Class ^^ Book_ COPYRIGHT DEPOStr. HISTORY OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE BY JAMES Q. HOWARD CHICAGO CALLAGHAN & COMPANY 1902 THE l.iaRAHV OF CONGRESS, "I'wo CoPttr Rtosiveo SEP. 25 1902 Ci.ASS «-XXc No. COPY 8. Copyright 1903 BY CALLAGHAN & COMPANY c\ v9 I As ii ^s;^ TO ETHEL HOWARD, A grateful recognition is due for reflecting a radiant joy upon one life that may prove a benediction to others than the author of her beings and of this book. Lotos Club, New York, August 17, 1902 PREFATORY OBSERVATIONS. This History of the Louisiana Purchase was written prior to a work on the same subject by Mr. J. K. Hosmer. The latter being essentially a work of fiction, but faintly historical, in no way conflicts with this relation of fact which has gone forth with the approval of the Exposition Company at St. Louis. The early history of the vast domain trans- ferred by France to the United States in 1803 is found in the Margry papers, in the other official or personal accounts of the first explorers and settlers, and in various cotemporarj^ records and writings. The American State Papers, the archives of the Department of State, the acts and utterances of public men, best make known what took place at the time of the actual acquisition of Louisiana. These sources of infonnation having been examined, long lists of references and authorities need not burden a condensed account of our first peaceful expansion of territory. James Q. Howaed. Washington, August 6, 1902. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. The Louisiana Eegion Prior to the Year 1700. De Narvaez, De Soto, Joliet and Marquette, La Salle "^ CHAPTEE II. The Louisiana Dominion. Period of Settlement and Transition— From 1700 to Peace Treaty of 1783 . ., 18 CHAPTER III. Reaching to the Mississippi. Great Treaties of 1782-3— Who Made Them 34 CHAPTER IV. The Critical Period of Spanish Rule in Louisiana. From 1784 to 1789 — Disturbed Relations with the West 48 CHAPTER V. The First President. Steps to Secure Free Navigation — This Great Gov- ernment's Real Beginning 62 CHAPTER VI. Washington's Second Term. Louisiana from March, 1793, to 1797— Young Nation Beset by Enemies 74 6 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER YII. Louisiana During the Term of John Adams. Foresight of Hamilton — More Trouble with Spain — St. Louis Serence 83 CHAPTER VIII. Louisiana During the Years 1801 and 1802. Transfer from Spain to France — ^Livingston, Napo- leon, Jefferson, Madison 94 CHAPTER IX. The Great Treaty of April 30, 1803. The Correspondence Preceding It — Who Made It. . 106 CHAPTER X. Echoes of the Great Treaty. Bonaparte's Motives for Selling Louisiana — His Prophecies — How Acquisition Was Received. ... 117 CHAPTER XL Louisiana Purchase States. Conditions in 1803 and 1900 Contrasted 12G SUPPLEMENTAL. Creators and Preservers of the Republic 142 Foremost Patriots and Benefactors — Washington 143 Hamilton 145 Lincoln 147 Franklin 149 Marshall 151 Webster 153 Grant 155 Livingston 157 Jackson 159 HISTORY OF THE LOUSIANA PURCHASE CHAPTER I. THE LOUISIANA REGION PRIOR TO THE YEAR 1700. DE NARVAEZ, DE SOTO, JOLIET AND MARQUETTE, LA SALLE. TO KNOW the history of the Louisiaua Purchase, we must know the prior his- tory of the territoiy purchased. Who dis- covered and explored this vast domain? Who settled and developed it! Who exercised sovereignty and established political governments over it? are questions to be considered and an- swered. The first European commissioned to exercise any legitimate authority over any part of this terri- tory was the ill-foi-tuned Spanish officer, Narvaez. Panfilo de Narvaez was fourteen, when Columbus discovered the West Indies. He was born where the great navigator died-at Valladolid. As sec- ond in command to Velasquez, who had conquered Cuba, he was sent to supersede the indomitable 8 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE Cortez, who bad conquered Mexico. Cortez gave his would-be successor defeat with a blind eye, and incorporated the invading army in his own. The partial blindness of this representative of royal authority seems to have characterized all colonizing Spaniards since, until the climax of total blindness was reached in 1800, through the profitless transfer to France of an empire larger than that of Charlemagne. For his early exploits in Cuba, the one-eyed hero, NaiTaez, was made second governor of Florida, with authoritj'' ex- tending definitely beyond the present state of Louisiana and indefinitely over all the forests, rivers, swamps and savages he could conquer. The Indians and alligators came off victorious, and Narvaez perished miserably at the mouth of the Mississippi in vessels that were not seaworthy. DE SOTO. Four men survived of four hundred, and there- by hangs a tale of woe and glory. These survivors were the first white men to cross the Mississippi and the American continent. Cabeza de Vaca, one of the four, who reached Spain by the way of New Mexico, became the historian of his own wander- ings. De Vaca's glowing oral accounts of the Rio del Oro and of wonderful regions and cities, fired the ambition of Hernando de Soto, who had gained wealth and distinction under the renowned Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. Having won the hand of his chieftain's daughter, De Soto sought THE LOUISIANA REGION 9 and obtained the governorship of Cuba, He pro- posed to his sovereign, Charles V, to conquer Florida at his own expense. The restless, the am- bitious, the avaricious and even the settled owners of vineyards and olive groves, sold all to follow the Peruvian hero. The nobility and aristocracy of Spain made a mad rush for gold and became the discoverers of the Mississippi. Having left his wife, the daughter of Pizarro, to govern Cuba, De Soto sailed away to his own destruction and that of five hundred of his followers, as if he were gaily maneuvering in a holiday naval parade. Chains for captives and bloodhounds for fleeing aborigines, were parts of an unwise and imperfect equipment of the third Spanish expedition into the interior of Florida. Landing on the west coast, these high-born adventurers turned towards Appalachee Bay; thence westward to Pensacola Bay. After wandering over what are now Georgia and Alabama, De Soto returned to the present site of Mobile, where he destroyed a large Indian town, slaughtering more than two thousand of its inhabitants. Pursuing the foolish policy of treat- ing all Indian tribes as enemies, the new governor was soon in an unending conflict with his new sub- jects. One he ordered burned alive for bluntly declaring that he knew of no country where gold abounded. Thenceforward compulsory guides promptly manufactured the information de- manded. Then they were thrown to the blood- hounds for misleading the gold hunters. Receiv- ing supplies from Cuba, the haughty De Soto, 10 TEE LOUISIANA PURCHASE regardless of failure, marched northwest to and across the Yazoo Kiver. Near this "river of death" their winter quarters were burned, their food, shelter and clothing being wholly destroyed. It was while moving westward, clothed in skins of animals and in mats made of rushes and wild ivy, that these starving Dons first beheld the majestic Mississippi. Powell's painting of this beggarly scene does great credit to that artist's wealth of invention. The point of discovery was near the thirty-fifth parallel, now known as the lowest Chickasaw Bluff. In May, 1541, the ex- ploring part}^ crossed the Great River of Florida, as the Spaniards first called it, and ascending the west bank and branching off northwest, reached the upper waters of the White River, about two hundred miles from the Great River. From just above the State line of Missouri, the extreme northern limit of De Soto's explorations, the party crossed the Arkansas to the salt waters of the Washita, and descending along that stream returned to the Mississippi at the junction of Red River. Broken down by malarial fevers and dis- heartened by his inability to penetrate the forests and marshes of the lower Mississippi, De Soto calmly prepared for his departure to another and still stranger world. He called his chiefs around him at the last hour and selected Moscoso as his successor. He was first buried within the enclo- sure of the encampment, but later his followers, fearing that ill consequences might flow from the knowledge of his mortality and death, his body TEE LOUISIANA REGION 11 was heavily weighted and sunk at midnight in the deep water channel of what seemed to be a great flowing inland sea. A fitting burial place truly for a relentless chieftain whose cruelties were re- volting, who was as pitiless and merciless as the devastating torrents of a river that destroys babes in their cradles and drags children from their mother's arms. De Soto died May 21, 1542, and Moscoso returned by the way of Texas and Mex- ico to Spain with less than one-third of the gay naval expedition that set out from Havana nearly two years before. JOLIET AND MAKQUETTE. More than a century and a quarter had elapsed from the time when the half-starved Spaniards fled from the lower Mississippi, to the year when the Frenchmen, Joliet and Marquette, appeared upon its upper waters. These experienced explor- ers, with a party of seven, starting from Mack- inaw in two birch canoes, ascended Fox River and connected by a narrow portage with the upper Wisconsin. Floating down the latter, the beauty of the shores of which impressed them much, they entered the Father of Waters on the current of the Wisconsin, June 17, 1673. They descended the great river for a thousand miles. Exploring, they seemed much impressed by the frightful appearance of the monsters painted in red, blue and green colors, that disfigured certain high cliffs below the mouth of the Illinois. Pursuing the 12 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE humane and wise ix)licy of kindness and frank- ness, the chiefs of the Illinois Indians received Joliet and Marquette in their native and naked dignity, smoking the calumet of peac^, and declar- ing with inborn grace, that their presence ''made the river more calm, the sky more serene and the earth more beautiful." They passed the lonely forest that covered the site of the now busy and opulent city of St. Louis, and later, saw on their left the stream to which the Iroquois had given the name of the Ohio or Beautiful River. The whole of the name and parts of the river have remained beautiful. Having successfully explored the Mississippi to the Arkansas, some six hun- dred miles from its mouth, the discoverers accom- plished a perilous but safe return, having been absent from civilization just four months. Joliet, although tlie son of a Quebec wagon- maker, was an enterprising trader, a brave, keen- eyed explorer and an honorable man. Unfortu- nately for his fame and fortune he lost in tlie Lachine Rapids on his return, within sight of home, his papers containing the histoiy of his dis- coveries, Indian relics, in short, everything but life. Pere Marquette was born in the picturesque cathedral town of Laon, in France. A Jesuit with- out guile, he was the spiritual guide and life of the expedition. As self-denying a soul as ever gave up life for humanity and God, he passed to his eternal reward in May, 1675, observing all the rites of his church and murmuring the names of THE LOUISIANA REGION 13 Jesus and Mary, while calmly expiring in tlie solitude of the wilderness. A year later the Ottawas, among whom the pious and loving mis- sionary had long labored, tenderly bore his re- mains in a casket of birch from near the promon- tory of Sleeping Bear, where they rested, to the sacred church of Saint Ignace. As they solemnly approached the mission in thirty canoes, chanting their death songs, a vast multitude of Indians, traders and missionaries thronged the shores, looking on the strange spectacle in mute and reverential awe. To this day, it is said, that storm- tossed mariners on Lake Michigan, in the hour of darkest and most dreadful peril, invoke on their knees the prayerful intercession of the sainted Marquette. This Christian martyr has been hon- ored by a noble statue in the American pantheon at our national capital, contributed by Wisconsin. STEDR DE LA SALLE. The greatest of the early explorers cannot be followed through his northern lake and Canadian successes and failures; his quarrels with the Jesuits and his other distressing tribulations. It is enough to know that his merits won the con- fidence and unvarying support of Count Fron- tenac, the ablest of all the early French governors, and that the illustrious Colbert and the worldly- wise Louis XIV were the chief promoters of his far-reaching discoveries. Bom of good family in Rouen, he came to Canada at twenty-three, with a 14 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE splendid physique, an excellent education, high ideals and high ambitions. Among the fruits of a first voyage was the exploration of hake On- tario, the discover}^ of the Illinois River, and a visit to the Ohio River and to the present site of Chicago. From the second expedition resulted the first sight and first description of Niagara Falls by Father Hennepin, one of La Salle's party; the building of the "Griffon" in 1679, on Niagara River ; the exploration of the lakes as far as Detroit in this first of all lake-sailing vessels; the traversing of the upper lakes and penetration of the interior of the Illinois country, where Fort Crevecoeur was built, and the intrepid explorer's final triumph over all obstacles and enemies in reaching the Mississippi by descending the River Illinois. La Salle tells us that he was detained at the mouth of the Illinois for twelve days, by float- ing ice; that in February, 1682, he found himself moving down the might^^ current of the River *' Colbert," as he named it, made more might}' by the muddy, mad-rushing Missouri ; that the coun- try between the latter river and the Ohio, he declares in simplest French, was beautiful; that game abounded near where we know De Soto crossed ; that the savages were hostile between the mouth of the Arkansas and junction of Red River, and that early in April, the parting forks of the wonderful river were before his delighted eyes. On April 9, 1682, La Salle and his then faithful followers, having passed out through the three channels of the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mex- THE LOUISIANA REGION 15 ico, effected a joint landing, and tliere planting the holy cross,, proclaimed the divinity of their religion and the sovereignty of their country, "in the name of the most high, mighty, invincible and victorious Prince Louis the Great, by the grace of God, King of France and of Navarre. ' ' Shouts of "Long live the king!" and three volleys of musketry confirmed an acquisition or grant of stupendous, though unmeasured, magnitude to Louis XIV, the then most powerful monarch in the world. The successful explorer named the whole vast region, extending to Canada and to the great tributaries northwest, Louisiana, in honor of its new sovereign. In 1684, the ever-friendly Frontenac having been recalled, and the large-minded Colbert hav- ing died, the indomitable La Salle betook himself to the court of Versailles, where his significant services, his worth, weight and dignity of char- acter secured a favorable response to his praise- worthy petition and lofty prayer. The minister of marine and colonies, Seigue- lay, the son of Colbert, agreed to fit out an expedi- tion to proceed by sea to the mouth of the Missis- sippi, for no less grand a purpose than to lay the foundation of a great empire. The resolute La Salle purposed to establish a fort and a colony, sixty leagues above the mouth of the mighty rivei', from which the French could control the settle- ment of a continent and eventually drive the Spaniards from Mexico. He was given four ves- sels to be commanded "while at sea" b}^ Beaujeu, 16 TEE LOUISIANA PURCHASE a captain of the nav>^, who was so consumed with conceit that the ceaseless recognition of his own importance appeared more essential to him than the success of the exj^edition. Through the in- capacity or the deception of Beaujeu, the colonists were landed at Metagorda Bay, one hundred and thirty leagues west of their destination. From this blunder followed no end of disasters. A landing place in the wilds of Texas was a wholly ditferent thing from a settlement on the banks of a grand continental river. The martinet of tlie royal navy hastily returned to France, taking what was most useful to the colonists with him. The abandoned settlers were reduced to desperate straits. La Salle and his colony, while suffering from malarial fevers, from lack of food and from all the perils and privations of the wilderness, resolved in March, 1687, as a last hope, to seek succor from the remote outposts near the northern lakes. Some progress had been made in this dan- gerous direction, when a hunter's quarrel, result- ing in the killing of Morenger, La Salle's nephew, precipitated a conspiracy, which ended in the assassination of the intrepid leader of the expedi- tion. Here, on a branch of the placid Trinity Eiver, beyond the restraints of civilization, a wi'etch named Larchveque, lures under the guns of Duhaut and Liotot, two other despicable miscreants lying in wait in the reeds, the unsuspecting survivor of a thousand jierils and storms; two shots ring out in the dead silence of the wilderness and the daunt- THE LOUISIANA REGION 17 less discoverer drops speechless at the call of death! What a scene for some immortal limner! The stern, flushed face of La Salle, still illumi- nated with the light of a unique nobility ; the faith- ful friar, Anastase, standing appalled at the enomiity of the crime perpetrated before his own eyes, and the three miserable murderers exulting over and insulting the unconscious victim of their abhorrent treachery ! If an}^ statue is to be erected to any of the earlier discoverers of the broad domain embraced in the Louisiana Purchase, that honor is due to the fearless La Salle. His was the first broad mind to grasp the grandeur of the great northwest and its mighty outlet to the sea; he it was that moved Frontenac, Colbert and Louis XIV to action; he lived a life of toil, peril, obloquy and privation to the extreme limit of human endurance ; he suffered untold wrongs and injustice while living, and gave up his life to demonstrate the priceless value of America to his country and to mankind ! Let us honor unhonored greatness. CHAPTER II. THE LOUISIANA D0:MINI0N. PEEIOD OF SETTLEMENT AND TRANSITION — FEOM 1700 TO PEACE TREATY OF 1782. A MOST meritorious historic character, whose sei-^dces lapi)ed over from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth, was the chival- rous and indefatigable Henry de Tonty. In all of La Salle's early trials, De Tonty of the "Iron Hand" was the great explorer's most loyal lieutenant and truest friend. He was left in com- mand of Fort St. Louis and Fort Broken Heart at different periods of uncommon peril. He ac- companied La Salle on his first great expedition down the Mississippi and was ever ready to follow or to lead wherever dangers were greatest or savages most fiercely hostile. In 1685 and again in 1689, he led a relief party to aid his illus- trious chief, from whom no tidings could be heard, traversing in all more than six thousand miles of swollen rivers and trackless wilderness and en- countering privations and ]:>erils which no lan- guage can make known. Searching in vain through what is now Arkansas, Texas and Louis- iana for traces of his loved and lost leader, he left on the lower Mississijipi a letter car\^ed on bark which fourteen years after, satisfied the doubting 18 THE LOUISIANA DOMINION 19 Iberville that he was really on the mighty Colbert River of La Salle. This ''speaking bark," as the Indians reverently called it, as a memento of a deathless devotion, of an unending fidelity to a noble friendship, may be remembered by all who are losing faith in hmnan nature and their hearts thereby be abundantly comforted. This precious epistle ends: "It is a great sorrow to me that we must return under the misfortune of not having found you, after two canoes have skirted the coast of Mexico for thirty leagues and the coast of Florida for twenty-five." This brave explorer and truthful historian, having later joined the Louisiana colonists, was cut off by contagion while prosecuting his dangerous pioneer labors. He died at Mobile in 1704. FIRST PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS. From 1682 and after, La Salle, Joutel, Henne- pin and others, named the vast region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, Louisiana, in honor of their august sovereign, Louis XIV. But as the part almost wholly west of the great river, covered by the Purchase Treaty of 1803, now con- cerns us, let us turn to small, acorn-like beginnings of an empire from which the giant oaks of an unequaled development have grown. Historians tell us that the grand monarque of France took a great personal interest in his American colonies. He learned through De Eemonville, a close friend of La Salle, that the Louisiana countiy contained 20 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE rich deposits of iron, lead and copper ; that hemp was indigenous, ship timber abundant and that cotton and tobacco could be cultivated. Le Moyue D 'Ibei'ville, a naval officer, who had gained dis- tinction through militaiy exploits on Hudson's Bay, on the Atlantic and in the valley of the St. Lawrence, was accordingly dispatr^hed to the mouth of the Mississippi, where he arrived in 1699. Count de Ponchartrain, then Minister of Marine and Colonies, declares in his official correspond- ence, found in the ^Margry papers, that the pur- pose of the expedition was to explore, to fortify and to prevent other nations from getting a foot- hold in Louisiana. Ibenille first went ashore at an island on which he saw a mass of human bones, and from this called it Massacre Island. It was what is now named Dauphin. The colony next landed and began to erect huts on Ship Island. They passed to the mainland through Pascagoula Bay. The Biloxi Indians were the first natives they encountered. They ran away at first, but were brought back by presents and the pleading of an Indian girl. On February 27, Iberville and his brother, Bienville, in well-equipped open boats, went in search of the Mississippi. They had pro- ceeded nearly two hundred miles from the sea when they reached the Indian village of Bayagou- las, where they were most hospitably entertained. Here all doubts were removed abou^ their being on the right river by finding a prayer book with the name of a companion of La Salle in it, and, that immortal monument of human affection, the THE LOUISIANA DOMINION 21 historic bark letter of Clievalier De Tonty. For this latter precious relic the Frenchmen were obliged to present to an Indian chief an ax. Iber- ville returned to the sea by way of the two lakes, which he named Maurepas and Ponchartrain, after two well-known Ministers of France. The first settlement of the colony was fixed on the east side of the Bay of Biloxi and was called Biloxi (now Ocean Springs), from the neighbor- ing Indian tribe. Twelve pieces of cannon were mounted on the four bastions of the fort that was built. Sauvol, a "discreet young man of merit," was placed in command and Iberville sailed for France. While Bienville, the younger brother of the latter, was exploring the surrounding regions and passing down the western channel of the Mis- sissippi, he met, about eighteen miles below the site of New Orleans, a British frigate of twelve guns. The young ''lieutenant of the king" promptly and firmly informed the English cap- tain, Barr, that the King of France had taken formal possession of the waters and lands adja- cent and that to avoid trouble he had better turn the prow of his ship down stream. The cautious Englishman heeded the advice of the nervy young Frenchman and ever since this particular bend in the river has been known by the name of the Eng- lish Turn. In December, Iberville returned with two large ships, bringing the news that Sauvol had been made governor of Louisiana, Bien- ville lieutenant-governor, and Boisbriant, major of the fort. Leseuer, the geologist, and the brave St. 22 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE Denis came over at this time. Guided by the In- dians, who were still friendly, Iberville selected some high ground fifty-four miles from the sea for a fort and town, which he named Rosalie, from the baptismal name of the Countess of Ponchar- train. The grim walls of this fort are still exist- ing, close by Natchez, the future capital. While Bienville, St. Denis and Leseuer were making extensive exj^lorations, the geologist accomplished much by ascending the ' ' St. Louis ' ' to the falls of St. Anthony ; thence up St. Peters River one hun- dred and thirty miles and following up a stream which he named Green River from the color of its waters, built a small fort which he called Fort Thuillier, in honor of a patron. Here Leseuer passed the winter and in the spring, from mines in what is now Minnesota, collected quantities of ore and ochre which he carried to Biloxi in April, 1701, and thence to France. He left the most of his men at the fort to claim possession of the country. Upon the early death of Sauvol, Bien- ville removed his headquarters to Biloxi, and from there to the west side of Mobile River. Dauphin Island became a fleet station of some importance. Spain now being at war with England, Bien- ville sent men and munitions of war to the Span- iards at Pensacola and St. Augustine. The garrison that Leseuer had left at Fort Thuillier, among the Sioux Indians, were obliged to abandon their outpost in March, 1704, and return to Mobile. The English of the Atlantic coast retaliated for THE LOUISIANA DOMINION 23 the succor sent to the Spaniards, by stirring up and inciting the Alibamons and other Indians to attack the French. Thus began the wars and trou- bles with the Indians, which ended only with the Natchez war of extermination. During the year 1704 a fifty-gun ship arrived from France with much-needed provisions, mihtary supplies and seventy-five soldiers. Five priests from the diocese of Quebec, two gray nuns for the hospital and twenty-three young women of good character, formed the most interesting part of this beneficent consignment. The homesick colonists lost no time in making wives of the marriageable part of the passenger list. These poor but modest and pretty girls made good wives, except that they rebelled against the coarse Indian cornmeal fare of the colony. The first white child born in Louisiana was called Jean Francois Le Camp. Military duties and sickness detained the courageous founder of the colony iii France for two years. Iberville unfortunately died of yellow fever in the line of duty as a soldier, July 9, 1706. He labored loyally to advance the interests of his colony and country. The first period, which ends with 1712, was one of much sickness, many explorations, little local growth. THE ADVENT OF ANTONY CKOZAT. The colony of Louisiana having thus far proven not a source of profit or revenue, but a continuing drain and expense, the French government sent 7" 24 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE Diron d 'Artaguette to report on condition and remedies. As a result, Antony Crozat, secretary of the king's household, was given for the period of fifteen years a complete monopoly of the trade and commerce of Louisiana, whose limits were to be fixed in large measure by the business interests and discretion of the grantee. When Crozat took charge in 1713, there was a population of three hundred and eighty persons, counting twent>^ negroes, and one hundred sol- diers, tlie latter doubled in efficiency by seventy- five seasoned Canadian volunteers. These inhab- itants and soldiers were scattered among the five forts at Biloxi, Mobile, Dauphin, and Ship Island and at Natchez or Fort Rosalie. Crozat brought over his own governors, Cadillac and Epenay. He had absolute free trade with France, but was un- able to land his goods or carry on trade with Spanish posts by reason of his own narrow trade restrictions. The resolute St. Denis was not able to establish neighborly relations with the Span- iards near the ]\Iexican border. Governor Cadillac went gold hunting and came back empty-handed. When ores and minerals were found no one seemed to understand the art of profitable mining. Agri- culture was neglected. There was not industry and energy enough to carr^' on even the trade in l^eltries with success. The Indians were treated with so little tact and such scant justice that enmities were aroused that endured for a generation. Lieutenant-Governor Bienville, the only leader of j^ioneer experience, THE LOUISIANA DOMINION 25 was hampered, overruled and sent on ruinously hazardous forays against treacherous savages. At the end of five years of failure, Crozat aban- doned his fifteen-year grant or monopoly and re- turned to the more congenial atmosphere of Paris. He had lost a good-sized fortune in his experiment and had caused a net increase of less than three hundred inhabitants of all classes, colors and de- scriptions. Not a brilliant exhibit, tiiily, for a man heralded as a great financier and still indis- criminately called a great merchant or great banker ! The historic truth is that the successful courtier of Versailles was out of his element among savages and backwoodsmen. The luxuries of a palace could not be profitably exchanged for pioneer hardships and privations. Compared with successful colonizers like William Penn and the second Lord Baltimore or with great fur traders like John Jacob Astor, Antony Crozat was a babe at the bottle. COMPANY OF THE WEST — JOHN LAW. Under the newly chartered Company of the West, which succeeded to more than all the priv- ileges and monopolies of the Crozat charter, Bien- ville was restored to power as governor. Boisbri- ant was given command over the "Illinois dis- trict," which was brought under the government of Louisiana, The years 1718-19 were years of activity. In February, 1718, Bienville, with fifty men, began to 26 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE clear the ground and found the city which he named New Orleans, after the Duke of Orleans, then re- gent of France. The transfer of the company's stores from Biloxi to New Orleans took place in June, 1722. Du Pratz and La Harpe were recent valuable accessions to the colony. The new com- pany laid claim to all of Texas, based on the ex- plorations or settlements of La