raost moderate price. Congress would not be averse
to give thera gratuitously to any one in a condition to
cultivate thera, and this liberality would more certainly
contribute to render the state powerful and rich than
the price at which they are ceded. Property gives di
ligence to the most idle, and perhaps this is the cha
racteristic which most distinguishes American frora
European coraraunities. In the latter, faraflies eraerged
from servitude, six centuries ago, form at this day the
class of day labourers, justly so cafled, because they
only labour and exist, as it were, by the day's work.
As they have no other property than the hoe and spade,
they make no meliorations: they experience frequent
privations, and are yet so improvident of the future that
they give themselves up to repose and sloth whenever
the provisions of primary necessity are at a low price.
In America, on the contrary, the new-comers can want
neither work nor wages. They have the example of
an active, enterprising people, instructed in all the
useful arts. The emigrant is always kindly received,
and has nothing to fear but his own faults. A good

400 THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.
carpenter, an industrious raason, a clever mechanic
see only the laws above them. No where else do we
find so much ease and contentment, the fruits of indus
try, of discreet conduct, and good morals. In all the
countries, whose occupation foflowed the treaty of ces
sion, settlements are formed, and are rapidly extending.
The federal government watches over them tifl the
time comes for constituting them states of the Union,
The protection which they receive renders thera safe
from every aggression, and they will, in their turn, add
to the strength of the confederacy. Thus it has need
neither of war nor conquests to become powerful and
formidable. By religiously maintaining their wise in
stitutions, constantly observing the laws of their adop
tion, never losing sight of the rules of justice, but
making all their interests subordinate to thera, the
United States will raore effectually secure their pros
perity and promote their glory than by battles or vic
tories. Respected abroad, happy at home, fearing no
thing as a nation, having little to desire as a people,
they wifl then enjoy afl the blessings that were the ob
ject of the revolution.

appe:ndix.

APPEIVDIX.

No. 1.
TREATY AND COm'ENTIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES
AND THE FRENCH REPUBLIC."
Treaty between the French Republic and the United States, concern
ing the Cession of Louisiana, signed at Paris the 50th of .ipril,
1803.
The president of the United States of America, and the first
consul of the French republic, in the name pf the French people,
desiring to remove all source of misunderstanding relative to ob
jects of discussion, mentioned in the second and fifth articles of
the convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, an 9, (30th of September,
1800,) relative to the rights claimed by the United States, in vir
tue of the treaty concluded at Madrid the 27th of October, 1795,
between His Catholic Majesty and the said United States, and wil
ling to strengthen the union and friendship which at the time of the
said convention was happily re-established between the two nations,
have respectively named their plenipotentiaries; to wit, the presi
dent of the United States of America, by and with the advice and
consent of the senate of the said states, Robert R. Livingston, mi
nister plenipotentiary of the United States, and Jaraes Monroe,
minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary of the said states,
near the government of the French republic; and the first consul,
in the name of the French people, the French citizen Barbe Mar
bois, minister of the public treasury, who, after having respective
ly exchanged their full powers, have agreed to the following arti
cles: —
Art. 1st. Whereas, by the article the third of the treaty concluded
at St. Ildephonso, the 9th Vendemiaire, an 9, (1st. October, 1800,)
between the first consul of the French republic and His Catholic
* The ti-eaty and convention are given from the American copies, and the
United States are consequently named first in them,— Tbass,

404 APPENDIX.
Majesty, it was agreed as follows: " His Catholic Majesty promises
and engages, on his part, to retrocede to the French republic, six
months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and sti
pulations herein relative to his Royal Highness the Duke of Parma,
the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it
now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed
it; and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered
into between Spain and other states." And, whereas, in pursuance
of the treaty, and particularly of the third article, the French re
public has an incontestable title to the domain, and to the posses
sion of the said territory: The first consul of the French republic,
desiring to give to the United States a strong proof of his friend
ship, doth hereby cede to the said United States, in the name of
the French republic, for ever and in full sovereignty, the said terri
tory, with all its rights and appurtenances, as fully and in the same
manner as they had been acquired by the French republic in virtue
of the above-mentioned treaty concluded with His Catholic Majesty.
Art. 2d. In the cession made by the preceding article are in
cluded the adjacent islands belonging to Louisiana, all public lots
and squares, vacant lands, and all public buildings, fortifications,
barracks, and other edifices which are not private property. The
archives, papers, and documents, relative to the domain and sove
reignty of Louisiana and its dependencies, will be left in the pos
session of the commissaries of the United States, and copies will
be afterwards given in due form to the magistrates and municipal
officers of such of the said papers and documents as may be ne
cessary to them.
Art. 3. The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorpo
rated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as
possible, according to the principles of the federal constitution, to
the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of ci
tizens of the United States; and in the mean time they shall be
maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty,
property, and the religion which they profess.
Art, 4th. There shall be sent by the government of France a
commissary to Louisiana, to the end that he do every act necessa
ry, as well to receive from the officers of His Catholic Majesty the
said country and its dependencies, in the name of the French re
public, if it has not been already done, as to transmit it in the name
of the French republic to the commissary or agent of the United
States.

APPEKUIX. 10.'}
Art. 5th. Immediately after the ratification of the present treaty
by the president of the United States, and in case that of the first
consul shall have been previously obtained, the comriiissary of the
French republic shall remit all the military posts of New Orleans,
and other parts of the ceded territory, to the commissary or com
missaries named by the president to take possession; the troops,
whether of France or Spain, who may be there, shall cease to oc
cupy any military post from thejtime of taking possession, and shall
be embarked as soon as possible, in the course of three months af
ter the ratification of this treaty.
Art. 6th. The United States promise to execute such treaties
and articles as may have been .agreed between Spain and the tribes
and nations of Indians, until, by mutual consent of the United
States and the said tribes or nations, other suitable articles shall
have been agreed upon.
Art. 7th. As it is reciprocally advantageous to the commerce of
France and the United States to encourage the communication of
both nations for a limited time in the country ceded by the present
treaty, until general arrangements relative to the commerce of both
nations may be agreed on, it has been agreed between the contract
ing parties, that the French ships coming directly from France or
any of her colonies, loaded only with the produce or manufactures
of France or her said colonies; and the ships of Spain coming di
rectly from Spain or any of her colonies, loaded only with the pro
duce or manufactures of Spain or her colonies, shall be admitted
during the space of twelve years in the ports of New Orleans, and
in all other legal ports of entry within the ceded territory, in the
same manner as the ships of the United States coming directly from
France or Spain or any of their colonies, without being subject
to any other or greater duty on merchandise, or other or greater
tonnage than those paid by the citizens of the United States.
During the space of time above-mentioned, no other nation shall
have a right to the same privileges in the ports of the ceded terri
tory: the twelve years shall commence three months after the ex
change of ratifications, if it shall take place in France, or three
months after it shall have been notified at Paris to the French go
vernment, if it shall take place in the United States: it is, howe
ver, well understood that the object of the above article is to fa
vour the manufactures, commerce, freight, and navigation of France
and of Spain, so far as relates to the importations that the French
and Spanish shall make into the said ports of the United States,

400 APPENDIX.
without in any sort affecting the regulations that the United States
may make concerning the exportation of the produce and mer
chandise of the United States, or any right they may have to make
such regulations.
Art, 8th. In future, and for ever after the expiration of the
twelve years, the ships of France shall be treated upon the footing
of the most favoured nations in the ports above-mentioned.
Art, 9th, The particular convention, signed this day by the re
spective ministers, having for its object to provide for the payment
of debts due to the citizens of the United States by the French re
public, prior to the 30th of September, 1800, (8th Vendemiaire, an
9,) is approved, and to have its execution in the same manner as if
it had been inserted in the present trea:ty; and, it shall be ratified
in the sarae form, and in the same time, so that the one shall not
be ratified distinct from the other.
Another particular convention, signed at the same date as the
present treaty, relative to the definitive rule between the contract
ing parties, is in the like manner approved, and will be ratified in
the same form, and in the same tirae, and jointly.
Art. 10th. The present treaty shall be ratified in good and due
form, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the space of six
month's after the date of the signature by the ministers plenipoten
tiary, or sooner if possible.
In faith whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed
these articles in the French and English languages; declaring, ne
vertheless, that the present treaty was originally agreed to in the
French language; and have thereunto put their seals.
Done at Paris, the tenth day of Floreal, in the eleventh year of
the French republic, and the 30th of April, 1803.
ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON,
JAMES MONROE,
BARBE MARBOIS.

APPENDIX.

No. ±

107

Convention between the United States of America and the FrencJi
Bepublic, of the same date tvith the preceding Treaty.
The president of the United States of America and the first
consul of the French republic, in the name of the French people,
in" consequence of the treaty of cession of Louisiana, which has
been signed this day, wishing to regulate definitively every thing
which has relation to the said cession, have authorized to this ef
fect the plenipotentiaries^ that is to say: the president of the
United States has, by and with the advice and consent of the se
nate of the said states, nominated for their plenipotentiaries, Ro
bert R. Livingston, minister plenipotentiary of the United States,
and James Monroe, minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordi
nary of the said United States, near the governraent of the French
republic; and the first consul of the French republic, in the name
of the French people, has named as plenipotentiary of the said re
public, the French citizen Barbe Marbois, who, in virtue of their
full powers, which have been exchanged this day, have agreed to
Ihe follovi'ing articles: —
Art. 1st. The government of the United States engages to pay
to the French government, in the manner specified in the following
articles, the sum of sixty millions of francs, independent of the
sum which shall be fixed by another convention for the payment of
debts due by France to citizens of the United States.
Art. 2d, For the payment of the sum of sixty millions of francs,
mentioned in the preceding article, the United States shall create
a stock of eleven millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
bearing an interest of six per cent, per annum, payable half yearly
in London, Amsterdam, or Paris, amounting by the half year to
three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars, ac
cording to the proportions which shall be determined by the French
governnient, to be paid at either place: the principal of the said
stock to be reimbursed at the treasury of the United States, in an
nual payments of not less than three millions of dollars each; of
which the first payment shall commence fifteen years after the date
of tlifr exchange of ratifications: this stock shall be transferred to
the government of France, or to such person or persons as shall be

408 APPENDIX.
authorized to receive it, in three months at most after' the exchange
of the ratifications of this treaty, and after Louisiana shall be taken
possession of in the name of the government of the United States.
It is farther agreed, that if the French government should be
desirous of disposing of the said stock to receive the capital in
Europe, at shorter terms, that its measures for that purpose shall
be taken so as to favour, in the greatest degree possible, the credit
of the United States, and to raise to the highest price the said
stock. Art. 3d. It is agreed that the dollar of the United States, spe
cified in the present convention, shall be fixed at five francs -^^-^^f
or five livres eight sous tournois. The present convention shall be
ratified in good and due form, and the ratifications shall be ex
changed in the space of six months, to date from this day, or sooner
if possible.
In faith of which, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed
the above articles both in the French and English languages; de
claring, nevertheless, that the present treaty has been originally
agreed on and written in the French language; to which they have
hereunto affixed their seals.
Done at Paris, the tenth of Floreal, eleventh year of the French
republic, (30th April, 1803.)
ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, (L. S.)
JAMES MONROE, (L. S.)
BARBE MARBOIS, (L. S.)

