CHAPTER XIV.

THE SETTLEMENT OF THE YAZOO CLAIMS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI-TER PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA FROM FRANCE-LETTER OF MR. JEFFERSON ON THE SUBJECT TO GENERAL GATES—REPEAL OF THE BANKRUPT LAW—MR. JEFFERSON'S VIEWS ON THE UNITED STATES BANK-DEATH OF MRS EPPES-MR. JEFFERSON'S GUN-BOAT SYSTEM-RESULTS OF BIS FIRST ADMINISTRATION—MR. JEFFERSON'S MOTIVES AND EXCUSES FOR A SECOND ELECTION HIS LETTER TO ALEXANDER I., CZAR OF RUSSIA.

AN important measure connected with the administration in 1803, was the passage of a law which provided for the settlement of various claims to lands located in that vast tract of country extending from the western borders of South Carolina and Georgia to the Mississippi River. This country now constitutes the States of Alabama and Mississippi. Until the year 1803, the title of the Indians to this territory remained undisputed. Then South Carolina demanded that portion of it lying along the southern boundary of Tennessee, by virtue of her original charter. Georgia also claimed the whole of it, under her own charter. The United States afterward became the claimant, by the right of conquest and the treaty of peace.

Commissioners had been appointed by the United

States to adjust the claim with Georgia, and also to satisfy the demands of the settlers. Some of the latter held their titles from grants made by the State of Georgia, and some from grants obtained from the United States. The former claimants endeavored to obtain a recognition and settlement of their rights from the United States, and were known by the epithet of the Yazoos. The greatest foe of these claimants was John Randolph of Roanoke, who rendered himself celebrated by his fierce, powerful, and sarcastic eloquence against their demands. The conflict raged during eleven years, until at length it was finally settled in 1814, on the recommendation made by the commissioners, by the purchase of the rights of the Yazoo claimants by the United States for five millions of dollars.

The negotiation with France for the purchase of Louisiana was attended with equal and more immediate success. The American ministers in Paris not only succeeded in negotiating for New Orleans and the Floridas, but were able to effect a purchase of the whole of Louisiana, which contained a territory equal in extent to the whole previous territorial possessions of the United States.

By this treaty of purchase eleven millions, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars were to be paid to France, in six per cent. stock, three months after

the delivery of the possession of the country; and certain claims held by American citizens against France, which were about equal to three and a half millions, were to be assumed by the United States. This territory was to be admitted to the confederacy as soon as it complied with the requirements of the Constitution. This acquired territory contained about a million of square miles, and had about ninety thousand civilized inhabitants in addition to the savages who still roamed over it.

Mr. Jefferson was highly gratified at the conclusion of this treaty. It completed the supremacy of the United States throughout the southern peninsula, and gave compactness and unity to the territorial confines of the confederacy. In a letter to General Gates, he thus refers to this subject. It is dated at Washington, July 11, 1803.

DEAR GENERAL: I accept with pleasure, and with pleasure reciprocate your congratulations on the acquisition of Louisiana; for it is a subject of mutual congratulation, as it interests every man of the nation. The territory acquired, as it includes all the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi, has more than doubled the area of the United States, and the new part is not inferior to the old in soil, climate, productions, and important communications. If our

legislature dispose of it with the wisdom we have a right to expect, they may make it the means of tempting all our Indians on the east side of the Mississippi to remove to the West, and of condensing instead of scattering our population. I find our opposition is very willing to pluck feathers from Monroe, although not fond of sticking them into Livingston's coat. The truth is, both have a just portion of merit; and were it necessary, or proper, it would be shown that each has rendered peculiar services."

In another letter to Judge Breckenridge, he thus follows up his ideas of exultation at this bright achievement of his administration :-" Objections are raising to the eastward against the vast extent of our boundaries, and propositions are made to exchange Louisiana, or a part of it, for the Floridas. But, as I have said, we shall get the Floridas without, and I would not give one inch of the waters of the Mississippi to any nation; because I see, in a light very important to our peace, the exclusive right to its navigation, and the admission of no nation into it, but as into the Potomac or Delaware, with our consent and under our police. These federalists see in this acquisition the formation of a new confederacy, embracing all the waters of the

Mississippi, on both sides of it, and a separation of its eastern waters from us."

One of the virtues of the character of Mr. Jefferson, consisted in the simplicity of his mind, which influenced him to avoid ostentation, pomp, ceremony and vain parade, and inclined him to give a preference to every mode of performing an action which combined the greatest convenience, and involved the least display. An application having been made to him by some of the citizens of Boston, in August, 1803, to ascertain the date of his birth, in order to celebrate his birthday, he declined to communicate the information in a letter to Levi Lincoln, couched in the following words: "With respect to the day on which they wish to fix their anniversary, they may be told, that disapproving myself of transferring the honors and veneration for the great birthday of our republic to any individual, or of dividing them with individuals, I have declined letting my own birthday be known, and have engaged my family not to communicate it. This has been the uniform answer to every application of the kind.”

Another noteworthy feature of the first administration of Mr. Jefferson was the repeal of the bankrupt law which had been first enacted in one of the late years of Mr. Adams' administration. This law, which had authorized the discharge of a