Salle, Bienville and St. Denis. But after La Harpe 's unsuccessful attempt on St. Bernard, Texas was abandoned by the French. In June, 1719, the first direful car- goes of five hundred slaves were brought in on two vessels arriving from the coast of Guinea. About this time large grants of land were given to influential families of France. The notorious financial speculator and stock gambler, John Law, President of the new company, was granted twelve square miles of land on the Arkansas River. For settlers he sent over hundreds of honest Germans and fifteen hundred other immigrants not so honest. Law's scheme was the now abandoned paper money inflation scheme, coupled with tlie issuing and prolonged issuing or watering of stock or paper promises, without limit and without end. Law escaped to Italy when the crash came, after his carriage had been broken into pieces in Paris by his deluded victims. The curse of a worthless medium of exchange was followed by a more dreadful drawback to prosperity, the Natchez Indian wars, which reached a horrible culmination in the general massacres of 1729. The merciless slaughter of five hundred men' women and chil- THE LOUISIANA DOMINION 27 dren, at the Mississippi, Yazoo, Washita and otJier settlements, calls only for pitying sympathy and commiseration. The fiendish atrocities and un- speakable cruelties of the Natchez savages are too revolting to dwell upon, too awful to relate. It is not strange that Bienville, the veteran Indian fighter and "father of the colony," after having been twice defeated by the same tribe, should be willing to retire at sixty-two from the field of such fruitless toil and inglorious conflict. Fort Orleans, whose construction was begun by Burgmont in 1721, was totally destroyed and its occupants mas- sacred in 1724. This was situated on an island near the mouth of the Missouri River. In 1727 the capable Governor Perier began the levee system by constructing a levee thirty-six miles in length, which included New Orleans. But the general metliod was faulty where there was so little self- government. Everything was determined in France. During the Mississippi bubble period, the sick were often without medicines and some settlers perished from hunger. Provisions were secured from France, from Spanish forts, from the In- dians; but not in sufficient quantities from the soil. A change came in April, 1732, when the John Law monopoly ended by the King of France proclaiming that the Province of Louisiana was free and open to trade and commerce with equal privileges to all his subjects. From 1733 to 1762 was a comparatively uneventful period of gradual and peaceful progress. In 1750 the population 28 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE increased to seven thousand, four thousand being white. In 1751 the Jesuit missionaries introduced the sugar cane from St. Domingo and also some blacks who understood the art of sugar making. M. Dubreuil built the first sugar mill on what is now Esplanade avenue. About 1756 began the arrival of the Acadians, whom Longfellow has since im- mortalized, who were driven out of Nova Scotia by arbitrary force. They settled in Baltimore and in the western part of the present State of Louisi- ana and their descendants have made good citizens. SPANISH POSSESSION — O^KEILLY. By the Treaty of Fontainebleau of November 3, 1762, Louis XV transferred to Spain the whole territory of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi River, including New Orleans. On February' 10, 1763, the French King agreed at Paris to grant to England all this territory Ijdng east of the Mis- sissippi, except New Orleans. A dull voluptuary, such as Louis XV, had hardly manly sentiment enough to feel any deep regret over the loss of col- onists that had not proven profitable and who re- quired defense. He had in two years surrendered every foot of French territoiy on the American continent. The French lacked the Anglo-Saxon instinct for successful colonization. But now when there were signs of a larger prosperity, these col- onists were suddenlj^ cast off by the parent coun- try. Not until 1766 was the first Spanish gover- nor, Ulloa, sent out to assume control. Bringing THE LOUISIANA DOMINION 29 out but ninety soldiers with him, he found it pru- dent, in view of the state of feeling, to proceed slowly and depart discreetly for Havana. After an unusual delay, Lieutenant-General O'Reilly took firm and formal possession of the IDrovince in 1769 as governor and captain general. He landed on the levee four thousand soldiers— about three times the force that tlie colony could command. That a haughty power like Spain would not permit its authority to be defied, should have been anticipated. But O'Reilly's treacher- ously base and despotically cruel course of action ended in a piece of infamous brutality; in cow- ardly acts of needless butchery. The chief men who had been active in manifest- ing their loyalty to France were lulled into a feel- ing of security by an outward exhibition of a courteous and conciliator^^ temper and by proffers of hospitality. No sooner had Villeare, a worthy planter, passed in at the guarded gate, than he was arrested, forced on board a Spanish man-of- war and there brutally killed by a guard for the crime of insisting upon speaking to his grief- stricken wife. La Freniere, the eloquent lawyer; Marquis and De Noyant, ranking officers of the colony troops; Joseph Milhet and Caresse, lead- ing merchants, were railroaded through the trav- esty of a trial; then led out and shot in the most public square. Not alone the kindred of the doomed men but the inhabitants generally fled from the scene and city, paralyzed with horror! Some of the six victims had seen their sires 30 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE butchered in the ghastly massacres of the Natchez savages ; their children were now asked in turn to behold their fathers put to death by a Spanish savage whose hands were to be stained by an un- forgivable and inhuman atrocit}'. Such crimes are beyond the reach of the chastisements of human though not of divine justice. Six otlier prominent men were found guilty of a disinclination to become Spanish subjects, on the deposition of a single witness; were transported to Cuba and imprisoned for various tenns in the dungeons of Morro Castle. An immediate change in the laws of their colony was another exaction which the terrified inhabitants had to bear. The Spanish language was made the official language and was used in courts, schools and churches. Trade restrictions of the narrowest nature were imposed. Unzaga and the Marquis de la Torre succeeded the tyrannical O'Eeilly as governors. Louisiana was detached from the bishopric of Que- bec and annexed to that of Havana. The mild ad- ministration of Governor General Unzaga contrib- uted much to heal the wounds of the past. He showed a disposition to relax the laws and regu- lations to favor a large contraband trade with the struggling American colonies which caused New Orleans to advance its commercial importance ma- terially from 1772 to the close of the revolution. The renowned Governor General de Galvez, who assumed office Januarj'- 1, 1777, continued and broadened the friendly policy of his predecessors toward the American colonies. THE LOUISIANA DOMINION 31 ST. LOUIS FOUNDED. Turning now to other parts of the Purchase ter- ritory, we find that Village du Cote, now St. Charles, on the Missouri River, was the first village built west of the Mississippi and north of the Arkansas. The date of this settlement was 1762. On the 15th of February, 1764, St. Louis was founded by Father Laclede and named after the canonized Louis IX of France; not after Louis XV, who was a somewhat soiled saint. The Louis- iana Fur Company, which the enterprising friar represented, had the exclusive right to trade with the Missouri River Indians. Antoine Maxent was the active trading agent of the company. Auguste Chouteau took charge of the building operations, which he carried foi'ward with energy. The ar- rival of the French commander, St. Ange de Belle- rive, with fifty men, in July, 1765, made St. Louis the future capital of upper Louisiana. It was while on a. visit to this hospitable French officer, that the great chief and warrior, Pontiac, was killed on the opposite side of the river by a Kas- kaskia Indian enemy. In the winter of 1770-71, Don Pedro Piernas was sent by tlie new Spanish governor at New Orleans to take civil and military command. St. Louis prospered under his wise and conservative policy. After narrowly escaping destruction from a dan- gerous British and Indian plot in 1780, the peace of 1783 found the town flourishing under the in- telligent administration of Governor Cruzat. Re- 32 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE ferring to a date four years prior, tlie historian Bancroft says: ' ' The Spanish town of St. Louis was fast rising into importance as the center of the fur trade with the Indian nations on the Missouri.'* THE VICTORIOUS GALVEZ. Eeturning to lower Louisiana, it is refreshing to find a brave and brilliant soldier still conducting its affairs. No sooner had the news of a declara- tion of war by Spain against Great Britain been received at New Orleans, than Governor Galvez invested and captured Fort Bute, Baton Rouge and Fort Panmure. Sharing in these daring ex- plpits were one hundred Americans and Canadians who took the required oath of allegiance and per- manently settled in Louisiana. The victories of Galvez and his later capture of Pensacola seem to have had an influence on the action of the Amer- ican Congress. That body was guilty" of vacilla- tion and made the bad break of instnicting its Min- ister to Spain in 1781, John Jay, to abandon the free navigation of the Mississippi below thiiiy-one degrees of north latitude, provided Spain would fonn an alliance with the United States and rec- ognize their independence. Jay submitted a draft of a treaty providing that the foregoing proposal or clause should be void if the alliance was post- poned to a general peace. The foresight of Min- ister Jay, coupled with the habitual dilatoriness of Spanish oflficials, prol^ably kept us from being sub- merged in a sea of troubles. TEE LOUISIANA DOMINION 33 CLAKK, BOONE, SEVIEE, KOBERTSON. The strong men who pushed American civiliza- tion toward and to the Mississippi must not be for- gotten. The wielders of the ax and the rifle; the builders of log cabins and of settlements; the founders of towns and of states; these are the pioneers who fell the forests and hew the west- ward way. The greatest of these backwoods war- riors and middle West winners was George Sog- ers Clark. He brought about the organization of Kentucky as a county of Virginia; in 1777, he entered upon the conquest of Illinois, establishing a military post opposite Louisville, capturing Kas- kaskia,, Vincennes, and relieving Cahokia in 1780 from a desperate attack of British and Indians, and rendering other splendid services of far-reach- ing importance. From the commencement of Daniel Boone's ef- fectual pioneer work in Kentucky in 1772, he ad- vanced his lines, held his outposts and moved to- ward the Mississippi as his destination. Sevier and Robertson extended North Carolina to the Great River boundary by adding Tennessee and taught thousands to be resolute and brave by their example. These and a hundred fameless, though noble heroes, in standing bravely by their posts of dut}^ and their outposts of danger in the then far West, made the amazing addition to our public do- minion possible, through the great peace treaty with England of 1783. CHAPTEE III. REACHING TO THE MISSISSIPPI. GEEAT TREATIES OF 1782-3 — WHO MADE THEM. THE definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain, signed at Paris, September 3, 1783, brought a happy and glorious end- ing to the seven years ' war for American independence. The second article of that mem- orable treaty made the middle of the northern lakes and the central channel of the Mississippi Kiver our new general lines of boundary, north and west. Article eight reads : ' ' The navigation of the River Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, shall for- ever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States." In confiniiing by a solemn convention the some- what shadowy colonial claims to the vast Indian territory lying between the Alleghcnies and the Mississippi, the area of the thirteen original col- onies was at once doubled. What are now the prosperous States of Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Mich- igan, Wisconsin, Minnesota in part, Kentuclvy, Tennessee, iSIississippi and Alabama, are the fruit- ful political offspring of this most beneficent treaty. In its large immediate results— peace and the creation of a nation— and in its never-ending future influence, this is one of the two greatest 34 TO THE MISSISSIPPI 35 American treaties. Without it the centennial of the treaty of twenty j^ears later, that of the Louis- iana Purchase of 1803, would not so soon, if at all, be celebrated. What were the causes and events, what and by whom the exertions and utterances that led up to this blessed compact of peace and freedom? Wlio were the benefactors of America that brought about the partition of the British empire and the building of an American empire tliat has become greater? Primarily we owe the peace of freedom to the toils and militar}^ successes of Washington, Greene, Wayne, Knox, Schuyler and deserving others. Before the battle of Yorktown, peace with independence was never possible. To gather the fmits and garner the harvests from that benign victory, the Franklins were needed in the field of foreign diplomacy. Long before the sun of tran- quillity" had dawned, Benjamin Franklin's benig- nant face and penetrating, spectacled eyes, illumi- nated the scene. Arriving in Paris in December, 1776, Franklin with his colleagues, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee, was able to secure secret aid from France and from individual sympathizers in our struggle for libert>\ As early as February 6, 1778, he negotiated with our first and most gener- ous foreign friend, Vergennes, two very important treaties ; one of amity and commerce, the other of alliance. Article two of the latter reads : ' ' The essential and direct end of the present defensive alliance is 36 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE to maintain effectually the liberty, sovereignty and independence absolute and unlimited, of the United States, as well in matters of government as of com- merce. ' ' This direct and comprehensive affirmation is re- peated in article seven and strengthened by the further guaranty that ''their possessions, and the additions or conquests that their confederation may obtain during the war, from any of the dominions now or heretofore possessed by Great Britain in North America." * * * ''Shall be fixed and secured to the said States, at the moment of the cessation of their present war with England." What amazing foresight! As if both negoti- ators had the peace tresity of five years later in mind. FEANKLIN, JAY AND ADAMS. The dark valley of tribulation, death and Valley Forge being passed, Livingston and other wise men of the West asked Dr. Franklin to heal the wounds of war and bring about a reconciliation be- tween the victors and the vanquished. Franklin saw that the supreme hour and opportunity of his life had come. Crowned with the wisdom of sev- enty-seven years, he gathered in and utilized all the agencies and resources of his intellect, influ- ence, i^opularit^'- and power. He renewed his cor- respondence with every public cliaracter, philos- opher and man of science he ever knew, in France or England. The embracing and kissing of Vol- taire before the French Academy of Science ; the TO THE MISSISSIPPI 37 assiduous cultivation of Count de Vergennes and his royal master and mistress; liis good-natured submission to the annoyance of being followed by crowds upon the streets, and even his harmless gallantries with Madame Helvetius and other an- cient and antique dames, were attentions and com- placencies bestowed that he might promote his country's welfare more. When everj^thing a la Franklin in Paris be- came at once a la mode, this wise philosopher was ripe to achieve triumphs in peace more enduring and no less renowned than those of war. He wrote to John Jay, who was vainly trying to borrow money and to make a treaty with Spain, that his aid in Paris would be of infinite value. Jay tried to borrow five million dollars and succeeded in borrowing one hundred and forty thousand dol- lars. Jay reached Paris, June 23, which was nine- ty-three days before the preliminary treaty of peace was concluded. Franklin begged John Adams, whose two treaties had gained him much glory in Holland and at home, to reinforce Jay and himself in France, but Adams tarried near the scene of his triumphs and did not reach Paris until October 26, 1782, just thirty-four days before the first of the two identical treaties was signed. FEANKLIN^S GREAT WORK. For several months the strenuous Franklin car- ried on his peace-making unaided. While in- structed by his Government to make a treaty with 38 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE Great Britain, he could find no agents of England with whom to confer. Lord Stormont, the British ambassador in Paris, had insulted him a few years before by replying to a respectful letter that, ' ' The king's ministers receive no applications from reb- els, unless they have come to implore his majesty's clemency." As early as June, 1781, David Hart- ley, afterwards British signer of the definitive treaty, had asked his friend Franklin to procure for him a passport from the Count Vergennes to enable him to visit Paris. In April, 1782, our adroit diplomatist succeeded in getting his old friend Richard Oswald appointed by Lord Shelburne, home and colonial secretary, to begin negotiations for peace. Franklin presented Oswald to Ver- gennes and shrewdl}" remained during the entire conference. The same presentation took place when Foreign Secretary Fox sent over Thomas Grenville to negotiate a treaty- between France and England, Franklin being present at the first and at repeated conferences. Finding Grenville less pliable than Oswald, the American, more cunning than the British Fox, succeeded in getting Oswald appointed the chief negotiator of the British gov- ernment. With the English agents and their assistants largely of his own selection and with Vergennes in as confidential relations with him as the chief minister of another government could honorably be, our first and greatest di]ilomatist was prepared to proceed to serious conclusions. Again writing Jay to render himself in Paris as soon as possible, TO THE MISSISSIPPI 39 he presented his colleague the day after his arrival, to Vergennes, who received hini very cordially. This pure patriot and methodical and upright man, curbed somewhat the impetuous Franklin, who, like other great men, had a dislike for delays and a distaste for details. Jay was cautious, high- toned, firm and precise. Keeping in view the time employed and labor bestowed, Franklin and Jay were the two chief American negotiators. Mr. Adams did not visit his colleague Franklin, who was ill, until three days after his arrival. He did not pay his respects to the French minister of foreign affairs, who in a large sense held the destinies of America in his hands, until November 10, just fifteen days after he reached Paris. The magnanimous Vergennes, instead of resenting the slight, invited Adams to dine on the day that he called, gave him the seat of honor at the table and in other ways treated him with uncommon respect. Our tardy commissioner continued to accept the hospitalities of the generous minister, which he re- warded by giving currency to the suspicion that Vergennes had betrayed a cause to which he had given and was giving ultimate success in both war and peace. As an honorable peace is usuall}^ brought about by nations at war through honorable men, it seems fitting to discuss the high representatives of France, England and America who directed and wisely ended this great negotiation. Of these epoch-making men our own rare Ben Franklin 4(3 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE should undoubtedly be ranked first. He bad been for half a lifetime the agent abroad of one, three, or all, the American colonies. Franklin knew both Europe and America. He had courageously faced the enemies of his country, headed by Wedderburn and others, before the bar of the House of Com- mons ; and he had grappled its friends to his heart with anns of tenderness and strength. France received him as the conqueror of the lightning and of tyrants. Europe revered him as the greatest living scientist, philosopher and sage. He had reached the full maturity of wordly wis- dom. He had the tact of a Metternich and the adroitness of a Talleyrand. Is it strange then that as a cat plays with a captured mouse, he should toss about and dominate at will, Oswald, Hartley, Grenville, Fitzherbert, Strachey and all the under- strappers of the British foreign office? In short, Franklin got into the two treaties the Mississippi, the fisheries and all he was instructed to get in and with Oswald's consent, would have added Canada, if Jay and Adams had supported him in a claim so savoring of audacity. COUNT DE VERGENNES. As the personal equation can never be eliminated from aifairs of government, the wise, patient, well- poised Vergennes is the next most potent person- ality to consider. In 1782-3, Vergennes was France and France was Vergennes. As strong men ad- mire strength in others, this statesman's love of TO THE MISSISSIPPI 41 Franklin and his cause and desire to cripple Eng- land at the opportune time, led him to form the two generous treaties of amity and alliance in 1778; to advance to the struggling colonies 40,- 000,000 francs ; to send over to our aid De Grasse, Rochambeau and about 15,000 sailors and soldiers ; to recognize our sovereignty and independence earliest, and when triumph came after the com- bined French and American assaults on Yorktown, to take the first firm steps towards a permanent peace. Vergennes agreed to make and did make a peace treaty of even date witli Great Britain, keeping pace with our own negotiations, even after he was coolly informed that a secret treaty was about to be sent to America, the terms of which were to be withheld from him. On this disregard of instructions from the American Government and impeachment of his own good faith, Ver- gennes' wounded feelings find dignified utterance in a note to Franklin. In his reply, although ex- cusing a breach of diplomatic procedure which he himself opposed, our cunning moralist rises to an elevation of diction and graceful speech of unsur- passable felicities. Yet this slight did not deter the forgiving French minister from supporting the Mississippi boundary, the fisheries and all other controverted claims of both the preliminary and final treaty. In the clearer historic light of to-day, the sus- picions of Adams and Jay must give way to facts. An unbroken series of unmistakable acts, events and results are worth a thousand ''suspicions." 42 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE The end crowns all. The truth is, that until the day of his death, in 1787, Vergennes was as true to this Country as his duty to his own king and country' permitted him to be. If Vergennes sold us out, we, not England or Spain, got the profits of the sale. If with his alleged duplicitj^ we got all we asked for, what more could we have gotten if he had been blunt and sincere? In the accusations against Rear Admiral Schley we seem to have the Vergennes case over again. Measured by triumphant results, the French diplo- matist and the American hero each did the best possible. But against each it is charged that if he had not done this, that or the other thing, re- sults would have been better than the best possible. Vergennes was a minister of peace who may sleep calmly amid the enduring fragrance and repose of his many peace-restoring treaties.* LOED SHELBURNE. This British statesman was the friend of Amer- ica when America needed friends most. For this, tlie implacable George III once said that he dis- liked him as much as he did Alderman Wilkes. In Februaiy, 1782, Shelburae voted with the oppo- * Since giving expression to this favorable view of Ver- gennes, I find my high estimate is more than sustained by Henri Doniol in his Histoire De La Participation De La France A L'Etahlissement Des Etats-Unis D'Amvrique. This monumental work, published by authority of the French Gov- ernment, should be translated and republished by our Govern- ment, as it relates to what is most vital in our national his- tory. A noble portrait of Cojite de Vergennes adorns volume one. TO THE MISSISSIPPI 43 sition to Lord North when they carried a reso- lution through the House of Commons, declaring that those who advise prolonging the war with America were enemies of their country. In March, when the King was compelled to call upon Lord Shelburne to form a cabinet, the latter unselfishly advised that Lord Rockingham be made premier and himself took the modest post of home and colonial secretary. The leader of the Rockingham Whigs having died on July 1, 1782, just three months after he assumed control of the new ministry, Lord Shel- burne became Prime Minister and soon honorably and amicably concluded the Preliminary Treaty of peace with America. This he deliberately did at a sacrifice, as he feared, and as it proved, of his high ofiice. The Earl of Shelburne has been blindly accused of duplicity, but results speak for themselves and amply vindicate him. From first to last he favored such liberal terms for our treaty commissioners that the British Parliament would not sanction his liberality and he was exiled from power. Although supported by Edmund Burke, this friend of the great Lord Chatham and patron of William Pitt, was driven from office by the enemies of our country, aided by its pretended friends. Charles James Fox, the prolix orator and re- versible politician, formed an ill-timed and ill- famed combination with Lord North, that odious tool of early Revolutionary tyranny. This wretched office-getting union of old and long-time 44 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE political adversaries was compelled, within a year, by the sober sense of the English people, to ratify the very terms of a treaty, which the combine had voted the Shelburne cabinet out of power for ap- ]n'oving. The historian Lecky says of this friend of our country: "He bore a long exclusion from office with great dignitj' and calm, and no part of his public career appears to have been influenced by any sordid desire of emolument, title or place. ' ' The cause which made Lord Shelburne unpopular in England should have tlie opposite effect here. True Americans, stand by your Nation's friends! EGBERT R. LIVINGSTON. Franklin, Vergennes, Shelburne and Livingston were the four government agents, clothed with power, that brought about the first and final treaties of 1782-1783. Livingston was the equal of John Adams as an able and convincing logician without the angular and obstinate bluntness of Adams. He was the superior of Jay as a man of affairs and in a rugged strength of understanding. Robert R. Livingston, the first in achievement of the six dis- tinguished members of this remarkable family, was elected to the Continental Congress in April, 1775. Serving on many important committees, he sensed from June 11, 1776, to July 4, on the committee of five whose deliberations and conclusions gave the reasons, rhetorically set forth by Mr. Jefferson, for the Declaration of Independence. On x\ugust 10, 1781, he was elected by Congress Secretary of TO THE MISSISSIPPI 45 Foreign Affairs and in the discharge of the most delicate diplomatic duties, exhibited talents and aptitude of the highest order. In Secretary Livingston 's instructions to Frank- lin, dated January 7, 1782, are embodied in the most argumentative and exact form the American claim for the Mississippi as our boundary line, and for other much-desired concessions, that can any- where be found. He says, I believe, ' ' that our ex- tension to the Mississippi is founded in justice, and that our claims are at least such as the events of the war gave us the right to insist upon. ' ' He followed with the keenest watchfulness each step in the negotiations for a peace with honor and when untold benefits to his country were unques- tionably assured, this patriot resigned his high post to become first chancellor of the State of New York. FEEE NAVIGATION, The high ground taken, fortified and rendered impregnable by Livingston and his three able Commissioners in Paris, had been occupied before by far-seeing men. The old Treaty of 1763 had guarantied to the subjects of France and Great Britain the right to free navigation of the Missis- sippi, "in its whole breadth and length from its source to tlie sea. ' ' The first American statesman whose clear vision seems to have discerned the value to this country of this region was Alex- ander Hamilton. In his works, published by the Putnams and edited by Senator Lodge, we find on page 28, Vol. 1, these sentiments: "The farmer, 46 TEE LOUISIANA PURCHASE I am inclined to hope, builds too much on the present disunion of Canada, Georgia, the Floridas, the Mississippi and Nova Scotia, from other col- onies. A little time, I tnist, will awaken them to a proper sense of their indiscretion. I please my- self with the flattering prospect that they will ere long unite in one indissoluble chain with the rest of the colonies." This is from **A Full Vindica- tion" of the measures of Congress, in answer to the calumnies of a AYestchester Fanner, published in December, 1774. On page 18 of same volume is a pertinent paragraph by this youth of seventeen, too wisely iDrophetic at so early a date, to be passed by: "If, by the necessity" of the thing, manufac- tures should once establish and take root among us, they will pave the way still more to the future grandeur and glory of America." The practical business sagacity of the great Washington led him to increase his quota of money in what he calls the "Mississippi Adventure." He attends the meet- ings of a company in 1763, 1765, 1767, and in March, 1773, he sends his tenant, James Wood, as an agent to locate lands "as high up the Mississippi as the navigation is good, having been infonned that the lands are better and the climate more tem- perate in the northern parts of the government than