No. 3.
Convention between the United States of Jlmerica and the French
Republic, also of the same date with the Louisiana Treaty.
The president of the United States of America and the first
consul of the French republic, in the name of the French people,
having by a treaty of this date terminated all difficulties relative
to Louisiana, and established on a solid foundation the friendship
which unites the two nations, and being desirous, in compliance
with the second and fifth articles of the convention of the 8th Ven
demiaire, ninth year of the French republic, (30th September,

APPENDIX. 409
1800,) to secure the payment of the sura due by France to the citi
zens of the United States, have respectively nominated as plenipo
tentiaries, that is to say: the president of the United States of
America, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, Ro
bert R. Livingston, minister plenipotentiary, and James Monroe,
minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary of the said states,
near the government of the French republic, and Ihe first consul,
in the name of the French people, the French citizen Barbe Mar
bois, minister of the public treasury; who, after having exchanged
their full powers, have agreed to the following articles: —
Art. 1st. The debts due by France to the citizens of the United
States, contracted before the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year of the
French republic, (30th September, 1800,) shall be paid according
to the following regulations, with interest at six per cent., to com
mence from the period when the accounts and vouchers were pre
sented to the French governraent.
Art. 2d. The debts provided for by the preceding article are
those whose result is comprised in the conjectural note annexed to
the present convention, and which, with the interest, cannot exceed
the sum of twenty millions of francs. The claims comprised in
the said note, which fail within the exceptions of the following ar
ticles, shall not be admitted to the benefit of this provision.
Art, 3d, The principal and interest of the said debts shall be
discharged by the United States by orders drawn by their minister
plenipotentiary on their treasury; these orders shall be payable
sixty days after the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty and
the conventions signed this day, and after possession shall be given
of Louisiana by the commissioners of France to those of the United
States. Art. 4th. It is expressly agreed, that the preceding articles
shall comprehend no debts but such as are due to citizens of the
United States, who have been and are yet creditors of France for
supplies, embargoes, and for prizes made at sea, in which the ap
peal has been properly lodged within the time mentioned in the
said convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year, (30th Septem
ber, 1800.)
Art. 5th. The preceding articles shall apply only, 1st, to cap
tures of which the council of prizes shall have ordered restitution;
it being well understood that the claimant cannot have recourse to
the United States otherwise than he might have had to the govern-
52

410 APPENDIX.
ment of the French republic, and only in case of the insufficiency
of the captors: 2d. the debts mentioned in the said fifth article of
the convention, contracted before the 8th Vendemiaire, an 9, (30th
September, 1800,) the payment of which has been heretofore claimed
of the actual government of France, and for which the creditors
have a right to the protection of the United States; thesaid fifth
article does not comprehend prizes whose condemnation has been
or shall be confirmed : it is the express intention of the contract
ing parties not to extend the benefit of the present convention to
reclamations of American citizens, who shall have established
houses of commerce in France, England, or other countries than
the United States, in partnership with foreigners, and who by that
reason and the nature of their commerce ought to be regarded as
domiciliated in the places where such houses exist. All agree
ments and bargains concerning merchandise, which shall not be the
property of American citizens, are equally excepted from the be
nefit of the said convention, saving, however, to such persons their
claims in like manner as if this treaty had not been made.
Art. 6th. And that the different questions which may arise un
der the preceding article may be fairly investigated, Hhe ministers
plenipotentiary of the Uiiited States shall name three persons, who
shall act from the present and provisionally, and who shall have
full power to examine, without removing the documents, all the
accounts of the different claims already liquidated by the bureau
established for this purpose by the French republic; and to ascer
tain whether they belong to the classes designated by the pre
sent convention and the principles established in it, or if they are
not in one of its exceptions, and on their certificate, declaring that
the debt is due to an American citizen or his representative, and
that it existed before the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year, (30th Sep
tember, 1800,) the creditor shall be entitled to an order on the
treasury of the United States, in the manner prescribed by the
third article.
Art. 7th. The same agents shall likewise have power, without
removing the documents, to examine the claims which are prepared
for verification, and to certify those which ouglit to be admitted by
uniting the necessary qualifications, and not being comprised in
the exceptions contained in the present convention.
Art. 8th. The same agents shall likewise examine the claims
which are not prepared for liquidation, and certify in writing those
which in their judgments ought to be admitted to liquidation.

APPENDIX. 411
Art. 9th. In proportion as the debts mentioned in these articles
shall be admitted, they shall be discharged with interest at six per
cent, by the treasury of the United States.
Art. 10th. And that no debt which shall not have the qualifica
tions above-mentioned, and that no unjust or exorbitant demand
may be admitted, the commercial agent of the United States at
Paris, or such other agent as the minister plenipotentiary of the
United States shall think proper to nominate, shall assist at the
operations of the bureau, and co-operate in the examination of the
clairas; and if this agent shall be of opinion that any debt is not
completely proved, or if he shall judge that it is not comprised in
the principles of the fifth article above-mentioned; and if, notwith
standing his opinion, the bureau established by the French govern
ment should think that it ought to be liquidated, he shall transmit
his observations to the board established by the United States, who,
without removing the documents, shall make a complete examina
tion of the debt and vouchers which support it, and report the re
sult to the minister of the United States. The minister of the
United States shall transmit his observations, in all such cases,
to the minister of the treasury of the French republic, on whose
report the French governraent shall decide definitively in every
case. The r^'ection of any claim shall have no other effect than to ex
empt the United States from the payment of it, the French govern
ment reserving' to itself the right to decide definitively on such
claim so far aSt concerns itself.
Art. 1 1th. Every necessary decision shall be made in tlie course
of a year, to commence from the exchange of ratifications, and no
reclamation shall be admitted afterwards.
Art. 12th. In case of claims for debts contracted by the govern
ment of France with citizens of the United States, since the 8tli
Vendemiaire, ninth year, (30th September, 1800.) not being com
prised in this convention, they may be pursued, and the payment
demanded in the same manner as if it had not been made.
Art. 13th. The present convention shall be ratified in good and
due form, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in six months
from the date of the signature of the ministers plenipotentiary, or
sooner if possible.
In faith of which, the respective ministers plenipotentiary have
signed the above articles, both in the French and English languages;
declaring, nevertheless, that the present treaty has been originally

412 APPENDIX.
agreed on and written in the French language; to which they have
hereunto affixed their seals.
Done at Paris, the tenth day of Floreal, eleventh year of the
French republic, (30th April, 1803.)
ROBERT R, LIVINGSTON, (L, S,)
JAMES MONROE, (L. S,)
BARBE MARBOIS, (L. S.)

No. 4.
COMPANY OF THE INDIES.
Order to the agent of the Company at Cape Frangois, respecting
the two Chiefs of the Natchez Indians, who had been removed
there ivith their Families from Louisiana. .April, 9.3d, 1732,
It having been stated that among the Natchez Indians, taken in
war, in the month of January, 1731, were two chiefs with their fa
milies, making eight persons in number, and that, although the
Sun, one of the two chiefs, died on the 28th of September last, the
company had incurred on their account expenses to the amount of
eighteen hundred livres and seven sous; and it having been farther
stated, that on an application made to M. de Maurej^ls to relieve the
company from this charge, M. de Maurepas had replied that he was
not aware of any other course to adopt than to order the sale of the
survivors of these two Indian families, or to send them back to
Louisiana, it was thereupon resolved to order forthwith the sale of
the survivors of the aforesaid two families of Natchez Indians.

No. 5.
Extract from the Public Law of Europe.
"I BEG leave to compare the evil consequences which result
to France from the enormous expenses that her wars have occa-

APPENDIX. 413
sioned, with those that she has sustained from the loss of several
provinces that she formerly possessed on the continent of North
America. Undoubtedly this kingdom raay be happy apd very pow
erful without colonies; but it is certain that its strength is impaired
by the debts with which it is burdened." — Droit Public de I' Europe
par Mably, torn. 3. Peace of 1763.

No. 6.
Note relative to the Succession of Bavaria.
The Elector of Bavaria was attacked by the small-pox, a year
after the inquiry was, made respecting his health, and he died of
the disease. The Austrians suddenly entered Bavaria, but France
was too far committed to the Americans to recede. It was, indeed,
at this period that the treaty of alliance between France and the
United States was signed, and it was supposed in England that
France would not be able to avoid a continental war. It was kept out
of it principally by the prudence of the ministry. It must also be a,d-
mitted that it was greatly owing to the firmness and decision of the
king of Prussia that the palatine branch of the house of Bavaria
preserved the ancient patrimony of the coramon stock of Wittel-
spach. This monarch extricated France from the untoward posi
tion in which she had been placed by so unexpected an event, and
for this time Austria was not brought into tlie neighbourhood of the
two landgraviates of Alsace, the ancient inheritance of that power
ful house. Perhaps, in 1815, she allowed it to be too clearly seen
that one hundred and sixty-seven years had not sufficed to take
away from her every hope of accomplishing her object.

No. 7,

A Letter written from New Orleans, 14th of October, ,1803, a few
days after the Treaty had been signed at Paris.
The French prefect has arrived. His declarations respecting
the Americans are as yet very friendly. But I suppose that,

414 APPExNDlX.
on the establishment of the .French government, his tone will
change. He expects General Victor and the French troops before
entering on his administration. Every expedient will be exhausted
in order to lull us into a false security. All the inhabitants of this
country, except the Creoles, ardently desire to see the people of the
west adopt energetic measures.
We are still refused a place of deposite, and have therefore the
best possible occasion to procure ourselves satisfaction for the past
and security for the future. If we let it go by, I fear that we shall
never regain it. A handful of men would take this place: they
would experience little or no resistance. You would be surprised
to see the lively interest that the people of the country take in the
future prosperity of our nation, and with what enthusiasm they
read and repeat the speeches of those senators who are in favour of
an immediate occupation of this place.
I earnestly pray that our western militia may be immediately
equipped and armed, so that we may not lose a moment in putting
ourselves in a situation to provide for our safety. Our enemies ac
cuse us of a want of public spirit. The Spaniards, who are settled
here, see their governmeriton the edge of a precipice, towards
which it is driven by the intrigues of French policy; and, like peo
ple in despair, they no longer dare anticipate the future. They
are impatient at our delay, and often express their surprise at our
moderation and pusillanimity.
I fear that our plan of negotiations will only be productive of
delays. If it does not succeed, I shall lament the unfortunate des
tinies of our degraded country.

No. 8,

Extract of a Letter from the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States to the French Minister of Foreign .Affairs.
Paris, December 11th, 1802.
Sir, I HAVE just learned that the government of New Orleans has
refused the Americans the right of deposite in that port, under pre
tence that the term stipulated in the treaty had expired.
You are not ignorant, sir, of the value which the inhabitants of
the western states attach to this right, nor of the energy with which

APPENDIX. 41.^
they would defend it. Were the government, indeed, even indif
ferent on this point, it would be obliged to yield to their views.
It is, sir, particularly unfortunate that this difficulty should arise
at the precise moment when France is about entering on the pos
session of the country. I very much fear that this circumstance,
connected with the silence that the French governnient observes
respecting its intentions, may induce suspicious persons to suppose
that the court of Spain has acted in this matter altogether in con
cert with France. Although I too justly appreciate the upright
ness of her government, to believe that it would approve the in
fraction of a treaty, and thus mark, by an act of hostility, the pe
riod of our becoming neighbours, the subject is, nevertheless, of a
nature to require, on the part of France, the most prompt atten
tion to all those subjects, the disregard of which has excited the
warmest sensations in the United States. I avail myself of this oc
casion to present to you the sketch of a treaty which, I liope, will
procure for France the greatest advantages, and bind closer those
ties which all enlightened Americans desire to see exist between
her and the United States.
In taking possession of Louisiana, France can only have three
objects in view: 1st, the command of the gulf; 2d. the supply of
her islands; 3d. a place of settlement for her surplus inhabitants,
in case of an excess of population in her European possessions.
She will effectually secure the first object by the possession of
East Florida. There is no port of the least importance to the west
of the Mississippi.
The second object will be better answered by confining the set
tlement within reasonable limits, on the borders or at a moderate
distance from the sea, than by dispersing men and capital over an
immense territory — a course of proceeding that would lead the in
habitants to a migratory life and to independence, and would com
pel France to multiply very expensive military establishments to
protect them against the incursions of the Indians.
This country must be peopled by foreigners or French emigrants.
In the first case, there is no nation in Europe that can keep them
in a state of dependence; for as soon as the settlements extend a few
hundred miles from the borders of the sea, they will be out of reach
of its power. In the second case, such a quantity of men and mo
ney will leave France as to inflict a terrible blow on her agriculture
and commerce. And, after all, they will be independent of the

416 APPENDIX.
mother country from the day that they are sufficiently rich and suf
ficiently strong to do without her assistance.
1 am going to propose what I believe to be the true policy of
France to adopt, and what will fulfil all her views, at the same
time that it will be a means of conciliating the affection of the
United States and securing the permanency of the settlement.
France should first cede to the United States the part of Louisi
ana which is above the mouth of the river Arkansas; there will
thus be between the French part and Canada a barrier, without
which the province might be easily attacked and lost to France be-
£01*0 the arrival of assistance. She should retain the part which is
west of the Mississippi and below the river of the Arkansas; this
territory can maintain a population of fifteen millions, and will
form a barrier between the United States and Mexico in case the
Americans should entertain the extravagant design of carrying war
into that country, which I hope will never happen. France should
cede to the United States West Florida, New Orleans, and the
territory upon the left bank of the Mississippi. This cession is
only valuable to the Araericans, inasmuch as it gives them the em
bouchure of the Mobile and other small rivers which pass through
their territory, and would calm their anxiety respecting the Missis
sippi. If we except a narrow strip of land on the borders of the
river, all this portion of territory consists of sand barrens and
marshes, while that which France will retain to the west of the
Mississippi embraces a rich and fertile country. It may be sup
posed that New Orleans is a place of some importance; it is so
without doubt for the United States, but not for France. And as
the greater part of the settlements are on the other bank of the
river, it will be requisite to remove the capital there, even though
France should remain in possession of New Orleans, a city built of
wood, and for which France will have incurred useless expendi
tures in public buildings, when the capital shall be removed.
The right of deposite claimed by the United States, a right which
they will never yield, will be between the two nations a perpetual
source of disputes and animosities, that will at some time or other
force the United States to aid a foreign power to expel the French
from the colony. Independently of all this, the capital at New
Orleans being almost entirely in the hands of the Americans, will
be sent immediately to Natchez, a post to which the United States
can give such advantages that New Orleans will be of little im
portance.

