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DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE CESSION OF LOUISIANA TO THE UNITED STATES TILL IT BECAME AN AMER. PROV. BLANCHARD
Gc 976.3 B59d 1764927
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02305 1185
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DOCUMENTARY HISTORY
OF THE CESSION OF
LOUISIANA
TO THE
UNITED STATES
TILL IT BECAME AN
AMERICAN, PROVINCE
WITH AN APPENDIX BY
RUFUS BLANCHARD
AUTHOR OF "DISCOVERY AND CONQUESTS OF THE NORTHWEST," ETC.
CHICAGO: R. BLANCHARD
1903
1
1764927
Blanchard, Rufus, 1821-1904.
376 11
Documentary history of the cession of Louisiana to the United States till it became an American province; with an appendix ; by Rufus Blanchard ... Chicago, R. Blanch- ard, 1903.
68, (3) p. incl. front., illus., ports. fold. map. 233cm.
Folded map attached to cover.
UHELF CARD
1. Louisiana purchase.
Library of Congress E333.B63
3-14981 Copyright
101278
ـمحنين
.
Rufus Blanchard
DEDICATION
.
Emile Loubet, President of France:
It seems appropriate that at the Contennial Celebration at St. Louis of the French cession of Louisiana to the United States our national reminiscences of such pleasant memory should not be lost sight of.
Ever since the treaty of alliance between France and the United States in 1778 there has been an uninterrupted friend- ship between the Government and the people of both coun- tries, respectively, and to you, the Representative of the French people, I dedicate this work, with a confidence that by so doing I represent the sentiment of the American people, which is, universally, friendly to France. I sigu myself, WITH GREAT RESPECT.
YOURS FRATERNALLY in behalf of the American people,
RUFUS BLANCHARD.
MEDAL
TO COMMEMORATE THE TRIUMPH OF AMERICAN INDEPEND- ENCE-STRUCK BY THE FRENCH GOVERN- MENT, 1783.
DEVICE-Head of Liberty; the hair blown back as if by the wind, against which the goddess seems to be running to announce to the world the tidings of her victories. On the right shoulder she bears a liberty cap.
LEGEND: "Libertas Americana, 4 Juil., 1776."
REVERSE -- Pallas holding in her left hand a shield, on which are three fleurs de lis ( the arms of France) ; opposite to her is a leopard (England ) in the act of springing, into whose breast she is about to plunge a barbed javelin that she holds in her dexter hand. Beneath the shield is an infant strangling with one hand a serpent, which he is holding up, whilst he stoops and chokes another found at his feet.
LEGEND : "Non sine Diis Animosus Infans." Exergue
17th Oct., 1777. 19th Oct., 1781.
Hercules, according to Grecian mythology, was said to have strangled whilst in his cradle tivo serpents which had as- saulted him, having been assisted by the protection of the god- dess Pallas. Infant America, like Hercules in his cradle, had destroyed two British armies. The two epochs of those ct- ploits are marked in the exergue. 17th Oct .. 1777. Bur- goyue's surrender at Saratoga: 19th Oct., 1781, Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown. Va. The motto is from Horace. Ode .f. Book III, 3. 20.
This medal is not in the Worden collection of the New York State Library.
INTRODUCTION
At a time when the political conditions of Europe and America were evanescent, when the heart of the American Continent was in the germ cell, then fortuitous circumstances ecame up unexpectedly to decide an issue that involved the destinies of the United States, and the men capable of giving directions to these political issues were brought into the arena to solve them. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declara- tion of the Independence of the United States, and Napoleon Bonaparte, the supreme ruler of France, were the two great actors for their countries respectively.
Robert Livingston, who had been one of the committee to formulate the Declaration of American Independence, and James Monroe, destined to a world wide fame as the author of the Monroe doctrine, were the actors under Jefferson on the part of the United States, and Barbé Marbois, a great and farseeing statesman, on the part of France. In the following pages the immense work which these remarkable men accom- plished will be told as briefly and plainly as the facts can be stated without omitting any link in its chain. To this end much pains has been taken to obtain official records, and here it is but just that I acknowledge obligations to Henry Vig- naud, Secretary to Hon. Horace Porter, our present Ambassa- dor Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France, for search- ing among the archives of a hundred years back to secure for me a fac simile of the autograph of Marbois, taken directly from the original treaty.
