The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-25

| after his arrival. became combustibls incidents which served as pyrotechnfcs in the hands of partisan politicians in the Uinted States. Jefferson was the master mind in the event. Upon his original suggestion. to buy the water and land. which, in a defensive sense. controlled the commerce of the eastern valley of the Mississippi, Bonaparte and De Marbois had enlarged the diplomacy contingent upon that original sugSes- | tion. But, this measure of infinite scope came. for guidance. upon the President. who had been elected by the House of Representatives, or. rather. by the vote of States cast by their Rep resentatives. He had just taken his seat as the prophet of an intellectual | theory of civi lgovernment. untrksd be- fore. He had been elevated to office in | the extremest test of the Constitution. He had succeeded Adams and Wash ! ington as the publicly-endorsed restorer of the American idea in the govern | ment. Monroe, at home or abroad, stood for Jefferson. A blow at Mon- roe was a declared hostility to the ad-
 ministration in authority. The harsh alien laws of Adams, the adius sedition laws. the partisan enlargement of the | corps of Federal Judges by the number of 26 new appointments to make sure of the alien and sedition laws, were the issues between Jefferson and the Fed eralists. Jefferson's youthful kinsman. Randolph of Roanoke, had led in the Congress in repeating all these obnox- ious measures. This was the Congress to pass upon that treaty of purchase Writing to General Horatio Gates of the various tricks invented to the pre- judioe of the treaty by his enemies, the President said pithily: T find our opposition is very willing to pluck feathers from Monroe, although not fond of sticking them in Livingston's coat. The truth is, both have a just portion of merit"
 JEFFERSON'S CAUTION.
 The practical annulment of rights in the Amefican settlers, secured by treaty. of use of New Orleans as a shipping and receiving port. by the | Spanish Intendant, holding over uder France. announced April 7 1902. was | cruelty enforced against the fall trade | of the river. The country was in com motion over this outrage when Con- gress met. in December, 1902, in regu- lar session. The President had already matured his purpose, but with calculat- ing reconciliation. in his annual mes sage. touched the subject of wrong and insult at New Orleans lightly. Six
 
 himself. but confidentially only, and to Congress only. On January Il, 1903, General Smith of Maryland, a friend and supporter in the House of the President. moved a secret session. Hav- ing carried the motion, he moved that the sum of $2.000, 600 be appropriat ted and left to the control of the Prasi- dent. subject to his accountability, for use ''in the foreign intercourse of the Tztt t>I GN@N Mir. Monroe took with him in the fol- lowing spring to Paris. Representatives Nicholson of Maryland and Bayard of Delaware. the latter an Adams pArti- san. were appointed to wait upon the Senate in secret session and make known that the House had appropriat- ed the money to buy the Island of New Orleans and the East and West Florida" and to say to Senators at the bar of the Senate: You will, of consequence. consider this communica- tion confidential" The clerk of the House was not permitted to carry the bill to the Senate, but this Committee took 1t.
 The President heard that on April 50, 1903. at Paris, the United States had bought the whole of Louisiana for f.6O.VOO 900. payable in United States $ per cent. bonds, worth $11, ,250 900, and that the farther condition of sale was, that the debt of $3, 75G 900. then owed by France to the United States as trustee for it's own individual citizens, whose property France had in recent years, contiscated on the high seas. should be assumed by the United States, and that France should accept release as equivalent 10 payment on the land pur- chase. The land was surveyed by the United States government and some of the best of it traded to the Creeks. Chickasaws and ChoctaWs for lands east of the river. The government do- mated other great bodies of this land to private railroad corporations. and sold the remainder to individual se tiers. and sold. also. the Indian exchange land in Alabama and elsewhere. all for cash on good debt. yet 100 years after the transaction with the Firs: Consul not a dollar of the 8. 750, 900 on the French debt to American 1espoiled citi- zers has been paid. This unsatistied government obligation is the basis of what is familiarity known as the French spoliation" claims, dishonored to the hurt of some good citizens of Alabama. as we'll as other States
 The treaty reached Washington July 14, 1903. The President promptly issued his proclamation calling Congress in extra session on October 17. Meantime he prepared an amen 1ment to the Con- stitution. In August. 1903, the Presi- dent submitted to the Secretary of State and to the Attorney General an amendment to authorize the treaty. Congress met on call. Party opposition to the treaty and the policy of enlarge ment of territory, which might or would reduce the influence of the New England States in the Union, was most pronounced. Senators Pickering of Massachusetts. Tracey of Connecticut. Plumer of New Hampshire, White of Delaware. Representatives Griswold of Connecticut. Griffin of Virginia, and others. were bold and relentless enc mics of the treaty. Amidst vehement resistance of partisans of the East, the question of ratification fingered full 2n days under controversy in Congress.
 It is worth while in any study of Jefferson. however superficial in this crisis of his political life. to observe hm in contrast with other Presidents When Washington sent to Congress the treaty of 1795, he said; T transmit a copy for the information of Congress-" not for the cooperation to be secured, but for imparting the information" not otherwise to be obtained. When Mir. Pierce sent the Gadsden treaty. of 1853. to Congress. he notified the body that he wanted $10000, poo appropriated within ten days for the purpose of the treaty. and Representative George $, Houston. of Alabama, Chairman of She Committee of Ways and Means. 2a-