APPENDIX. 417
If any other course is adopted, the whole settlement will fall into
the hands of the English, who, at the same time that they com
mand the sea, have within reach a warlike colony possessing all
the means of att^pk; and while their fleet blockades the harbours,
they may, without the least difficulty, cause New Orleans to be at
tacked, through Canada, by fifteen or twenty thousand raen, aided
by hordes of Indians.
France, by seizing on a wilderness and an insignificant city, and
thus throwing the United States into the scale on the side Of Eng
land, is going to make this power the mistress of the new world:
the possession of Louisiana and of the Trinity will put the Spa
nish colonies at her mercy, and by taking away the Floridas fronl
Spain and getting possession of the gulf of Mexico, she will com
mand the West Indies; the two Indies will pour their riches into
her ports; the precious metals of Mexico, united with the treasures
of Hindostan, will furnish the means of buying nations, whose
forces she will employ to secure her power.
Congress is now in session: if, before it adjourns, there is no
treaty concluded, or if a minister is sent with only powers to treat,
without being the bearer of any thing decisive, he will have to
make his way through a thousand suspicions, and a thousand jea
lousies; and the negotiation once commenced, he will have to coUt
tend against all the intrigues of the court of London, which has
the greatest interest in arresting the success of an affair so opposed
to its views.
Accept the assurances, &c. (Signed) R. R. LIVINGSTON.

No. 9.

Memorial of the Legislative Council and House of Representatives
of the Mississippi Territory to ihe President, Senate, and House
of Representatives of the United States.
Your memorialists beg leave to express their feelings and senti
ments relative to an event by which the interests of western Ame
rica in general, and of this territory in particular, are materially
affected : 5.3

418 APPENDIX.
While the treaty of San Lorenzo cl Real secured the free navi
gation of the Mississippi, and a convenient place of deposite for
the merchandise and effects of American traders, it politically in
corporated this country as a part of the United States. Under
this auspicious change, we saw our trade flourishing, our property
rising rapidly in value, and we felicitated ourselves in being the
free and happy citizens of an independent republic.
Reposing in national faith for a continued observance of stipu
lated privileges, we had indulged the sanguine expectation that this
state of prosperity would not have been soon interrupted.
The motives which may have influenced the Spanish government
to withhold frora us a place of deposite are a subject of conjecture;
but no doubt can exist as to the act itself being a direct infraction
of our treaty with that nation.
A recent order by the governnifent of Louisiana, prohibiting all
intercourse between the citizens of the United States and the sub
jects of Spain, has considerably increased the embarrassment upoli
our trade, and breathes a spirit of still greater. enmity to tlie United
States. Your memorialists, conscious of the wisdom, justice,. and energy
of the general government, rest assured that no succour will b6
withholden which existing circumstances raay require; and so far
as raay depend on ourselves, we tender to our country our lives
and fortunes in support of such raeasures as congress may -deem
necessary to vindicate the honour and protect the interest .of the
United States.
WM. GORD. FORMAN,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
JOHN ELLIS,
President of the Council.
Council Chamber,
January 5, 1803.

APPENDIX. 119

No. 10.

Memorial to iM President, Senate, and House of Representatives
of the United States. Janiutry, 1 803. '
Your memorialists, inhabitants of the states west of the Alle
ghany Mountains, humbly statef that the port of New Orleans is
closed to them by a decree of the Spanish intendant; that they owe
tlie United States taxes which have just accrued, as well as large
arrearages, and that they ha,ve no other means to pay them but the
produce of their farms. That, excludeil as they are from a market
in the east for their produce, it raust rot in their granaries, unless
the governraent consents to receive it from them at a reasonable
price, or protects them in the enjoyment of a lawful trade; that
they humbly conceive that prompt and decisive measures are ne
cessary, the maxim that protection and allegiance are reciprocal
being particularly applicable to their situation. In announcing
their confidence in the government of the Union, and in giving as
surances of their co-operation in all the measures that may be
adopted to cause the just rights of every portion of the United
States to be respected, they declare that they hav^, a right to re
quire, and do require that the government shall either take mea
sures to guara.nty the exercise of a legitimate right or release them
from every contribution whatever. Without interfering in the
measures that have been adopted to bring about the amicable ar
rangement of a difference, Vvhich has grown out of the gratuitous
violation of a solemn treaty, they desire that the United States
may explicitly understand that their situation is critical; that the
delay of only a single season would be ruinous to their country, and
thai an imperious necessity may consequently oblige them, if they
receive no aid, to adopt themselves the measures that may appear
to them calculated to protect their commerce, even though those
measures should produce consequences unfavourable to the harmo
ny of the confederacy.

420 APPENDIX. No. 11.
Extract of a Letter, dated Natchez, 13th April, 1803.
Public opinion is here in a state of the greatest excitement. The
Spaniards have insulted and injured us, and we have borne with
them: we might, without striking a blow, have seized on New Or
leans, the palladium of the west. They have provoked our pride;
they have seen that neither interest nor national honour can deter
mine the Anierican cabinet to act with energy. We have, in truth,
shown to the universe that we are well disposed to place our exist
ence at the mercy of foreign nations.
The French are in possession of New Orleans. 1 have seen the
proclaraation, or rather manifesto of the prefect. It is like all the
other French manifestoes. There is not a well-informed man in
this, territory who does not perceive that our country is ruined.
Moreover, it is the president alone who is to blame. It is he who
by his pusillanimity has allowed the blood of the west to stagnate,
and in order better to secure our destruction, he has, without the
least opposition, allowed our most cruel ehemy to put his inexora
ble hand on the mouth of the artery through which alone the blood
can circulate.
In a word, my dear sir, we are convinced that we must familia
rize ourselves to the colonial and military despotism of Bonaparte.
The inhabitants residing near the western waters will necessarily
be rnled by those who dispose of their productions. Those who
can do so are preparing to put themselves under the prudent and
stable governments of New England.

No. 12.

Copy of a Letter from M. Talleyrand to Mr. Livingston, dated
Paris, 24th March, 1803.
Paris, 1 Germinal, 11th year, {9.4lh March, 1803.)
Sir, I see with pleasure by the last letters of the French legation
to the United States, that the species of fermentation raised there
on account of Louisiana, has been brought down by the wisdom of

\.PPENDIX. 121
your government, and the just confidence which it inspires, to that
state of tranquillity which is alone suited to discussions, and which,
in the relations of sentiment and interest existing between the two
people, cannot but le;id them to understand one another vespect-
ing mere accidental difficulties, and to bind more closely the bonds
of their union. I ought to own to you, sir, that, in the eclat which
has been so lately given in your country to matters connected
with Louisiana, it has been difficult to discover the ancient sen
timents of attachment and of confidence with which France has
¦ever endeavoured to inspii-e the people of the United States, who,'
from the first moment of their existence as an independent and
sovereign nation, have always held their relations with France
above all other political connexions.
How could the neighbourhood of France affect unfavourably the
American people, either in their commercial or political relations i
Has the French republic ever shown a desire to impede the pros
perity of the United States, to lessen their influence, to weakep
the means of their security, or oppose any obstacle to the progress
of their commerce ? Your government, sir, ought to be well per
suaded that the first consul bears to the American nation the same
affection with which France has been at all times animated, and
that he considers the new means which the possession of Lou
isiana afford him of convincing the government and people of the
United States of his friendly disposition towards them, in the num
ber of the advantages which must result from that acquisition.
1 shall, for the present, confine myself to this declaration, which
ought to remove the distrust that app^rs in your last letters. The
information that has been received is not sufficient to authorize a
detailed explanation. In announcing to me, moreover, the ap
proaching departure of Mr. Monroe, appointed minister extraor
dinary to discuss this subject, you give me to conclude that your
government desires that this minister be waited for and heard, in
order that every matter, susceptible of contradiction, be complete
ly and definitively discussed i In the mean time, sir, the first con
sul charges me to assure your government, that, far from thinking
that our new position in Louisiana could be an object of solicitude,
or cause the least injury to the United States, he will receive the
minister extraordinary whom the president sends to him with the
greatest pleasure, and that he hopes that his mission willterminate
to the satisfaction of both nations.
CH. M. TALLEYRAND.

122 VPPENDIX.

No. 13.

Copy of a Letter from Robert R. Livingston to Mr. Monroe, dated
Paris, 10th April, 1803.
Dear Sir, ' - ^ '
I congratulate you on your safe arrival. We have long and
anxiously wished for you. God grant that your mission may an
swer yours and tli« public expectation. War may do something
for us, nothing else would, I have paved the way for you, ahd if
you could add to my memoirs an assurance that we were now in
possession of New Orleans, we should do well: but I detain Mr.
Bentalou, who is impatient to fly to the arms of his wife. I have
apprized the minister of your arrival, and told him you would be
here on Tuesday or Wednesday. Present my compliments and
Mrs. L's. to Mrs. Monroe, and believe me, dear sir.
Your friend, and humbleservant,
ROBT. R, LIVINGSTON.
To his Excellency James Monroe.

No. 14.
Article 5d of the Treaty comfyided at St. Ildephonso on the 1st of
October, 1800.
" His Catholic Majesty promises and engages, on his part, to
retrocede to the French republic, six mouths after the full and en
tire execution of the conditions and stipulations, herein relative to
His Royal Highness the Duke of Parma, the colony or province of
Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the hands of
Spain,- and that it had when France possessed it; and such as it
should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between
Spain arid other states."

APPEMiIX. 123

No, 15,

Extract from a 3Iemoir of 3Ir. James Monroe, published after his
retirement from the Presidency. Virginia, 1828.
My reception by the French governnient, in my second mission,
on my return in 1803, was as kind and friendly as could have been
expected from what had before occurred. That the raission con
tributed to the result contemplated^— to prevent war, and secure to
us, by the treaties which were then concluded with the French go
vernment, not only the free navigation of the Mississippi, but all
Louisiana, M'. Talleyrand's letter to Mr. Livingston, which was
written after ray appointment was known in France, while I was
at sea, Mr. Livingston's letter to me in reply to mine, announcing
my arrival ^t Havre, and the extract frora -Colonel Mercer's jour
nal of what passed between Mr. Livingston and rae on the evening
of my arrival in Paris, will distinctly show. M, Talleyrand states,
in explicit terras, that the first consul thought it improper to com
mence a negotiation, on the ground of Mr. Livingston's complaints,
until Mr. Monroe, the minister extraordinary, whom the president
had appointed to discuss the subject, should arrive, and be heard,
that every matter susceptible of contradiction might be completely
and definitively discussed. He states, also,, that the first consul
had charged him to assure our government, that, far from thinking
that their new positfon in Louisiana could be an object of solici
tude, or cause the least injury to the United States, he would re
ceive the minister extraordinary whom the president had sent to
him, with the greatest pleasure, and that he hoped that this mission
would terminate to the satisfaction of both states, Mr. Living
ston congratulates me on ray arrival, and expresses an ardent de
sire that my mission may answer mine and the public expectation.
War, he says, may do something for us; nothing else would: that
he had paved the way for me by his memoirs; and, if I could add
to them an assurance that we were in possession of New Orleans,
we might do well. With the sentiraents contained in this letter,
those which were declared by Mr. Livingston, after my arrival in
Paris, were in strict accord, as appears by the extract from Colo
nel Mercer's journal of what passed in our first interview. On

