rand told him frankly that every offer was premature, as the French government was determined to take possession of the ceded territory before anything else was done. Nothing definite occurred again until October 28, when Joseph Bonaparte sounded Livingston on the subject of the United States acquiring Louisiana instead of the Floridas.12

Events were occurring in America at this time which caused Jefferson to send James Monroe on a special mission to France. In 1795 Spain and the United States had entered into a treaty which defined the boundaries between their territories, guaranteed the free navigation of the Mississippi to American citizens, and gave them the right to deposit merchandise at New Orleans for a period of three years, with the privilege of exporting the goods without paying duty, a privilege which was to continue unless the King of Spain found it prejudicial to his interests. For seven years Americans enjoyed the right of entrepôt without interruption, but in October, 1802, Morales, the Spanish intendant, arbitrarily closed the port. The news of the closing of the Mississippi created a great sensation in the United States. In Kentucky and Tennessee there was talk of war, and the New England Federalists, ascribing the action of the Spanish intendant to the French, clamored for war with France. On January 7, 1803, the House of Representatives passed a resolution expressing its determination to maintain the former rights of navigation on the Mississippi. The uncertainty of affairs in France, the closing of the port of New Orleans, and the desire to silence the war party determined Jefferson to send a special envoy. Monroe sailed on March 9, 1803, arriving in Paris on April 12.13

12 The correspondence covering the first year of Livingston's mission is printed in State Papers, Foreign Relations, II, 510-526.

13 Treaties, Conventions (Malloy, ed.), II, 1640-1649; Lyman, The Diplomacy of the United States, 328-329; Chadwick, The Relations of the United States and Spain, Diplomacy, 51; Henry Adams, History of the United States, I, 421-422; Annals of Cong., 7 Cong., 1 Sess., 339-343; Monroe, Writings, VII, 298-300; ibid., IV, 8; ibid., VII, 303.

Before Monroe's arrival, Napoleon had definitely settled upon disposing of Louisiana. Barbé-Marbois, to whom the final negotiation was intrusted, says:

Bonaparte well knew that colonies could not be defended without naval forces; but so great a revolution in the plan of his foreign policy was not suddenly made. It may even be perceived, from the correspondence of the Minister of foreign affairs at this period, how gradually and in what manner the change was effected. M. Talleyrand renewed, after a long silence, his communications with Mr. Livingston. Bonaparte had only a very reduced navy to oppose to the most formidable power that has ever had the dominion of the ocean. Louisiana was at the mercy of the English, who had a naval armament in the neighboring seas, and good garrisons in Jamaica and the Windward Islands. It might be supposed that they would open the campaign by this easy conquest He concluded . . . that it was requisite to change without delay his policy in relation of St. Domingo, Louisiana, and the United States. He could not tolerate indecision; and before the rupture was decided on, he adopted the same course of measures, as if it had been certain.

On April 10, 1803, Napoleon called Marbois and another councillor to him, and informed them that he was thinking of ceding Louisiana to the United States to keep it from falling into the possession of England. The conference ended without a final decision, but at dawn on the following day the arrival of dispatches from England, stating that naval and military preparations were progressing rapidly, determined him. He immediately directed Marbois to interview Livingston without awaiting the arrival of Monroe. He closed by remarking, "I require a great deal of money for this war, and I would not like to commence it with new contributions.

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On April 13 Livingston was definitely informed that Napoleon had decided to sell the whole of Louisiana. Monroe, who had arrived upon the scene on the previous day, and Livingston, soon decided to accept the offer. After a few days spent in haggling over the price, an agreement was reached; on May 2 the treaty of cession and a convention regarding price, and on the eighth 14 Barbé-Marbois, The History of Louisiana, 261-264, 274-275.

or ninth a claims convention were signed, all being antedated to April 30.15

In respect to boundaries, the words of the treaty of March 21, 1801, between France and Spain were incorporated-"Louisiana with the same extent it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it; and such as it should be after [according to] the Treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other states. ''16 The American ministers attempted to have the boundaries more definitely stated, but when it was brought to the attention of Napoleon, he replied, "If an obscurity did not already exist, it would perhaps be good policy to put one there.

