1803. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. June 1. 49 and Spain, as it now became evident, having made scarcely more than a retrocession of the Louisiana province with the same extent that it had when France formerly possessed it, East Florida could not pass to the United States. Monroe and Livingston believed that West Florida was included in the purchase; but though we surely compassed the entire Mississippi, there remained some dispute concerning the precise southeastern limit of Louisiana, the American claim extending to the Rio Perdido between Mobile and Pensacola. On the west our boundaries were likewise uncertain; information as to the interior country was uncertain, but the western basin of the Mississippi would be included and the Rio del Norte was thought to be the south western boundary. There were in fact nearly 900,000 square miles in this territory; more than the whole domain of the old thirteen States. The Louisiana cession taken in connection with earlier and later American discoveries about the Oregon broadened our belt of territory to the Pacific Ocean, and gave to this Union a conclusive advantage in any border controversies with other powers, which might ultimately grow out of the present bargain. Before the bargain was made Livingston once asked Marbois whether the Floridas were included in the Louisiana cession, and the latter replied that he believed not, but that Mobile (or West Florida) was. After its conclusion, however, Talleyrand was found non-committal on this point. "You get," he said, “all that France had by Idelfonso; it is a great bargain."* Monroe intended, in conjunction with Minister Pinckney, to arrange for a purchase of the Floridas from Spain and thus gain a clear title; but the time was unpropitious, and he ac * Monroe Correspondence, 1803. †The claim of title by which Louisiana was derived from France may be stated as follows: Louisiana was settled and discovered by the French, including the Mobile settlement. By a secret convention, November 3d, 1762, under stress of the colonial war with Great Britain, the French government ceded so much of the province as lay beyond the Mississippi, together with New Orleans (and so perhaps as to include West Florida), to Spain; and by treaty of peace in 1763 the whole territory of France and Spain eastward of the middle of the Mississippi to the Iberville, thence through the middle of that river and the lakes VOL. II.-5 August. cordingly proceeded to London, whither he had been accredited in place of King, who had now resigned, under advice of his Federal friends, in order not to lay himself under personal obligations by receiving the favors of a Republican President. Napoleon, up to the last moment of Monroe's departure, treated him at various interviews with great cordiality, seeking to impress his government with a sense of gratitude. He had not ceded Louisiana, he said, so much for money as from motives of policy and friendship. "My good wishes to your President and yourself," were his last words. You must not give your flag to Great Britain."* June 24. Nov. The news of the purchase of Louisiana was officially communicated to the American press, and the President convened both Houses of Congress by proclamation at an earlier day than usual. Congress and the country were in Oct. 17. glad accord. The Senate ratified the treaty in two days by a vote of 24 to 7. The House, having organized promptly by the re-election of Macon to the speakership, originated a bill which provided for executing the treaty; and this was carried in both Houses by immense majorities. Ratifications were exchanged at Washington, Pichon representing the French nation; after which the President empowered Governor Claiborne, of the Mississippi TerMaurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea, was ceded to Great Britain. Spain having conquered the Floridas from Great Britain during our Revolution, they were confirmed to her by the treaty of 1783. By a treaty of St. Idelfonso, October 1st, 1800, Spain promised to cede back to France, six months after certain stipulations relating to the Duke of Parma should be fulfilled, "the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it actually has in the hands of Spain, 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." This treaty was confirmed by that of Madrid, March 22d, 1801. France ceded to the United States, April 30th, 1803, with reference to the above clause as descriptive of the limits ceded. Spain's Louisiana province had many divisions, such as Mobile, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, etc. See Congressional Docs., November, 1803. * Monroe Correspondence, 1803. + See Act November 10th, 1803, passed in the House by 89 to 23; and in the Senate by 26 to 5. See also Act October 31st, 1803. 1803. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 51 ritory, in conjunction with General Wilkinson, who commanded the United States troops on the Western frontier, to receive possession of Louisiana from the French prefect, Laussat. New Orleans was formally delivered to the United States on the 20th of December, the Spanish commissioners having previously made transfer to Laussat; and Claiborne assumed government of the new territory on the same day. The upper posts of the Mississippi were Jan. 1804. surrendered soon after. Dec. 20. Aug. 1803. Wilkinson's orders had been, in case obstruction was offered to the transfer of New Orleans, to take summary possession. Spain, in fact, had seriously remonstrated against the cession of Louisiana to the United States. Her main objections, as formally stated to our government, were that France had solemnly promised not to alienate the territory to another nation, and that the First Consul had not executed the conditions of the treaty of cession. To this