The appendix of this work contains a brief outline history of the American acquisition of Oregon, made possible by the purchase of Louisiana; also the history of other foreign ac- quisitions to the United States since that time.
RUFUS BLANCHARD.
Chicago, June, 1903.
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LOUISIANA
France was the first owner of the Mississippi valley. She became vested in its title by priority of discovery and explora- tion by La Salle, in 1682; who navigated the Mississippi to its mouth, naming it Louisiana in honor of his sovereign, the King of France. This immense domain included the valley of the Ohio river and all its tributaries; as well as the Missouri, Arkansas and Red river valleys, and their tributaries, extend- ing to the western water shed of the Pacific Coast.
Spain had already settled East Florida in 1565 at St. Augustine ; hence the Spanish title to Florida rested on the basis of priority. Immediately adjoining this settlement on the north was the Georgia Colony, settled by Gov. Oglethorpe in 1732. This colony included the present state of Alabama, the southwestern point of which extended to the Gulf of Mexico. Spain also owned Mexico as a result of its con- quest by Cortez, in 1521, the northern boundary of which was indefinite. The English owned a narrow strip of land along the Atlantic Coast, where they had first settled at Jamestown, in 1607, and at Plymouth, in 1620, and a few years later on this coast, her thirteen colonies were laying the foundation of a great nation-a nation whose power was not then foreseen. France then had a foothold on the St. Lawrence river. Each of these peoples, the English and the French, had a laudable ambition to extend their settlements to the west, which, as a consequence, produced a rivalry be- tween them which ultimated in the French and Indian war. begun in 1755. Before hostilities commenced a compromise was attempted, and January, 1755, opened with peace pro-
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posals from France, by which she offered, as an ultimatum, that the French should retire west of the Ohio, and the Eng- lish east of the Alleghenies.
This offer was considered by England till the 7th of March, when she agreed to accept it on condition that the French would destroy all their forts on the Ohio river and its branches. The French, after twenty days, refused to do this .* But while the fruitless negotiations were pending, both sides were sending soldiers to America.
The issue involved in the French and Indian war inter- ested every nation in Europe, no one of which wished to see either of the participants in it secure too much of the terri- tory in dispute, lest the victor should become sufficiently pow- erful as a European nation to destroy its equilibrium. France had positive purposes at which she aimed, the chief one of which was to preserve her American possessions, and the means to be used in the achievement of this end were definitely settled upon, which, in brief, were to attack the allies of Eng- land on the Continent, by which diversion New France in America was to be made invulnerable against her rival, whose strength must be largely occupied on the defensive at home.
The ultimatum of England was not less clearly defined than that of France, but the means by- which it was to be brought about were more complicated. The tenacity with which the American colonists had clung to their political rights at the Albany convention of 1754, as well as the able states- manship of the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania Assemblies, not always in harmony with the crown, had awak- ened a sense of caution in the English court, in their dealings with their trans-Atlantic children, and the question came to the surface whether it was better to drive France entirely out of America, or allow her to retain enough there to become a
*Plain Facts, p. 52.
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rival to the English colonists, and thereby insure their loyalty through their obligations for assistance in defending them- selves from the French. King George II. shared these appre- hensions, while. William Pitt had always been in favor of pushing the war in America without fear of adverse conse- quences.
England and Russia had long been friends, and, as soon as war with France appeared inevitable, she made a treaty with the empress of Russia, by the condition of which Han- over (England's ally) was to be protected by Russian troops in the event of a European war, for which service England was to pay her. This treaty bore date of September 13th, 1755. A few months later both France and Prussia mani- fested dispositions to invade portions of Germany, the French incentive to which was to keep England busy at home, while she (France) made her American possessions secure, as al- ready stated.
Russia was now alarmed lest she might be attacked by Prussia, and, conscious of her inability to fulfill her treaty stipulations with England, as to the protection of Hanover, she applied to France for the preservation of the neutrality of that electorate.