below." Wood was not successful. Until 1781 all business relating to foreign and financial aifairs was transacted through commit- tees of Congress. On September 26, 1776, a com- mittee consisting of Gouverneur Morris, R. H. Lee, G. Wvthe and John Adams were instructed to draw TO THE MISSISSIPPI 47 up and report to Congress a set of instructions for tlie commissioners about to be sent abroad. This committee prepared instructions of vast import- ance, drawn no doubt by the brilliant Morris, whose later instructions to our minister in Spain and to Franklin in Paris were accepted by Congress with slight change and "became the basis of the treaty (1782) by which we finally won peace." In sup- port of the high authority of President Roosevelt, whose w^ords we have just quoted, we may add that the secret journals of Congress prove that "the middle of the River Mississippi" boundary line was first publicly claimed by this statesman. After much backing and filling on this question by Congress, clear cut and well defined instruc- tions were at lengtli agreed upon, October 4, 1780, and sent, October 17, to John Jay, then at Madrid. These came from a new committee, of which James Madison was chairman. They were presumably from the clear brain and persuasive pen of Mr. Madison, and are in his earlier and best style. Not only the western line, but the free navigation of the Mississippi are insisted upon, and the rea- sons for the claims are amplified and argued with resistless logic and force. Congress receded slight- ly in May, 1781, from the high stand taken in this strong state paper, but Secretary Livingston ever after referred to it as the basis of subsequent instructions relating to a penoaanent peace. For their enlightened acts and utterances after 1783 other American statesmen will receive merited rec- ognition. CHAPTER lY. THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF SPANISH RULE IN LOUISIANA. FROM 1784 TO 1789 — DISTURBED RELATIONS WITH THE WEST. THE definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain, concluded September 3, 1783, was so favorable to the United States that it was unanimously ratified by the Congress of the Confederation January 14, 1784, and im- mediately proclaimed. The foreign relations of the confederation government, during the eight years of its feeble existence, being conducted by the many states acting as one state, were success- fully managed. After the peace, Franklin com- ments much on the continuing cordiality of the court of France. Both Vergennes and Luzerne, his most tinisted minister, in numerous letters, pub- lished and unpublished, express their great grati- fication that the L^nited States was able to secure from England such satisfactory terms. George III, with unconcealed reluctance, fixed his signa- ture to England's ratification on xVpril 9, 1784. During the period from peace to good govern- ment under the hero of the Revolution, who is also the hero of the ages, some of the most significant events in our territorial history occurred in Ken- 48 SPANISH RULE IN LOUISIANA 49 tuclvy, Tennessee and in lower Louisiana. Spain refused to accept tlie British and American con- struction of the Treaties of 1782 and 1783, which were identical. Having acquired West Florida before the cession, by conquest, she continued to hold the disputed Natchez district until 1795. Con- trolling both sides of the lower Mississippi, the free navigation of that river was denied the west- ern Americans living on its banks and its tribu- taries. The latter thought it was their God-given highway to the sea and to civilization. John Jay, our Secretary of Foreign Affairs after Livingston, finding that Spain would not yield this point with- out war, was willing in 1786 to waive the free nav- igation for twenty-five years ; but Congress, wiser than Jay, declined to yield. However, while re- fusing to abandon their treaty rights. Congress was in no position to enforce them. The first line of policy pursued by Governor Estevan Miro, who succeeded the gallant Galvez in 1785, was to array all the Indian tribes within reach against the west- erners, and then tlirough these savage allies to promote the aggrandizement of Spain. Following that successful soldier and able ad- ministrator, Galvez, to his new elevation as viceroy of Mexico, we find that, with the aid of his beauti- ful and benevolent Louisiana wife, he ruled mildly but absolutely over the Mexicans for ten years, gaining thereby extraordinary j^opularity and last- ing renown. Galvez built a costly palace on the Rock of Chapultepec, which grew to be a castle or fortress of formidable strength. It was captured 50 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE by General Winfield Scott just before that hero entered the City of Mexico in 1847. The memory of this meritorious Spaniard has been perpetuated by the Texas city that has risen so recently from its watery grave. His death at thirty-eight was greatly deplored. Eecurring to events on the Mississippi, it ap- pears extremely probable that the first suggestion of a union of Indian tribes and Spaniards to bring about a separation of the Western territories from the rest of the states, came from the Creek Indian chief with the Scotch name of ]\IcGillivray. This ambitious savage of fascinating personality was the son of a Scotchman of high mentality and a high-bred Indian princess. Uniting some of the worst and best qualities of his ancestors, this war- rior, while not a statesman of the forest like Pon- tiac, or a gentleman in war paint like Tecumseh, had a high capacity to kill and a prophetic fore- knowledge of things to come. He saw, before Aranda, Navarro and Miro did, that Spaniards or Americans must dominate this continent. He was a number one expert in treachery" and a human bloodhound in pursuit. James Eobertson, his brave Tennessee antagonist, described McGillivray and the situation when he said: ''The Spaniards are inspired by the devil ; the Creeks by the devil and the Spaniards ; and the worst devil in human foiTH is the Creek chief, McGillivray." This en- terprising savage gathered the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and many other Indian chiefs into an assemblage at Pensacola, which he called a con- SPANISH RULE IN LOUISIANA 51 gress. This meeting was dignified by the attend- ance of Governor Miro. The highest Spanish of- ficials and their families attended with the chiefs, social or public entertainments, where the painted savages excelled even the whites in their flatteries by insisting that all the beautiful ladies present were sisters and had descended from heaven. Mc- Gillivray 's zeal was made active by a bribe or pen- sion of fiftj^ dollars per month, and other chiefs came in for the usual presents. After spending three hundred thousand dollars to win over the aborigines, we are prejjared to believe that all at least who had received rich presents were ready to declare on all occasions, whether drunk or sober, that they had "Spanish hearts" in their breasts and scalping knives in their belts for the Amer- icans ! The civil and military governor of Louisiana, while adroitly placating and uniting the Indians, did not neglect religious and other less important concerns. In his proclamation of 1786 he exhorts the faithful Catholics to attend the celebration of the holy mysteries ; to abstain from work on sacred days; to close shop doors and prevent the slaves from dancing on the public squares before the end of evening service ; he forbids females of color to wear on their heads any plumes or jewelry, but to have their hair bound in a kerchief ; inhabitants of the city are forbidden to leave it either by land or water without a passport ; the verbal sales of slaves are forbidden. During this year the revenues from exports and imports at New Orleans amounted to 52 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE seventy-two thousand dollars. In February, 1787, Navarro, the intendent of the province, wrote to Spain: ''The powerful enemies we have to fear in this province are not the English, but the Amer- icans, whom we must oppose by active and suffi- cient measures." And this official wisely adds by way of advice, which was not followed: "The only way to check them is with a proportionate population, and it is not by imposing commercial restrictions that this population is to be acquired, but by granting a prudent extension and freedom of trade." The trade with the Indians was largely increased by means of a loose liberality toward them, but the moribund Charles III of Spain was disposed to draw the line of virtual prohibition on up-river Americans. While the commerce of the developing regions of Tennessee and Kentucky was expanding yearly the Spanish duties, extortions and exactions were doubled. New customs officers and military forces had been placed at Natchez and New Madrid. Trade restrictions and impositions upon river traffic were fast becoming unbearable. Confisca- tions of vessels and cargoes and the imprisonment of officers and crews were not infrequent. The victims of these recurring outrages, if so fortu- nate as to escape from custody, wandered back to their settlements, penniless, hungry- and in rags. A feeling of general indignation took posses- sion of the pioneers of the Kentucky and Cum- berland valleys. A militaiy invasion of lower Louisiana and the forcible seizure of Natchez and SPANISH RULE IN LOUISIANA 53 New Orleans were mucli discussed. The emer- gency called forth a leader of abilih^ and audacity in the person of a daring but disgruntled soldier of the Revolution. Colonel James Wilkinson, born in Maryland, had been with Arnold at Quebec ; was adjutant general on the staff of Horatio Gates, with whom he quarreled when Gates was Secretary of the Board of War, and later, was "clothier gen- eral" of the ill-clad Revolutionary army. Wilkin- son in 1787, being then a peaceful Kentucky mer- chant, casting about to find some solution for the practical nonintercourse problem, proceeded down the Mississippi with four boatloads of flour, to- bacco and other merchandise. The first obstruc- tion he encountered was Gayoso de Lemos, the Spanish commander at Natchez, who, after mu- tual hospitalities, was so impressed with the rank and importance of the American officer, that he consigned his cargo and supercargo, free from detention and dutv^, to his official superior at New Orleans. Wilkinson's fine bearing and address would have enabled him, without an introduction, to have reached Governor Miro, who, in finesse, was more than his equal. Both men saw instinc- tively that they had nothing to gain by engaging in the dangerous and doubtful game of war. Hos- pitality due to an American soldier of rank was the first m.ove by Miro in the play of diplomacy. Wines of the best vintage of Spain and Portugal contributed greatly to the progress of the intrigue. By the time the cognac and cigars were reached his excellency could see no reason why laws or 54 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE customs regulations should stand between friends. Colonel Wilkinson, being such an uncommonly good fellow, was at once given the freedom of the city, of the port and of the entire Mississippi River. His four cargoes of goods were landed free of all duty and all charges. More than this, future free trade was then and there declared between Louis- iana and this particular Kentucky colonel. Whether the three thousand dollar Spanish loan or the five thousand dollars conceded to be paid for bribing others or the larger sums asked for to se- duce Muter, Marshall and other high officials from allegiance to their Country, were transactions com- pleted at the first or second visit, cannot be affirmed. But the second being i^rolonged through the hot months of June, July and August and far into September, was perhaps most fruitful in re- sults and corruptions. The '' clothier general" returned to the country he had dishonored, by the Immaculate Conception river of the saintly Mar- quette, rich in available funds and opulent in an- ticipated glory. Wilkinson spent the years 1787-8 in writing letters directly or indirectly to Charles III of Spain, so self-convicting, so explanatory of explanations and so intenninable in length that the efforts to read them may have shortened his majesty's life, which ended in December, 1788. A few extracts from this disgraceful correspondence, found in the Spanish archives, fully justify the strictures in our narrative. Governor Miro, on January 8, 1788, in a dis- patch to Spain's minister of state, says: "The SPANISH RULE IN LOUISIANA 55 delivering up of Kentucky into bis majesty's hands, which is the main object to which Wilkin- son has promised to devote himself entirely, would forever constitute this province a rampart for the protection of New Spain." In April Wilkinson writes Miro: "I beg you to be easy and to be satisfied that nothing shall deter me from attending exclusively to the object we have on hand, and I am convinced that the suc- cess of our plan will depend on the disposition of the court." On May 15 the plotter introduces to Miro and Navarro ''My dear and venerable sirs," his friend, Major Isaac Dunn, as "a fit auxiliary in the execution of our political designs, which he has embraced with cordiality." On January 1, 1789, he writes to Miro that before the new con- gress can do anything to frustrate their schemes, "we shall have become too strong to be subjected by any force which may be sent against us. ' ' Writing to the Spanish governor February 14, 1789, Wilkinson reveals his true colors when speak- ing of Mr. Brown, a young man without experi- ence, sent as a delegate to Congress : ' ' Neverthe- less, as he firmly perseveres in his adherence to our interests, we have sent him to the new Con- gress, apparently as our representative, but in reality as a spy on the actions of that body. I would myself have undertaken that charge, but I did not for two reasons: First, my presence was necessary here ; and next, I should have found my- self under the obligation of swearing to support the new government, which I am in duty bound to 56 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE oppose." Such being a minor part of the dread- fully insinuating and criminally compromising record of Wilkinson, how long could such a com- forter of his country's enemies have kept his head on his shoulders under any strict government like that of Elizabeth of England? Possibly forty- eight hours. Yuiat would have been done with him under the absolute rule of Napoleon I"? He would have been promptlj^ tried and as promptly shot ! And yet this bribe-giver and bribe-receiver, who was twice court-martialed, was spared to plot against the dismemberment of the republic with Aaron Burr, "that first of American reprobates." It is but just to our authorities to say that neither in 1796, when Wilkinson became the head of the army, nor in 1806, when he escaped punishment for treason with Burr, was there a scintilla of the evidence known to the officers of the law that has been since recovered from the archives of Spain. It is more difficult to reach a just conclusion concerning the varying course of action of that hardiest of frontiersman, John Sevier. He had fought bravely and worked laboriously to settle the Watauga region, between the Cumberland and Alleghany Mountains. In 1784 North Carolina agreed to cede twenty-nine million acres lying be- tween their own mountain boundary and the Mis- sissippi to the general government. To be thus cast off by the parent state aroused a feeling of unrest and rebellious discontent. A convention presided over by Sevier met at Jonesboro and de- cided to form a government for themselves. They SPANISH RULE IN LOUISIANA 57 properly appealed to Congress for advice as to a suitable constitution. North Carolina took alarm and annulled tlie act of cession. The governor of the State commissioned Sevier to restore the reign of order and law, which he did with wise discretion and perfect good faith. In 1785 a second move- ment in favor of independence became so strong that even Sevier was carried along with it. The people of Holston, numbering in all about twenty- five thousand, sent representatives to Greenville, which they called their capital, and elected John Sevier their governor. They proposed to extend their territory to the bend of the Tennessee and include about one-third of what is now Kentucky. The recognition asked for from Congress was not forthcoming. Congress desired the North Caro- lina cession renewed so as to bring the separate territory under federal control. The State de- clined. Sevier held that the State could not revoke the first act of cession. An attempt to gain the influence and support of Benjamin Franklin by naming the proposed State Frankland or Franklin, signally failed. Virginia got excited over these events, but Congress kept cool. This trouble and the inability to enforce two Indian treaties caused General Washington to utter a timely word of wis- dom: "That experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good, without the intei'vention of a coercive power." Meanwhile the Franklin settlers were fighting both Indians and each other. This could not last. In 58 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE May, 1787, Governor Caswell of Xorth Carolina issued a mild but finn proclamation, and Sevier's territorial government of Franklin was at an end. ' ' The ultimatum of Spain had been brought to Philadelphia in May, 1785, by Diego de Gardoqui, her minister. It was that the free navigation of the lower Mississippi would not be surrendered. Madison expressed the prevailing thought when he said: ''We must bear with Spain for awhile." Washington showed his usual foresight when, in June, 1785, he wrote to Marbois: "The emigra- tion to the waters of the Mississippi is astonish- ingly great, and chiefly of a description of people who are not veiy subordinate to the law and con- stitution of the State they go from. Whether the prohibition, therefore, of the Spaniards is just or unjust, politic or impolitic, it will be with difficulty that people of this class can be restrained in the enjoyment of natural advantages." The discus- sions for the next two years in the Congress at Philadelphia were too much along sectional lines to be edifying or instructive. The more judicious did not care for sections, half sections or quarter sections. But all at last, including Jay, wanted the entire navigation by treat^^ or by force. Gar- dequi and Miro were working at cross purposes and at the end of 1788, at odds. Miro 's chief sup- ports were Wilkinson and McGillivray, and both had failed him. The man who had long tried to detach Kentucky from the Union collapsed when the young patriot, Andrew Jackson, brought to Tennessee the glorious tidings that the constitution SPANISH RULE IN LOUISIANA 59 under which we now live and prosper had been ratified, and that disorder and disintegration were at an end. A general census, ordered in 1788, shows the following distribution of population: LOWER LOUISIANA. New Orleans 5338 To the Balize 2378 Terre Aux Beufs 661 Bayous St. John and Gentilly. . . . 772 Barrataria 40 Tchoupitoulas Parish 7589 Parish of St. Charles 2381 St. John Baptist 1368 St. James • 1551 La Fourche 1164 La Fourche Interior 1500 Iberville 944 Point Coupee Parish 2004 Oppelousas 1985 Attakapas 2541 New Iberia 190 Washita 232 Rapides 147 Avoyelles 209 Natchitoches 1021 Arkansas settlements 119 UPPER LOUISIANA. St. Louis ^ 1197 St. Genevieve 896 60 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE WEST FLORIDA. Manchac and Galveston 552 Baton Kouge 682 Feliciana 730 Xatchez 2679 Mobile 1468 Pensacola 265 Aggregate population 42,611 Being an increase cf ten thousand in three years. About twenty thousand of these were white inhab- itants. The settlements in Kentucky and Tennessee had in 1788 a population of eight}' thousand. It should be borne in mind that when that vast region called Louisiana was divided into nine dis- tricts in 1723, not only Missouri, but what is now Kansas, Iowa and much more territoiy, belonged to the district of Illinois. This district was first in extent and second in population. Fort Chartres was the chief place and first seat of justice. The next clief-lieu of the district was St. Louis, to which the transfer was comjileted of civil officers and troops on October 10, 1765. Twenty years later came the year of the great waters. The flood of 1785, like those of 1844 and 1851, invaded Main street, a part of which became navigable for ca- noes. The first settlement of Ohio began at Mari- etta in 1788, the year that the capable governor, Manuel Perez, succeeds his worthy predecessor, Commandant General Crazat, at the St. Louis mil- itarj^ fortification and civil capital. SPANISH RULE IN LOUISIANA 61 A notable reference to the subject so generally discussed prior to 1789 may fitly close our relation, and is found in a letter from Thomas Jefferson, dated Paris, January 25, 1786: "Our confederacy must be viewed as the nest from which all America, North and South, is to be peopled. We should take care, too, not to think it for the interest of that great continent to press too soon on the Spaniards. Those countries can- not be in better hands. My fear is that they are too feeble to hold them till our population can be sufficiently advanced to gain it from them piece by piece. The navigation of the Mississippi we must have. This is all we are as yet ready to re- ceive." CHAPTER V. THE FIRST PRESIDENT. steps to secure free navigation. — this great government's real beginning. IN a technical sense constitutional government under our benign supreme law of the land, dates from March 4, 1789. In an actual sense the salutary supremacy of the consti- tution, to use the words of Washington, was not felt until after April 30, 1789, the day when the hero or heroes took the oath of office under Chan- cellor Livingston at the corner of Broad and Wall streets, New York. The laggard patriots of the House of Represen- tatives found present a bare quorum of thirty mem- bers on April 1. On April 6 enough of the loiter- ing Senators arrived to enable the First Congress to organize and proceed to the business of inaug- urating the first chief of state. Prior to the first President's departure from Mt. Vernon he learned that sinister schemes on the part of Great Britain and Spain threatened the internal peace of the Union. The Spanish authorities at New Orleans long held out as a bait the free navigation of the ^lississippi, to the up-river inhabitants if they would cut loose from the United States. Lord Dor- chester, governor general of Canada, was suspected 63 THE FIRST PRESIDENT 63 of promising a helping band to the frontiersmen who might feel disposed to seize New Orleans. Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, gave the British agent in New York to understand that he might dismiss all fears about having a stable administration to deal with. The Republic was now able to protect and control the governed. A government by supplication, a political monstros- ity with thirteen heads, had passed forever away. North Carolina came into the Union in Novem- ber, 1789, and on February 25, 1790, the State ceded to the United States the territory now known as Tennessee. None of the thirty thousand inhab- itants made known their wishes concerning this change for the better. The dignified William Blount, of North Carolina, became first territorial governor in October, 1790. Our hardy old heroes, Robertson and Sevier, having obtained forgiveness for their sins of indiscretion and rashness, were made generals commanding the Eastern and West- em military districts. Soon after Washington came into office he found that the Southwestern Indians were disposed to give much trouble. He endeavored to make peace with the Creek Indians and with other tribes, but learned that the troublesome chief, Alexander Mc- Gillivray, ever stood in the way. As a last resort this dangerous and treacherous half breed was in- vited to visit New York, the temporary capital, in hope that his bloody-mindedness might be molli- fied by some pecuniary consolation. With twenty-eight of his chief warriors in his 64 TRE LOUISIANA PURCHASE train this feather-bedecked and paint-coated savage was received on his route with royal liber- ality and distinction. The Tammany Society, of New York, which Aaron Burr had recently organ- ized, tried to impress the forest chiefs with their own semi-savage paraphernalia and bogus Indian toggery, but the genuine child of the forest gave only the guttural grunt of contempt for such shams. When this Scotch freebooter or land pirate got down to business it was found that all he wanted was a monopoly of furnishing the sup- plies to the Creeks ; one hundred thousand dollars for tlie alleged confiscation of his lands in Georgia, and the pay and rank of a brigadier general in the United States army, for life. While this almost equaled the Algerine pirates in the direction of levying blackmail, the govern- ment commissioners recommended compliance with the stand-and-deliver demands, so anxious were our border settlers to be saved from the hor- rors of prolonged Indian wars. A treaty with this chief gave us all the territoiy north and east of the Oconee River in Georgia. While promising to place his tribe under our protection, this double deceiver was at this precise time in the pay of Spain and Great Britain. The red-skinned rascal so played upon the sympathies of General Knox and even Washington, that the latter gave the Creek chief a pair of his epaulets and some books, the latter doubtless intended for his moral elevation. It is gravely related that on more than one spectacular or war-path occasion THE FIRST PRESIDENT 65 this thrifty diplomatist of the wilderness would don a scarlet red British uniform and General Washington's epaulets, which, with his Spanish cocked hat and paint-smeared face, presented a sight never to be forgotten by gods or men! x\t this time— 1790— Wilkinson, a once formidable en- emy of National supremacy, was whining: "My situation is extremely painful, since, abhorring du- plicity, I must dissemble." If he had said, since ' ' doting on duplicity, I am forced to the wall, ' ' he would have approached nearer the truth. His duf)es, except Sebastian, had deserted him and Governor Miro was about to pension another traitor to watch him. ATTITUDE OF AMEEICANS. In presenting next in our narrative history, the facts of record, it seems fairest to let each cabinet officer and public man make known himself his at- titude on the extension of our territory. On July 11, 1790, Jefferson, referring to the spirited prep- arations of England now seemingly bent on war with Spain, writes to James Monroe: "Other symptoms indicate a general design on all Louisi- ana and the two Floridas. What a tremendous position would success in these objects place us in! Embraced from the St. Croix to St. Mary's on the one side by their possessions, on the other by their fleet, we need not hesitate to say that they would soon find means to unite to them all the ter- ritory covered by the ramifications of the Missis- sippi. ' ' 5 66 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE Just one month later, President Washington writes to Lafayette : ' ' Gradually advancing in our task of civil government, unentangled in the crooked politics of Europe, wanting scarcely any- thing but the full navigation of the Mississippi (which we must have and as certainly shall have as we remain a nation), I have supposed that, with the undeviating exercise of a just, steady and pru- dent National policy, we shall be the gainers, whether the powers of the Old World may be in peace or war, but more especially in the latter case. * * * Should a war take place between Great Britain and Spain, I conceive, from a great variety of concurring circumstances, there is the highest probabilit}^ that the Floridas will soon be in the possession of the former." In tlie same letter, Washington advises Sjjain to be wise and liberal at once and annihilate all cause of difference be- tween that nation and his own. On August 2, 1790, the Secretary of State, in- structed by the cabinet, wrote to Carmichael at Madrid: "With this information, written and oral, you will be enabled to meet the minister in conversations on the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi, to which we wish you to lead his attention immediately. Impress him thoroughly with the necessity of an early and even an immedi- ate settlement of this matter of a return to the field of negotiation for this purpose; and though it must be done delicately, yet he must be made to understand unequivocally, that a resumption of the negotiation is not desired on our part, unless THE FIRST PRESIDENT 67 he can determine, in the first opening of it, to yield the immediate and full enjoyment of that naviga- tion. * * * It is impossible to answer for the forbearance of our Western citizens. We endeavor to quiet them with the expectation of an attain- ment of their rights by peaceable means. But should they, in a moment of impatience, hazaid others, there is no saying how far we may be led ; for neither themselves nor their rights will ever be abandoned by us. ' ' This peremptory language was to be used in case the threatened war between Great Britain and Spain assumed a grave aspect. A milder tone was to be employed if it was averted and Spain still remained in a position to successfully resist our demands by force. William Pitt was using strong expressions to induce Spain to submit to us, but so long as the expectation existed that the "fam- ily compact" would make an ally of France against England, the latter 's influence was not sersdceable to us. However, when Lord Dorches- ter's request came for the privilege to transfer the British troops over our territory to attack the Spaniards in Louisiana, in the event of war, Washington was disposed to grant the request. On this subject, Hamilton reported September 15, 1790: "The conduct of Spain toward us pre- sents a picture far less favorable. The direct aid we received from her during the war was incon- siderable compared with her faculty of aiding us. She refrained from acknowledging our independ- ence ; has never acceded to the treaty of commerce ^ 68 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE made witli France, though a right of doing so was resented to her, nor made any other treaty with us ; she lias maintained possessions within our acknowl- edged limits without our consent; she persever- ingly obstructs our sharing in the navigation of the Mississippi, though it is a privilege essential to