9917

While the negotiations were in progress at Paris, Jefferson was considering the project of exploring the Missouri and Columbia rivers. He had long been interested in the region beyond the Mississippi. As early as 1783 he had suggested to George Rogers Clark the exploration of an overland route to the Pacific. While minister to France he had induced John Ledyard to attempt to cross Siberia and open communication from the Pacific by way of the Missouri, an effort which was frustrated by Catherine II. Early in Washington's administration he had determined to obtain French aid to induce Spain to cede the island of New Orleans and the Floridas to the United States, a project which came to naught through the Anglo-Spanish alliance of 1790. Later the French botanist, André Michaux, interested him in a scheme to visit the Missouri and Columbia, but this was dissolved by the intrigues of Genet. In 1798 Jefferson wrote to Philip Nolan inquiring about the wild horses on the plains east of New Mexico, and in the following years communicated with Daniel Clark, James Wilkinson, and William

15 Livingston to Monroe, April 13, 1803, State Papers, Foreign Relations, II, 552-554; Monroe, Writings, IV, 12-19, 34-36; ibid., VII, 250; Henry Adams, History of the United States, II, 42.

16 Treaties, Conventions (Malloy, ed.), I, 508-509.

17 Barbé-Marbois, The History of Louisiana, 283–286.

Jefferson's Interest in Louisiana

9

Dunbar concerning the Southwest. In 1801, when a negro insurrection occurred in Virginia, he suggested to Governor Monroe the possibility of obtaining lands beyond the limits of the United States where the malefactors might be placed, observing, "However our present interests may restrain us within our limits, it is impossible not to look forward to distant times, when our rapid multiplication will expand it beyond those limits, and cover the whole northern if not the southern continent. The cession

of Louisiana to France alarmed Jefferson, and he wrote to Livingston urging that an attempt be made to convince France that the ownership of Louisiana would be inimical to her interests. If this proved futile, he suggested that the island of New Orleans and the Floridas be ceded to the United States.18

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A few days after the appointment of Monroe, the President sent a confidential message to Congress advising that an expedition be sent out "to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge," "for other literary purposes," and "to explore this the only line of easy communication across the continent. In consequence Lewis was selected to guide the expedition for which Congress provided the funds, Clark being associated with him later. Lewis' instructions stated that the object of the expedition was the exploration of the Missouri and such tributaries as might communicate with rivers emptying into the Pacific, which might serve for purposes of commerce. Information was to be gathered concerning the Southwest, especially regarding the Rio Grande or Colorado.20

These instructions were signed before the purchase of Louisiana was known to Jefferson. In July he received the

18 Thwaites, Rocky Mountain Exploration, 68; Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, I, pp. XX-XXII; Turner, in The Atlantic Monthly, XCIII, 679-683; various letters, in Texas State Historical Association, The Quarterly, VII, 308-317; Jefferson, Writings. (Washington, ed.) IV, 419-422; ibid., IV, 431-434.

19 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, I, 353–354.

20 Coues, The History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, I, pp. xxivxxxiii.

treaty. Regarding the extent of the territory, to a friend he wrote:

The territory acquired, as it includes all the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi, has more than doubled the area of the United States . . . I presume the island of N. Orleans and the settled country on the opposite bank, will be annexed to the Mississippi territory . . . The rest will probably be locked up from American settlement, and under the self government of the native occupants.21

...

It would appear from this that Jefferson had no idea at this time that Texas might be included in the purchase. In the light of its future importance in the negotiations, it is also worthy of note that this is the first suggestion of a neutral ground.

Jefferson immediately took steps to obtain information concerning the size of Louisiana, submitting a series of questions regarding boundaries to Ephraim Kirby, a land commissioner for the district east of the Pearl River, to William Dunbar, Daniel Clark, and Claiborne. He also made inquiries of the scientist, Humboldt. Madison wrote to Livingston to investigate the boundary question.2

22

On August 9 Jefferson stated his views as follows:

The unquestioned bounds of Louisiana are the Iberville and Mississippi, on the east, the Mexicana [Sabine] or the Highlands east of it, on the west; then from the head of the Mexicana gaining the highlands which include the waters of the Mississippi, and following those highlands round the head springs of the western waters of the Mississippi to its source where we join the English or perhaps to the Lake of the Woods We have some pretensions to extend the western territory of Louisiana to the Rio Norte, or Bravo; and still stronger the eastern boundary to the Rio Perdido between the rivers Mobile and Pensacola.

21 Jefferson, Writings, (Ford, ed.) VIII, 199-200, note; ibid., VIII, 249-251.

22 Jefferson, Writings, (Ford, ed.) VIII, 252-256, note; Jefferson, Writings, (Washington, ed.) IV, 497-498; Cox, The Early Exploration of Louisiana, 36; Cox, in The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XVII, 13; State Papers, Foreign Relations, II, 566.