These accumulating evidences of the rising power of Frederick stimulated England to make an alliance with him, which was done January 16th, 1756, although by this treaty the interests of Russia. as well as those of Hanover, were left unprotected .* The effect was to unite the interests of Russia with France, and also those of Austria with the same power, although the two had long been enemies.
All this plotting and counter-plotting, which by a para- doxical combination, transposed the friendships and enmities of the great powers of Europe, grew out of the issue between
*Smollet's History of England, vol. 4. p. 178.
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England and France, as to which should take possession of the upper Ohio country, although the fortunes of war ultimately brought into question the patent to the title of Canada itself.
It began in a land speculation of the Ohio company, whose regal title to lands on the Ohio river was not honored by the French Court. The issue broadened as the war progressed, and after it closed, a new theater, unexpectedly, opened before the world, that justified the arming of Europe to take a hand in its settlement.
The sequel proved that the fears of George II., King of England, were not without foundation. It has also proved, that if the policy of Pitt, the world's greatest statesman at that time, did not advance the interests of England, it was ele- mentary to the birth of a new nation, not less powerful. The American Revolution was the result. It terminated in the definitive treaty of peace held at Paris, September 3rd, 1783. To the consummation of this treaty, America owes a lasting debt of gratitude to France for her aid in the American Revo- lution. The French Revolution of 1789 was one of the momentous results of the American Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte came into power, when the revolutionary spirit in France, though burnt out like a spent volcano, had left the vital forces of that country unimpaired. He commenced his rule in France, in May, 1802, under title of First Consul.
In 1761 a treaty had been concluded between France and Spain called a "Family Compact," by the 18th article of which either power was obligated to indemnify the other power for any loss it sustained by conquest. Each of these nations was governed by a Bourbon King. This compact was in full force during the various transfers of the province of Louisiana, previous to its sale to the United States, in 1803. This sale by the French Republic was the first act on the part of France that was not in harmony with the spirit of this compact. The
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relations between the United States, France, Spain and Eng- land were in a very critical condition. Both the American and the French Revolutions had brought new issues to the great nations of the world. America in the plenitude of her rising power in the western continent, had now become a fac- tor in the deliberations between France, England and Spain. Spain on the Ist of October, 1800, concluded a treaty at San Ildefonso with France, by which, she retroceded to the latter power the entire province of Louisiana, which province had been ceded by France to Spain in 1763. No limits had ever been set to Louisiana, on the west, except general geographical limits by water sheds; but on the north, by the treaty of Utrecht, the forty-ninth parallel had been considered the north- ern boundary, and this line had not been disputed by any na- tion. But the limits of Louisiana on the east by the treaty of 1783, between Great Britain and the United States, had been fixed on the Mississippi river as far south as the thirty-first parallel ; which parallel eastwardly to the Perdido river was the southern boundary of the United States as far as it went. and the United States never claimed any territory south of this parallel until by the treaty with Spain in 1819. Florida was ceded by her to the United States for a consideration of $5.000,000.
France and England being at war at the time of the San Ildefonso · treaty, the retrocession of Louisiana to France by that treaty was not made public, and Bonaparte was careful not to divulge it by taking possession of the province lest it might be attacked by England, whose navy was far superior to that of France. The rising power of Napoleon had made the nations of Europe anxious to make peace with the French. and England, with the rest. felt the necessity of doing the sams thing. To this end she concluded a treaty with France October Ist. 1801, which was called the treaty of Amiens. Had Eng
First Printed in MeClure's Magazine.
Ihrefferson
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land known of the treaty of San Ildefonso, it is probable she never would have signed the treaty of Amiens, at least until she had by means of her fleet taken New Orleans from the French, in which event the whole province of Louisiana would have become English territory. The ambition of France to again possess the west bank of the Mississippi river was made manifest by the treaty of San Ildefonso, and Napoleon, in- spired by this ambition, looked forward to an important ac- cession of power for France in this restoration of French ter- ritory. To the same end his attempt to make the conquest of Santo Domingo was made. This attempt, owing to the stub- born courage of the celebrated Toussaint L'Ouverture, who had been bred a slave, miscarried. Meantime, the English. began to be jealous of the power of France. They feared that the reintroduction of French power in America might en- danger the safety of Canada itself, and the celebrated Lord Hawkesbury declared, "that the treaty of Amiens was only experimental on the part of England," which declaration was equivalent to an acknowledgment that a subtle treachery underlay the peaceful professions of England in the signing of this treaty.