us, and to which we consider ourselves as hav- ing an indisputable title. * * * "An increase of the means of annoying us in the same hands is a certain ill consequence of the acquisition of the Floridas and Louisiana by the British. This will result not only from contiguity to a greater part of our territory, but from the in- creased facility of acquiring undivided influence over all the Indian tribes inhabiting within the borders of the United States. Additional danger of the dismemberment of the Western country is another ill consequence to be apprehended from that acquisition. * * * An explicit recognition of our right to navigate the Mississippi to and from the ocean, with the possession of New Orleans, would greatly mitigate the causes of apprehension from the conquest of the Floridas by the British. * * * The Western posts on one side and the navigation of the Mississippi on the other, call for a vigilant attention to what is going on. They are both of importance. The securing of the latter may be regarded in its consequences as essential to the unity of the empire. * * * ^q ought not to leave in the possession of any foreign power the territories at the mouth of the Mississippi, which are to be regarded as the key to it." THE FIRST PRESIDENT 69 William Carmichael wrote from Madrid, Janu- ary 24, 1791 : ' ' This govermnent is weak ; the min- istry is in a ticklish situation; the queen governs and governs with caprice ; the people begin to dis- pute their sovereigns; and although they have no chiefs to look up to, the dissatisfaction is general. ' ' Count de Campomanes at this time expressed the enlightened opinion, ''that it is the interest of his country to form liberal and lasting connections with the United States." AFFAIES WITH ENGLAND. Our affairs with England during the first term of Washington were as little satisfactory as were our unsettled disputes with Spain. Hammond, the first accredited British minister, had apparently been sent over to wrangle, spy and palaver and thus delay the inevitable day for the evacuation of the British posts. He and Jefferson rehearsed for about the fifth time each, how the country of the other had been guilty of the first infractions of the peace treaty and the criminations and recrimina- tions lowered somewhat the diplomatic dignity of both men. The fact that Virginians owed Eng- land about ten million dollars of ante bellum war debts was a sore point with the Secretary of State, and to inflict a return blow he bluntly charged that the British were indirectly responsible for all the Indian raids and massacres that had happened during and since the Revolutionary War. The dignified and scholarly Thomas Pinckney showed a better temper in London, although his mission 70 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE was at first barren of results. But four years later this ablest of the four historic Pinckneys cleverly negotiated our first and most important treaty with Spain, the wise Treaty of 1795. During the whole of Washington's first four years he was harassed by the fierce hostilities of the Indians. The Wabash tribes and their allies in the Northwest at this time numbered about thirty thousand. They defeated Brigadier-Gen- eral Harmar and Major-General Arthur St. Clair with serious loss to the Americans. These two officers, who were not sufficiently cautious and wary, encountered superior forces of more expe- rienced fighters, who were better led. The poli- ticians who blamed General Knox for these reverses would themselves probably have done worse. They certainly could not have done bet- ter than when Washington and Knox organized victory a little later under the "warrior who never sleeps," the dashing Major-General Anthony Wayne. The Southwestern Indians, who were more numerous, were encouraged to commit depreda- tions and go on forays by Governor Miro, other Spanish and perhaps some British agents. Still, the revengeful Chickamaugas, the Creeks and the Cherokees did not require much encouragement to kill, which was their chief occupation. In Ken- tucky, which became a State in the Union in 1792, tlie great abilities of Governor Isaac Shelby were taxed to the utmost to repel the Indian marauders and thwart the schemes of the irrepressible Wil- TEE FIRST PRESIDENT 71, kinson, who, for years after taking the oath of allegiance to the United States, carried Spanish pensions in his pocket and conducted treasonable corresiDondence with official agents of Spain. This unique scoundrel can fairly claim the second or third iDlace or niche in the American hall of ill fame with Arnold and Burr. In the Cumberland region the settlers were passing through the darkness that preceded the dawn of liberty and union. The Creek chief, McGillivray, being in 1792 under larger pay from the Spanish government than from ours, is again trying to unite all the Indian tribes against the Americans. In pursu- ance of this stimulating policy a party of two hundred Chickamaugas crossed the Tennessee Eiver and falling upon the more exposed settle- ments, butchered all but one of a family of ten persons, leaving them groaning, bleeding and expiring on the floor of the lonely frontier cabin. A child of six years, having the instinctive intel- ligence to conceal himself in the flue of the chim- ney, dropped down from his hiding place and stepping over the bloody bodies of father, mother, brothers and sisters, fled through the woods for two miles in the darkness of midnight to a haven of seeming safety. The horrible tale of this home- less and motherless child caused all the mothers of Tennessee to tremble and press their own babes closer to their breasts, since now at night the dreadful le cri de mort was often heard. Valentine Sevier, who fought with his renowned 72 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE brother, John, at King's Mountain, had three valiant sons who hastened to join General Robert- son and risk their lives to prevent atrocities that would have disgraced even the Natchez barbarians. These brave young men with others were rowing up the Cumberland Eiver to Nashville to proffer their services to Robertson. They had reached a sharp bend in this winding stream when an in- stantaneous discharge from a hundred Indian rifles killed the three nephews of John Sevier. But in the darkest of these dreadful pioneer days in Tennessee, the undaunted Robertson expressed the feeling of the other brave men battling against savage odds when he serenely said : ' ' We may be cut off in the struggle, but let us hold fast our faith, our innocence, our integritj^, our honor and our Government." An Indian's bullet tore through Robertson's arm from wrist to elbow, but still he would not lead his men into the enemy's country, because restrained by military orders from Philadelphia. Emboldened by the defensive attitude of the frontiersmen, seven hundred Creeks, Cherokee and Shawnee warriors attacked Buchanan's station, just four miles from Nashville, from which they were repulsed with heavy slaughter. Fifteen rifle- men, thirty women and forty children, made a defense of this fiercely assailed blockhouse, which for desperate courage and sagacious bravery equals any like defense found in the annals of heroism. The men reserved their fire until the Indians came within ten paces ; then having three THE FIRST PRESIDENT 73 rifles each, the women loaded their rifles, hand- ing them to the men loaded, so that a continuous fire was kept up, rendered more galling by a num- ber of the women, botli loading and firing with the men. The children were kept busy raising hats upon sticks before the most open port holes, which ruse drew the Indian fire. As certain death was the consequence of defeat, the price on each life was placed at the maximum rate. Castleman, Rains, Mrs. Buchanan, Joseph Brown and the relentless Robertson are the only undying names on record to preserve the memory of the most brilliant defense ever made against savage war- fare. Robertson snorted like the warhorse he was at the sound of battle and the boom of his one swivel gun warned the Indians that he -would be on them at daylight. They retreated with celerity, dragging their wounded and dead. To the philosophic reader the connection of all this with the acquisition of Louisiana is plain. Had not the Eastern tributaries of the Mississippi been reddened with the blood of brave men, and had not a line of States on the east side of that river been gained and retained through this bravery and loyalty and also by the firmness, fore- sight and wisdom of our first administration in preventing the Spanish from separating a large belt of territory from us on the settled side of the dividing river, we should not have gotten over to the unsettled west side so soon as we did. Far- reaching events are usually preceded by significant approaches to them. CHAPTER YI. WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM. LOUISIANA FKOM MARCH, 1793, TO 1797 — YOUNG NATION BESET BY ENEMIES. EVENTS and developments of large signifi- cance and far-reacliing importance made memorable the Presidency of Washing- ton. The public credit and whole finan- cial system of the United States was created by Hamilton from fiscal chaos and founded on a rock as solid and enduring as the earth we stand on. The pemianent seat of government was fixed. Political parties took their origin and adjusted themselves on lines of support or opposition to the policies of Washington. Vennont, Kentucky and Tennessee were admitted into the national Union. In April, 1793, the neutralit^^ proclamation proved the wisdom of the nation, like an indi- vidual, attending strict!}^ to its own business. The next^ year witnessed the ever-glorious victoiy of Anthon}' Wayne over the Indians at Fallen Tim- bers, and the suppression of the whisky insurgents in Pennsylvania. The Indian peace treaty of Greenville negotiated by Wayne; the Jay treatj'' with England and the Pinckney treaty with Spain, made the year 1795 a year to be remembered. 74 WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM 75 Less agreeable to remember is, tliat, in 1796, we paid the plundering Algerine pirates three-quar- ters of a million dollars for the ransom of pris- oners, for bribes and for the recognition of our consul. And all because the Oregon, the Olympia and the Brooklyn were not then afloat ! It is perhaps not widely known that the infant Eepublic had a desperate struggle to survive its infancy. The indisputable historic truth is that it was set upon and assailed by as evilly-designing a combination of enemies and as malign a concentra- tion of enmities, as ever assaulted the fairest polit- ical work of human hands. George III, down to the date of his insanity, entertained a deep-seated dislike for his disloyal American subjects. William Pitt, who had gone into office and out of office with Lord Shelburne, felt none of his patron's ardent desire for a last- ing peace with America. He was playing politics for a permanent tenure of office and hostility to the new republic was then the winning political card. A son of the illustrious statesman and orator. Lord Chatham, Pitt was reaping the benefit of the reaction that always comes when a truly great man is treated with ingratitude or injustice. Besides this aid, he understood the power of the dinner table better than any public man of the last century. While the eloquent Chatham tried to make his hopeful son a great orator, he succeeded in making him only a great declaimer and great politician. The British cabinet from the date of Shelburne 's retirement, in 1783, whether the con- 76 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE trolling spirit was Fox, North or Pitt, was openly or covertly hostile to the new Republic. Whether at war with France, with Spain, or ostensibly at peace, England was, until recent years, always at war with this country. That monarchy long tried to maintain a cordon of stations and settlements to connect her dominions in Canada with her dominions, past or j)rospective, in liOuisiana and the Floridas. With sinister intent she sent agents to the Mississippi, to Kentucky, to the Indians, and sent fur traders everywhere, to foment strife and enmity against the inheritors of freedom. In holding fast to the military posts, contrary to ex- press treaty stipulations, the unnatural motlier seemed to be waiting near by and eagerly expect- ing to share the territorial spoils and political plunder from her offspring's wrecked Republic. To witness brave men battling against odds, which is said to inspire the sympathy of the noblest gods, seemed not to develop a sympathetic softness in the heaii;. of Mother England. France, too, was plundering our ships at sea and in her prize courts, with all the alacrity and inherited skill of the Norse pirates and laud rob- bers, from whom the inhabitants of Northern France were chiefly descended. This once most helpful friend was sending agents to Louisiana to foment insurrection among the French inhabitants there, with the hope of profiting by the downfall of Spanish power, which was threatened by the virtual closing by Spain of the navigation of the great continental river. From and after the death WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM 77 of Count de Vergennes, the first, firmest and most serviceable friend this Republic ever had in Europe, the policy of France was reversed and that country was made antagonistic by Montmorin, Le Brun and other small men, who were filling the high place of the great Vergennes; while still smaller men, such as Genet, Fauchet and Adet, were sent to bring discredit and dishonor upon France, in America. "Citizen Genet" introduced here the bull-in-a-China-shop brand of diplomacy. He landed at Charleston ; began at once fitting out privateers and opening recruiting offices; got ves- sels to sea by lying about their character and des- tination; joined the Secretary of State in organ- izing Jacobin, or Democratic, societies in Penn- sylvania, KentuclrT- and elsewhere, which clubs, Washington declared, "caused and encouraged" the whislvy insurrection ; wound up his demagogue diplomacy by villifying the government for its strict neutrality and, threatening to appeal from the President to the people, was fired out of the country suddenlj'', his velocity being accelerated by the square-toed boot of the indignant chief magis- trate. And the once proud but to-day prostrate Spain joined the yelp and cry, growing loud and louder against a feeble nation, impoverished and ex- hausted by a desolating war, ready to seize all the territory in sight, in the crash that would follow the failure of the republican experiment. Godoy, the despicable paramour of the queen of Spain, was then controlling and blighting Spain's desti- 78 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE nies ; Gardoqui was hostile at all times and every- where, as usual, and Governor Miro was spending his last days at New Orleans, prior to his promo- tion, in tampering with and tempting the hard- pressed frontier Americans -and promising them free navigation, free trade and free everything if they would only bow down and worship, not Satan, but Godoy and his royal mistress. Time brings its retributions and mortals are permitted to witness examples not merely of poetic but of divine justice. The Spain which snubbed Jay, Short, CaiTQichael and other American agents, a little more than a century ago, is about the last country in the world to attempt such antics now. And singular to say, the three loading mon- archies of Europe that, after the death of Franklin in 1790, abused our patience and wronged us most, are now gently playing second violin to Russia, Germany and the great Republic, which have taken their stately places as the world's most potent powers of the twentieth century. Adding to these complications, nearly sixty thousand savages in the Northwest and Southwest were lurking on the exposed frontiers of the new- bom Union. Hundreds of brave men had gone down under their murderous rifles and tomahawks at Blue Licks, at the defeat of Harmar, and on the retreat of St. Clair. The pioneer families on the frontier knew not, when their sole support went forth each day to win bread from the soil, that they would ever see him again alive. The nightly war whoop startled the cattle in the fields WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM 79 and the babes in the cradle! The burning of Washington's personal friend, Colonel Crawford, at the stake and before the eyes of the infamous Simon Girty, called for an end to such unspeak- able atrocities. Yet worse in one sense and manifestly more dis- tressing than the hostilities of the Englishmen, the Frenchmen, the Spaniards, and the Indians, was the war made on the first administration by the Virginia and other politicians. That public men from his own State, who knew him well and knew that his motives were lofty and pure, should im- pugn every motive and oppose every act, was what the high-bred Washington: could never understand. An unselfish patriot in every breath that he drew, he did not know that ambitious men played a cun- ning game called ''politics," and that they some- times played for as high stakes as his own high place. Allured by such a dazzling prize as the Presidency for eight years, what politicians of ambition and ability would not play any concerted combination game to win? Three Virginia neigh- bors found the winter evenings long when far from home and well adapted for developing compre- hensive schemes for their mutual advantage. When the facts compel us to affimi that Washing- ton's trusted confidant, Madison, reversed himself in a night and from the leader of the administra- tion became the leader of the opposition in the House of Representatives, we need not recall the baser treachery of others to prove the first Presi- dent's distracting trials and mental agonies. Op- 80 TEE LOUISIANA PURCHASE posed in Cabinet, Senate and House in every line of his policy by the three most controlling men of his own State, it need hardly cause suii^rise that groans of pain escaped him, that "He would rather be in his grave at Mt. Vernon than be the emperor of the world!" The Constitution being on trial, the fiercest fight came on its right inter- l^retation. This was the political Valley Forge that Washington passed through, compared with the sufferings of which the Valley Forge of the Eevolution was the seat of luxury! But with the aid of Hamilton, Jay, Wilson and Ames, he gave the interpretations afterwards declared true by Marshall, Story and Webster, and from which have flowed unnumbered blessings to the "more perfect" and more stable Union and to every State in the Louisiana region. But the Lord of justice, slow to wrath, at last allowed his hand to fall heavily upon the demons of the forest. In 1794, General James Robertson directed Colonel AVliitely and Major Orr to attack the Chickamauga savages near their hiding place on tlie Tennessee River. These gallant soldiers delivered a crushing blow. The same year, Gen- eral Wayne, aided by Piomingo and one hundred and twenty Chickasaw warriors, gained such an ovei'whelming victoiy over the Northwestern tribes that they were all eager to sue for peace. This soldier-negotiator's treaty of Greenville put an end to Indian wars, until another great Indian fighter and treaty-maker, Old Tippecanoe, nobly filled Wayne's high place in history. The Jay; WASHINGTON'S SECOND TERM 81 treaty of 1795 brought about the peaceful sur- render of all the British posts in June and July, 1796, and put an end to the British depredations upon our commerce. Although violently opposed by the Spanish agents, by Citizen Genet, Citizen Jefferson, Citizen Monroe, in short, by all the for- eign and domestic enemies of the Government, it passed the Senate by a vote of twenty to ten. Spanish exactions, plottings and outrages were temporarily ended by Thomas Pinclmey's treaty of October 27, 1795, which conceded free naviga- tion and the boundary, on the south, established by the treaty of 1783 with Great Britain. Baron de Carondelet became governor of Louis- iana and West Florida on January 1, 1792. The population of New Orleans at the end of that year was six thousand. The revenues were but seven thousand dollars. The lighting of the streets and the employment of watchmen then began. The slave trade with the coast of Africa was encour- aged by the Spanish king. Trade with Philadel- phia was favored and increased by Philadelphia merchants establishing branch houses in New Orleans. Some six or more subjects of French extraction, who showed an uncommon interest about 1793 in the republican movement in France, were imprisoned in Havana for a year. Strong fortifications were built above and below the city. Fort St. Philip was erected by this governor on the Plaquemines. Citizen Genet's two expeditions planned to move down the Mississippi, caused some alarm in 1794, but soon proved abortive. 82 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE The United States Government suddenly stopped his active recruiting business. Le Moniteur de la Louisiane made its appearance this year. There was also completed the cathedral built by Don Andre Almonaster at his own expense. A hospital also had been built and endowed by him. The scheming of the Marquis de ^laisonrouge, Gayoso de Lemos and others, with Sebastian and Power, two renegade Americans, to separate the western countr^^ from the United States came to naught. An attempted slave insurrection in 1795 was promptly and summarily suppressed by Baron Carondelet by killing twenty-five, hanging fifty and flogging as many more. The free naviga- tion of the Mississippi from its source to the sea, under the treaty of San Lorenzo, was reasonably enjoyed by the up-river Americans for three or four years. With a view of inducing French royalists and other desirable immigrants to settle in Louisiana, Governor Carondelet made large grants of lands to Baron de Bastrop and other men of consequence. One of these important grants of mineral lands was to an officer of the roj^al navy of France, who had lost all his prop- erty in the vortex of the French revolution, soon in bloody progress. James Ceran De Lassus, the father of Governor De Lassus, in 1796 first ap- pears on the shifting scene, but both are resented to be discussed in the story of Upper Louisiana from 1790 to 1800. CHAPTER YII. LOUISIANA DURING THE TERM OF JOHN ADAMS. FORESIGHT OF HAMILTON — MOEE TROUBLE WITH SPAIN — ST. LOUIS SERENCE. IF we knew exactly what about forty of our foremost historic men have said and have done, we would then know the most valuable and most instructive part of American his- tory. Behind all great events are great men. The man or men who made the Louisiana treaty and the statesmen who were behind that prodigious acquisition are in the first group of the benefactors of their Countr3^ The most significant act or utterance by Wash- ington along the line of this large subject is found in the Farewell Address, that greatest of all state papers, unless we except the Constitution itself. This lofty patriot declares : ' ' One of the expedients which the partisans of faction employ toward strengthening their influence by local discrimina- tions is to misrepresent the opinions and views of rival districts. The people at large cannot be too much on their guard against the jealousies which grow out of these misrepresentations. They tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be tied together by fraternal affection. The peo- 83 84 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE pie of the western country have lately had a use- ful lesson on this subject. They have seen in the negotiation by the executive, and in the unani- mous ratification of the treaty with Spain by the Senate, and in the unusual satisfaction at that event in all parts of the country, a decisive proof how unfounded have been the suspicions instilled in them of a policy in the Atlantic Stat-es and in the different departments of the general govern- ment, hostile to their interests in relation to the Mississippi." In these parting words the first President obviously refers to the San Lorenzo or Pinckney treaty of 1795. Although issued from Philadelphia, like all of Washington's official papers, it is dated from the "United States," to show the intense and unchanging nationalism of the man. The statesman that the Father of his Country most leaned upon and most loved, and who was placed nearest to himself in war and in peace, was Alexander Hamilton. On page 514 of Hamilton's works, volume 4, issued by the Putnams, we find these pertinent observations : ' ' Who can say how far British colonization may spread southward and down the west side of the Mississij^pi, north- ward and westward into the vast interior regions toward the Pacific Ocean? Can we view it as a matter of indifference that this new world event- ually is laid open to our enterprise, to an enter- prise seconded by immense advantages already mentioned, of a more improved state of industry? Can we be insensible that the precedent furnishes TERM OF JOHN ADAMS 85 us witli a cogent and persuasive argument to bring Spain to a similar arrangement 1 And can we be blind to the great interest we have in obtain- ing a free communication with all the great terri- tories that environ our country from the St. Mary's to the St. Croix?" This public utterance was as early as 1795. On January 26, 1799, Hamilton writes a letter from New York to Harrison Gray Otis in which these remarkable tlioughts occur: ''As it is every moment possible that the project of taking pos- session of the Floridas and Louisiana, long since attributed to France, may be attempted to be put in execution, it is very important that the execu- tive should be clothed with the power to meet and defeat so dangerous an enterprise. Indeed, if it is the policy of France to leave us in a state of semi-hostility, 'tis preferable to terminate it, and by taking possession of those countries for our- selves, to obviate the mischief of their falling into the hands of an active foreign power, and at the same time to secure to the United States the advan- tage of keeping the key of the western country. I have been long in the habit of considering the acquisition of those countries as essential to the permanency of the Union, which I consider as very important to the welfare of the whole." Here our wisest practical statesman lays down, four years and three months before the Louisiana treaty is made, four vital propositions: First, That we should take possession of Louisiana and the Floridas for ourselves. Second, We should 86 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE not allow tliem to fall into the hands of an aggres- sive foreign power. Third, The United States must keep the key to the up-river western country. Fourth, That the acquisition of Louisiana and Florida were essential to the perpetuitj^ of the American Union. This indisputable proof of the earliest and clear- est, the most progressive and aggressive declara- tion in favor of the possession of this enonnous contiguous territory, makes Hamilton the chief l^romoter of the Louisiana acquisition, unless we find that prior to 1803 other statesmen went farther in this desirable direction. This many- sided genius was at this time the ranking major- general of the United States anny, next in author- ity to Washington by that matchless hero's own choice and insistence. The Natchez district, confirmed to us by the Pinckney treaty with Spain, did not come into the full possession of the United States until 1798. In a message to Congress dated June 12, 1797, Presi- dent Adams said: "This country is rendered peculiarly valuable by its inhabitants, who are represented to amount to nearly four thousand, generally well affected and much attached to tlie United States and zealous for the establishment of a government under their authority. I there- fore recommend the erecting of a government in the district of Natchez, similar to that established for the territory northwest of the River Ohio, but with certain modifications relative to titles or claims of land, whether of individuals or com- TEEM OF JOHN ADAMS 87 panies, or to claims of jurisdiction of any indi- vidual State." Tlie much-in-controversy Natchez district, which became the Mississippi territory, was bounded on the west by the great river, on the south by the thirty-first parallel of latitude and on the north by a line drawn due east from the mouth of the Yazoo to the Chattahoochee River, its eastern boundary. We shall only epitomize the many pages of his- tory relating to the reluctant transfer by Spain of a region which was ours by plain treaty stipu- lation. It was a tooth-pulling, agonizing process. The American commissioner was Colonel Andrew Ellicott, who had rendered valuable services in laying out and surveying the city of Washington. He was ably assisted in his delicate mission by two brave and discreet Regular Army officers, Captain Isaac Guion and Lieutenant Piercy S. Pope. Colonel Ellicott established his camp on an eminence in Natchez, about five hundred yards from the well-garrisoned Spanish Fort Panmure. Here he displayed mast-high the flag of the United States, demanded the surrender of the fort, and, declining the many pressing invitations to go to New Orleans, or elsewhere, announced that he would not move, except to the point where he was to begin surveying the line of demarkation. In the meantime General Wayne had sent Lieutenant Pope with forty men to occupy a post within sup- porting distance. The gallant Pope reported to the resolute Ellicott his readiness for action. That 88 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE both soldiers were lieroes appears from a letter ad- dressed to liis "Fellow-Citizens of the District of Natchez" by Pope, approved by Ellicott, in which the former declares: "I will, at all hazards, pro- tect the citizens of the United States from every act of hostility-." This courageous course of action in the presence of a much superior Spanish force brought a happy issue out of one of the most serious of our many differences with Spain. Gayoso de Lemos, the Spanish commissioner, who became governor of Louisiana while these troubles were pending, was in artifice, procrastination and prevarication a past grand master. To poGtpone delivering the district and to stave off the inevit- able hour, he said he had to go to New Orleans; pretended to have no instructions ; had asked for instructions and must wait their arrival; was threatened with an invasion from Canada; was liable to an attack by Great Britain by sea, and so on ad infinitum. The plain truth