"If," he continues in the same note, "the territories of East and West Florida be included within the limits of the cession obtained by France, the undersigned desires to be informed how far it would be practicable to make such arrangements between their respective governments, as would at the same time aid the financial operations of France and remove by a strong natural boundary all future causes of discontent between her and the United States."

Six days afterwards he writes to Mr. Madison that he has received no reply to the above note. A month later in a dispatch he says: "They have as yet not thought it proper to give me any explanations." One month afterwards he writes: "The business most interesting to us, that of Louisiana, still remains in the state it was. The minister will give no answer to any inquiries I make on the subject. He will not say what their boundaries are, what are their intentions, and when they are to take possession."

Meantime the treaty of Amiens opened the ocean to Bonaparte's contemplated expedition to Louisiana. The anxiety of our government was greatly increased. Mr. Madison, in a dispatch full of complaint at the ominous silence of the French minister, among other intimations, conveys the following:

"Since the receipt of your last communication, no hope remains but from the accumulating difficulties of going through with the undertaking, and from the conviction you may be able to impress that it must have an instant and powerful effect in changing the relations between France and the United States."

Fears were entertained that the British Government might have acquiesced in the treaty, so as to impair the stipulations, concerning the free navigation of the Mississippi, but these were dissipated by the assurance of Lord Hawkesbury, in reply to a letter addressed to him on the subject by Mr. King, that "His Majesty had not in any manner directly or indirectly acquiesced in or sanctioned the cession."

TEDIOUS DELAY.

Nearly one month after this last dispatch to Mr. Madison, Mr. Livingston again informs him that the French Government still continues to hold the same conduct with respect

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to his inquiries in relation to the designs on Louisiana, but assures him that nothing shall be done to impair the friendly relations between America and France. Eight days after this dispatch was written, he writes again that he has acquired information on which he can depend, in relation to the intention of the French Government. "Bernadotte," says he, "is to command, Collot second in command, Adet is to be prefect;" but the expedition is delayed until about September, on account of some difficulty which Mr. Livingston conceives to have "arisen from the different apprehensions of France and Spain relative to the meaning of the term Louisiana, which has been understood by France to include the Floridas, but probably by Spain to have been confined to the strict meaning of the term."

On the 30th of July, 1802, Mr. Livingston informs Mr. Madison that he is preparing a lengthy memorial on the subject of the mutual interest of France and the United States relative to Louisiana; and that he has received the explicit assurance of the Spanish ambassador that the Floridas are not included in the cession.

On the 10th of August following he again writes the secretary that he has put his essay in such hands as he thinks will best serve our purposes. "Talleyrand," he says, "has promised to give it an attentive perusal; after which, when I find how it works, I will come forward with some proposition. I am very much at a loss, however, as to what terms you would consider it allowable to offer, if they can be brought to a sale of the Floridas, either with or without New Orleans, which last place will be of little consequence if we possess the Floridas, because a much better passage may be found on the east side of the river."

Mr. Livingston now followed up his interrupted negotiations with activity. He made several propositions for the purchase of Louisiana, but was informed by the minister that all offers were premature. "There never," says Mr. Livingston in a dispatch to the secretary of state, "was a Government in which less could be done by negotiation than here. There is no people, no legislature, no counsellors. One man is everything. He seldom asks advice, and never hears it unasked. His ministers are mere clerks; and his legislature

and counsellors parade officers. Though the sense of every reflecting man about him is against this wild expedition, no one dares to tell him so. Were it not for the uneasiness it excites at home, it would give me none; for I am persuaded that the whole will end in a relinquishment of the country, and transfer of the capital to the United States."

Soon after this, Mr. Livingston had an interview with Joseph Bonaparte, who promised to deliver to Napoleon any communication Livingston could make. "You must not, however," he said, "suppose my power to serve you greater than it actually is. My brother is his own counsellor, but we are good brothers. He hears me with pleasure, and as I have access to him at all times, I have an opportunity of turning his attention to a particular subject that might otherwise be passed over." He informed Mr. Livingston that he had read his notes and conversed upon the subject with Napoleon, who told him that he had nothing more at heart than to be upon the best terms with the United States.

On the 11th of November Mr. Livingston wrote a hurried letter to Mr. Madison, informing him that orders had been given for the immediate embarkation of two demi-brigades for Louisiana, and that they would sail from Holland in about twenty days. The sum voted for this service was two and one-half millions of francs. "No prudence," he concludes, "will, I fear, prevent hostilities ere long, and perhaps the sooner their plans develop themselves the better."