All this time Napoleon had his fingers on the pulse of Europe, and during these palmy days of peace took measures to colonize New Orleans with French colonies, and others favorable to his designs. Here we will leave him in his happy reveries, till the irresistible current of events awakened him from his illusions.
On the accession of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency of the United States, in 1801, he appointed Robert R. Living- ston as Minister to France. Mr. Livingston was one of the ablest statesmen of that period, and it is fortunate for the United States that a man of such ability represented its inter- ests at the French Court.
..
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At the Treaty of Peace between England and United States, in 1783, Spain had protested against the Mississippi river as the western boundary of the new nation ; declaring that the United States should be limited on the west by the Alle- gheny Mountains. Later, when American settlements extended to the west, so as to require a highway to the ocean, by way of the Mississippi river, to market their produce, she erected forts on its east bank, and persisted in retaining these forts, one at Natchez, and the other at Walnut Hills. This unfriendly at- titude of Spain affected the interests of the western states to such an extent that it was difficult to keep them from march- ing an army to take possession of New Orleans, in order to obtain what they declared to be their natural rights, namely, to use the Mississippi as a great highway to the sea. This state of things grew worse, till Jay's treaty of 1795, in which Spain conceded the right of deposit at New Orleans; which temporarily modified the situation. But this treaty even if made in good faith on the part of Spain, could not have per- manently settled the real issues at stake between the two coun- tries. The treaty, however, was not lived up to by Spain and old scores were opened up afresh.
January 7th. 1803, the House of Representatives took ac- tion on this matter, as follows:
"Resolved, That this house receive with great sensibility the information of a disposition in certain officers of the Span- ish government at New Orleans to obstruct the navigation of the River Mississippi, as secured to the United States by the most solemn stipulations :
"That adhering to that humane and wise policy which ought ever to characterize a free people, and by which the United States have always professed to be governed ; willing at the same time to ascribe this breach of compact to the un- authorized misconduct of certain individuals, rather than to
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a want of good faith on the part of his Catholic Majesty ; and relying with perfect confidence on the vigilance and wisdom of the Executive, they will wait the issue of such measures as; that department of the government shall have pursued for asserting the rights and vindicating the injuries of the United States-holding it to be their duty, at the same time, to ex- press their unalterable determination to maintain the boun- daries and the rights of navigation and commerce through the River Mississippi, as established by existing treaties."
January 10th, 1803, James Monroe was appointed by President Jefferson to act with Mr. Livingston in the delicate and uncertain negotiations with France for the purchase of Louisiana. The following letters to Mr. Monroe show his con- fidence in him to execute the important commission required of him :
"WASHINGTON, January 10th, 1803.
"GOVERNOR MONROE :
"Dear Sir: I have but a moment to inform you that the fever into which the western mind is thrown by the affair at New Orleans, stimulated by the mercantile and generally the federal interest, threatens to overbear our peace. In this situ- ation we are obliged to call on you for a temporary sacrifice of yourself to prevent this greatest of evils in the present pros- perous tide of our 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. I wish you to be either in Richmond or Albemarle till you receive another letter from me, which will be within two days hence, if the Senate decide immediately; or later, according to the time they take to decide. In the meantime, pray work night and day, to arrange your affairs for a temporary absence -- perhaps for a long one. Accept affectionate salutations.
"THOMAS JEFFERSON."
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"WASHINGTON, January 13th, 1803.