424 APPENDIX.
being informed that the motion which had been made in the senate,
for taking possession of New Orleans by force had failed, he ex
pressed his regret at it, under a belief that force only could give it
to us. It is just to observe, that, in expressing this opinion, Mr.
Livingston showed no excitement whatever, but appeared to speak
under a thorough conviction of what he believed to be the fixed po
licy of the French government, founded on his communications
with the ministers, and what he knew of the character and policy
of the first consul in other respects. It affords me pleasure to add,
that, in the negotiation which ivas commenced immediately after
wards, and in the result procured by the treaties in which it termi
nated, great harmony prevailed between Mr. Livingston and my
self. The representation then made to me, and by authority entitled to
confidence, was that the first consul having his cabinet assembled at
St. Cloud, and walking in the garden with the members who coin-
posed it, having heard of the arrival of the minister extraordinary
at Havre, communicated to them the fact, and then observed that
the negotiation should be immediately commenced, and, addressing
himself to M. Marbois, added, that "being an affair of thetrea- .
sury, I will commit it to you." His motive for committing the ne
gotiation to M. Marbois, and in a manner not to wound the feel
ings of M. Talleyrand, may be readily conceived. It was added,
by the same authority, that, until that moment, so decided was be
lieved to be the purpose of the first consul, to cede no portion of
the territory in question, and unchangeable his views, after making
a decision, that none of his ministers would have ventured to pro
pose it to him. The sum suggested in the first interview with M.
Marbois, as that which his government had a right to claim for this
territory, was one hundred and twenty millions of francs, the es
timated value of Tuscany, which had been given for it; but this
was not insisted on, nor explicitly proposed. It was the subject
only of free communication. The first proposition which he made,
was that we should give for it eighty millions, of which sixty should
be paid to France in cash, in one year, in Paris — the other twenty
to our own citizens; and that the vessels and goods of France
should be perpetually exempted, in the ports of the ceded territo
ry, from foreign duties. The change which vias made, by the pay
ment in stock, instead of cash, with the limitation of the exemption
of French vessels and goods from foreign duties, to twelve years,
''vitli every other change, from this project, was the effect of nego-

APPENDIX. 425
tiation and accommodation. I add with pleasure that the conduct
of M. Marbois, in every stage of the negotiation, was liberal, can
did, and fair, indicating a very friendly feeling for the United States,
and a strong desire to preserve the most amicable relations between
the two countries.
It is just to state, that the frank, candid, and friendly conduct
of the two great houses of Hope, of Amsterdam, and of Baring,
of London, by offering to us loans to any amount we might require,
at the usual interest, rendered to the United States essential ser
vice in the negotiation. We had reason to believe, that the know
ledge of those ofl'ers, and the confidence with which it inspired the
French government, that our stock' might be converted through them
into cash, at a fair price, aided us in prevailing on that government
to accept the payment in stock, and to lessen the amount demand
ed for the territory ceded.

Some time afterwards, Mr. Monroe, correcting this first me
moir, thus expressed himself in a letter to M. Marbois.
" Oakhill, Virginia, April 4th, 1828.
" I have said, in my memoir, that at our first interview one hun
dred and twenty millions of francs were asked for the cession of the
territory of Louisiana. I have since reviewed the authentic docu
ments, and admit that I was mistaken; and that although you raay
have mentioned this sum as the estimated value of the territory, you
never asked it. You only asked the eighty raillions that are stipu
lated in the treaty. I have had sincere pleasure, on discovering
this error, to correct it without any observation on your part, for
never was a transaction of such importance conducted with raore
candour and honour.
"I have given an account of these events, so iraportant for France
and the world. I am one of the witnesses who have taken the
deepest interest in them, (Signed) JAMES MONROE."

54

426 APPENDIX.

No: 16.

Grant to the Family of the late Mr. Jefferson, by the State, of Lou
isiana, as a mark of its gratitude.
When Thomas Jefferson died, assurances of public affection
were. transmitted to his family from all parts of the Union, accom
panied by grants from the legislative assemblies, and from commit
tees that were formed in the principal cities. Those proceedings
gave a new contradiction to the maxim, so frequently repeated,
that republics are ungrateful.
Mr. Johnson, governor of Louisiana, addressed a message on
this subject to the house of representatives. The committee, to
whom it was referred, state in their report, that-^
" Thomas Jefferson, one of the principal founders of those libe
ral institutions, which are the envy of so many other nations,- has
died in poverty; he who has contributed to consolidate our social
edifice has claims on the gratitude of all the states of the Union.
But Louisiana owes him even more than the rest: it is he who,
from a dependent colony,, has made her a free state, &c."
In conformity with this report, the legislature, on the 16th of
March, 1827, passed the following act: —
" Thomas Jefferson, after a life devoted to the service of his
country and of human nature, has died, leaving to his children as
their only inheritance the example of his virtues and the gratitude
of the people whose independence he has proclairaed to the uni
verse. The legislature of Louisiana, a state acquired for the Union
by his wisdom and foresight, owes to him her political and civil li
berty; and, to perpetuate the remembrance of her profound respect
for the talents and virtues of this illustrious benefactor, it is enact
ed by the senate and house of representatives of Louisiana, in ge
neral assembly convened, that ten thousand dollars be transmitted
to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, for the benefit of the family of
Thomas Jefferson."

VPPENDIX. 427

No: 17,

Extract from the Declaration of TFar, made by Congress on the
18th of June, 1812.
The statement of grievances which congress published Jid not,
like the manifestoes traced by the docile hand of a secretary under
the dictation of a minister, contain motives for war which reason
and justice disavowed.
" By the blockade of the whole coast of the continent from the
Elbe to Brest inclusiye," says this document, "the well-established
principles of the law of nations, principles which have served for
ages as guides and fixed the boundaries between the rights of bel
ligerents and neutrals, were violated. By the law of nations, as
recognised by Great Britain herself, no blockade is lawful, unless
it be sustained by the applieation of an adequate force, and that an
adequate force-was applied to this blockade in its full extent, ought
hot to be pretended, ******
"Under the pretext of impressing British seamen,- our fellow-
citizens are seized in British ports, on the high seas, and in every
quarter to which the British power extends, are taken on board
British men-of-war, and compelled to serve ther-e as British sub
jects. In this mode our citizens are wantonly snatched from their
country and their families, deprived of their liberty, and doomed
to an ignominious and slavish bondage, compelled to fight the bat
tles of a foreign coufttry, and often to perish in thera. Our flag has
given them no protection, it has been unceasingly violated, and our
vessels exposed to clanger by the loss of the raen taken from thera.
^ . If ** * * * * #
" Whether the British government has contributed by active
measures to excite against us the hostility of the savage tribes on
our frontiers, your committee are not disposed to occupy much
time in investigating. Certain indications of general notoriety may
supplv the place of authentic documents; though these have not
been wanting to establish the fact in some instances. It is known
that symptoms of British hostility have never failed to produce cor
responding symptoms among those tribes. It is also well known
that on all such occasions, abundant supplies of the ordinary muni
tions of war have been afforded by the agents of British comm«r-

428

.\PPENiilX.

cial companies, and even from British garrisons, wherewith they
were enabled to commence that system of savage warfare on our
frontier, which has been at all times indiscriminate in its effects on
all ages, sexes, and conditions, and so revolting to humanity.
" Your committee would be much gratified if they could close
here the detail of British wrongs; but it is their duty to recite ano
ther act of still greater malignity than any of those which have been
already brought to view. The attempt to dismember our Union
and overthrow our excellent constitution, by a secret mission, the
object of which was to foment discontent and excite insurrection
against the constituted authorities of the nation, as lately disclosed
by the agent employed in it, affords full proof that there is no
bound to the hostility of the British government towards the United
States — no act, however unjustifiable, which it would not commit
to accomplish their ruin. This attempt excites the greater horror
from the consideration that it was made while the United States
and Great Britain were at peace, and an amicable negotiation was
pending between thera for the accommodation of their differences
through ministers regularly authorized for the purpose."

No. 18.

(The following instructions from Mr. Madison, secretary of state,
to Messrs. Livingston and Monroe, with their despatch accompa
nying the Louisiana treaty, are taken from a message of the presi
dent of the United States to the senate, dated 20th of May, 1826.
Though not inserted in the original work, they are deeraed a proper
supplement to the French plenipotentiary's history of that impor
tant diplomatic transaction. — Transl.)

Mr. Madison, Secretary of State of the United States, to Messrs.
Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe, Ministers Plenipoten
tiary of the United States to France, dated Department of State,
March, Zd, 1803.
Gentlemen: — You will herewith receive a commission and letters
of credence, one of you as minister plenipotentiary, the other, as
minister extraordinary and plenipotentiary, to treat with the go-

VPPENDIX. 129
vernment of the French republic on the subject of the Mississippi
and the territories eastward thereof, and without the limits of the
United States. The object in view, is to procure, by just and sa
tisfactory arrangements, a cession to the United States of New
Orleans, and of West and East Florida, or as much thereof as the
actual proprietor can be prevailed on to part with.
The French republic is understood to have become the proprietor,
by a cession from Spain, in the year  , of New Orleans, as part
of Louisiana, if not of the Floridas also. If the Floridas should
not hav^een then included in the cession, it is. not improbable that
they will have been since added to it.
It is foreseen that you may have a considerable difficulty in Over
coming the repugnance and the prejudices of the French govern
ment, against a transfer to the United States of so important a part
of the acquisition. The apparent solicitude and exertions, amidst
many embarrassing circumstances, to carry into effect the cession
made to the French republic, the reserve so long used on this subr
ject by the French government, in its communications with the mi
nister of the United States at Paris, and the declaration finally
made by the French minister of foreign relations, that it was meant
to take possession before any overtures from the United States
would be discussed, show the importance which is attached to the
territories in question. Oi?the other hand, as the United States
have the strongest motives of interest and of a pacific policy, to
seek by just means the establishment of the Mississippi, down to
its mouth, as their boundary, so there are considerations which,urge
on France a concurrence in so natural and so convenient an arrange
ment. Notwithstanding the circumstances which have been thought to
indicate in the French government designs of unjust encroachment,
and even direct hostility on the United States, it is scarcely possi
ble to reconcile a policy of that sort, with any motives which can
be presumed to sway either the government or the nation. To say
nothing of the assurances given, both by the French minister at
Paris, and by the Spanish minister at Madrid, that the cession by
Spain to France was understood to carry with it all the conditions
stipulated by the former to the United States, the manifest ten
dency of hostile measures against the United States, to connect
their councils and their colossal growth w ith the great and formi
dable rival of France, can neither escape her discernment, nor be

430 APPENDIX.
disregarded by her prudence, and might alone be expected to pro-
duce very different views in her government.
On the supposition that the French governraent does not mean to
force or to court war with the United States; but, on the contrary,
that it sees the interest which France has in cultivating tlieir neu
trality and amity, the dangers to so desirable a relation between
the two countries, which lurk under a neighbourhood, modified as
is that of Spain at present, must have great weight in recommend
ing the change which you will have to propose. These dangers
have been always sufficiently evident; and have, moreo^r, been
repeatedly suggested by collisions between the stipulated rights or
reasonable expectations of the United States and the Spanish juris
diction at New Orleans. But they have been brought raore stri
kingly into .view by the late proceeding of the intendant at that
place. The sensibility and unanimity in our nation, which have
appeared on this occasion, raust convince France that friendship
and peace with us must be precarious until the Mississippi shall
be made the boundary between the United States and Louisiana;
and, consequently, render the present moment favourable to the
object with which you are charged.
The time chosen for the experiment, is pointed out also by other
important considerations. The instability of the peace of Europe,
the attitude taken by Great Britain, me languishing state of the
French finances, and the absolute necessity of either abandoning
the West India Islands, or of sending thither large armaments at
great expense, all contribute, at the present crisis, to prepare in
the French government a disposition to listen to an arrangement
which will at once dry up one source of foreign controversy, and
furnish some aid in struggling with internal embarrassments. It
is to be added, that the overtures committed to you, coincide in a
great measure with the ideas of the person through whom the let
ter of the president, of April 30th, 1802, was conveyed to Mr. Li
vingston, and who is presumed to have gained some insight into the
present sentiments of the French cabinet.
Among the considerations which have led the French government
into the project of regaining from Spain the province of Louisiana,
and which you may find it necessary to meet in your discussions,
the following suggest themselves as highly probable,
1st, A jealousy of the Atlantic states as leaning to a coalition
with Great Britain, not consistent with neutrality and amity to-