was he was try- ing to incite the Indians to make war on us; he was still doling out bribes to those despicable traitors, Thomas Powers, Benjamin Sebastian and other base deserters. Both he and Carondelet were talking and playing anti-administration politics lik^ Giles, Taylor and the worst Virginia ringsters, and lastly, the versatile Spaniard was hoping and praying to profit by the death of the patriot Wayne, as that would bring the old pensioner of Spain, General Wilkinson, in chief command. It is due to Wilkinson to relate that he repulsed these last overtures, liis inordinate ambition being satis- TERM OF JOHN ADAMS 89 fied with the prospective command of the Amer- ican army, seemingly for life. Not so selfishly patriotic at this time was another self-condemned man, Senator William Blount of Tennessee, who was found gnilty of proffering aid to the British forces in Quebec while they were contem- plating a hostile movement upon Louisiana and New Orleans. Senator Blount was promptly ex- pelled from the Senate of the United States by a unanimous vote. In contrast with these men of little faith in their Country or countrymen was Captain Isaac Guion, a veteran of the Revolution, who commanded the reinforcements sent to the dis- turbed district and who determined to carr^T" the Spanish forts by assault if they were not evacu- ated on or before a certain date, which he fixed at xVpril 1, 1798. The garrisons of the two forts were lodged by the Spaniards for safety in Fort Panmure. The state of local feeling being at high tension, about midnight on March 29 the drums were heard of the troops marching to the river bank, and before daylight the last soldier of Spain had embarked for New Orleans. It was more like a precipitated retreat than a peaceful evacuation. The survey of the lines of demarkation at once proceeded under Colonel Ellicott, with his assist- ants and military escort. Winthrop Sargent be- came by appointment of John Adams the first ter- ritorial governor. Here ended, not the first, but perhaps the worst lesson in Spanish perfidy. Con- temporaneous with this falling back on land before an inferior force, Spanish privateers were seizing 90 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE our unarmed merchant vessels, confiscating their cargoes and marching their officers and sailors in manacles through the public streets in Spanish towns to dungeons where died the victims of the dreadful Inquisition. The conduct of France was no better. In his message of December 8, Presi- dent Adams clearly states the situation: ''The decree of the directory, alleged to be intended to restrain the depredation of French cruisers on our commerce, has not given and cannot give any re- lief. It enjoins them to confonn to all the laws of France relative to cruising and prizes, while these laws are themselves the sources of the depre- dations of which we have so long, so justly, and so fruitlessly complained." The "cut-throat directoiy," drunk with blood and democracy, was now threatening war and destruction and was roll- ing up the four million depredation debt for which France gave the United States ample money and territorial indemnity in 1803. Kecurring to the history of Louisiana, we find that in January, 1798, Governor Gayoso issued to his lower officials some rather nonsensical instruc- tions, as for example: "Liberty of conscience is not to be extended beyond the first generation ; the children of the emigrants (sic) must be Catholic; in Upper Louisiana no settler is to be admitted who is not a fanner or a merchant; commandants are to watch that no preacher of any religion but the Catholic comes into the province ; no land is to be granted to a trader; if the grantee owes debts to the province, the products of the first four crops TERM OF JOHN ADAMS 91 are to be applied to their discharge in preference to that of debts due abroad." The most distinguished visitors of this year were the Duke of Orleans and the Duke of Mon- tausier, the grandsons of the Duke of Orleans, who was regent of France under Louis XV. Upon the death of Governor Gayoso on July 18, 1799, Don Maria Vidal became acting civil governor. The Marquis de Casa-Calvo was sent over from Cuba to act as military governor. About this time uncommon agitation was excited in the States of Kentuclr^^, Tennessee and regions adjacent by notice being given that New Orleans could no longer be used as a place of deposit by up-river Americans because the three-year treaty limit had expired. A protracted correspondence was soon entered upon by Secretary of State Pickering with satisfactory results. The king overruled his sub- ordinates. The port of New Madrid was in 1799 made a part of Upper Louisiana. Don Carlos Dehault De Lassus, now the com- mandant general of the last named province, re- ported the result of the census taken on the 31st of December to be : St. Louis, nine hundred and twenty-five; St. Genevieve, nine hundred and forty-nine; St. Charles, eight hundred and seventy-five; Caron- delet, one hundred and eighty- four; St. Fernando, two hundred and seventy-six; Marias des Liards, three hundred and seventy-six ; Maramec, one hun- dred and fifteen; St. Andrews, three hundred and ninety-three ; New Bourbon, five hundred and 92 TEE LOUISIANA PURCHASE sixty; Cape Girardeau, five hundred and twenty- one ; Xew ]\Iadrid, seven hundred and eighty-two ; Little Meadows, forty-nine. Total, six thousand and twenty-eight. There were in round figures five thousand whites, two hundred free colored and less than nine hundred slaves. The value of the deer skins, lead, etc., shipped to New Orleans in 1799, amounted to seventy-three thousand one hundred and seventy-six dollars. On October 1, 1800, the important treaty of San Ildefonso, conveying Louisiana to France, was concluded between the king of Spain and the First Consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte. As this belongs to the class of secret treaties and did not take effect, so far as it related to Louisiana, until the following March, its consideration relates to the next administration. Although this was a treaty in which we had no hand or part, it un- doubtedly essentially modified the history of this Eepublic. Spanish procrastination and aggran- dizing power would have postponed our crossing the Mississippi until a much later date. It is a matter of general regret that the mate- rials for the histoiy of Upper Louisiana are so meager in extent. The well and favorably known John B. Henderson of Missouri has expressed the opinion that the Spanish archives and the official records of the chief officers at St. Louis would prove to be the best sources of historical infoinna- tion. But these formal documents it may be sug- gested would hardly be suitable or adequate for a popular narrative. There has been a failure some- TERM OF JOHN ADAMS 93 where to collect and preserve the facts relating to the many interesting incidents and events that must have happened during the long Spanish occu- pation of so large a domain. During the commandantship of Zenon Trudeau, which ended in 1798, immigration was wisely en- couraged, fur trading was extended far into the interior and far up the Missouri, and St. Louis was made more attractive by newer and better houses and other structures. Commandant De Lassus, who followed Tmdeau, was a high-toned gentleman by birth and breeding, and favored whatever measures tended to promote the perma- nent welfare of the people and their province. Down to the end of John Adams's administration, ]\Iarch 4, 1801, Upper Louisiana was exempt from all the disturbing agitations, the threatened inva- sions, the old and new world complications, which kept the lower province in a continuous ferment. And those whose lives partook of the serenity of the forest primeval, happily escaped the reason- and-reputation-destroying partisan strifes raging in the new Republic, whose extremes were meas- ured by the exclamations of Hamilton and Macon on the death of Washington: ''America has lost her Savior— I a father," and, ''I am glad he is dead ! We could not pull him down ! ' ' The alien and sedition laws ; the sedition-breeding Kentucky Resolutions of '98; the scandalous Mazzei letter and the peace negotiations with France are even now too hot and explosive to handle. CHAPTER VIII. LOUISIANA DURING THE YEARS 1801 AND 1802. TRANSFEK FROM SPAIN TO FRANCE — LIVINGSTON, NAPOLEON, JEFFERSON, MADISON - A PLACE of, honor in our story must be found for a hero and a patriot, Andrew Jackson, who has had much to do with the growth and glory of Tennessee and who won the grandest victory over the veterans of Wellington, at New Orleans, ever gained in any part of ancient Louisiana's wide dominion. Pale, sallow and shaking like an aspen leaf with the chills incident to a malarial fever. General Jack- son's prodigious exertions and activity during the anxious weeks preceding the memorable battle, can be likened to nothing but Robert R. Livingston's sleepless toils and efforts to gain for his country tJie identical territoiy the heroic invalid was then struggling with the defensive might of a Hector to protect. Jackson had been promoted from the National House of Representatives to the United States Senate, for his complete success in getting the brave Tennessee volunteers paid for their perilous sen-ices against the Indians. In a letter from Philadelphia, written in 1798 when about resigning his Senatorship to accept a State judge- 94 LOUISIANA IN 1801-1802 95 ship, this interesting sidelight is thrown upon a world-renowned character: ''France has finally concluded a treaty with the emperor and the king of Sardinia, and is now turning her force toward Great Britain. Bonaparte, with one hundred and fifty thousand troops (used to conquer), is ordered on the coast, and called the army of England. Do not then be surprised if my next letter should an- nounce a revolution in England. Should Bona- parte make a lauding on the, English shore, tyranny will be humbled, a throne crushed and a republic will spring from the wreck and millions of distressed people restored to the rights of man by the conquering arm of Bonaparte. ' ' Thomas Jefferson having been chosen chief magistrate by the House of Representatives on February 17, 1801, through the potent influence, unselfishly employed, of his chief political adver- sary, General Hamilton, was sworn into office by another political opponent, the great Chief Justice, John Marshall. Neither in the first inaugural of March 4, in the first annual message of December 8, nor in any proclamations or special messages of the year 1801, does Mr. Jefferson allude to the Louisiana business. But in a semi-official letter of July 13, to William C. C. Claiborne, whom he had appointed governor of the Mississippi Territory, in preference to "Judge" Andrew Jackson, who was an applicant for the place, the President says : "With respect to Spain our dispositions are sin- cerely amiable and even affectionate. We consider her possessions of the adjacent countiy as most 96 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE favorable to our interests, and should see with extreme pain any other nation substituted for them. In all communications therefore with their officers, conciliation and mutual accommodation are to be mainly attended to. Everything irritat- ing to be avoided, eveiything friendly to be done for them. The most fruitful source of misunder- standing will be the conduct of their and our peo- jDle at New Orleans. Temper and justice will be the best guides through these intricacies. Should France get possession of that country, it will be more to be lamented than remedied by us, as it will furnish ground for profound consideration on our part, how best to conduct ourselves in that case. It would of course be tlie subject of fresh communications to you." As Spain closed against us the navigation of the IMississippi the next year, this was clearly a case of misplaced affection. And as for France, the sequel shows that the executive was diametrically wrong in the line of his lamentations. In nominating Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, *'an able and honorable man," to quote the words of the President, as minister plenipotentiary to France, Jefferson made probably the best appointment of his entire administration. He was, except for his serious deafness, an ideal diplomatic agent. Washington selected him for the same post in 179-i, but was obliged to fall back on James Monroe, his third choice. Monroe consorted with the more or less crime-stained successors of Danton, ]Marat, Robes- pierre, and other "citizen assassins," so cordially, LOUISIANA IN 1801-1802 97 that he had to be recalled for disobeying his in- structions. The references of Secretary of State, Madison, to our relations with Spain, England and France, were also in clear conflict with the current of actual subsequent events. On JuDe 15, 1801, Madison writes to Rufus King, our minister to England: ''I cannot but briefly add, however, that we have the mortification to find that, notwithstanding all the forbearances and endeavors of the United States for the establishment of just and friendly relations with Great Britain, accounts continue to arrive from different quarters of accumulating trespasses on our commerce and neutral rights. ' ' It is some- what singular that just ten months later the admin- istration was favoring, as will appear, an offensive and aggressive alliance with these same British trespassers on our commerce, in a war of expul- sion against France. On June 9 Madison wrote to Charles Pinckney, the new minister to Spain: ''The spoliations committed on our trade, for which Spain is held responsible, are known to be already of veiy great amount, and it is said to be apprehended that they may not have yet ceased. * * * Hitherto redress has been sought, some- times in tribunals of justice, sometimes by applica- tions to the government, and sometimes to both these modes. Experience has sufficiently shown that neither the one nor the other, nor both, can be relied on for obtaining full justice for our in- jured citizens. Some other effort, therefore, is due to the sufferers, and, let me add, to tlie dignity of 98 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE the United States, which must always feel the in- sults offered to the rights of individual citizens." But on July 13, thirty-four days later, the Presi- dent strangely forgets about what is due ''the suf- ferers" and "the dignity of the United States" while assuring Governor Claiborne of his "affec- tionate disposition toward Spain." Truly a sad case of unrequited affections. During the whole of the year 1801 and until March, 1802, the govern- ment at Washington remained wholly ignorant of the terms of the treaty of San Ildefonso, signed October 1, 1800, by the Prince of Peace and Mar- - shal Berthier, minister of France at Madrid. This significant treaty transferred to France all that vast and vaguely defined territory known as Louisiana which France had turned over to Spain in 1762. Bonaparte's initial policy and earliest ambition was to restore to France all her lost former possessions. But it is the privilege of great men to be inconsistent and also unsuccessful. It is a matter of indisputable historic fact that he restored nothing that remained restored and never added a foot of territory'' permanently to France; on the contrary he lost Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine. The Duke of Parma and the infanta of the queen and Charles IV of Spain must be pro- vided for. To give consequence and dignity to the daughter of royalty' and to honor one of Spain's illustrious families, a great jiartly devel- oped empire was offered by Spain to France for the uncertain sovereignly of the ix^tty kingdom of Tuscany. Its priceless art treasures and historic LOUISIANA IN 1801-1802 99 memories probably did not weigh much on either side of the scale. The earlier secret treaty took effect March 21, 1801. Napoleon prepared to dis- patch Marshal Victor, with five battalions of in- fantry and the required complement of cavalry and artillery, but the dashing Victor and his forces with three brigadier generals never sailed to New Orleans. 'x;' Not until April 18, 1802, does President Jeffer- son wake up to the large significance of the Louis- iana question. In a letter of that date to Robert • R. Livingston, our envoy extraordinary to France, he gives strong expression to some elastic views, but elastic unfortunately in the wrong direction: ''The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain to France works most sorely on the United States. * * * The day that France takes pos- session of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low watermark. It seals the union of two nations who in conjunc- tion can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry our- selves to the British fleet and nation. We must turn all our attentions to a maritime force, for which our resources place us on very high grounds; and having formed and cemented to- gether a power which may render reinforcement of her settlements here impossible to France, make the first cannon which shall be fired in Europe the signal for tearing up any settlement she may have made, and for holding the two continents of WtfC 100 TEE LOUISIANA PURCHASE America in sequestration for the common purposes of the United British and American nations." Here is expansion with an awful vengeance ! It embraces, North, South, Central America and all the oceans ! By October 10 in a letter to Mr. Liv- ingston, Mr. Jefferson distinctly becomes an ardent friend of peace with France : ' ' We see all the disadvantageous consequences of taking a side, and shall be forced into it only by a more disagree- able alternative; in which event, we must conter- vail the disadvantages by measures which will give us splendor and power, but not as much hap- piness as our present system. We wish, therefore, to remain well with France. But we see that no consequences, however ruinous to them, can secure us with certainty against the extravagance of her present rulers. I think, therefore, that while we do nothing which the first nation on earth would deem crouching, we had better give to all our com- munications with them a very mild, complaisant, and even friendly complexion but always inde- pendent." By November 29, the President's mood changes again somewhat, as shown in a letter to Thomas Cooper: ''It delights me to find that there are persons who still think that all is not lost in France. That their restoration from a limited to an unlimited despotism is but to give themselves a new impulse. But I see not how or when. The press, the only tocsin of a nation, is completely silenced there, and all means of general effort taken away." This rough drive at Napoleon LOUISIANA IN 1801-1802 101 Bonaparte is the brilliant farewell stroke of policy for tlie year before the great treaty. In January, 1802, the alert Livingston learns positively of the secret treaty between France and Spain and forwards a copy of the Spanish treaty to his government. On February 26, he writes from Paris : ' ' On the subject of Louisiana, I have nothing new. The establishment is disapproved by every statesman here as one that will occasion a great waste of men and money, excite enmities with us, and produce no possible advantage to the Nation. But it is a scheme to which the First Con- sul is extremely attached, and must of course be supported. You will find, by the enclosed note, that I have pressed an explanation on the subject, but I have received no answer. I have it, however, through a friend, from the First Consul, that it is by no means their intention to obstruct the naviga- tion of the Mississippi or violate our treaty with Spain." The Secretary of State, in a letter to Livingston of May 1, 1802, begins to realize the large import of Louisiana : ' ' The conduct of the French gov- ernment, in paying so little attention to its obliga.- tions under the treaty, in neglecting its debts to our citizens, in giving no answers to your com- plaints and expostulations, which you say is the case with those of other foreign ministers also, and particularly in its reserve as to Louisiana, which tacitly contradicts the language first hold to you by the Minister of Foreign Relations, gives tokens as little auspicious to the true interests of France 102 THE LOUIiSIANA PURCHASE herself, as to the rights and just objects of the United States. * * * The cession of Louis- iana to France becomes daily more and more a source of i^ainful apprehension. * * * Yqu will also pursue, by prudent means, the inquiry into the extent of the cession, particularly whether it includes the Floridas as well as New Orleans, and endeavor to ascertain the price at which these, if included in the cession, would be yielded to the United States." It must be observed here that Madison turns his mind only to the comparatively unimportant east side of the river, not the unbounded west side. In a dispatch of May 11, to Pinckney, he shows clearly Jefferson's attitude: "Should the cession actually fail from this, or any other cause, and Spain retain New Orleans and the Floridas, I re- peat to you the wish of the President, that every eifort and address be employed to obtain the arrangement by which the territory on the east side of the Mississippi, including New Orleans, may be ceded to the United States, and the Mis- sissippi made a common boundary, with a common use of its navigation for them and Spain. The inducements to be held out to Spain were inti- mated in your original instructions on this point. I am charged by the President now to add, that you may not only receive and transmit a proposi- tion of guaranty of her territory beyond the Mis- sissippi, as a condition of her ceding to the United States the territory, including New Orleans, on this side, but, in case it be necessary, may make LOUISIANA IN 1801-1802 103 the proposition yourself, in the forms required by our Constitution.'' This very significant dispatch is found on page 517 of American State Papers, Volume II, of Foreign Relations ; also in the archives of the De- partment of State. It is an official document which the writers of our school histories and the authors of the Hosmer-Binger works of fiction appear never to have seen. It proves that Mr. Jefferson, instead of bringing about the Louisiana acquisition single-handed, was one of the two men who were ready and willing to prevent forever this acquisition by a constitutional ' ' guaranty ' ' or pro- hibition ! "We refer of course to the vast territory on the west side of the Mississippi, which is the only domain worthy of serious discussion. Minister Pinckney tried in vain to carry out these ominous instructions, but fortunately could not, because Spain was hesitating and in doubt whether she had any Floridas to sell or convey. In France, Livingston was blandly told that the Floridas did not belong to the lands transferred. With all his virtuous patience exhausted Living- ston writes home in September: ''There never was a government in which less could be done by negotiation than here. There is no people, no leg- islature, no counsellors. One man is eveiything. He never asks advice, and never hears it unasked. His ministers are mere clerks ; and his legislature and counsellors parade officers." On October 26, 1802, Livingston writes an important dispatch to the President, infonning him that the Mississippi 104 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE business, though the officers are appointed, and the army under orders, has met with a check. He gives interesting details of a conversation he had two days before with Joseph Bonaparte, who as- sured him he had read a long memoir on Louisiana placed in his hands by our minister, and that his brother, the First Consul, had done likewise: ''Joseph Bonaparte asked me whether we should prefer the Floridas to Louisiana! I told him that there was no comparison in their value, but that we had no wish to extend our boundarA" across the Mississippi or give color to the doubts that had been entertained of the moderation of our views; that all we sought was security, and not extension of territory." December 23, Secretary Madison sends to Paris this last dispatch of the year 1802 : ''In the latter end of last month we received information from New Orleans of the interdiction of the deposits there for our merchandise, stipulated by the treaty with Spain, without an equivalent establishment being assigned. * * * Should it be revoked before the time for the descent of the boats in the spring, both the injury and irritation proceeding from it will be greatly increased." The Secretary concludes : ' ' That, whilst we have no clear founda- tion on which to impute this infraction, to orders from the Spanish government, it would be con- trary to the duty, policy and character of our own to resort for redress in the first instance to the use of force." On the same date, Livingston, stirred to a state of tension over the pregnant events com- LOUISIANA IN 1801-1802 105 ing on and making a last appeal to ward off ca- lamitj' to liis Countrj^, hurriedly writ<3s home: ''The armament has not yet sailed; Florida not ceded; more hesitation and doubt on the subject than I have yet heard. A private memoir under the Consul's eye, touching a string that has alarmed them. I cannot now explain. The min- ister knows nothing of this. Set on foot a negotia- tion fixing our bounds with Britain, but by no means conclude until you hear from me that all hope here is lost. * * * Do not absolutely de- spair, though you may have no great reason to hope should New Orleans be possessed by a small force. ' ' It makes one's blood tingle to see this one sa- gacious American patriot contending single- handed for the right, against Talleyrand, Berthier, Marbois, and the Hero of Marengo with a nation in arms behind him ! Can it be that the learned jur- ist, the trained diplomatist, the veteran statesman, is more than a match for the young and yet inex- perienced first consul? So it would seem. The Franklins, the Livingstons and the Websters, in their own field of diplomacy, were never out-gen- eraled or out-fought. CHAPTER IX. THE GREAT TREATY OF APRH 30, 1803. THE CORRESPONDENCE PRECEDING IT — WHO MADE IT. TO a right understanding of the Louisiana Purchase treaty of 1803, the letters that passed to our ministers in France and Spain are of vital impoi-tance. On Jan- uary 10, 1803, the Secretary of State wrote to Charles Pinckney: ''You will find also that the House has passed a resolution exj^licitly declaring that the stipulated rights of the United States on the Mississippi will be inviolably maintained. The disposition of many members was to give to the resolution a tone and complexion still stronger. To these proofs of the sensation which has been produced, it is to be added, that representations ex- pressing the peculiar sensibility of the Western country are on the way from everj^ quarter of it to the govermnent. There is, in fact, but one senti- ment throughout the Union with respect to the dut\' of maintaining our rights of navigation and boundary. The onlj^ existing difference relates to the degree of patience which ought to l^e exercised during the appeal to friendly modes of redress." Eight days later Madison wi'ote to Livingston: * * IVIr. Monroe will be the bearer of the instructions under which you are jointly to negotiate. The ob- 106 TREATY OF APRIL 30, 1803 107 ject of them will be to j^rocure a cession of New Orleans and the Floridas to the United States and consequently the establishment of the Mississippi as the boundary between the United States and Louisiana." Livingston, anticipating these instructions, or rather acting upon those of like tenor sent him before, addressed the French Minister of Foreign Relations on January 10: ''The land (to be) ceded, if we except a narrow strip on the bank of the river, will, for the most part, consist of barren sands and sunken marshes, while that retained by France on the west side of the Mississippi includes the greatest bulk of the settlements and a rich fer- tile country." On March 2, Madison, anticipating Monroe *s ar- rival in Paris, instructed him: ''Your mission to Madrid will depend on the event of that to Paris, and on the information there to be acquired. Should the entire cession in view (the Floridas) be obtained from the French republic, as assignees of Spain, it will not be necessary to resort to the Spanish government. Should the whole or any part of the cession be found to depend not on the French, but on the Spanish government, you will proceed to join Mr. Pinckney in the requisite ne- gotiations with the latter. Although the United States are deeply interested in the complete suc- cess of your mission, the Floridas, or even either of them, without the Island of New Orleans, on pro- portionate terms, will be a valuable acquisition." Sad to say, the Secretary of State here deplorably 108 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE weakened to the limit of being content with the *' barren sands and sunken marshes" of one of the Floridas. Livingston writes to Madison on March 3, on being notified of Monroe's appointment: "I shall do everything in my power to pave the way for him, and sincerely wish his mission may be at- tended with the desired effect. It will, however, cut off one resource on which I greatly relied, be- cause I had established a confidence which it will take Mr, Monroe some time to inspire. Enclosed is a letter addressed to the First Consul himself, and sent him before I heard of Mr, Monroe's ap- pointment. ' ' The letter or paper to which Living- ston refers was a cogent and ardent appeal to Bona- pai-te for justice; for the payment of just debts, for the right to buy Florida or some places of transhipment. He closed with -a feeling appeal to a soldier 's humanity : ' ' The savages on the east side of the Mississippi are numerous and brave; con- siderable sums of money are annually expended by Spain in purchasing their friendship. Should their supplies be withheld, through neglect or mis- application, a universal massacre of all the plant- ers will ensue. Their detached situation renders it impossible to protect them." In his general instructions to Livingston and Monroe, dated March 2, Secretary Madison lays down their essential feature in article 1 : '* France cedes to the United States forever the territory east of the Mississippi, comprehending the two Flor- idas, the Island of New Orleans and the islands lying on the north and east of that channel of said TREATY OF APRIL 30, 1803 109 river, which is commonly called