"GOVERNOR MONROE :
"Dear Sir: I dropped you a line on the 10th, informing you of a nomination I had made of you to the Senate, and yesterday I enclosed you their approbation, not having then time to write. The agitation of the public mind on occasion of the late suspension of our right of deposit at New Orleans is extreme. This, in the western country, is natural, and grounded on operative motives. Remonstrances, memorials, etc., are now circulating through the whole of that country. and signing by the body of the people. The measures which we have been pursuing, being invisible, do not satisfy their minds; something sensible, therefore, has become necessary, and indeed our object of purchasing New Orleans and the Floridas is a measure likely to assume so many shapes that no instructions could be squared to fit them. It was essential. then, to send a minister extraordinary to be joined with the ordinary one, with discretionary power, first, however, well impressed with all our views, and therefore qualified to meet and modify to these every form of proposition which could come from the other party. This could be done only in fre- quent and full oral communication. Having determined on this, there could not be two opinions as to the person. You possessed the unlimited confidence of the administration and of the western people, and were you to refuse to go, no other man can be found who does this. All eyes are fixed on you; and were you to decline, the chagrin would be great, and would shake under your feet the high ground on which you stand with the public. Indeed, I know nothing which would produce such a shock; for on the event of this mission depends the future destinies of this republic. If we cannot, by a pur- chase of the country, ensure to ourselves a course of perpetual peace and friendship with all nations, then, as war cannot be
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far distant, it behooves us immediately to be preparing for that course, without, however, hastening it; and it may be necessary (on your failure on the continent) to cross the channel. We shall get entangled in European politics, and figuring more, be much less happy and prosperous. This can only be prevented by a successful issue to your present mission. I am sensible, after the measures you have taken for getting into a different line of business, that it will be a great sacrifice on your part ; and presents, from the season and other circumstances, serious difficulties. But some men are born for the public. Nature, by fitting them for the service of the hu- man race on a broad scale, has stamped them with the evi- dences of her destination and their duty.
"THOMAS JEFFERSON."
Mr. Monroe accepted the appointment of President Jeffer- son and immediately made preparations to sail for Paris.
Meanwhile, Napoleon, now fully aware of the uncertainty with which the peace of Amiens held England in check, was ready to open negotiations with Livingston and Monroe, for the purchase of Louisiana. This conviction had been forced upon him by the action of a party in England that had sworn implacable hatred to France. On March 8, 1803, the King of England sent a message to the two Houses of Parliament, in which he gave intimation of an approaching rupture. Soon after England made a call for 10,000 seamen. M. Talleyrand and the French Minister now threw off all disguise and acknowledged to the British Minister that the embarkation of troops, destined for America, had been countermanded in con- sequence of the action of the English Court. The critical situation between France and England was discussed in a private conference in the Tuileries, in which discussion Napo- leon took a prominent part. He said to his counselors: "The
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فوزه
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principles of maritime supremacy are subversive of one of the noblest rights that nature, science and genius have secured to man. I mean the right of traveling every sea with as much liberty as the bird flies through the air; of making use of the waves, winds, climates and productions of the globe ; of bring- ing near to one another by a bold navigation, nations that have been separated since the creation; of carrying civilization into regions that are a prey to ignorance and barbarism. This is what England would usurp over all other nations." Here, the English Minister asked him if the English had not the same motive for dreading a continental supremacy as the French? Continuing, he said, "France obliges us to recollect the injury which she did us twenty-five years since, by form- ing an alliance with our revolted colonics. Jealous of our commerce, navigation and riches, she wishes to annihilate them." After this English retort. Napoleon said to his ad- visers, "Propose your theories and your abstract propositions, and see if they can resist the efforts of the usurpers of the sovereignty of the sea. Leave commerce and navigation in the exclusive possession of a single people, and the globe will be subjugated by their arms, and the gold which occupies the place of armies." Napoleon then for the first time announced his policy to be pursued respecting the United States. He said, "To emancipate nations from the commercial tyranny of Eng- land, it is necessary to balance her influence by a maritime power that may one day become her rival; that power is the United States. The English aspire to dispose of all the riches of the world. I shall be useful to the whole universe, if I can prevent their ruling America as they rule Asia." . The English people were pronounced through the English press against the policy of Napoleon. Both nations under the re- sentful influence of these recriminations began to make pre- parations for war which might result from the breaking of the peace of Amiens.
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