APPENDIX. 431
wards France, and a belief that, by holding the key to the com
merce of the Mississippi, she will be able to command the inte
rests and attachments of the western portion of the United States;
and thereby either control the Atlantic portion also; or, if that can
not be done, to seduce the former into a separate government, and
a close alliance with herself. In each of these particulars the cal
culation is founded in error.
It is not true that the Atlantic states lean towards any connexion
with Great Britain, inconsistent \yith their amicable relations to
France. Their dispositions and their interests equally prescribe to
them amity and impartiality to both of those ijations. If a depar
ture from this simple and salutary line of policy should take place,
the causes of it will be found in the unjust or unfriendly conduct
experienced from one or other of them. In general it may be re
marked, that there are as many points on which the interests and
idews of the United States and of Great Britain may not be thought
to coincide, as can be discovered in relation to France. If less
harmony and confidence should therefore prevail between France
and the United States than may be maintained between' Great Bri
tain and the United States, the difference will lie, not in the want
of motives drawn from the mutual advantage of the two nations;
but in the want of favourable dispositions in the governments of
one or other of thera. That the blame in this respect will not just
ly fall on the governraent of the United States, is sufficiently de
monstrated by the mission and the objects with which you are now
charged. The French government is not less mistaken if it supposes that
the western part of the United States can be withdrawn from their
present union with the Atlantic part, into a separate government,
clbsely allied with France.
Our western fellow-citizens arff bound to the Union, not only by
the ties of kindred and affection, which for a long time will derive
strength frora the stream of emigration peopling that region; but by
two considerations which flow from clear and essential interests.
One of these considerations is, the passage through the Atlantic
ports of the foreign merchandise consumed by the western inhabi
tants, and the payments thence made to a treasury in which they
would lose their participation by erecting a separate gQVernraent.
The bulky productions of the western countiy may continue to
pass down the Mississippi; but the difficulties of the ascending na-
vlo-atiou of that river, however fret it raay be made, will cau^e the

432 APPENDIX.
imports for consumption to pass through the Atlantic states. This
is the course through which they are now received, nor will the im
post to which they will be subject, change the course even if the
passage up the Mississippi should be duty free. It will not>equal
the difference in the freight through the latter channel. It is true
that mechanical and other improvements in the navigation of the
Mississippi may lessen the labour and expense of ascending the
stream: but it is not the least probable, that savings of this sort
will keep pace with the improvements in canals and roads, by which
the present course of imports will be favoured. Let it be added,
that the loss of the contributions thus made to a foreign treasury,
would be accompanied with the necessity of providing by less con
venient revenues for the expense of a separate government, and of
the defensive precautions required by the change of situation.
The other of these considerations results from the insecurity to
which the trade from the Mississippi would be exposed by such a
revolution in the western part of the United States, A connexion
of the western people as a separate state with France, implies a
connexion between the Atlantic states and Great Britain. It is
found, frora long experience, that France and Great Britain are
nearly half the time at war. The case would be the same with
their allies. During nearly one half the time, therefore, the trade
of the western country frora the Mississippi, would have no pro
tection but that of France, and would suffer all the interruptions
which nations, having the command of the sea, could inflict on it.
It will be the more impossible for France to draw the western
country under her influence, by conciliatory regulations of the
trade through the Mississippi; because the regulations which would
be regarded by her as liberal, and clairaing returns of gratitude,
would be viewed on the other side as falling short of justice. If
this should not be at first the case, it soon would be so. The west
ern people believe, as do their Atlantic brethren, that they have a
natural and indefeasible right to trade freely through the Missis
sippi. They arc conscious of their power to enforce their right
against any nation whatever. With these ideas in their minds, it
is evident that France will not be able to excite either a sense of
favour, or of fear, that would establish an ascendancy over them.
On the contrary, it is raore than probable that the different views
of their respective rights would quickly lead to disappointments and
disgusts on both sides, and thence to collisions and controversies
fatal to the harmony of the two nations. To guard against these

APPENDIX, 133
consequences is a primary motive with the United States in wish
ing the arrangement proposed. As France has equal reasons to
guard against thera, she ought to feel an equal motive to concur in
the arrangemeht. i
2d. The advancement of the commerce of France, by an esta-
blishment on the Mississippi, has doubtless great weight with the
governnient in espousing this project.
The comraerce through the Mississippi will consist, 1st, of that
of the United States;' 2d. of that of the adjacent territories to be
acquired by France.
The 1st is now, and must for ages continue the principal com
merce. As far as the faculties of France will enable her to share
in it, the article to be proposed to her on the part ol the United
States on that subject promises every advantage she can desire. It
is a fair calculation, that, under the proposed arrangement, her
commercial opportunities would be extended rather than diminished;
inasmuch as our present right of deposite gives her the same com
petitors as she would then have, and the effect of the more rapid
settlement of the western country consequent on that arrangement
•would proportionably augment the mass of commerce to be shared
by her.
The other portion of commerce, with the exception of the island
of New Orleans, and the contiguous ports of West Florida, de
pends on the tet-ritory westward of the Mississippi. With respect
to this portion it will be little affected by the cession desired by the
United States. The footing proposed for her comraerce on the
shore to be ceded, gives it every advantage she could reasonably
wish, during a period within which she will be able to provide eve
ry requisite establishment on the right shore; which, according to
the best information, possesses the same facilities for such establish
ments as are found on the island of New Orleans itself. These cir
cumstances essentially distinguish the situation of the French coni-
merce in the Mississippi after a cession of New Orleans to the United
States, from the situation of the commerce of the United States,
without such a cession; their right of deposite being so much more
circumscribed, and their territory on the Mississippi not reaching
low enough for a: commercial establishment on the shore withiri their
present limits.
There remains to be considered the commerce of the ports in the
Floridas. Witl^ respect to this branch, the advantages which, will
be secured to France by the proposed arrangement ought to be sa-
55

434 APPENDIX.
tisfactory. She will here also derive a greater share from the in
crease which will be given by a more rapid settlement of a fertile
territory to the exports and imports through those ports, than she
would obtain from any restrictive use she could make of those ports
as her own property. But this is not all. The United States have
a just claim to the use of the rivers which pass from their territo
ries through the Floridas. They found their claim on like princi
ples with those which supported their claim to the use of the Mis
sissippi. If the length of these rivers be not in the same proportion
with that of the Mississippi, the difference is balanced by the cir
cumstance that both banks in the former case belong tothe United
States. With a view to permanent harmony between the two nations, a
cession of the Floridas is particularly to be desired, as obviating
serious controversies that might otherwise grow even out of the re
gulations, however liberal in the opinion of France, which she may
establish at the mouths of those rivers. One of the rivers, the Mo
bile, is said to be at present navigable for four hundred miles above
the 31° of latitude, and the navigation may nodoubt be opened
still farther. On all of them, the country within the boundary of the
United States, though otherwise between that and the sea, is fertile.
Settlements on it are beginning, and the people have already called
on the government to procure the proper outlets to foreign markets.
The president accordingly gave, sorae tirae ago, the proper instruc
tions to the minister of the United States at Madrid. In fact, our
free communication with the sea through these channels is so natu
ral, so reasonable, and so essential, that eventually it must take
place, and in prudence, therefore, ought to be amicably and effec
tually adjusted without delay.
3d. A farther object with France may be to form a colonial esta
blishment, having a convenient relation to her West India Islands,
and forming an independent source of supplies for them.
This object ought to weigh but little against the cession we wish
to obtain, for two reasons: 1st, Because the country which the ces
sion will leave in her hands on the right side of the Mississippi, is
capable of employing more than all the faculties she can spare for
such an object, and of yielding all the supplies which she could ex
pect or wish from such an establishment. 2d. Because, in times of
general peace, she will be sure of receiving whatever supplies her
islands may want from the United States, and even through the
Mississippi, if more convenient to her; because in time of peace

APPENDIX. 435
with the United States, though of war with Great Britain, the same
sources will be open to her, whilst her own would be interrupted;
and because, in case of war with the United States, which is not
likely to happen without a concurrent war with Great Britain, (the
only case in which she could need a distinct fund of supplies,) the
entire commerce of the sea, and of the trade through the Missis
sippi, would be against her, and would cut off the source in ques
tion. She would consequently never need the aid of her new co
lony b.ut when she could make little or no use of it.
There may be other objects with France in the projected acqui
sition, but they are probably such as would be either satisfied by a
reservation to herself of the country on the right side of the Mis
sissippi, or are of too subordinate a character to prevail against the
plan of adjustment we have in view, in case other difficulties in the
way of it can be overcome. The principles and outlines of this plan
are as folIoAVS, viz:
I. France cedes to the United States, for ever, the territory east
of the river Mississippi; comprehending the two Floridas, the island
of New Orleans, and the islands lying to the north and east of that
channel of the said river which is commonly called the South Pass,
together with all such other islands as appertain to either West or
East Florida: France reserving to herself all her territory on the
west side of the Mississippi,
II. The boundary between the territory ceded and reserved by
France, shall be a continuation of that already defined above the
31st degree of north latitude, namely, the middle of the channel
or bed of the river, through the said South Pass to the sea. The
navigation of the river Mississippi, in its whole breadth from its
source to the ocean, and in all its passages to and from the same,
shall be equally free and common to citizens of the United States
and of the French republic.
III. The vessels and citizens of the French republic may exer
cise commerce to and at such places on their respective shores be^
low the said thirty-first degree of north latitude as may be allowed
for that use by the parties to their respective citizens and vessels.
And it is agreed that no other nation shall be allowed to exercise
commerce to or at the same or any other place on either shore, be
low the said thirty-first degree of latitude, for the term of ten years,

436 APPENDIX.
to be computed from the exchange of the ratifications hereof. The
citizens, vessels, and merchandises of the United States and of
France, shall be subject to no other duties on their respective shores
below the said thirty-first degree, of latitude than are imposed on
their own citizens, vessels, and merchandises. No duty whatever
shall, after the expiration of ten years, be laid on articles the
growth or manufacture of the United States, or of the ceded terri
tories, exported through the Mississippi in French vessels; so long
as such articles so exported in vessels of the United States shall
be exempt from duty: nor shall French vessels, exporting such ar
ticles, ever afterwards be subject to pay a higher duty than vessels
of the United States,
IV. The citizens of France may, for the term of ten years, de
posite their effects at New Orleans, and at such other places on the
ceded shore of the Mississippi as are allowed for the commerce of
the United States, without paying any other duty than a fair price
for the hire of stores.
V. In the ports and commerce of W"est and East Florida, France
shall never be on a worse footing than the most favoured nation; and
. for the term of ten years her vessels and merchandise shall be sub
ject therein to no higher duties than are paid by those of the United
States, Articles of the growth and manufacture of the United
States, and of the ceded territory, exported in French vessels frora
any port in West or East Florida, shall be exempt from duty as
long as vessels of the United States shall enjoy this exemption.
VI. The United States, in consideration of the cession of terri
tory made by this treaty, shall pay to France  millions of
livres tournois, in the manner following; namely. They shall pay
 millions of livres tournois immediately on the exchange of
the ratifications hereof; they shall assume, in such order of priori
ty as the governraent of the United States may approve, the pay
ment of claims which have been, or may be, acknowledged by the
French republic to be due to American citizens, or so much there
of as, with the payment to be made on the exchange of ratifications,
will not exceed the sum of  : and, in case a balance should
remain due, after such payment and assumption, the same shall be
paid at the end of one year from the final liquidation of the claims
hereby assumed, which shall be payable in three equal annual pay-

Appendi.x. 137
ments — the first of wliich is to take place one year after the ex
change of ratifications, or they shall bear interest at the rate of six
per cent, per annum, from the date of such intended payments,
until they shall be discharged. All the above-mentioned payments
shall be made at the treasury of the United States, and at the rate
of one dollar and ten cents for every six livres tournois,
VII, To incorporate the inhabitants of the hereby ceded territo-
ty witli the citizens of the United States, on an equal footing, be
ing a provision which cannot now be made, it is to be expected,
from the character and policy of the United States, that such in
corporation will take place without unnecessary delay. In the
mean time they shall be secure in their persons and property, and
in the free enjoyment of their religion.
Observations on the Plan.
1st, As the cession to be made by France, in this case, must rest
on the cession made to her by Spain, it might be proper that Spain
should be a party to the transaction. The objections, however, to
delay, require that nothing raore be asked, on our part, than either
an exhibition and recital of the treaty between France and Spain,
or an engagement, on the part of France, that the accession of
Spain will be given. Nor will it be advisable to insist, even on this
much, if attended with difficulty or delay, unless there be ground
to suppose that Spain will contest the validity of the transaction.
2d. The plan takes for granted, also, that the treaty of 1795, be
tween the United States and Spain, is to lose none of its force, in
behalf of the former, by any transactions whatever between the
latter and France. No change, it is evident, will be, or can be,
admitted to be produced in that treaty, or in the arrangements car
ried into effect under it, farther than it may be superseded by sti
pulations between the United States and France, who will stand in
the place of Spain. It will not be amiss to insist on an express re
cognition of this by France, as an effectual bar against pretexts, of
any sort, not compatible with the stipulations with Spain.
3d. The first of the articles proposed in defining the cession, re
fers to the South Pass. of the Mississippi, and to the.islands north
and east of that channel. As this is the most navigable of the se
veral channels, as well as the most direct course to the sea, it is
expected that it will not be objected to. It is of tlie greater impor-