the South Pass, to- gether with such other islands as appertain to either West or East Florida ; France resei^ving her- self all her territory on the west side of the Missis- sippi." It will be observed here that while the Jefferson government holds on to New Orleans and grasps the * ' sand banks and sunken marshes ' ' with a firmer hand, it lays no claim to, but in fact en- tirely abandons to France the whole of the west side of the Mississippi. This prepares us to accept as veritable the remarkable instructions of April 18, 1803, which Secretary Madison affirms, "the President thinks proper should now be given." After directing Livingston and Monroe to sound the dispositions of the British government and in- vite its concurrence in war, the official dispatch proceeds: ''Notwithstanding the just repugnance of this countiy to a coalition of any sort with the belligerent policies of Europe, the advantages to be desired 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 im- portant to be renounced. And notwithstanding the apparent disinclination of the British councils to a renewal of hostilities with France, it will prob- ably yield to the various motives which will be felt, to have the United States in the scale of Brit- ain against France, and particularly for the im- mediate purjDose of defeating a project of the latter, which has evidently created much solicitude in the British government." On the same date a second letter is sent to our 110 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE minister in Paris, by direction of Mr. Jefferson, breathing war against France: "Among these arrangements, the President conceives that a com- mon interest may recommend a candid understand- ing, and a closer connection with Great Britain, and he presumes that the occasion may present itself to the British government in the same light. He accordingly authorizes you, or either of you, in case the prospect of your discussion with the French government should make it expedient, to oi)en a confidential communication with ministers of the British govermnent and to confer freely and fully on the precautions and provisions best adapted to the crisis, and in which that government may be disposed to concur, ' ' and so forth. The date, April 18, 1803, must be boiiie in mind, because it will scon appear that these extraordinaiy instructions were given after the Purchase treaty had been virtually made ! Still continuing out of touch with current events, on the veiy day of the signing of the Great treaty, Jefferson blindly writes to John Bacon, from Washington: "Although I am not sanguine in obtaining a cession of New Orleans for money, yet I am confident in the policy of putting off the day of contention for it, till we are stronger in our- selves, and stronger in allies, but especially till we have planted such a population on the Mississippi as will be able to do their own business, without the necessity of marching men from the shares of the Atlantic, fifteen hundred or two thousand miles TREATY OF APRIL 30, 1803 111 tliitlier, to perish by fatigue and change of cli- mate. ' ' Returning now to what was happening in France and to Livingston's extraordinary e:xertions and activities, we find in that minister's memorable midnight dispatch, dated Paris, April 13, 1803, and finished at 3 o 'clock in the morning, the authentic official history of the Louisiana Purchase treaty. This long, clear and comprehensive statement tells the whole historic story. The Great treaty was, in its essential elements, the work of three days. On April 11, Talleyrand asked Livingston "whether he wished to have the whole of Louisiana!" On April 12 Monroe arrived; Livingston again saw Talleyrand, who tried to bluff him. On April 13 two conferences took place between Marbois and Livingston, lasting several hours and ending at midnight, in which botli negotiators agreed upon a treaty of transfer and acquisition, leaving open the amount to be paid. Upon this point they did not differ widely. Monroe was not presented to the First Consul until May 1, and hence, as a ne- gotiator, had nothing officially to do with a treaty virtually negotiated April 13 and finally concluded April 30. The Livingston dispatches of April 13 and April 27 cover the essential steps in the progress of the famous negotiation. To quote all that is interest- ing is impossible. To condense is our only re- course. From these letters we learn that the de- cision to sell Louisiana was reached on Sunday, April, 10, after Napoleon had had a prolonged con- 112 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE ference with Talleyrand, Marbois and others. The idea of selling originated in the active brain of Bonaparte. It was opposed by his brothers and by Talleyrand, Berthier and other chief men. The subject was broached by Talleyrand on Monday, introduced again by our minister on Tuesday, who found Talleyrand evasive and mendacious, and was twice returned to by Marbois on Wednesday. On this day, April 13, the serious business began. Marbois sought Livingston while the latter was at dinner ; returned after dinner ; gave an opening for a free talk, which our minister improved by be- ginning with the debts due and commenting on the extraordinaiy conversation and conduct of Talley- rand, the foreign minister. Marbois said that this led to * ' something important that had been cursor- ily mentioned to him at St. Cloud, but, as my house was full of company, he thought I had better call upon him any time before 11 that night." Liv- ingston was now too much alive to the prodigious import of the matter in hand to wait until 11 at night. So, soon as Monroe took leave he hastened to the house of Marbois. After discussing the equivocations of Talleyrand and the Consul's blunt proposal for us to hand over a hundred million francs, pay our own claims and take the whole country, Livingston, after a polite and politic dis- avowal of any anxiety to seek a larger expansion of territory, cautiously remarked, '*We would be ready to purchase, provided the sum was reduced to reasonable limits." Marbois said if we would name sixtv millions and take upon us the Amer- TBEATY OF APRIL 30, 1803 113 ican claims, to the amount of twenty more, he would try how far this would be accepted. Our minister declared that sum was greatly beyond our means and wished Bonaparte reminded that the whole region was liable to become the property of England. The Minister of the Public Treasury admitted the weight of all this. But, said he, ' ' You know the temper of a youthful conqueror, every- thing he does is rapid as lightning, we have only to speak to him as an opportunity presents itself, per- haps in a crowd, when he bears no contradiction. * * * Try then if you cannot come up to my mark. Consider the extent of the country, the ex- clusive navigation of the river, and the importance of having no neighbors to disrupt you, no war to dread. ' ' Our minister asked him in case of a pur- chase whether they would stipulate that France would never possess the Floridas and that she would aid us to procure them. He replied in the afnrmative. ''The field 023ened to us is infinitely larger than our instructions contemplated," says Livingston, but he promises to consult Monroe. In the dispatch of April 17, he repeats ' ' that the com- mission contains power only to treat for lands on the east side of the Mississippi." "You will rec- ollect, ' ' writes Livingston to Madison, ' ' that I have been absolutely without powers to the present mo- ment, and that though I have hazarded many things upon a presumption that I should have them, none have been received till now and now they are unfortunately too limited." On the 15th of April, after conferring with Mon- lU THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE roe, Livingston offered Marbois fifty million francs, plus the debts, for the whole of Louisiana. This ai:)proached within two million dollars of the price asked. Bonaparte received this offer "cold- ly,'' from policy, of course. Monroe's reception was delayed, about which Livingston writes: "Mr, Monroe having been compelled, where here (1794) to be well with the party then uppermost, and who are now detested by the present ruler, it will be some time before they know how to esti- mate his worth, and Talleyrand has, I find, im- bibed personal prejudice against him, that will in- duce him to throw every possible obstruction in his way that he can consistently with their own views." Napoleon went off to Flanders and left negotiations at a standstill until our ministers wisely agreed to Bonaparte 's own favorable tenns. The first announcement of the grand consummation was sent to Rufus King, in London, in these words : "We have the honor to infonn you that a treaty (the 30th April), has been signed between the Min- ister Plenipotentiary of the French government, and ourselves, by which the United States have ob- tained the full right to and sovereignty in and over New Orleans, and the whole of Louisiana, as Spain possessed the same." On tiie 12th of May, Livingston foi-wards to Washington by "a special and safe messenger"— Mr. Hughes— the Great treaty, accompanied by other papers and two lengthy dispatches, the sec- ond of which is signed, like the treaty, by both American ministers. We can extract but spar- TREATY OF APRIL 30, 1803 115 ingly and only from what is of general interest. Livingston writes to Madison : ' ' Among the most favorite projects of the First Consul, was the col- onization of Louisiana. He saw in it a new Egypt ; he saw in it a colony that was to counterbalance the eastern establishment of Britain; he saw in it a provision for his generals, and what was more im- portant on the then state of things, he saw in it a pretense for the ostracism of suspected enemies. To render the acquisition still more agreeable to the people, exaggerated accounts of its fertility, etc., were sold in every print shop." The herculean labors and ceaseless toils of Liv- ingston to force and keep the dark and ominous side of the Louisiana picture before the unsuspect- ing eyes of Bonaparte, can never in their all-em- bracing comprehensiveness be set forth. He per- sonally saw and deluged with written arguments, which he called memoirs, every person with any influence from Napoleon down; his vigilance was almost literally sleepless until the acute stage and critical crisis were unalterably passed; and as a proof of his far-seeing statesma,nship, he even then clearly saw that ''next to the negotiation that se- cured our independence, this is the most important the United States has ever entered into. "In the great peace treaty of 1782-83, he was second only to Franklin in the value and extent of his services. When this illustrious man next appears on the broad world scene, he frames a treat}^ that doubles the area of his Country, without one line of relevant instructions from this side of the Atlantic. The 116 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE President and Secretaiy of State never for a mo- ment extended their vision beyond the Mississippi to its boundless west side. Xot a dollar of the two millions they asked from Congress was to be expended on the side of the gTeat Northwest which grew to be the best end of the Eepublic. The ad- ministration knew not what was going on in Eu- rope. Livingston divined eveiything that was go- ing on and made things move on in his own chosen way. The soldier whose fame subsequently filled the world, was now but tliirty-f our ; was without experience in statesmanship or diplomacy and handicapped by events, could hardly be expected to cope with a veteran in both these fields, now in the ripe maturity of his powers, with the honors and laurels of former triumphs giving power to his brain and dignity to his brow. In the battle of, the Mississippi the conqueror of Italy met with his first defeat. CHAPTER X. ECHOES OF THE GREAT TREATY. BONAPAKTe's motives for selling LOUISIANA— his PKOPHECIES — HOW ACQUISITION WAS RECEIVED. THE three most significant dates historically connected with the acquisition of the mag- nificent domain known as Louisiana, are April 30, 1803, when the Great treaty was signed ; October 19, when the treaty was ratified in the Senate of the United States by a vote of twen- ty-four to seven, and December 20, 1803, when our government received formal possession at New Orleans, from the French prefect, Laussat. Were we to add an interesting fourth date, it would be April 10 of the same treaty year— that blessed Easter day— when Napoleon, having returned from his Easter devotions, to the still standing Palace of St. Cloud, announced his sudden resolution to sell the whole of his possessions in America to the Americans. Much has been written about the motives of Bon- aparte in parting with his newly-acquired and still unexplored territory on this side of the Atlantic. It can only be asserted with reasonable safety that he doubtless acted from mixed motives, which were as various as his moods. When not inscrutable, the mainspring of his actions seemed to be military 117 118 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE gloiy and jDersonal aggrandizement. He was prob- ably impelled to adopt what proved to be a fool- ishly unwise policy, for these reasons: 1. He feared that in the event of war, which was imminent, he would lose the colony of Louisiana within sixty days after he took possession. The Treaty of Amiens was at an end; Austria was threatening; a British fleet was in the West Indies and a sensational report had come from London that fifty thousand men were being raised for service in Louisiana. 2. His affairs on the Island of San Domingo were in 1803 the worst possible; Toussaint I'Ouver- ture had worsted three of his best marshals; Le Clerc had just died, to whom he was attached, next to Duroc, Lannes and Berthier; and Livingston was shrewd enough to hold this bloody specter ever before his eyes ; another San Domingo on his hands he did not want. 3. The First Consul, impressed by our min- ister's social rank in his own countiy, no less than by his merciless logic and solid understanding, had given his promise that debts due for the spoliation of our commerce, should be paid. This promise, of which he was again and again reminded, could only be kept by realizing on sale of public lands. He had then no funds. 4. About this time the hero of Italy caught a vague glimpse of larger game. He projected the wild scheme of cariying the war, not into Africa, like Scipio x\fricanus, but into Briton, like Caesar. The scheme did not mature, partly because the THE GREAT TREATY 119 young chieftain was not the peer of the "mighty Julius," whom Shakespeare calls 'Hhe foremost man of all this world." And then, the heroes of the Nile and the future victors of Trafalgar were lying in wait in the channel, and had the French levies ever gotten into England, the retreat from London would possibly have paralleled the retreat from Moscow, the most disastrous in all history-. 5. Livingston's powers as a logician and sub- lime persistence were influencing factors in this momentous contention. Talleyrand said "he was the most importunate negotiator he had yet met with." And lastly the French Consul cherished a desire to build this Nation up at the expense of Great Britain. He had rather the American Union would grow strong and great than should his most dangerous rival. A few genuine Napoleonic utterances must suf- fice to support the preceding propositions. The most remarkable of these is found on page 65 of Histoire Generale des Traites de Paix by Le Comte de Garden: "Objection may be made that the Americans will prove to be too powerful for Europe in two or three centuries ; but my plans do not take into account these remote contingencies. They (the Americans) vdW have to give attention in the future to conflicts among the States of the Union. Confederations which call themselves perpetual last only so long as the contracting par- ties find it to their interest not to break them and it is to other present dangers to which we are ex- 120 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE posed from the colossal power of England that I propose to applj^ a remedy. ' ' This is both authen- tic and prophetic. A translation from a passage on the same page shows that we paid for the Louisiana region some- thing more than Bonaparte would have taken: " If I should regulate my terms by what these vast territories are worth to the United States, the in- demnity would have no limit. I will be moderate for the reason that I am obliged to sell. But, keep this to yourself (to Marbois) I want fiftj" millions, and for less than that I will not treat; I would rather make a desperate effort to hold those fine regions." On page 75 of same authoritative source, we find this characteristic utterance by Napoleon: "When told by Barbe-Marbois that there was some uncertainty and obscurity in one article of the treaty, he replied that ' ' if obscurity was not there, it would perhaps be good policy to put it there." These and numerous other quotations have been transferred bodily, without credit, to what is known as Marbois 's History of Louisiana, which was probably written by William Beach Lawrence in the apparent interest of James Monroe and other political friends. The kindly Marbois at the feeble age of eightj^-three, doubtless lent the use of his name to the inaccurate book which first appeared in Paris in 1828. The Histoiy of Peace Treaties, of which Garden's great work is a continuation, was first published prior to this date. Returning to the highest sources of historical in- formation on tliis side of the ocean— the archives THE GREAT TREATY 121 of the Government and the American state papers —it may be affirmed that the writers of Louisiana treaty history have apparently shunned these first sources of historic facts as if they were poisoned springs. As proof of the strange fatuity of the chief of- ficers of the administration, the Secretary of State writes from Washington to James Monroe, on April 20, 1803 : ' ' Certain it is that the hearts and hopes of the Western people are strongly fixed on the Mississippi for the future boundary. * * * It is even a doubt with some of the best judges whether the deposit alone should not be waived for a while, rather than it should be the immediate ground for war and an alliance with England." This letter was written just ten days before the Great treaty was actually dated, and one week after it was virtually agreed upon. Wliat had al- ready become the central, transcontinental canal, or broad, free highway from mountain to sea, of the greater E.epublic, Madison would make its fixed, future boundary! On May 1 he addressed Monroe : ' ' We have just received the message of his Britannic majesty, which is represented as the signal of a certain rupture with Prance. ' ' He adds : ' ' Such an event seems scarce avoidable. ' ' A rupture with France, whose ruler has just given us for a song an empire larger than his own! Was there ever such blind man's buff diplomacy? In a dispatch of May 28, one month less two days after the Purchase treaty was signed and in 122 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE effect ratified in Paris, Madison involves Jefferson in his own diplomacy-in-the-dark. He instinicts Livingston and Monroe: "The President thinks that it will be ineligible, under such circumstances, that any convention whatever on the subject should be entered into, that will not secure to the United States the jurisdiction of a reasonable district on some convenient part of the bank of the Missis- sippi." It is needless to say that '*a reasonable district" related to the lower Mississippi where we required a place of transshipment, not to those vast regions already acquired lying along the great western tributaries of the upper Mississippi. And thus the habitual vacillations of Jefferson and Madison led them to abandon every claim ex- cept, one landing place ! If this is statesmanship, what would be its absence ? Three copies of the Louisiana treaty were trans- mitted to the United States by three separate agencies, but Mr. Hughes arrived first, on July 14, and delivered the weighty document to the Presi- dent at Washington. That Jefferson and Madison were astonished is to put it with mildness. They were, in point of fact, dazed at the audacity of their agents, the immensity of the sum paid and the enormous magnitude of the whole transaction. After taking two weeks to recover their equilib- rium, the Secretary of State, instead of ovei*whelm- ing one of America's greatest benefactors with grateful thanks, finds fault with Livingston in a personal letter addressed to ^lonroe. The Presi- dent at first declares that he cannot approve of the THE GREAT TREATY 123 treaty, because, if he does, lie will make waste pa- per of the constitution. He keeps repeating "waste paper of the con- stitution," but finding at length that everybody was in favor of the treaty, except a few Hartford convention Federalists who had passed his own Kentucky resolutions of '98* in diluted form and had ceased to be Nationalists, he reverses the teach- ings of a lifetime and reluctantly approves of the actions of his agents. Mr. Jefferson had long been teaching that the strict construction of the constitution permitted nothing to be done under it except what was expressly authorized. There was hence no authority in express terms for the Nation to grow in size, to enlarge its boundaries, to add new territories. Ohio had been admitted into the Union that very year with his approval, but this was carved out of an acquisition gained by another peaceful or peace treaty— with England— made be- fore the constitution became operative. The su- preme organic law, according to this literal ex- pounder, hindered growth, development, progress, * President Roosevelt, in his inspiring Life of Thomas H. Benton, page 85, last ed., gives his countrymen some bed-rock history when he says: "Jefferson was the father of nullification, and therefore of secession. He used the woi-d 'nullify' in the original draft which he supplied to the Kentucky legislature, and though that body struck it out of the resolutions which they passed in 1798, they inserted it in those of the following year. This was done mainly as an unscrupulous party move on Jefferson's part, and when his side came into power he became a firm upholder of the Union; and, being constitutionally unable to put a proper value on truthfulness, he even denied that his resolutions could be construed to favor nullification — though they could by no possibility be construed to mean anything else." 124 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE expansion. Instead of frankly admitting that his constructional theories were fundamentally wrong, he proceeded to take the right action and then tried to get the constitution amended so as to authorize in terms the acquisition of this territory. But the President's nearest friends took so languid an interest in the amendment scheme that the whole matter of post facto sanction was at once and forever abandoned. However, as late as August 12, 1803, in a letter to John Breckinridge, the President continues to insist that ''The constitution has made no pro- vision for our incorporating foreign nations into our Union. ' ' But two urgent letters from the ever- watchful and indefatigable Livingston, brings about an almost instantaneous change of base. The minister writes that the First Consul is alreadj^ tired of his bargain, being free from war's alanus, and has instructed Marbois to take advantage of any loopholes or technicalities in the line of rati- fication or prompt payment, to get rid of an un- fortunate agreement. The great negotiator, almost trembling with apprehension, beseeches Jefferson by his love of Country^ and by all that is holy, to hasten ratification without the change of a word or a stipulation ; to literally and immediateh^ com])ly with the financial conditions of the great trans- action, so that Bonaparte shall have no possible excuse for evading his solemn pledges and obliga- tions. The timely appeal had its desired effect. The President wrote to the Secretary of State from Monticello, Aucrust 12: "T infer that the less we THE GREAT TREATY 125 say about constitutional difficulties respecting Louisiana the better, and that what is necessary for surmounting them must be done sub-silentio. ' ' A special session of Congress was called to meet October 17, and at the end of two days, to the enduring credit of the United States Senate of the Eighth Congress, the magnificent acquisition was consummated and ratified. It is useless to re- hearse the exploded theories and sophistical rea- soning used in the Senate and still more in the House against this beneficent treaty. Hamilton, of course, and other patriots of his party sup- ported the treaty most zealously. Perhaps nothing weaker was said from the beginning to the ending of this enormous transaction than what Monroe said in a letter to Madison, written two weeks after the treaty was signed : ' ' Could we have procured a part of the territory we should never have thought of getting the whole, but the decision of the Consul was to sell the whole, and we could not obtain any change in his mind on the subject. ' ' Compared with such dullness, Jefferson's twin- nation theory might almost pass for wisdom: ' ^ AYhether we remain one confederacy, or fomi into Atlantic or Mississippi confederacies, I believe is not very important to the happiness of either part." A final chapter contrasting conditions in the Louisiana Purchase States in 1803 and 1900, will afford, we trust, a pleasing conclusion to this historic story. CHAPTER XL LOUISIANA PURCHASE STATES. CONDITIONS IN 1803 AND 1900 CONTRASTED. THE State of Louisiana, the first-born State of the Louisiana treaty, was admitted into the Union April 30, 1812. It was named by LaSalle after liOuis XIV, King of France. It contains an area of forty-eight thousand seven hundred and twenty square miles, being some- what larger than the Territory of Orleans, which was organized March 26, 1804. Louisiana, by the census of 1900, has a population of one million three hundred and eighty-one thousand six hundred and twenty-five. In 1803 the population was placed at fifty thousand; in 1800, at forty-two thousand three hundred and seventy-five. The City of New Orleans, with a population of two hundred and eighty-seven thousand one hundred and four in 1900, had but eight thousand and fifty-six in 1803. The population of the State increased twenty-three and five-tenths per cent from 1890 to 1900, and thirty-six and seven-tenths per cent from 1850 to 1860. The cotton product of 1900 was seven hun- dred and fourteen thousand and seventy-three com- mercial bales. In 1802 the revenues of the colony from all sources amounted to one hundred and twenty-one thousand and forty-one dollars. The 126 LOUISIANA PURCHASE STATES 127 expenses of the Spanish government, troops, In- dian presents, etc., reached four hundred thousand dollars in specie, at that time. The French had provided, before occupation, a captain general, with a salary of seventy thousand francs; a colonial prefect, at fifty thousand francs ; three brigadier generals, etc. The French prefect, Laussat, wrote home: ''I will now proceed to say how justice is administered here, which is worse than in Turkey." United States Consul Clark wrote to his govern- ment in 1803: ''AH the officers plunder when the opportunity offers; they are all venal." In view of these facts, Robert R. Livingston's words, after signing the Great treaty, seem more and more remarkable : ' ' We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives. * * * The instruments which we have just signed will cause no tears to be shed; they prepare ages of happiness for innumerable generations of human creatures. The Mississippi and Missouri will see them succeed one another, and multiply, truly worthy of the regard and care of Providence, in the bosom of equality, under just laws, freed from the errors of superstition and the scourges of bad government. ' ' On November 30 the Spanish com- missioners, Casa Calvo and Salcedo, surrendered the whole of ancient Louisiana to the French com- missioner, Laussat. The region was in the nom- inal possession of France just twenty days. On December 20, 1803, it was surrendered by Laussat to Governor Claiborne and General Wilkinson, the American commissioners. That was the glorious 128 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE date when the French flag came down and the Stars and Stripes went up, amid salvos of artillery from shore batteries and warships. The subsequent ter- ritorial experience was not so glorious. Claiborne, who became the first governor, knew neither the laws nor the language of the people he was sent to govern. His despotism was complete, because, be- ing the chief of state and court of last resort, he centered in his own person all executive and ju- dicial functions. Under the Act of Congress of March 26, 1804, one judge constituted a quorum, so that one man could still rob the citizen of prop- erty, honor or life, at will. Certain Spanish land titles were declared void. Laussat described Clai- borne as ''extremely beneath the position in which he has been placed," and Willdnson as ''a rattle- headed fellow, frequently drunk;" neither, know- ing ' ' a word of French nor Spanish. ' ' From these men to Edward Livingston, President Zachary Taylor and Judah P. Benjamin are long steps up- ward. MISSOUEI. The upper portion of old Louisiana was named the ''District of Louisiana" under the Act of 1804, but by the act which took effect July 4, 1805, was called the "Territory of Louisiana." This name was changed to Missouri when organized in 1812. On August 10, 1821, it was admitted into the Union as a State, with an area of sixty-nine thousand four hundred and fifteen square miles. The territory had a population of twenty thousand eight hundred LOUISIANA PURCHASE STATES 129 and forty-five in 1810 ; sixty-six thousand five hun- dred and eighty-six inhabitants in 1820, and the State one million one hundred and eighty-two thousand and twelve in 1860, which grew to three million one hundred and six thousand six hundred and sixty-five in 1900. Of this population fifty-one and four-tenths per cent are males. The population of St. Louis, the fourth city in the Union, was fixed by the last federal census at five hundred and sev- enty-five thousand two hundred and thirty-eight. By the same census Kansas City has one hundred and sixty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty- two inhabitants ; St. Joseph, one hundred and two thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine. In March, 1804, the double transfer of this district was made by Captain Amos Stoddard, who, as the agent of France, received it from the Spanish com- mandant, Delassus, and almost immediately turned it over to the United States. Changing flags was not a joyful occasion. The authority of Governor William Henry Hariison of the Indiana Territory was extended over the newly acquired region, which then included what is now known as Missouri, Ar- kansas, Iowa, Kansas and eight other Northwestern States. Harrison conducted affairs with wisdom, integrity and ability. Under the Act of March 3, 1805, General Wilkinson became governor of the ** Territory of Louisiana." Wilkinson deserves some credit for aiding Lewis and Clark and Lieu- tenant Pike, who all had so much to do in maldng the extent and value of the great purchase known throughout the Union. 