218. Barbary wars (1802-1806) Am. State tured vessels and enslaved the crews. Like most nations, the tion of New Orleans Jefferson was a man who felt strongly the duty of looking out for the nation's interest; and he was greatly aroused by a change in the ownership of Louisiana. Napoleon Bona- 219. Quesparte was just then at peace with Great Britain, and formed a scheme of colonial empire, for which he wanted (1800-1802) Louisiana. What was Louisiana? To answer this question we must keep in mind that the regions east and west of the Mississippi River had not the same territorial history. Both sides were claimed by France under La Salle's discoveries and the settlement of 1699 (§§ 49, 94). In 1763 the whole eastern half, except the Island of Orleans (the triangle between the Mississippi, the Bayou Manchac, and the Gulf, including New Orleans), was ceded to Great Britain, including the strip along the Gulf coast from the Island of Orleans to the river Perdido, to which the British gave the name of West Florida. The whole western half, together with the Island of Orleans, went to Spain (§ 101). In the Revolution, Spain conquered from Great Britain the strip from the Island of Orleans to the Perdido, and called it West Florida. In 1800, by the treaty of San Ildefonso, Napoleon received back "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." The greatest military power in the world thus HART'S AMER. HIST.-16 became the possessor of both banks of the lower Mississippi and a near neighbor to the United States. The natural uneasiness of the Americans, when in 1802 they heard of this change, was heightened when the Spanish governor withdrew the privilege of sending goods through New Orleans free of duty, which had been secured by the treaty of 1795. Plainly, he meant to turn over the province to France with the river blocked to American trade. Hence it was that Jefferson wrote to Robert R. Livingston, our minister in France : "There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of Contemporaries, III. 363 which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans. The day that France takes possession of New Orleans . . from that moment, we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation." 220. Pur chase of Louisiana (1803) A party in Congress wanted to take New Orleans by military force; and an act passed authorizing 80,000 volunteers. Jefferson was cooler. He instructed Livingston to attempt the purchase of the Island of Orleans and the strip to the eastward between the southern boundary of the United States and the Gulf. In January, 1803, he designated his friend James Monroe as a special envoy to France to aid Livingston. Fortunately for America, Napoleon was already tired of his own plan, for war with Great Britain was about to break out again, and it would be impossible for him to protect the sea route to Louisiana. Meanwhile he failed to reconquer the necessary halfway station of Haiti, where Toussaint L'Ouverture, a Negro general, aided by fever, had the impertinence to destroy 10,000 of his best troops. Therefore, while Livingston was trying to buy West Florida and New Orleans, suddenly the French foreign office asked him what he would give for the whole of Louisiana. One day later Monroe arrived, and the two ministers did not hesitate to go beyond their instructions by accepting the offer, but for some weeks haggled over the price. The treaty was completed April 30, 1803; the United States was to pay $11,250,000 in cash and $3,750,000 to American claimants against the French government, a total of $15,000,000; in return Napoleon ceded the Island of Orleans and the whole western half of the valley of the Mississippi, with an area of 900,000 square miles (§ 223). Livingston, Monroe, and Jefferson each thought that he was responsible for this splendid addition to the territory of the United States. Louisiana came like a plum dropping from the tree; but Jefferson is fairly entitled to the credit of seeing more clearly than any other man of his time the danger of having France as a neighbor, and the possibilities of the West. 221. Incorporation of Louisiana Since there was nothing in the Constitution on the question of annexing territory, Jefferson asked for a constitutional amendment; but his friends found authority in the old Federalist doctrine of implied powers, and the treaty was promptly ratified. Notwithstanding factious protests by (1803-1812) some of the New England Federalists, the next step was to take possession of the new country; New Orleans was turned Copyright, 1900, by Detroit Photographic Co. CABILDO, NEW ORLEANS, BUILT IN 1794. The Spanish government building. over by the Spanish The population of about 40,000, almost entirely settled along the water front of the Mississippi and Red rivers. Congress speedily passed an act organizing the lower part of Louisiana as the Territory of Orleans, with an appointed legislature. The people of New Orleans were in an uproar. They did not like the new laws, the new language, or the new governor, and Congress goodnaturedly gave them a territorial government with an elective legislature (March, 1805). Seven years later an act was passed for the admission of this small part of the old province of Louisiana as "Louisiana," an equal state in the Union. Jefferson's far sight early penetrated into the northwestern Pacific coast, where in 1792 Captain Gray, in the ship Colum222. Reach- bia of Boston, had found the mouth of a great river, ing out for and named it for his ship. As soon as Jefferson became Oregon (1792-1811) President, he induced Congress to provide for an overland expedition to the Oregon country, under the command of William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson's private secretary. The whole Missouri valley had become part of the United States by the annexation of Louisiana when this expedition left St. Louis with forty-five men (May 14, 1804). In the course of six months they ascended the Missouri 1600 miles; they camped all winter, and in the spring of 1805 started |