438 appendix.
tance to make it the boundary, because several islands will be there
by acquired — one of which is said to command this channel, and
to be already fortified. The article expressly includes, also, the
islands appertaining to the Floridas. To this there can be no ob
jection. The islands within six leagues of the shore are the sub
ject of a British proclamation in the year 1763, subsequent to the
cession of the FlOridas to Great Britain by France, which is not
known to have been ever called in question by either France or
Spain. The second article requires no particular observations.
Article third is one whose import may be expected to undergo
the severest scrutiny. The modification to be desired is that which,
whilst it provides for the interest of the United States, will be ac
ceptable to France, and will give no just ground of complaint, and
the least of discontent to Great Britain.
The present forra of the article ought, and probably will, be sa
tisfactory to France: First, because it secures to her all the com
mercial advantages in the river which she can well desire: Second
ly, because it leaves her free to contest the mere navigation of the
river, by Great Britain, without the consent of France.
The article, also, in its present form, violates no right of Great
Britain, nor can she reasonably expect of the United States that
they will contend, beyond their obligation, for her interest, at the
expense of their own. As far as Great Britain can claim the use
of the river, under her treaties with us, or by virtue of contiguous
territory, the silence of the article, on that subject, leaves the claim
unaffected. As far, again, as she is entitled, under the treaty of
1794, to the use of our bank of the Mississippi, above the 31st de
gree of north latitude, her title will be equally entire. The arti
cle stipulates against her oiily in its exclusion of her commerce
from the bank, to be ceded, below our present limits. To this she
cannot, of right, object — 1st, because the territory, not belonging
to the United States at the date of our treaty with her, is not in
cluded in its stipulations; 2dly, because the privileges to be en
joyed by France are for a consideration which Great Britain has
not given, and cannot give; 3dly, because the conclusion, in this
case, being a condition on which the territory will be ceded and ac
cepted, the right to communicate the privilege to Great Britain will
never have been vested in the. United States.
But, although these reasons fully justify the article, in its rela
tion to Great Britain, it will be advisable, before it be proposed, to

appendix. 139
feel the pulse of the French government with respect to a stipula
tion, that each of the parties may, without the consent of the other,
admit whomsoever it pleases to navigate the river, and trade with
their respective shores, on the same terras as in the other ports of
France and the United States, and as far as the disposition of that
governnient will concur to vary the proposition accordingly. It is
not probable that this concurrence will be given; but the trial to
obtain it will not only manifest a friendly regard to the wishes of
Great Britain, and, if successful, furnish a future price for privi
leges within her grant, but is a just attention to the interests of our
western fellow-citizens, whose comraerce will not otherwise be on
an equal footing with that of the Atlantic states.
Should France not only refuse any such change in the article, but
insist on a recognition of the right to exclude all nations, other than
the United States, from navigating the Mississippi, it may be ob
served to her, that a positive stipulation to- that effect might subject
us to the charge of intermeddling with, and prejudging, questions >
existing merely between her and Great Britain; that the silence of
the article is sufficient; that, as Great Britain never asserted a
claim on this subject against Spain, it is not to be presumed that
she will assert it against France on her taking the place of Spain;
that, if the claim should be asserted, the treaties between the United
States and Great Britain will have no connexion with it, the United
States having, in these treaties, given their separate consent only
to the use of the river by Great Britain, leaving her to seek what
ever other consent may be necessary.
If, notwithstanding such expostulations as these, France shall in
flexibly insist on an express recognition to the above effect, it will
be better to acquiesce in it, than to lose the opportunity of fixing
an arrangement, in otlfer respects satisfactory; taking care to put
the recognition into a form not inconsistent with our treaties with
Great Britain, or with an explanatory article that may not, impro
bably, be desired by her.
In truth, it must be admitted that France, as holding one bank,
raay exclude from the use of the river any nation not more connect
ed with it, by treaty, than Great Britain is understood to be. As
a river, where both its banks are owned by one nation, belongs ex
clusively to that nation, it is clear that, when the territory, on one
side, is owned by one nation, and on the other side by another na
tion the river belongs equally to both, in exclusion of all others.
There are two modes by which an equal right may be exercised;

440 APPENDIX.
the one, by a negative in each on the use of the river by any other
nation, except the joint proprietor; the other, by allowing each to
grant the use of the river to other nations without the consent of
the joint proprietor. The latter mode would be preferable. to the
United States: but, if it be found absolutely inadmissible to France,
the former must, in point of expediency, since it may in point of
right, be admitted by the United States. Great Britain will have
the less reason to be dissatisfied on this account, as she has never
asserted, against Spain, a yight of entering and navigating the Mis
sissippi: nor has she, or the United States, ever founded, on the
treaties between them, a claim to the interposition of the other
party, in any respect, although the river has been constantly shut
against Great Britain, frora the year 1783 to the present moment,
and was not opened to the United States until 1795, the year of
their treaty with Spain.
It is possible, also, that France may refuse to the United States
the same commercial use of her shores, as she will require for her
self on those ceded to the United States. In this case it will be
better to relinquish a reciprocity than to frustrate the negotiation.
If the United States held, in their own right, the shore to be ceded
to them, the commercial use of it allowed to France would render
a reciprocal use of her shore, by the United States, an indispensa
ble condition. But as France may, if she chooses, reserve to her
self the commercial use of the ceded shore, as a Condition of the
cession, the claim of the United States, to the like use of her shore,
would not be supported by the principle of reciprocity, and may,
therefore, without violating that principle, be waved in the trans
action. The article limits to ten years the equality of French citizens,
vessels, and merchandises, with those of the United States, Should
a longer period be insisted on, it may be yielded. The limitation
may even be struck out, if made essential by France; but a limita
tion, in this case, is so desirable, that it is to be particularly pressed,
and the shorter the period the better.
Art. 4. The right of deposite, provided for in this article, will
accommodate the commerce of France, to and from her own side
of the river, until an emporium shall be established on that side;
which it is well known will admit of a convenient one. The right
is limited to ten years, because such an establishment may, within
that period, he formed by her. Should a longer period be required,
it may be allowed; especially, as the Use of such a deposite, would

APPENDIX, 441
probably fall within the general regulations of our commerce there.
At the same time, as it will be better that it should rest on our own
tegulations, than on a stipulation, it will be proper to insert a limi
tation of time, if France can be induced to acquiesce in it.
Art. 5, This article makes a reasonable provision for the com
merce of France, in the ports of West and East Florida, If the
limitation to ten years, of its being on the same, footing with that
of the United States, should form an insuperable objection, the
terra may be enlarged; but it is much to he. wished that the privi
lege may not, in this case, be made perpetual.
Art. 6. The pecuniary consideration to be offered for the terri
tories in question, is stated in article 6, You will, of course, fa
vour the United States as much as possible, both in the amount, and
the modifications of the payments. There is some reason to be
lieve that the gross sum expressed in the article has occurred to the
French government, and is as much as will be finally insisted on.
It is possible that less may be accepted, and the negotiation ought
to be adapted to that supposition. Should a greater sum be made
an ultimatum, on the part of France, the president has made up his
mind to go as far as fifty millions of livres tournois, rather than
lose the main object. Every struggle, however, is to be made
against such an augmentation of the price, that will consist with an
ultimate acquiescence in it.
The payment to be made iramediately on the exchange of ratifi
cation, is left blank; because it cannot be foreseen either what the
gross sum or the assumed debts will be, or how far a reduction of
the gross sum may be influenced by the anticipated payments, pro
vided for by the act of congress, herewith communicated, and by
the authorization of the president and secretary of the treasury,
endorsed thereon. This provision has been made with a view to
enable you to take advantage of the urgency of the French govern
ment, for money, which may be such as to overcome the repugnance
to part with what we want, and induce them to part with it on lower
terms, in case a payment can be made before the exchange of rati
fications. The letter from the secretary of the treasury to the se
cretary of state, of which a copy is herewith enclosed, will explain
the manner in which this advance of the ten millions of livres, or so
much thereof as may be necessary, will be raised most convenient
ly for the United States. It only remains here to point out the
condition or event on which the advance may be made. It will be
essential that the convention be ratified by the French government,
56

442 APPENDIX.
before any such advance be made; and it may be farther required,
in addition to the stipulation to transfer possession of the ceded ter
ritory as soon as possible, that the orders for the purpose, from the
competent source, be actually and immediately put 'into your
hands. It will be proper also to provide for the repayment of the
advance, in the event of a refusal of the United States to ratify
the convention.
It is apprehended that the French government will feel no repug
nance to our design.ating the classes of claims and debts, which,
embracing more equitable considerations than the rest, we may be
lieve entitled to a priority of payment. It is probable, therefore,
that the clause of the 6th article, referring it to our discretion, may
be safely insisted upon. We think the following classification such
as ought to be adopted by ourselves: —
1st, Claims under the 4th article of the convention of Septem
ber, 1800.
2d. Forced contracts, or sales imposed upon our citizens by
French authorities; and,
3d. Voluntary contracts, which have been suffered to remain un
fulfilled by them.
Where our citizens have become creditors of the French govern
ment, in consequence of agencies or appointments derived from it,
the United States are under no particular obligations to patronize
their claims, and therefore no sacrifice of any sort, in their behalf,
ought to be made in the arrangement. As far as this class of claim
ants can be embraced, without embarrassing the negotiation, or in
fluencing, in any respect, the demands or expectations of the French
government, it will not be improper to admit thera into the provi
sion. It is not probable, however, that such a deduction frora the
sum ultimately to be received by the French government, will be
permitted without some equivalent accommodation to its interests,
at the expense of the United States.
The claims of M. Beaumarchais, and several other French indi
viduals, on our government, founded upon antiquated or irrelevant
grounds, although they may be attempted to be included in this ne
gotiation, have no connexion with it. The American government
is distinguished for its just regard to the rights of foreigners, and
does not require those of individuals to become subjects of treaty,
in order to be admitted. Besides, their discussion involves a va
riety of minute topics, with which you may fairly declare your
selves to be unacquainted. Should it appear, however, in the

APPENDIX. 413
course of the negotiation, that so much stress is laid on this point,
that without some accommodation, your success will be endangered;
it will be allowable to bind the United States for the payment of
one million of livres tournois, to tlie representatives of Beumar-
chais, heretofore deducted from his account against them; the French
government declaring the same never to have been advanced to him
on account of the United States.
Article 7th is suggested by the respect due to the rights of the
people inhabiting the ceded territory, and by the delay which may
be found in constituting tliem a regular and integral portion of the
Union. A full respect for their rights might require their consent
to the act of cession; and if the French government should be dis
posed to concur in any proper mode of obtaining it, the provision
would be honourable to both nations. There is no doubt that the
inhabitants would readily agree to the proposed transfer of their
allegiance. It is hoped that the idea of a guarantee of the country reserved
to France, may not be brought into the negotiation. Should France
propose such a stipulation, it will be expedient to evade it, if possi
ble, as more likely to be a source of disagreeable questions between
the parties concerning the actual casus foederis than of real ad
vantage to France. It is not in the least probable that Louisiana,
in the hands of that nation, will be attacked by any other, whilst
it is in the relations to the United States, on which the guarantee
would be founded; whereas nothing is more probable than some
difference of opinion as to the circumstances and the degree of
danger necessary to put the stipulations in force, There will be
less reason in the demand of such an article, as the United States
would set little value on a guarantee of any part of their territory,
and, consequently, there would be no just reciprocity in it. Should
France, notwithstanding these considerations, make a guarantee an
essential point, it will be better to accede to it than to abandon the
object of the negotiation; mitigating the evil as much as possible,
by requiring for tfie casus foederis a great and manifest danger
threatened to the territory guarantied, and by substituting for an
indefinite succour, or even a definite succour, in military force, a
-fixed sum of money payable at the treasury of the United States.
It is difficult to narae the proper sura, which is in no posture of the
business to be exceeded, but it can scarcely be presumed that more
than about  dollars, to be paid annually, during the existence
of the danger, will be insisted on.