130 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE In 1808, Meriwether Lewis became governor. Deep distress over the ruin to trade, caused by fool- ish Chinese wall embargoes, led in some measure to the suicide of this supersensitive but high type historic man. Captain William Clark, the com- panion of Captain Lewis, in the famous Missouri and Columbia Eiver exploring expedition, and brother of the brilliant George Rogers Clark, be- came territorial governor in 1812. Until Missouri entered the Union as a State this meritorious officer contributed greatly to the rapid advancement of the whole region. With these auspicious beginnings it is not surprising that such broad, national men as Thomas H. Benton, Francis P. Blair, Edward Bates, and their equals, grew to opulence in re- nown. Mr. Bates was Abraham Lincoln 's first de- clared choice for the Presidency in 1860 and that great man's first selection for his cabinet. The State takes its name from the river, the latter from two Indian words, Mis and Souri, meaning ''big muddy." AilKANSAS. This State came into the Union in 1836. Its area is fifty-three thousand eight hundred and fifty square miles. Its population in 1900 was one mil- lion three hundred and eleven thousand five hun- dred and sixty-four. It produced in that year eight hundred and twenty-eight thousand eight hundred and twenty bales of cotton. The assessed value of real estate is one hundred and twenty- eight million eighty- four thousand six hundred and LOUISIANA PURCHASE STATES 131 sixty-seven dollars. The capital invested in manu- facturing and mechanical industries in 1900 was thirty-five million nine hundred and sixty thou- sand six hundred and forty dollars. The increase in this capital from 1880 to 1890 was forty and seven-tenths per cent. Not only the gold hunter, De Soto, but the indomitable La Salle, the chival- rous De Tonty and the truthful historian, Joutel, traveled all over this Arkansas wilderness. Three- fourths of the State is still a forest. On March 3, 1805, Upper Louisiana was divided into the Dis- trict of New Madrid and Territory of Louisiana. The southern part of Missouri and what is now Arkansas constituted this ''district." General James Wilkinson, appointed by the Prsident as governor, and Meigs and Lucas, the two superior court judges, constituted the Legislature. In 1806 the district was called Arkansas and Stephen Wor- rel became the first deputy governor. From and after 1813 the Legislature of Missouri continued creating new counties; but on July 4, 1819, Ar- kansas began a separate territorial existence. Pres- ident Monroe appointed General James Miller, the hero of Lundy's Lane, the first governor. This brave soldier filled the chief office with honesty and honor until his resignation in 1825. James S. Con- way was the first State governor, elected by the people in 1836. Honesty and efficiency marked his administration. With Governor Conway may be classed public men of wider distinction, such as Augustus H. Garland. The names of river and State come from the French prefix arc and the In- 132 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE dian Kansas meaning river of the ''bow" Indians, of ''smoky water." IOWA. The lead mines of Dubuque attracted the first settlers to Iowa. The name Iowa, derived from the Indian Yaiia, "across beyond," was first ap- plied to a county east of the Mississippi, which formed a part of Michigan TeiTitoiy . The ' ' Iowa district" next became western Wisconsin, with a population in 1836 of ten thousand five hundred and thirtj'^-one. The Act of Congress which took effect July 4, 1838, established the Territory of Iowa. The inhabitants then numbered twenty-two thousand eight hundred and sixty. In May, 1846, a territorial convention fixed the limits of Iowa as they exist to-day. Congress and the people ap- proved. The State was admitted into the Union December 28, 1846. The population had reached one hundred and two thousand three hundred and eighty-eight. In the long contest between sav- ages and civilization, civilization won. Governor Robert Lucas, twice governor of Ohio and j)resi- dent of the convention which renominated Presi- dent Jackson, was the first territorial governor. The third State governor, James W. Grimes, was uniquely and sternly fixed in his anti-slavery and temperance principles. Under the patriotic Gov- ernor Kirkwood, Iowa furnished seventy-eight thousand and fifty-nine men to the Union armies. The brainiest and greatest of this State's historic men was Justice Samuel H. Miller. By the last LOUISIANA PURCHASE STATES 133 census the population of Iowa is two million two hundred and thirty-one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three. Its area is fifty-six thousand and twenty-five square miles. The assessed value of its real estate is four hundred and forty million seven hundred and sixty-nine thousand nine hundred and fifty-two dollars. The gross value of the products of its manufacturing and mechanical industries is one hundred and sixty-four million six hundred and seventeen thousand eight hundred and seventy- seven dollars. But its later products in the line of strong public men are more noteworthy and rela- tively greater. We have only space to name Sec- cretaiy of the Treasury Shaw, Secretary of Agri- culture Wilson, Senators Allison and Dolliver, Speaker Henderson and Representatives Hepburn, Cousins and Hull. MINNESOTA. The fifth of the Louisiana Purchase States en- tered the Union May 11, 1858. It was organized as a territory in March, 1849. Its area in square miles is eighty-three thousand three hundred and sixty-five. Its present population is one million seven hundred and fifty-one thousand three hun- dred and ninety-four. Minneapolis had two hun- dred and two thousand seven hundred and eighteen inhabitants by the last federal census. St. Paul, one hundred and sixty-three thousand and sixty- five. The former is nineteenth, and the latter twen- ty-third in the relative rank of cities. Louis Hen- nepin appears to have first visited the regions em- 134 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE braced within the State of Minnesota. He de- scribed the Falls of Saint xlnthony soon after he made the first rough picture of Niagara Falls. The enlightened Frontenac sent Perrot to the upper Mississippi, where he built in Minnesota Fort Per- rot, known also as Fort Le Sueur. In 1819, Gov- ernor Lewis Cass of Michigan, with a party num- bering forty, traveled through this territory, which had lately been placed under his jurisdiction. Alex- ander Ramsey was the first governor of the Terri- tory of Minnesota. He was the second governor of the State and for twelve years a Senator of the United States. Cushman K. Davis became gov- ernor of Minnesota in January, 1874. Both these able men gained the highest distinction in the United States Senate. William Windom, as Sen- ator and cabinet minister, became widely known. General James Shields and Henry M. Rice, this progressive State's first chosen Senators in Con- gress, were both patriotic and useful public men. The State's name means cloudy or slvy-colored water. KANSAS. The route of the Lewis and Clark expedition was through Kansas City, Kan., and on to the site of Atchison. There was held the first Fourth of July celebration ever held in that then wilder- ness region. Independence Creek was named by these alert explorers. Lieutenant Pike bravely ex- plored Kansas, and in November, 1807, discovered Pike's Peak. Andrew H. Reeder became the first LOUISIANA PURCHASE STATES 135 territorial governor of Kansas in 1854. A census of 1855 made the population eight thousand five hundred and one. John W. Geary, the third gov- ernor, was able and patriotic, hut soon retired from the bloody border scenes, out of which not even John Brown or Eobert J. Walker emerged with un- smirched reputation. Acting Governor Frederick P. Stanton did much to make Kansas a free state. The Lecompton (pro-slavery) constitution was a second time rejected by ten thousand majority. Kansas came into the Union January 29, 1861, a date since known as "Kansas day." From 1860 to 1870 the population increased two hun- dred and forty per cent. The gross area of the State is eighty-two thousand and eighty square miles; total population, one million four hundred and seventy thousand four hundred and ninety-five in 1900 ; assessed value of real es- tate, two hundred and twenty-four million nine hundred and five thousand two hundred and thirty- seven dollars. James M. Harvey was a gallant soldier, twice governor of Kansas and Senator of the United States. His worth was solid. Of those who have since passed away the brilliant John J. Ingalls and the widely-esteemed Preston B. Plumb were truly national men. NEBRASKA. Nebraska was organized as a territory in 1854 and admitted as a State in 1867. Its gross area is seventv-seven thousand five hundred and ten 136 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE square miles. Its population in 1900, one million sixty-six thousand three hundred, of which fifty- two and nine-tenths per cent are males. Only two and five-tenths of the inhabitants are illiterate. The population in 1860 was only twent^^-eight thousand eight hundred and forty-one. Omaha contains one hundred and two thousand five hun- dred and fifty-five people and is the thirty-fifth in census rank. In 1673, Father Marquette explored and partly mapped out this part of ancient Louisiana. In their outward trip, Lewis and Clark en- camped many nights within the limits of Nebraska, while making their extraordinary journey of four thousand one hundred and thirty-three miles. An exj^edition in 1842, under John C. Fremont, passed along the Platte Valley. The Monnons, while mov- ing to Utah, early traversed this wild region. The Territoiy of Nebraska was blessed, or possibly dis- tracted, with six governors in seven years. But Alvin Saunders of Iowa, sent out by President Lincoln, remained in office for six years. The first State governor, Daniel Butler, was removed by im- peachment. The first State constitution, framed in 1871, was rejected by a vote of the people. The name comes from hras and ne, Indian for "shal- low water." COLORADO. The measureless wealth of the mines and the unsurpassable beauty of nature in Colorado were absolutely unknown in 1803. In 1807, Lieutenant LOUISIANA PURCHASE STATES 137 Pike, after exploring the headwaters of the prin- cii)al rivers, was taken prisoner with his party of twenty by a much larger force of Spaniards. The Long exploring expedition of 1819-20, brought back a careful account of the South Platte region and the mountains, especially Long's Peak, justly named in honor of that accomplished officer of the regular army. In 1859 the rush began for the Pike 's Peak gold, ihQ Gregoiy and the Jackson mines. Sixty thou- sand eager men soon followed in the wake of the pioneers. During the years from 1861, when a ter- ritorial government was organized, to 1876, when Colorado was admitted as a State, mortals seemed to be working miracles in a thousand ways. ' ' Stern men with empires in their brains" began ''to pitch new states as old world men pitch tents." From 1880 to 1890 there was five hundred and eighteen per cent of inci'ease in capital invested in manufacturing and mechanical industries. The Talue of the products of these industries reached one hundred and two million eight hundred and thirty thousand one hundred and thirty-seven dol- lars in 1900. The assessed value of real estate now exceeds one hundred and seventy-five million dol- lars, with a present population of six hundred thousand and an area of one hundred and three thousand nine hundred and twenty-five square miles. Colorado seems destined to become the em- pire state of the great Northwest. The State takes its name from the River Colorado, the Spanish for ^' ruddy" or ''red." 138 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE NORTH DAKOTA was admitted as a State in the Union November 2, 1889, with an area of seventy thousand seven hundred and ninety-five miles. North Dakota had been organized as a separate territoiy March 2, 1861. The State had a population in 1890 of one hundred and eighty-two thousand seven hundred and nineteen. It had increased in 1900 to three hundred and nineteen thousand one hundred and forty-six. The value of its real estate is placed at ninety million nine hundred and forty-two thou- sand and nineteen dollars. Lewis and Clark passed a winter near the City of Mandan. The old fort at Pembina was built by Lord Selkirk. George Catlin made a study of the North Dakota Indians in 1841. Governor John Miller was the first State executive. The name Dakota signifies in the In- dian tongue ''many allies or tribes in one." SOL'TH DAKOTA has an area of seventy-seven thousand six hun- dred and fifty square miles. Its population is four hundred and one thousand five hundred and sev- enty. Its real estate was valued at one hundred and thirty-two million six hundred and fifty-two thousand eight hundred and fifteen dollars by the last census. The Territory' of South Dakota was organized March 2, 1861. It was admitted as a State November 2, 1889. The University of South Dakota, at Vennillion, has a president and four- LOUISIANA PURCHASE STATES 139 teen professors. Nicollet was the first writer to describe the picturescjue beauty of this region. The extreme length of the State is three hundred and eighty-six miles and its breadth two hundred and forty miles. It is divided into about equal parts by the line of the Missouri River. The Cheyenne and Grand Rivers are the next in size. Hagerty and Child have written entertaining books about the promise and fulfillment of the State. MONTANA. This State has now a population of one and a quarter million. It had less than twelve thousand inhabitants when organized as a territory in 1864. It came into the Union in 1889. The population increased two hundred and thirty-seven and five- tenths from 1880 to 1890. Montana's enormous size, one hundred and forty-six thousand and eighty square miles, and its foreshadowed great- ness, stimulated the genius of Joaquin Miller to writer a monumental history of the State, dis- tinctly worthy of subject and author. The great Poet of the Sierras says with fitting truth and grace: ''Here, great men in the glorious pursuits of peace, laid the foundation stones without cement of blood, and reared a great State out of material fresh from the hand of God. ' ' And this other ut- terance was true, in 1803, of the eleventh to enter the Union of the Great Treaty States. ' ' But here lay Montana, a thousand miles from any sea; a wilderness in the very heart of an untrodden wil- 140 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE derness, with savages on the four sides of her and savages in every pass and valley." Xo one can condense this best of the State histories. The musi- cal name from the French mont suggests the home or holy place of the mountains. WYOMING. Wyoming, an Indian word meaning "broad plain," the twelfth and last of the Purchase States, which came into the Union in 1890, has now a pop- ulation of a hundred thousand and nearly an equal number of square miles of territory. Indians and wild beasts held possession of this region until 1806, when white trappers and fur traders became primitive commercial travelers. The first author- ized explorer was Captain Bonneville. John Col- ter, of tlie Lewis and Clark party, was the first American to trap and trade in Wyoming. Ezekiel Williams and party did splendid pioneer work un- der appalling hardships. The Yellowstone Park, the Wonderland of America, is worth more than we paid for the whole Louisiana empire. OKLAHOMA. From the domain acquired by the Great treaty were cai-ved out twelve large states and two terri- tories, soon to become states. Oklahoma has at present a population of over four hundred thou- sand, although an area of but thirty-nine thousand and thirty square miles. The increase of inhab- itants in ten vcars has been over five hundred and LOUISIANA PURCHASE STATES 141 forty-four per cent. During tlie same period the increase of invested capital lias been more than thirty-four hundred and nine per cent. These fig- ures tell enough in condensed form. The Indian Territory, with an area of thirty-one thousand four hundred square miles, can here rea- sonably be included, as it is mainly a part of the Louisiana Purchase territory. Its complete or- ganization as a member of tjie National Union will be delayed no longer than the National Legislature deems it best for the interests of the entire Nation. As the actual Treaty boundary line has never yet been topographically marked or defined we are still unable to name the exapt area of the purchased domain. It should be added that about one-third of Min- nesota and Colorado, and perhaps one-fifth of Wyoming and Montana, are not embraced in the Louisiana Purchase. From what the historical records contain, the conclusion is inevitable that Eobert R. Livingston negotiated the Louisiana treaty; that Alexander Hamilton was its chief promoter; that Franklin and Vergennes were large factors because their treaty of peace work of 1782-3 led us to the Mis- sissippi, and that Napoleon and Jefferson, being in supreme power, officially sanctioned what "the empire of circumstances," prior events and other men brought about. 142 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE SUPPLEMENTAL. CKEATOES AND PEESEKVEKS OF THE REPUBLIC. The foregoing History of the Louisiana Pur- chase has shown who were the far-sighted states- men chiefly, not ex officio, instrumental in bringing about the enlargement of the Nation. The other great men who created and presetted the Repub- lic are entitled to at least equal honor and rever- ence. America's foremost patriots and benefactors are given the following approximate relative rank : Washington, Hamilton, Lincoln, Franklin, Marsh- all, Webster, Grant, Livingston, Jackson. We lay stress only on the preeminence of the group, which includes those who have done the most to make the Union strong, enduring and great. All these illus- trious men either aided to prevent England from conquering the Louisiana domain or helped to ac- quire or preserve it. Hence the whole story is not told unless brief reference is made to their fruitful toils and sublime sacrifices. These nine heroes of war and of peace best teach patriotism and Love of Country, by example. "TT^. t< "U '5'U^v./c4 Mp^r^-^A • PATRIOTS AND BENEFACTORS 143 FOREMOST PATRIOTS AND BENEFAC- TORS. WASHINGTON. The boyhood of George Washington differed not from that of other boys until he reached sixteen. From that age until he was nineteen, Lord Fairfax placed in his manly hands the large ressponsibility of surveying all his lands in East and West Vir- ginia. In this forest life and mountain air, the young surveyor developed a splendid physique and a round, tree-trunk body, built for endurance. In almost daily correspondence and in frequent per- sonal contact with this accomplished Scotch noble- man, his manners and character were perfected. By reading Sir Matthew Hale 's ' ' Contemplations, ' ' and like solid books, his morals were elevated and his understanding broadened. Early military re- verses, not successes, evolved the qualities of pru- dence, caution, patience, foresight and fortitude under calamity. Inherited estates, a good mother, a fortunate marriage, developed domestic tastes. These traits and virtues and a certain solidity, dig- nity and weight of character, frequent companions of wealth and worth, brought Washington into his first broad field of action as Commander-in-Chief. Here he struggled, suffered and grew strong. A resolute calmness and a resourceful strength un- 144 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE der disaster, made him the conqueror of Cornwallis and the creator of his Country. A fitting scene for some immortal limner was that at Newburg where, having broken down in reading the letter in which he puts aside with scorn the kingly crown, he adjusts his spectacles and with emotion obsei"^^es: ''You see, my coun- tiymen, I have not only grown old but grown blind in your service!" His surrendering his commis- sion and every symbol of power, immortalized by Trumbull, goes beyond anything recorded of Plu- tarch's heroes, in self-abnegation. He led the armies that gained our independence; presided over the convention that made our Constitution, and guided the ship of state for eight years on her true course, without one dollar of compensation for his priceless sendees. To bestow time and labors of such immeasurable value, without re- ward, is unknown in tlie history of mankind. The Gates-Conway cabal, lasting but a year, was pain- less compared with the Virginia political combine of twenty-four years' duration. It filled the soul of the first Executive with sorrowing grief that the three chief politicians of his own State should conspire to break down his administration that each in turn might fill his own high place. He trembled lest these ambitious men who impugned eveiy act and utterance of his official life, should belittle and defame him after death. But pos- terity has rightly assigned to the Founder of the Republic the stately place of the First Historic American ! That other dear immortal, Lincoln, adds PATRIOTS AND BENEFACTORS 145 his weightiest words to a world 's verdict : ' ' Wash- ington is the mightiest name of earth." * * * "In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked, deathless splendor leave it shining on." HAMILTON. "I have known all the great men of my time," said Talleyrand, * ' I have known Fox, Pitt, Burke, Metternich, and, of course, the first Napoleon, but I never knew so great a man as Alexander Ham- ilton." This many-sided genius was the fruit of a common-law marriage openly entered into by one of the noble Hamilton family of Scotland and a gifted woman of French descent. The precocious talents of the child brought him from the Island of Nevis to New York to be educated. He was broadly educated, but chiefly by himself and by "Washington in the finishing school of war, where there were few vacations. Prior to being chief and confidential secretary at nineteen, on the staff of the Great Commander, he had gained distinction as patriot-writer, orator and captain of artillery. So early as 1774, the boy-patriot proclaimed that there was no resource for the colonies but trade restriction ''or in a resistance vi et armis." Dur- ing this year Jefferson was against independence. From the day that Hamilton began to write the military correspondence down to the writing of The Farewell Address, the labors and services of the Chief and his aid, in war and in peace, were inseparable. Jointly with Washington, or as the originator, the soldier-statesman was behind nearly 10 146 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE all that is best and most enduring in our political institutions. The enumeration of bis specific sendees, wbicb were enormous, can only be partial. As chief of staff, through adroit diplomacy he induced Gen- eral Gates to transfer troops at a critical juncture when that ambitious rival of Washington would probably have disobeyed a direct order. In 1780, seven years before the Constitution under which we live to-day was framed, Hamilton wrote on the head of a drum a letter to James Duane in which are embodied the fundamental piinciples of that great charter of our liberties. It is safe to say that he did more than any two men to bring about the framing of the supreme law and more than any three others to secure its ratification. The influ- ence of The Federalist arguments and of his tri- umph of reason in the Poughkeepsie, New York, Convention, was unique and unparalleled. In put- ting all the machinery of government in successful motion, the first ]\Iinister of Finance was the guid- ing and controlling force. He solidified the Union by funding the State debts contracted in a common cause; by founding our National credit on a rock as impregnable as Gibraltar. He provided a sink- ing fund for the payment of all debts when con- tracted; he created the American system of pro- tecting duties; he established post routes and handled with high success the mails of the United States; he drew the acts organizing the war and navy departments on their present basis, in 1798 ; he was the first statesman to declare for expansion PATRIOTS AND BENEFACTORS 147 and to proclaim tliat Louisiana was essential to tlie permanence of tlie Union; lie was cliiefly in- strumental in suppressing the AVliisky Eebellion and in founding a National Bank and West Point Academy. The learned President Garfield was wont to say that ' ' Hamilton was the greatest man that ever trod this continent!" LINCOLN. Abraham Lincoln was trained in the hard and rigid school of adversity, that school which has developed more, truly great men than all the uni- versities. Unvarying prosperity brings to the sur- face conceit, selfishness, self-assertion and all forms of self -worship. This son of toil had no early suc- cesses, no extraordinary genius, no belles-lettres learning, no handsome person, to s^Doil him. His school training was limited to eleven months. His manual labor and surveying brought him a bare living. For his services in the Black Hawk war he gained no military glory. From his eight years in the State Legislature of Illinois came no distinc- tion. His one tenii in Congress brought him no renown. His practice at the bar earned him neither wealth nor conceded preeminence. His candidacy for Vice-President was unsuccessful. His debates witli Douglas lifted him into the national arena and first clearly demonstrated his wonderful pow- ers as a reasoner. He lost the Illinois Senatorship through Trumbull, when it was almost within his grasp. Lincoln's first unqualified triumph came when he was nominated for the Presidency in May, 148 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 1860. Then followed misrei^resentation and de- traction by one of the great political parties, throughout the Union. To make his fate sadder his constitutional election was the signal for the denial of his rightful authority to preside over them by one-third of the States, the denial aggra- vated by the general defamation of his character. When this was followed by widespread sedition, privy conspiracy and rebellion, involving the ulti- mate loss of a half million lives, is it strange that the patriot's face wore an expression of infinite sadness ? But the supreme triumphs of misunder- stood mortals come after death. Immortality means that the deeds of great men are eternally bearing fruit. No man ever grew to greatness so manifestly fast as this Cliief of State. His first inaugural was in persuasive logic great ; the eman- cipation proclamation and second inaugural were in puii^ose and pathos greater, while the Gettys- burg battlefield oration is called the most tenderly eloquent ever delivered in honor of the dead. Among Lincoln 's most marked qualities were prac- tical wisdom ; depth and breadth of sj^npathy for humanity ; power as a logician ; unending patience ; l^enetration into the motives of men ; an eagerness to be as merciful as the safety of the Republic would permit. Wliile not perhaps so strenuous an executive force as Bismarck or Stanton, as a far- seeing, deliberative statesman he surpassed all the great men of his time ; as also in moral elevation and in wisely promoting the permanent welfare of his Country and mankind. He was a moulder of PATRIOTS AND BENEFACTORS 149 men's opinions and minds, liis own being the mas- ter mind of his age. The most popular of the Presidents at this time, and it may be for all time, are Lincoln and McKinley. The blood of the martyrs cements and perpetuates the State. FRANKLIN. Ben Franklin, as he is familiarly named, was born twenty-six years earlier than Washington and died in 1790. The philosopher and the hero were the first of our large historic men to see the light and the first to pass away. Franklin was born wise and gained knowledge by dexterity. He was self-taught and learned more by the public lamps than from the public schools. He was disciplined in the world of science, of men and books. Ben- jamin, though not a saint, became renowned as a moralist, great as a philosopher and still greater as a diplomatist. ''Poor Richard" made multi- tudes rich Richards. Thrift, economy, sobriety, industry, helping one another, and the divine gos- pel of toleration, were first broadly preached in American by this later Confucius. Franklin lured with his kite the lightning from the clouds before he helped to wrest the scepter from tyrants. His fame had preceded him to Europe when he went there as the agent of one, two, then three American colonies. He taught Burke, Shelburne and Lord Chatham much that they so eloquently proclaimed about conciliation and peace with America. But the crowning achievements of his 150 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE life were embraced within five years in Paris, after lie had entered his seventy-second year. In 1778, the vitally important Treaty of Amit}^ and Alli- ance was negotiated. Under the stipulations of of this treaty France gave the hard-pressed col- onies nearly ten millions of dollars in direct loans, besides the aid of fifteen thousand well-equipped soldiers and sailors who were subsisted and paid by France. The later beneficent Treaty of Peace with Great Britain doubled the area of our coun- try and brought about the formal recognition of our independence the world over. In the solution of that liberty problem these two great conven- tions of 1778 and 1782 were essential factors. The four chief agents in securing the pennanent jjeace of 1782-3 were Franklin, Vergennes, for France; Lord