RIGHT OF DEPOSIT PROHIBITED.

This was the condition of affairs when the Western people, beginning to feel the effect of a proclamation suspending their right of deposit in New Orleans, were importuning our Government for relief. Some idea may be formed of the excitement which this act had produced, on reading the following, which is one of many similar appeals addressed to Congress by them:

"The Mississippi is ours by the law of nature; it belongs to us by our numbers, and by the labor which we have bestowed on those spots which, before our arrival, were desert and barren. Our innumerable rivers swell it, and flow with it into the Gulf of Mexico. Its mouth is the only issue which

nature has given to our waters, and we wish to use it for our vessels. No power in the world shall deprive us of this right. We do not prevent the Spaniards and the French from ascending the river to our towns and villages. We wish in our turn, without any interruption, to descend it to its mouth, to ascend it again, and exercise our privilege of trading on it, and navigating it at our pleasure. If our most entire liberty in this matter is disputed, nothing shall prevent our taking possession of the capital, and when we are once masters of it we shall know how to maintain ourselves there. If Congress refuses us effectual protection, if it forsakes us, we will adopt the measures which our safety requires, even if they endanger the peace of the Union and our connection with the other states. No protection, no allegiance."

Perhaps at no period in the history of our Government was the Union in more immediate danger of dissolution. Had our citizens been fully apprised of our relations with France and the neglect with which our embassador was treated, nothing could have prevented an immediate secession of the people west of the Alleghanies. Mr. Madison saw the gathering of the storm, and on the 27th of November, a few days before Congress assembled, addressed an earnest dispatch to the American minister at Madrid. "You are aware," said he, "of the sensibility of our western citizens to such an occurrence. This sensibility is justified by the interest they have at stake. The Mississippi to them is everything. It is the Hudson, the Delaware, the Potomac, and all the navigable rivers of the Atlantic States, formed into one stream.* Whilst you presume, therefore, in your representations to the Spanish Government, that the conduct of its officer is no less contrary to its intentions than it is to its good faith, you will take care to express the strongest confidence that the breach of the treaty will be repaired in every way which justice and regard for a friendly neighborhood may require."

Congress met, and President Jefferson, in a message on Louisiana, said: "The cession of the Spanish province of Louisiana to France which took place in the course of the late war, will, if carried into effect, make a change in the aspect of our foreign relations which will doubtless have just weight in any deliberations of the legislature connected with

that subject." That body replied, that, relying with perfect confidence on the wisdom and vigilance of the Executive, they would wait the issue of such measures as that department of the Government should have pursued for asserting the rights of the United States,-holding it to be their duty at the same time to express their unalterable determination to maintain the boundaries and the rights of navigation and commerce through the river Mississippi, as established by existing treaties.

MONROE APPOINTED MINISTER EXTRAORDINARY.

Party spirit at that time was but another name for party animosity. The Federalists, anxious to regain the power that they had lost by the election of Jefferson, seized upon the subject of Mr. Livingston's mission and the proclamation of prohibition by the Spanish intendant, and held them up before the people as the necessary and inevitable product of Democratic principles. They were determined if possible to force the country into a war of invasion against New Orleans and the country including the mouth of the Mississippi,-a measure in which the Western people would generally cooperate. The administration, on the other hand, still adhered to the policy of negotiation, and foreseeing that it must be expeditious to avoid the inevitable destruction of the party, and deprive the Federals of the prestige which their vigorous measures were acquiring for them, President Jefferson, on the 10th of January, 1803, wrote to Mr. Monroe:

"I have but a moment to inform you that the fever into which the Western world is thrown by the affair of New Orleans, stimulated by the mercantile and generally the Federal interest, threatens to overbear our peace. In this situation we are obliged to call on you for a temporary sacrifice of yourself, to prevent this greatest of evils in the present prosperous tide of affairs. I shall to-morrow nominate you to the Senate for an extraordinary mission to France, and the circumstances are such as to render it impossible to decline; because the whole public hope will be rested on you."

The Senate confirmed the nomination. Mr. Jefferson again wrote to Mr. Monroe, urging him not to decline. "I know nothing," he says, "which would produce such a shock, for on the event of this mission depend the future destinies of