444 APPENDIX.
Should it be unavoidable to stipulate troops in place of money, it
will be prudent to settle the details with as much precision as pos
sible, that there be no room for controversy, either with France or
with her eneray, on the fulfilraent of the stipulation.
The instructions thus far given, suppose that France may be will
ing to cede to the United States the whole of the island of New
Orleans, and both the Floridas. As she may be inclined to dispose
of a part or parts, and of such only, it is proper for you to know
that the Florida^ together, are estiraated at one-fourth the value
of the whole island of New Orleans, and East Florida at half that
of West Florida. In case of a partial cession, it is expected that
the regulations of every other kind, so far as they are onerous to
the United States, will be more favourably modified.
Should France refuse to cede the whole of the island, as large.a
portion as she can be prevailed on to part with may be accepted;
should no considerable portion of it be attainable, it will still be of
vast importance to get a jurisdiction over space enough for a large
commercial town and its appurtenances, on the bank of the river,
and as little remote from the mouth of the river as may be. A right
to choose the place would be better than a designation of it in the
treaty. Should it be impossible to procure a complete jurisdiction
over any convenient spot whatever, it will only remain to explain
and improve the present right of deposite, by adding thereto the
express privilege of holding real estate for coraraercial purposes, of
providing hospitals, of having consuls residing there, and other
agents, who may be authorized to authenticate and deliver all do
cuments requisite for vessels, belonging to and engaged in the
trade of the United States, to and from the place of deposite. The
United States cannot remain satisfied, nor the western people be
kept patient under the restrictions which the existing treaty with
Spain authorizes.
Should a cession of the Floridas not be attainable, your attention
will also be due to the establishment of suitable deposites at the
mouths of the rivers, passing from the United States through the
Floridas, as well as of the free navigation of those rivers by citi
zens of the United States. What has been above suggested in re
lation to the Mississippi, and the deposite on its banks, is applica
ble to the other rivers; and additional hints relative to them all raay
be derived frora the letter, of which a copy is enclosed from the
consul at New Orleans.
It has been long manifest, that, whilst the injuries to the United

APPENDI.V. 145
States, so frequently occurring from the colonial officers, scattered
over our hemisphere, and in our neighbourhood, can only be repaired
by a resort to their respective governments in Eui-ope, that it will
be impossible to guard against the most serious inconveniences.
The late events at New Orleans strongly manifest the necessity of
placing a power somewhere nearer to us, capable of correcting and
controlling the mischievous proceedings of such (^cers towards our
citizens, without which a few individuals, not always among the
wisest or best of men, may at any time threaten the good under
standing of the two nations. The distance between the United
States and the old continent, and the mortifying delays of explana
tions and negotiations across the Atlantic, on emergencies in our
neighbourhood, render such a provision indispensable, and it cannot
be long before all the governments of Europe, having American co
lonies, must see the necessity of making it. This object, therefore,
will likewise claim your special attention.
It only remains to suggest, that, considering the possibility of
some intermediate violences between citizens of the United States
and the French or Spaniards in consequence of the interruption of
our right of deposite, and the probability that considerable damages
will have been occasioned by that measure to citizens of the United
States, it will be proper that indemnification in the latter case be
provided for, and that in the former it shall not be taken on either
side as a ground Jir pretext for hostilities.
These instructions, though as full as they could be conveniently
made, will necessarily leave much to your, discretion. For the pro
per exercise of it, the president relies on your information, your
judgment, and your fidelity to the interests of your country.
JAMES MADISON.

Mr. Madison, Secretary of State of the United States, to Messrs.
Livingston and Monroe, dated April, 18, 1803.
[extract.]
A month having elapsed since the departure of Mr. Monroe, it
may be presumed that by the time this reaches you, communica
tions will have passed with the French government sufficiently ex
plaining its views towards the United States and preparing tlte way
for. the ulterior instructions which the president thinks proper should
now be given.

446 APPENDIX.
In case a conventional arrangement with France should have, re
sulted from the negotiations with which you are charged : or in case
such should not have been the result; but no doubt should be left
that the French government means to respect duly our rights, and
to cultivate, sincerely, peace and friendship with the United States,
it will be expedient for you to make such communications to the
British government as will assure it that nothing has been done in
consistent with our good faith, and as will prevent a diminution of
the good understanding which subsists between the two countries.
If the French government, instead of friendly arrangements or
views, should be found to meditate hostilities, or to have formed
projects which will constrain the United States to resort to hostilities,
such communications are then to be held with the British govern
ment as will sound its dispositions and invite its concurrence in the
war. Your own prudence will suggest that the communications be
so made, as, on one hand, not to precipitate France into hostile ope
rations, and, on the other, not to lead Great Britain from the sup
position that war depends on the choice of the United States, and
that their choice of war will depeiid on her participation in it. If
war is to be the result, it is manifestly desirable that it be delayed
until the certainty of this result can be known, and the legislative
and other provisions can be made here; and also of great importance
that the certainty should not be known to Great Britain, who might
take advantage of the posture of tilings to press on the United States
disagreeable conditions of her entering into the war.
It will probably be most convenient in exchanging ideas with the
British government, to make use of its public minister at Paris;
as less likely to alarm and stimulate the French government, and
to raise the pretensions of the British government, than the repair
ing of either of you to London, which might be viewed by both as
a signal of rupture. The latter course, however, may possibly be
rendered most eligible by the pressure of the crisis.
Notwithstanding the just repugnance of this country to a coali
tion of any sort with the belligerent policies of Europe, the advan
tages to be derived from the co-operation of Great Britain in a war
of the United States, at this period, against France and her allies,
are too obvious and too important to be renounced. And notwith
standing the apparent disinclination of the British councils to a re
newal of hostilities with France, it will probably yield to the vari
ous motives which will be felt to have the United States in the scale
of Britain against France, and particularly for the immediate pur-

\PPENDIX. ^147
pose of defeating a project of the latter, which has evidently created
much solicitude in the British governraent.
The price which she may attach to her co-operation cannot be
foreseen, and therefore cannot be the subject of full and precise in
structions. It may be expected tliat she will insist at least on a
stipulation, that neither of the parties shall make a peace or truce
without the consent of the other; and as such an article cannot be
deemed unreasonable, and will secure us against the possibility of
her being detached in the course of the war, by seducing overtures
from France, it will not be proper to raise difficulties on that account.
It raay be useful, however, to draw from her a definition, as far as
the case will admit, of the objects contemplated by her, that when
ever with ours they may be attainable, by peace, she may be duly
pressed to listen to it. Such an explanation will be the more rea
sonable, as the objects of the United States will be so fair and so
well known.
It is equally probable that a stipulation of commercial advan
tages in the Mississippi, beyond those secured by existing treaties,
will be required. On this point it may be answered at once, that
Great Britain shall enjoy a free trade with all the ports to be ac
quired by the United States on the terms allowed to the most fa
voured nation in the ports generally of the United States. If raade
an essential condition, you may admit that in the ports to be ac
quired within the Mississippi, the trade of her subjects shall be on
the same footing for a term of about ten years with that of our own
citizens. But the United States are not to be bound to the exclu
sion of the trade of any particular nation or nations.
Should a mutual guarantee of the existing possessions or of the
conquests to be made by the parties be proposed, it must be expli
citly rejected, as of no value to the United States, and as entan
gling them in the frequent wars of that nation with other powers,
and very possibly in disputes with that nation itself.
The anxiety which Great Britain has. shown to extend her do
main to the Mississippi, the uncertain extent of her clairas, from
north to south, beyond the western liraits of the United States, and
the attention she had paid to the north-west coast of America, make
it probable that she will connect with a war on this occasion a pre
tension to the acquisition of the country on the west side of the
Mississippi, understood to be ceded by Spain to France, or at least
of that portion of it lying between that river and the Missouri.
The evils involved in such an extension of her possessions in our

448 APPENDIX.
neighbourhood, and in such a hold on the Mississippi, are obvious.
The acquisition is the more objectionable, as it would be extreme
ly displeasing to our western citizens: and as its evident bearing
on South America might be expected to arouse all the jealousies of
France and Spain, and to prolong the war on which the event would
depend. Should this pretension, therefore, be pressed, it must be
resisted as altogether repugnant to the sentiments and the sound
policy of the United States. But it may be agreed, in alleviation
of any disappointment of Great Britain, that France shall not be
allowed to retain or acquire any part of the territory from which
she herself would be precluded.
The moment the prospect of war shall require the precaution,
you will not omit to give confidential notice to our ministers and
consuls, and to our naval commanders in the Mediterranean, that
our coramerce and public ships may be as little exposed to the dan
ger as possible. It may, under certain circumstances, be proper to
notify the danger immediately to the collectors in the principal
ports of the United States.
Herewith enclosed, are two blank plenipotentiary commissions
and letters of credence to the French and British governments.
Those for the British government are to be filled with the name of
Mr. Monroe, unless his mission to France should have an issue
likely to be disagreeable to Great Britain; in which case the presi
dent would wish Mr, Livingston's inserted, if the translation be
not disagreeable to him, and the name of Mr. Monroe inserted in
the commission for th,e French republic. To provide for the event
of Mr. Livingston's translation, a letter of leave is enclosed.
A separate letter to you is also enclosed, authorizing you to en
ter into such comraunications and conferences with British minis
ters as may possibly be required by the conduct of France. The
letter is made a separate one, that it may be used with the effect,
but without the formality of a commission. It is hoped that sound
calculations of interest, as well as a sense of right, in the French
government will prevent the necessity of using the authority .ex
pressed in this letter. In a contrary state of things the president
relies on your own information to be gained on the spot, and on
your best discretion, to open with advantage the communications
with the British government, and to proportion the degree of an un
derstanding with it, to the indications of an approaching war with
France, Of these indications also, you will be best able to judge.
It will only be observed to you, that if France should avow or evince

APPENDIX,

449

a determination to deny to the United States the free navigation
of the Mississippi, your consultations with Great Britain may be
held, on the ground that war is inevitable. Should the navigation
not be disputed, and the deposite alone be denied, it will be pru
dent to adopt your consultations to the possibility that congress
may distinguish between the two cases, and make a question how
far the latter right may call for an instant resort to arms, or how
far a procrastinatron of that remedy may be suggested and justified
by the prospect of a more favourable conjuncture,
Tliese instructions have thus far supposed that Great Britain and
France are at peace, and that neither of them at present intend
to interrupt it. Should war have actually commenced, or its ap
proach be certain, France will no doubt be the raore apt to concur
in friendly accommodations with us, and Great Britain the more
desirous of engaging us on her side. You will of course avail your
selves of this posture of things for avoiding the necessity of recur
ring to Great Britain, or if the necessity cannot be avoided for fa
shioning her disposition to arrangements vfhich raay be the least in
convenient to the United States: whatever connexion, indeed, may
be eventually formed with Great Britain, in reference to war, the
policy of the United States requires that it be as little entangling
as the nature of the case will permit.

Messrs. Livingston and Monroe, to Mr. Madison, Secretary of
State of the United States, dated May 13, 1803.
[extract.]
We have the pleasure to transmit to you by M. D'Erieux, a
treaty which we have concluded with the French republic for the
purchase and cession of Louisiana. The negotiation of this impor
tant object was committed, on the part of France, to M. Marbois,
minister of the treasury, whose conduct therein has already re
ceived the sanction of his governnient, as appears by the ratifica
tion of the first consul, which we have also the pleasure to forward
to you.
Our acquisition of so great an extent was, we well know, not
contemplated by our appointment; but we are persuaded that the
circumstances and considerations which induced us to make it, will
justify us in the measure to our government and country.