Shelburne, for England, and Secretary R. R, Livingston, under whose instructions the American envoys were acting. Adams and Jay were serviceable in holding fast with persuasive logical force to the favorable terms of the pre- liminary treaty. Franklin with infinite tact and adroitness had succeeded in his plan of selecting Oswald and Hartley for the two principal British negotiators. Both were old ]')ersonal friends. Our first and greatest diplomatist, with pen and speech, continued to serve his Country to the end, and acted as moderator or peacemaker in the conven- tion-conflicts of 1787. Honored and lamented in two hemispheres, he died as he had lived, a philoso- pher. The prevailing fiction should not obscure the historic fact that Franklin was the oldest and PATRIOTS AND BENEFACTORS 151 wisest of the five authors of the much-amended Independence Declaration of 1776. He was thirt}^- seven years older than Jefferson, with a then vastly wider range of experience. MARSHALL. John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice, is the only American to whom the term Great, has been habitually applied. How he became the world's first jurist, or at least the peer of Mansfield, Eldon and Holt, has never been made quite clear. No adequate life of Marshall has yet been written. But we know that he grew to unexcelled greatness while on the Supreme Bench. He was manifestly a born logician and jurist. He had by nature the judicial temperment; also those qualities of mind and habits of analytic concentration which pecu- liarly fitted him for the highest judicial station. Marshall's participation, and that of his brave father, in the hardest fought battles of the Eevo- lution taught him that a Union that cost so dearly in blood was worth preserving. During the dread- ful winter at Valley Forge, a thousand good- natured and ill-natured disputes arose between officers, which were settled by umpire Marshall through- impregnable decisions from which there were no successful appeals. This, with his fre- quent service on military courts, was his first train- ing for his supreme judicial mission. A year under the inspiring instruction of Chancellor Wythe, with his severe prior studies, prepared him 152 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE for the bar and for the State Legislature. Such advancemeut did he make at the law that in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1788, when our new made Magna Charta was fiercely assailed, Madison and Marshall proved more than a match for Patrick Henry, George Mason, Dawson, Gray- son, Harrison and Monroe, the enemies of ratifica- tion. In 1798, the future jurist was sent by Presi- dent Adams on a diplomatic mission to France with C. C. Pinckney and Elbridge Gerry. It was soon discovered that the French officials preferred to be liberally bribed before proceeding to discuss the peace business. Hence the indignant protest voiced by Marshall and Pinckney : ' ' Millions for defense; not one cent for tribute." His election to Congress, where he gained distinction, was fol- lowed by his appointment as Secretary of V>^ar, then Secretaiy of State, in 1800. Januaiy 31, 1801, he was nominated by President Adams and unanimously confirmed by the Senate, Chief Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Making Marshall Chief Justice, John xVdams in later years declared, was the proudest act of his life. In this place of supreme judicial power John Marshall's high purpose was to make this Union a ''more perfect Union." Hence he put into the form of judicial judgments the wise and salu- taiy constitutional inteipretations of his own, and of Hamilton, as set forth in The Federalist and in the latter 's great State papers. He found that all save one of the chief and essential powers and prerogatives of sovereignty had happily been con- PATRIOTS AND BENEFACTORS 153 ferred on the Nation, not the State; that the Re- public had the right to do what would make it strong and great; had the right and the duty to protect and to control the governed as individual citizens ; that we had one Country, not tliirteen or forty-five ; that a part was not politically greater than the whole, and that the supreme law, liberty and unity, were inseparable, indestructible and hence perpetual. In public and in private life the Great Chief Justice was one of the purest of all historic men. He should ever be placed before the youth of all lands as the best tyi3e of public and personal morality known among the world's greatest intel- lectual characters. WEBSTER. The belief seems to be growing that Daniel Webster is the world's first orator. He has long been the foremost on this continent. As a large- minded statesman he ranks second to Hamilton only. As an advocate he has never been excelled, in this Country, if indeed equalled. Measured by the intellectual and oratorical standards he is the greatest of all American Senators. As Secretary of State he surpassed in achievement Marshall, Marcy, Madison or Jetferson. The grand, god-like, seeming-superhuman qualities of the Great Ex- pounder of the Constitution have been adequately set forth by such able eulogists as Choate, Lodge, McCall, Curtis and others. It comes only within our province to call to mind some specific services 154 TEE LOUISIANA PURCHASE to his Countiy of this broad benefactor. His over- whehning refutation in 1830 of the "peaceable secession" arguments of Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, postponed disunion until the free States grew strong enough to preserve the Union. His trv'O Bunker Hill monument orations, the address at Plymouth, the tear-compelling tenderness of his plea in the cause of Dartmouth College, even his great legal and constitutional discussions, were quickening and stimulating to the patriotism of the people the land over. Webster revived the broad nationalism of the best of the Fathers, and by his enchanting eloquence made the salutary supremacy of the Nation a political entity of en- during beauty. Sitting at the feet of Washington, Hamilton and Marshall, he rehabilitated and reclothod their nobly patriotic teachings in robes of radiant and inspiring grandeur. Not to yield to the Republic a paramount allegiance was to this intellectual king of men the one unpardonable political sin. Webster perfected a national crim- inal code of procedure, a similar State code for Louisiana having immortalized Edward Living- ston. He materially promoted the construction of the Cumberland road and other great National in- ternal improvements. He successfully resisted the attempts of the followers of Jefferson to curtail tlie powers and hence destroy the dignity of the Supreme Court. He enforced with resistless logic the broad, national view that a Senator was a Senator of the United States, not merely a political agent of the petty district which sent him. In PATRIOTS AND BENEFACTORS 155 1832-3, lie powerfully supported President Jack- son's Nullification Proclamation and his efficacious Force Bill, knowing tliat all bills are ' ' force ' ' bills and all laws force laws. In 1842, be negotiated the advantageous Maine boundary treaty, proving himself more than a match for Lord Asliburton. The famous Hulsemann letter did honor to his uncompromising Americanism. Notwithstanding his indefensible course after his defeat for the Whig Presidential nomination in 1852, and liis occasional lapses from strict ethical morality, Web- ster's fame will reach down the centuries. His voice was deep and sonorous; his presence com- manding and majestic and the grandeur of his whole aspect when in action seemed to suggest the Thunderer of Mt. Olympus. He was as Mr. Sum- ner called him, ' ' the god-like Daniel. ' ' GEANT. For doing more in the field than any other Great Commander to preserve the existence of the Re- public when its life was imperiled. General Grant became a lasting benefactor to his Countrj^ and mankind. Of course, Thomas, Shennan, Sheridan, Meade and thousands of most deserving others, rendered invaluable assistance. Grant's campaigns were all victorious; there were some repulses but no defeats. He had wonderful poise and a mani- fest genius for war. He had a bull-terrier tenacity, and would never admit that he was beaten. He believed in hard front and f^ank fighting more than 156 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE in strategy or surprises. He moved immediately upon the enemy's works and fought it out on the chosen line if it took a whole summer. He showed unparalleled magnanimity in the hour of final vic- tory. A grateful people soon made him their civil Chief Magistrate. But eighty electoral votes were cast against him. When plans to pay the public debt in paper promises to pay, abounded, President Grant put an end to all such dishonest schemes by one bold utterance in his first inau- gural : "To protect the national honor, every dol- lar of the Government indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood that no repudiator of one farthing of our public debt will be trusted in public place, and it will go far toward strengthening a credit which ought to be the best in the world, and will ultimately enable us to re- place the debt with bonds bearing less interest than we now pay." The settlement of the Alabama claims, through the Geneva Tribunal of Arbitration, was one of Grant's victories of peace which marks an era in civilization. A little later the infamous Ku Klux clans were by him etfectually suppressed. The message vetoing the Inflation bill of 1874 was eminently wise and right in the light of to-day. During his trip around the world, in 1879, Gen- eral Grant was honored by governments and by great men as no American has yet been honored. His business failures proved that a great soldier mav be in business a babe at the bottle. But the PATRIOTS AND BENEFACTORS 157 integrity of his intentions was never in doubt, not even when ring politicians were at one time exer- cising too much control over public affairs. His candidacy for a third tenii of the Presidency was politically a sad mistake. Grant's place in history is in the first group of the world's greatest sol- diers, which includes Caesar, Alexander, Hannibal, Marlborough, Von Moltke, Wellington, Bonaparte and Frederick the Great. Writing a great book while in the clutches of death, which lifted his family to affluence, was the bravest and noblest thing a stricken hero ever did, in peace or war. His pen dropped from his hand only at the call of death ! ' ' And now in honor 's glorious bed at rest. ' ' LIVINGSTON. Eobert R. Livingston was the most eminent of the Livingston-Manor family that had eight historic men in its two Scotch and American branches. Janet Livingston, the sister of the brainy Robert and the brilliant Edward, be- came the wife and widow of General Richard Montgomery, that ideal hero who fell lead- ing the assault on Quebec on the last day of December, 1775, after gallantly capturing St. Johns and Montreal. Robert R., when promoted from the honorable post of Recorder of New York City to the second Continental Congress, became in 1776 one of the five authors of the Declaration of Independence. The history of this instrument 158 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE is contained in a few words. The subject was con- sidered in and out of Congress for two years. Then a committee of five was ai)i)oinLed to draft a declaration, which conmiittee discussed the subject for five weeks, at the end of which time what the declaration should contain was agreed upon. Mr. Jefferson was instructed to put the conclusions of the committee in rhetorical phrase. But over forty- changes were made in the original draft, by the committee, and by Congress. The Virginia notion that Franklin, Adams, Sherman and Livingston neglected or shirked their duties, and that a youth of thirty-three did all and became the sole "author," is now too preposterous for our alert school boys to believe. Three other significant sendees to his Country awaited the activities of Livingston. In 1781, he was made Secretary of Foreign Atfairs by the Congress of the Confedera- tion. In this high office he gave the instmctions to John Adams which resulted in the important I'reaty of Amitj^ and Commerce with the Nether- lands of October 8, 1782, and he also formulated all the instructions to Franklin, Adams and Jay, when in Paris, which brought about the vastly more important Treaties of Peace with Great Britain of 1782-3. These preliminary and defini- tive treaties doubled our national domain, cariying our boundaries to the Mississippi and granting to us its free navigation. He supported effectively in the New York Convention the National Constitu- tion. A still larger direct service was perfonned by Robert P. Livingston in April, 1803, when he PATRIOTS AND BENEFACTORS 159 in person negotiated the Louisiana Purcliase Treaty, without one line of relevant instructions from this side of the ocean. As our Envoy Ex- traordinary in France he took instant advantage of Bonaparte's willingness to sell all his posses- sions on this continent to the Americans. The great treaty which added over nine hundred thou- sand square miles to the Repuhlic was practically the work of three days. It was virtually negotiated before Monroe was received by Talleyrand or officially recognized by Napoleon. The large im- port of this transaction was first grasped and first proclaimed by Livingston. Tardy justice is now being done the statesman, diplomatist and jurist, who administered the oath of office to President Washington while first Chancellor of New York, in which high office he reached great eminence. The State of New York, recognizing his great services, has sent his statue in bronze to adorn the American Pantheon at Washington, He was a noble patron of science, art and literature. His timely financial support to Robert Fulton rendered steam navigation practically successful. JACKSON. Without the maintenance of the constitutional and territorial integrity of the Republic, the Louis- iana Acquisition would have been comparatively valueless. Hence a meritorious hero and patriot who twice saved the Union from threatened de- struction must not be left out of the list of woi-thiest 160 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE Americans. Jackson 's rise from poverty to power was even more remarkable than Lincoln's. His father died before Andrew was born. A mother in l)enury could afford little care. The training re- ceived at cock-fights and horse-races was not cal- culated to develop the moral virtues, serenitj^ of temper or an unvarj'ing regard for the feelings of others. Jackson's faults were inherited or were fastened upon him by the harshest and roughest earl}^ environments. The gradations in his upward career were saddler, farmer, lawyer, Public Prose- cutor, Representative in Congress, Senator, State Judge, Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Major- General of Regulars, again United States Senator, then President. He seemed not at home or at ease in Congress. A cry for help after the horrible massacre at Fort Mims aroused all that was noblest in Jackson and opened to him his time field. Rais- ing over two thousand men while suffering excru- ciating pain from wounds, he pursued the red- handed savages with relentless fury until he gave the Creeks their quietus at Talladega. Command- ing the Department of the South in 1814, he held Mobile, captured Pensacola, and, on the ever mem- orable 8th of January, 1815, defeated General Packenham, tlie brother-in-law of Wellington, with a loss of three thousand, his own loss being seven killed and six wounded. After such a victoiy an American could hold up his head. A few months before our Capitol had been burned by a small British force, the Government had nm away and was wandering in the woods on the upper Potomac ; PATRIOTS AND BENEFACTORS 161 there was no army or money and neither could be raised. Madison, Monroe and their own chosen general, Winder, had wholly lost the confidence of the Country. Besides these calamities. New Eng- land, tired of the rule of the Virginia dynasty, was guilty of the political crime of talldng disunion and re-affirming Jefferson 's Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. Jackson's victory brought at once inter- nal peace and union and removed the disgrace of a captured Capital. Again, in 1832, President Jack- son crushed nullification in its first stages and ended disunion before it could spread. Two pas- sages from the immortal Proclamation of Decem- ber 10, must be reproduced : * ' I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsis- tent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed." Referring to the South Carolina nulli- fiers, he adds : ' ' Their object is disunion. But be not deceived by names. Disunion by armed force is treason. Are you ready to incur its guilt? If you are, on the heads of the instigators of the act be the dreadful consequences; on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may fall the punish- ment." Mr. Jeiferson pronounced General Jack- son ' ' a dangerous man. ' ' Very true, but dangerous only to the enemies of a more perfect Union. Old Hickory loved his Countrj^ as intensely as he loved his wife. The sight of an enemy of either would fire his wrathful soul. GENERAL INDEX. Acadians, arrival of, good citizens, 28. Adams, John, presidential term, 83; Natchez district, 86; Hol- land treaties, 37; peace treaty, 39; suspicions of, 41; French depredations. 90, Administration, the first, its wisdom, 73; parties formed, 74; combines against it, 75. Algerine pirates, 75. Appalachee Bay, visited by De Soto, 9. Arkansas, crossed by De Soto, 10; by De Tonty, 18; State described, 130. Arrivals from France, supplies, soldiers, priests, nuns, wives, 23. Astor, John Jacob, 25. Baltimore, second Lord, 25. Bancroft, George, allusion to St. Louis, 32. Bellerive, St. Ange de, in command at St. Louis, 31. Beaujeu, inordinate conceit, 15; lands wrong place, returns to France, 16. Bienville, explores Mississippi River, "English Turn," 21; sends men and munitions to Spaniards, 22; restored to power as governor, 25; defeated by Natchez tribe, retires from service, 27. Biloxi, Bay of, settlement on, 21; removing stores from, 26. Boisbriant, major of fort, 21. Bonaparte, sudden resolution to sell Louisiana, motives in selling, 117; prophecies, 119; obscurity desirable, 120; tries to rue bargain, 124. Boone, Daniel, effectual pioneer work, 33. Buchanan's station, desperate defense of, 72. Burgmont, 27. Burke, Edmund, friend of Lord Shelburne, 43. Carondelet, governor of Louisiana and West Florida, builds fortifications, trades with United States, 81; slave insur- rection, grants of land, 82. 163 164 GENERAL INDEX Charles V. and De Soto, 9. Chatham, Earl of, 75. Chickasaw Bluff, 10. Claiborne, W. C. C. transfer commissioner, 127; without capacity, 128. Clark, George Rogers, brilliant exploits, 33. Colbert, aids La Salle, 13; succeeded by his son, 15. Colorado, State of, present conditions, great future, 136. Company of the West, succeeds Antony Crozat, 25. Creators and Preservers of the Republic, supplement, 142. Cortez, conquered Mexico, incorporated invading army, 8. Crozat, Antony, advent of, 23; monopoly, 24; trade restric- tions, five years of failure, 25. Cruzat, governor at St. Louis, 31. Cuba, De Soto sails from, Pizarro's daughter governs, 9. Dates, three most significant, 117. Dauphin Island, a fleet station, 22. Definitive Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, ratified by Congress, 48. De Grasse, 41. De Remonville, early friend of La Salle, 19; reported rich minerals. 20. De Soto, how ambition was fired. 8; his cruelties, supplies from Cuba, 9; death and burial, 10. De Vaca, accounts of river of gold, 8. Du Pratz, 26. Embargo, 130. England's long-continued hostility, early proofs, 76. First cargo of slaves, 26. Fontainebleau, treaty of, 28. Fort Thuillier, built by Leseuer, abandoned in 1704, 22. Fox, C. J., unfriendly to this country, 43. Franklin, first treaties, 35; grasps great opportunity. 36; sends for Jay and Adams, 38; peace treaty work, 40; felicity of diction, 41; state of, 57; at an end, 58; brief sketch of most important services, 149. French aid to America, 41; later enmity, 76; material assist- ance, 150. Frontenac, supports La Salle, 13, 17; recalled to France, 15. Galvez, becomes governor, 30; brilliant exploits, 32; governor of Mexico, character, 49. GENERAL INDEX 165 George III., signs peace treaty, 48; disliked his disloyal sub- jects, 75. Genet, "Citizen," organized Jacobin clubs, dismissed, 77; ex- peditions fail, 81. Godoy, despicable character, 77. Grant, U. S., character and career of, 155. Hammond, wrangling with Jefferson, 69. Hamilton, Alexander, saw value of Louisiana first, 45; home industries advocated, 46; assures British agent of our stability, 63; report of passage of British troops, 67, 68; establishes national credit, 74; fears aggression in Mis- sissippi region, 84; flat-footed for acquisition of Louis- iana, 85; letter to Otis, its purport, 86; favors ratifica- tion of Louisiana treaty, 125; career and services of, 145. Harrison, Wm. Henry, worthy successor of Wayne, 80. Hartley, David, selected by Franklin, signer of definitive treaty, 28. Hennepin, Louis, first described Niagara Falls, 14; adopted name Louisiana, 19. Iberville, services, at mouth of Mississippi, on Dauphin Island, up great river, 20; finds letter of De Tonty, re- turns to France, 21; extensive explorations, 22; Indian wars instigated by Spaniards, detained in France, death from yellow fever, 23. Indian hostilities, defeat of Harmar and St. Clair, treachery of Miro, 70; checked by Shelby, 70; massacre of family after, 71; heroism at Buchanan's Station, 72; general hostility in 1794, 78; burning of Colonel Crawford, 79. Indian Territory, area, partly v/ithin treaty limits, 141. Iowa, brief history of State, conditions contrasted, statistics, 132. Jackson, Andrew, bearer of good news, 58; victory at New Orleans, early admiration of Bonaparte, 94; characteriza- tion of, his love of country, 160. Jay, John, foresight of, 32; part in treaty of 1782, 39; willing to waive free navigation, 49. Jean Francois Le Camp, first white child born in Louisiana, 23. Jefferson, T., favors broad expansion, 61; on England's de- signs, 65; controversy with Hammond, 69; helps Genet organize Jacobin clubs, 77; against Jay treaty, 81; be- 166 GENERAL INDEX comes president, 95; affectionate towards Spain, 98; favors war with France, 99; a wild expansionist, for peace with France, 100; slurs Napoleon, willing to guaranty against acquisition of Louisiana, 102; oblivious of events in Paris, 110; vacillations, dazed by treaty, dis- approves at first, 122; sub silentio tactics, twin nation theory, 125. Joliet, descends Mississippi, 11; explores to Arkansas River, sketch of, loss of papers, 12. Joutel, writings helped to fix Louisiana and other early names, 19. Kansas, history of State, census figures, 134. Lachine Rapids, loss in of Joliet's papers, 12. Laclede, founder of St. Louis, 31. La Freniere, put to death by O'Reilly, 29. La Harpe, 26. La Salle, where born, troubles, friends, 13; extensive explora- tions, builds "Griffon," reaches Mississippi, descends to mouth, 14; names region Louisiana, proclaims Louis XIV sovereign, 15, 16; sufferings of colony, foul murder, 16; his wrongs, character, 17. Law, John, land grant, paper money scheme, mobbed in Paris, 26; monopoly ended, 27. Leseuer, becomes geologist, 21; explores, 22. Levee system commenced, 27. Lemos, Gayoso de, plotted with Wilkinson, 53; nonsensical instructions, 90; death, 91. Lincoln, Abraham, characterization of, 147. Livingston, R. R., secretary of foreign affairs, 44; instruc- tions to peace commissioners, 45; sent to France, 96; for- wards secret treaty, 101; sounds France on Florida, im- portant dispatch to president, 103; tension over threat- ened French occupation, 105; to Talleyrand on Florida, 107; on Monroe's appointment, 108; negotiating great treaty. 111; till midnight with Marbois, 112; without powers, 113; makes known treaty in London, forwards it to Washington, 114; labors, results, 115, 116; urges prompt ratification, 124; prophetic words, 127; sketch of career, 157. Louis XV transfers Louisiana to Spain, 28. GENERAL INDEX 167 Louisiana, State of, conditions in 1803 and 1900 contrasted, brief history, 126. Madison, James, for free navigation, 47; favors forbearance, 58; reverses his politics, 79; to Rufus King, British and Spanish wrongs, 97; constitutional guaranty against ac- quisition, 102; last dispatch of 1802, 104; to Pinckney, 106; to Livingston, 106; to Monroe, 107; instructs both ministers, 108; abandons west bank, remarkable instruc- tions, 109; wants Mississippi for boundary, 121; rupture with France predicted, blundering diplomacy, 121; lack of statesmanship, 122. McGillivray, Alex., suggested Indian union, 50; career, char- acter, Robertson's estimate, pension, 50, 51; visits seat of government, is pensioned, 63; excessive demands, gro- tesque display, 64; uniting all tribes, 71. Marquette, reaches Mississippi River by Wisconsin, 11; re- ceived by naked chiefs, 12; where born, character, death, 12; reburial by Indians, statue of, 13. Marshall, John, character and services of, 151. Minnesota, conditions in 1803 and 1900 contrasted, 133. Miro, Estevan, inciting savages against Americans, 49; ab- surd proclamation, 151; attends Indian congress, incrim- inating Wilkinson, 54; tempting Americans, 78. Mississippi River, discoverers of, when and where, 9, 10. Missouri, sketch of State, conditions in 1803 and 1900, 128. Montana, history by Miller, its area and wealth, 139. Monroe, James, opposes Jay treaty, 81; disregards instruc- tions, 96; confers with Livingston, 113; reception de- layed, 114; Marbois' history, 120; dullness, 125. Morenger, nephew of La Salle, killed in quarrel, 16. Morris, G., committee service, 46; author of first peace in- structions, 47. Moscoso, successor of De Soto, 10; return to Spain, 11. Narvaez, where born, 7; second governor of Florida, death, 8. Natchez, district, revenues of, 51; plans to survey, firm action of Ellicott, Guion and Pope, 87; Lemos and Carondelet give trouble, 88; Spaniards evacuate, Sargent, first gov- ernor, 89. Natchez massacre, 25. Nebraska, sketch of State, wealth and population, 135. 168 GENERAL INDEX New Orleans, founding of, 26; advance in trade, 30; port closed to Americans, 91. North Dakota, date of admission, population, wealth, 138. Ohio, origin of name, 12; discovery, 14; settlement at Marietta, 60. Oklahoma, territory of, part of treaty tract, 140. O'Reilly, took control at New Orleans, cruelty, 29. Oswald, Richard, presented to Vergennes by Franklin, dom- inated by him, 38, 40. Peace treaties of 1782-3, who made them, 34. Penn, William, 25. Perier, Governor, began levees, 27. Perez, Manuel, governor at St. Louis, 60. Peru, conquest of, 8. Piernas, in charge at St. Louis, 31. Pinckney, Thomas, temper good; service great, 69. Pitt, William, tries to influence Spain, 67; hostile to this country, 75. Pontiac, killing of, 31. Population of Lower Louisiana in 1788, of Upper Louisiana, 59; of Kentucky and Tennessee, 60; of Upper Louisiana in 1799, 91. Ratification of Louisiana treaty, 125. Revolutionary generals to whom we owe most, 35. Robertson, James, services of, 33; made brigadier-general, 63; his noble words, 72; drove off Indians, 73; victory over Chickamaugas, 80. Rochambeau, 41. Roosevelt, Theodore, on Gouverneur Morris, 47; on Jefferson. 123. San Ildefonso, treaty of, 92, 98. Sauvol, placed in command, governor, 21; early death, 22. Seignelay, succeeds Colbert, an expedition for La Salle, 15. Sevier, John, great services, 33; work in Watauga region, 56; general of military district, 63; nephews killed, 72. Shelburne, Lord, negotiations for peace, 38; friend of Amer- ica, hated by George III, 42; driven from office, 43; Lecky's estimate of him, 44; retirement, 75. Slaves, first cargo of, 26. South Dakota, area, admission to Union, population, 138. Spain, rejects construction of peace treaty, holds Natchez GENERAL INDEX 169 district, 49; exactions, indignation of westerners, 52; denies free navigation, 58; letter from Madrid, 69; hostility, snubbed ministers, 78. Spaniards, climax of blindness, 8. St. Charles, 31. St. Denis, joins colony, explores extensively, 22. St. Louis, lovely site of, 12; founded, 31; chief place, floods in, 60; population in 1799, 91. Sugar cane introduced into Louisiana, first sugar mill, 28. Supplement, patriots and benefactors, 142. Texas, claims to by French, 26. Tonty, Henry de, searches for La Salle, 18; bark letter, death at Mobile, 19. Trinity River, Texas, scene of La Salle's murder, 16. Trudeau, Zenon, fur trading extended, 93. Tuscany ceded to Spain, 98. Ulloa, sent out from Spain, 28. Unzaga, became governor, mild administration, 30. Upper Louisiana, materials lacking for history, Ex-Senator Henderson's views, 91; exempt from early political strifes, 93. Valladolid, where Narvaez was born, 7. Velasquez, conquered Cuba, 7. Vergennes, Count de, best foreign friend, 35; confidential with Fi'anklin, 38; character of, 40; made treaty with England, final support of our extreme treaty claims, 41; loyal and true, case likened to that of Schley, 42; latest French estimate, 42; rejoiced over peace, 48; feeble suc- cessors, 77. Virginia political combine, war on first administration, 79. Washington, military successes, 35; interest in Mississippi lands, 46; on coercion, 57; tried to make peace with the Creek Indians, 63; advises Spain to be wise and liberal, 66; war made on him by ring politicians, 79; his political Valley Forge, 80; allusion to Mississippi in farewell ad- dress, 83; nationalism, 84; exclamations at his death, 93; characterization of, 143. Washita, massacre at, 27. Wayne, Anthony, warrior who never sleeps, 70; victory at Fallen Timbers, treaty of Greenville, 74. Webster, Daniel, characterization of, 153. 170 GENERAL INDEX Wilkinson, James, career, intrigue with Miro, 53; treachery, 54; letters to Miro, 55; fate under a strict rule, 56; forced to the wall, 65; treasonable correspondence, 71; transfer commissioner, 127; Laussat's estimate of him, 128; governor of Arkansas district, 131. Wyoming, brief sketch of, 140. Yazoo River, discovered by De Soto, 10. Yazoo, massacre at, 27. Yorktown, assault on, 41. s? 26 1902 1 COPY on. Tor*T n»v. SEP. 26 1902 SP Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proce; Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: JUL tB SBKKEEPEP PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES, LF 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township. PA 16066 (7241 77<).?1 1 1