Madison responded that France and Spain would settle their private controversy together; that since our title was derived from the First Consul we did not doubt his warranty was good. One serious doubt in Jefferson's mind was the constitutionality of thus extending the area of the United States. As a strict constructionist, he considered that our fundamental charter made no provision for acquiring new territory, still less for incorporating foreign nations with the Union at discretion. But Spain's opposition, and rumors, besides, that France had already repented of the bargain, determined him in favor of the most instant and explicit consummation; after which he thought appeal might be made to the nation for a suitable amendment to the Constitution. Ultimately, however, he yielded his judgment in favor of the looser constitutional construction advocated by Gallatin and others among his advisers. The right of territorial expansion on this continent, coupled with an equal participation by the annexed people in fundamental American rights, dangerous though such a doc * See Adams's Gallatin. trine may be if pushed far, has since been firmly grafted upon the Constitution in practice, as incidental to the powers originally conferred by that instrument.* The main business which brought the Eighth Congress together so early having been thus satisfactorily dispatched before the end of the year, we may now observe its membership at leisure. Both branches are friendly to the administration by immense majorities; the Senate standing, perhaps, 25 to 9, and the House 100 to 39. Not all of the Federalists even are determined opponents of the President's policy. New England furnishes the pith and marrow of the opposition. Now that Bayard has disappeared, Connecticut leads on that side in the House, no abler Federalists appearing than Griswold and Dana. But in the Senate it is Massachusetts; Tracy and Hillhouse being overshadowed by John Quincy Adams and Pickering, both marked men, newly chosen by the Massachusetts legislature to fill vacancies, as a solace for defeat in running for the House; each, however, suspicious of the other. Young Adams displays the family trait of political independence, on the Louisiana question; while Pickering, in forcing * If equal participation in fundamental rights be an inseparable incident of annexation, and not the mere wording of particular treaties, this right of indefinite expansion may prove more troublesome in the future than in the past of the United States. The general system of our federo-national Union, as in the case of creating new States, is certainly hostile to the notion of holding acquired territory in the permanent condition of a conquered province, its citizens having inferior rights. In other words, if we conquer enemies we incorporate enemies. We may further remark, that in every case of annexation thus far, excepting that of Alaska, with its trivial population, the annexation permitted under the original provisions of our Constitution has been the annexation of territory adjacent to the United States. It ought not to be readily granted that the present Constitution permits distant and populous countries to be thus added; as, for instance, should Spain, Italy, Japan, Paraguay, or perhaps, the West Indies fall into our hands. See John Quincy Adams's Memoirs; Pickering's Life. Pickering appears to have been jealous of the preference which accorded to the late President's son the earlier Senatorial vacancy. He failed to sustain his colleague on early measures of this Congress. We may trace this hostility to the Cabinet quarrel of John Adams's administration. 1804. THE EIGHTH CONGRESS. 53 the stream up hill shows the iron endurance of a hydraulic ram with somewhat of the same incessant play. The variable Dayton, of New Jersey, and the moderate Plumer, of New Hampshire, are also of the Federal Senators. De Witt Clinton on the Republican side leaves the Senate soon after Congress assembles, to become mayor of New York; Edward Livingston, the former incumbent, being a public defaulter in his districtattorneyship. More than half the House are new members. Matthew Lyon now represents a Kentucky district. Varnum and Eustis, of Massachusetts, are administration men of experience. Two new Republicans from Virginia are Jefferson's sons-in-law, Thomas M. Randolph and Eppes, both estimable men, and the latter in due time a prominent member. The new apportionment under the census of 1800 has increased the number of representatives from the Western frontier States, which is a gain to the Republicans. With Samuel Smith and the ready Giles transferred to the Senate, John Randolph's leadership of the House is undisputed. On the whole, a Congress of mediocrity, but all the more complaisant and even deferential for that very reason, to the Executive which guides its course. In the course of the present session and without much opposition the unpopular Bankruptcy Act was repealed, thereby reducing official patronage and the labors of the Federal courts.* 1804. As to the courts themselves the disposition to remodel them by removing obnoxious judges of the Federalist party, was just now very strong. Naturally enough, the Republicans antagonized these judges; not so much, perhaps, because law, order, or the life tenure was hateful to themselves, as from a sullen conviction that this department of government, the weakest of the three, had been perverted of late to political uses, and set as though to govern, not individuals who might of fend, but society itself, the majority of the people, by writs and indictments. Whiskey excise, the direct tax, sedition laws, all fostered this antagonism; finally the Circuit Court appointments followed by the humiliating repeal of the act. If judges * See Act, December 19th, 1803; supra, vol. i., p. 456. |