450 APPENDIX,
Before the negotiation coihmenced, we were apprized that the
first consul had decided to offer to the United States, by sale, the
whole of Louisiana, and not a part of it. We found in the outset ,
that this information was correct; so that we had to decide as a
previous question whether we would treat for the whole, or jeopar
dize, if not abandon the hope of acquiring any part. On that point,
we did not long hesitate, but proceeded to treat for the whole.
We were persuaded that, by so doing, it might be possible, if more
desirable, to conclude eventually a treaty for ai part, since being
thus possessed of the subject, it might be easy, in discussion, at
least, to lead from a view of the whole to that of a part, and with
some advantages peculiar to a negotiation on so great a scale. By
treating for the whole, whereby we should be enabled to ascertain
the idea which was entertained by this government of its value; we
should also be able to forra sorae estiraate of that which was affixed
to the value of its parts. It was, too, probable that a less sum
would be asked for the whole, if sold entire to a single purchaser,
a friendly power who was able to pay for it, and whora it might be
disposed to accommodate at the present juncture, than if it should
be sold in parcels, either to several powers or companies of indivi
duals: it was equally so, if this government should be finally pre
vailed on to sell us a part, that some regard would be paid in the
price asked for it, to that which was demanded for the whole; last
ly, by treating for the whole, whereby the attention of this govern
ment would be drawn to the United States as the sole purchasers,
we might prevent the interference of other powers, as also that of
individuals, which might prove equally injurious in regard to the
price asked for it, whether we acquired the whole or any part of
the territory. We found, however, as we advanced in the negotia
tion, that M. Marbois was absolutely restricted to the disposition of
the whole; that he would treat for no less portion, and of course
that it was useless to urge it. On mature consideration, therefore,
we finally concluded a treaty on the best terms we could obtain for
the whole.
By this measure, we have sought to carry into effect to the ut
termost of our power, the wise and benevolent policy of our go
vernment, on the principles laid down in our instructions. The
possession of the left bank of the river, had it been attainable alone,
would, it is true, have accomplished much in that respect; but it
is equally true that it would have left much still to accomplish.
By it our people would have had an outlet to the ocean, in which
no power would have a right to disturb them; but while the other

APPENDIX. 451
bank remained in the possession of a foreign power, circumstances
might occur to make the neighbourhood of such power highly inju
rious to us in raany of our most important concerns. A divided
jurisdiction over the river might beget jealousies, discontents, and
dissensions, which the wisest policy on our part could not prevent
or control. With a train of colonial governments established along
the western bank, from the entrance of the river, far into the inte
rior, under the command of military men, it would be difficult to
preserve that state of things which would be necessary to the peace
and tranquillity of our country. A single act of a capricious, un
friendly, or unprincipled subaltern might wound our best interests,
violate our most unquestionable rights, and involve us in war. But,
by this acquisition, which comprises within our limits this great ri
ver and all the streams that empty into it, frora their sources to the
ocean, the apprehensions of these disasters is banished for ages from
the United States. We adjust by it the only remaining known
cause of variance with this very powerful nation: we anticipate the
discontent of the great rival of France, who would probably have
been wounded at any stipulation of a perraanen.t nature which fa
voured the latter, and which it would have been difficult to avoid,
had she retained the right bank. We cease to have a motive of
urgency, at least for inclining to one power, to avert the unjust
pressure of another. We separate ourselves in a great measure
from the European world and its concerns, especially its wars and
intrigues; we make, in fine, a great stride to real and substantial
independence, the good effect whereof will, we trust, be felt essen
tially and extensively in all our foreign and domestic relations.
Without exciting the apprehensions of any power, we take a more
imposing attitude with respect to all. The bond of our union will
he strengthened, and its movements become more harmonious by
the increased parity of interest which it will comraunicate to the
several parts which compose it.
In deliberating on this subject in a financial view, we were
strongly impressed with the idea, that while we had only a right of
deposite, or, indeed, while the right bank remained in the possession
of a foreign power, it was always to be expected that we should, at
some time' or other, be involved in war on questions resulting from
that cause. We were *ell satisfied that any war would cost us
more than hereby is stipulated to be given for this territory; that
none could produce a raore favourable result, while it might, espe-

4.52 APPENDIX.
cially in the present disturbed state of the world, prove the ruin of
our affairs.
There were other considerations which, though of minor im
portance, had, nevertheless, their due weight in our decision on
this great question. If France, or any other power holding the
right bank of the river, imposed lighter duties than comport with
the revenue system of the United States, supposing even that we
had acquired the left bank, all the supplies destined for our exten
sive and populous settlements, on the other side, would be smug
gled in through that channel, and our revenue therebyconsiderably
diminished. Should such power open offices for the sale of lands
on the western bank, our population might be drained to the advan
tage of that power, the price of our lands be diminished, and their
sale prevented. But by the possession of both banks, these evils
are averted.
The terms on which we have made this acquisition, when com
pared with the objects obtained by it, will, we flatter ourselves, be
deemed advantageous to our country. We have stipulated, as you
will see by the treaty and conventions, that the United States shall
pay to the French governraent sixty millions of francs, in stock,
bearing an interest of six per cent, and a sum not exceeding twen
ty millions raore to our citizens in discharge of the debts due to
them by France, under the convention of 1800; and also to exempt
the manufactures, productions, and vessels of France and Spain,
in the direct trade from those countries, respectively in the ports
of the ceded territory, from foreign duties for the term of twelve
years. The stock is to be created irredeemable for fifteen years,
and discharged afterwards in equal annual instalments: the inte
rest on it is to be paid in Europe, and the principal, in case this
governraent thinks proper to sell it, disposed of in such manner
as will be most conducive to the credit of the American funds.
The debts due to our citizens are to be discharged by drafts on our
treasury. We omit a more minute view of the stipulations of
these instruments, since, as you will possess them,' it is unneces
sary. Louisiana was acquired of Spain by France in exchange for Tus
cany, which latter is settled by treaty on the son-in-law of the
king of Spain, with the title of king of Etruria, and was estimated
in the exchange, in consideration of its revenue, at 100,000,000
francs. The first consul thought he had made an advantageous

APPPNDi.v. 453
bargain in that exchange, as appears by the high idea-which he en
tertained of its value, as shown on raany occasions. Louisiana was
the territory which he promised in his proclamation at the peace as
an asylum to those who had becorae unfortunate by the revolution,
and which he spoke of as vast and fertile. When he made up his
mind to offer the cession of it to the United States, it was contem
plated to ask for it 100,000,000, exclusive of the debts they owed
to our citizens, which they proposed we should also pay, with a per
petual exemption from foreign duties on the manufactures, produc
tions, and vessels of France and Spain, in the ports of the ceded
territory. From that demand, however, in respect to the sum, he
receded, under the deliberation of his own cabinet, for the first
proposition which M. Marbois made to us, was, that we should pay
eighty millions, sixty of which in cash, the balance to our citizens,
the whole in one year in Paris, with a perpetual exemption from fo
reign duties, as above. The modification in the mode of payment,
that is by stock, for from the quantum he never would depart, and
the limitation of the term of the duties to twelve years, with the
proviso annexed to it, which was introduced into the treaty with
every other change from his project, was the effect of negotiation
and accommodation, in which we experienced on his part and that
of his government, a promptitude and candour which were highly
grateful to us.
In estimating the real value of this country to the United States,
a variety of considerations occur, all of which merit due atten
tion. Of these we have already noticed many of a general na
ture, to wliich, however, it may be difficult to fix a precise value.
Others present themselves of a nature more definite, to which it
will be more practicable to fix some standard. By possessing both
banks, the whole revenue or duty on imports will accrue to the
United States, which raust be considerable. The value of the ex
ports, we have understood, was last year four millions of dollars.
If a portion only of the imports pass through that channel, as un
der our government we presume they will, the amount of the re
venue will be considerable. This will annually increase in propor
tion as the population and productions in that quarter do. The va
lue of the lands, in the province of Louisiana, amounting to some
hundred millions of acres of the best quality, and in the best cli
mate, is, perhaps, incalculable. From either of these sources, it is
not doubted that the sum stipulated may be raised in time to dis
charge the debt.

454 APPENDIX.

No, 19,
The following letter is taken from the same congressional docu
ment as the papers in No. 18. — Transl.

Mr. Livingston to Mr. Madison, Secretary of State of the United
States, dated Paris, 20th May, 1803.
[extract.]
I called this morning upon M. Marbois for a farther explana
tion on this subject, (the cession of Louisiana,) and to remind him
of his having told me that Mobile made a part of the cession. He
told me that he had no precise idea on the subject, but that he knew
it to be an historical fact, and on that only he had formed his opi
nion, I asked him what orders had been given to the prefect that
was to take possession, or what orders had been given by Spain as
to the boundary in ceding it. He assured me that he did not know,
but that he would make the inquiry and let me know. At four
o'clock I called for Mr. Monroe to take him to the minister for fo
reign affairs, but he was prevented from accompanying rae. I asked
the minister what were the last bounds of the territory ceded to us;
he said he did not know; we raust take it as they had received it.
I asked him how Spain meant to give them possession; he said ac
cording to the words of the treaty. But where did you me.an to
take ? I do not know. Then you mean that we shall construe it
our own way ? I can give you no direction; you have made a no
ble bargain for yourselves, and I suppose you will make the most
of it.

No, 20,

Table of the Purchase and Sales of the Public Lands, from the 4th of July, 1776, to the 31st of December, 1825, ex
tracted from Watterston and Van Zandfs " Tabular Statistical TfeiZes,"— Transl.

Ohio 
Indiana . . .
Illinois . . .
Michigan. .
Missouri . .
Arkansas. .
Louisiana .
Mississippi.Alabama . .
Florida . . .

Expenses .of Iudi-|
an treaties from
July 4, 1776, to
Januaiy 1, 1827.

Quantity of land
purchased by the
United States.

3,868,379,52

Acres.
24,388,745,80 16,060,036,70
29,517,262,62 17,561,470,00
39,119,018,8933,661,120,0031,463,040,00 14,188,454,0024,482,159,8."31,254,120,00

Expenses of surveying public
lands, and salaries of surveyors,
&c.

Salaries.

Expenses of
surveying.

Expenses of
selling pub
lic lands.

DoUaj-s.
498,434,48 169,070,17103,848,75 19,990,2966,475,11 7,499,60
20,451,6280,176,37
186,776,91 2,228,54

$3,868,379,52 261,695,427,84 $251,852,45 §1,912,515,97 1,154,951.84 19,239,412,03 40,351,880,19 213,591,960,0917,707,085,75

Nett amount of sales, deducting
lands relinquished.

Acres.
8,778,715,35
3,068,868,42 1,222,442,25 291,839,28980,372,41 39,177,61
150,375,67
1,155,562,28
3,496,369,68 55,689,08

Dollars.
16,235,123,75 5,611,197,32 1,729,145,58 416,096,07
1,971,217,84 49,115,90
265,907,22
2,220,132,81
11,763,351,88 90,591,92

Quantity of land
remaining unsold
1st January, 1826.

Acres.
6,191,927,53
12,131,461,90
24,161,662,93 16,600,554,26
35,522,350,6931,441,309,31 25,392,602,67 11,643,275,05
20,268,863,58 30,237,952,17

Lands appropri
ated for col
leges and
schools.

Acres.
746,585,16 492,192,13 866,003,96 510,858,61
1,132,719,41 958,071,11920,061,66 440,203,72
726,139,99 914,250,00

Quantity of land appropriated as
military bounty lands, for private
claims and special donations.

Purchase of Louisiana.

Paid state of Georgia and Yazoo-
scrip.

Florida Treaty.

Quantity of unceded land north and
west of states and territories.

Acres.
21,593,749,84

Dollars.
15,000,000

Dollars.
6,200,000

Dollars.
50,000,000

Acres.
750,000,000

ERRATA.

OwiK-G to the absence of the Ti-anslator from the place of publication, a num
ber of tj^ographical inaccuracies ^vill be found in this work; most of which,
it is believed, are pointed out in the following^ hst: —
Page 150, line 27, add comma ( , ) after perpetual.
" 161, line IB, for rt read jAff.
» 105, last line, dele t/iey.
" 1 66, line 1 6, for disarmed read unarmed.
« 182, line 12, for o/" read «o.
" 184, line 18, add on after tframn.
" 196, line 11, dele/or.
" 207, line 16, for forsee read foi'esee.
" 216, !a5t line, for estaklisking read establish..
« 232, line 4, for depends read depend.
*' 266, line 12, for c/tances rve tviU read chance
Tpe shall.
»• 271, line 5, for otir read over^ and add to be
fore the.
« 287, line 15 of note, for that read in -which.
•* 306, line 16 of note, for appears read appear.
" 309, line 20, for which read who.
" 322, line 2, for enormity read tnormousnesa.
« 347, line ^^ for stagnate le&d staenant.
" 348, line 9,forflni/reado/:
" 349, line 25, for arises read arise.
" 355, line 3,{orthattheypos3essedreadivhich they possess.
« 369, line 29, for ^Aflf read w/iwi.
" 375, line 26, tor vengeance of read vengeance

Pae:e 19, line 7, for It xvas read It is.
" 24, line 4, for catastrophies read catastro-
phe%.
*' 26, line 23, for Adams read Adamses*
** 29, line 1, for permit read cause.
*' 29, line 17, for efforts read exertions*
*' 30, line 10, for in leadyroTTi.
*' 47, line 14, for dratlis read death,
" 48, line 28, for citizens read citizen,
*' 60, line 9, for would Jind read should Jind.
*' 61, line 20, for JumonvUle read Jumonvilles.
*' 73, note, fur Columbus read Columbicu
'* 79, line 29, for Jesuifs read Jesuits''-
" 89, line 9, for (Aij read fAo?-
« 105, line 1, for the read arry. .
" 106, line 6, for Purd'homme read Prua-
'Aommc.
" 114, transpose marks of quotation ( " J from
tine \S to 28.
*' 116, line 6. add of after foundation.
** 131, line 17, for M numerous read JO nwnic-
»* i31, line 17, for or as read nor so.
" 142, line 9, for fiy read /&r.
» 146, line 10, for 1778 read 1788.

ill