The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-02-16

1 have pressed an explanation on the
subject but I have received no answer.
L have it, however, through a friend,
from the first consul, that it is by no
means their intention to obstruct the
navigation of the Mississippi or violate
our treaty with Spain.''
The secretary of state. in a letter to
Livingston of May l, 1902, begins to re-
alize the large import of Louisiana:
THE conduct of the French govern
ment in paying so little attention to it's
obligations under the treaty, in neglect
ing its debts to our citizens, in giving no
answers to your complaints and ex-
postulat tons, which you say is the case
with those Of other foreign ministers
also. and particularly in It's reserve as
to Louisiana, which tacitly contradicts
the language first held to you by the
minister of foreign relations gives to-
kens as little suspicious to the true in
terests of France herself, as to the
rights and just objects of the United
States. The cession of Louisiana
to France becomes daily more and more
a source of painful apprehensions. >
You will also pursue, by prudent means,
the inquiry into the extent of the ces-
sion, particularly whether it includes the
Floridas as well as New Orleans, and
endeavor to ascertain the price at which
be yielded to the United States'
1t must be observed here that Madison
turns his mind to the comparatively I'M
important east side of the river, not the
unbounded west side. In a dispatch of
May II, to Pinckney, he shows clearly
Jefrerson's attitude: Should the ces-
sion actually fail from TINS. or any other
cause. and Spain retain New Orleans and
the Floridas, I repeat to you the wish
n h. ~
address. be employed to obtain the ar
rangement by which the territory on
the east side of the Mississippi, including
New Orleans, may be ceded to the United
States, and the Mississippi made a COM
mon boundary, with a common use of it's
navigation for them and Spain. The in
ducements to be held out to Spain were
intimate in your original instructions
on this point. l am charged by the pres
ident now to add, that you may not only
receive and transmit proposition of
guaranty of her territory beyond the
Mississippi, as a condition of her ceding
to the United States the territory, in
Guiding New Orleans, on this side, but,
in case it be necessary, may make the
proposition yourself, in the forms re-
CURED by our constitution
This very significant dispatch is found
on page SIT OF American state papers,
archives of the department of state. 1t
is an official document which the writer's
of our school histories appear never to
have seen. 1t proves that Mr.. Jefferson
instead of bringing about the Louisiana
acquisition single-handed was the one
man who was ready and willing to pre-
vent forever this acquisition by a consti-
tutional guaranty" or prohibition! We
refer of course to the vast territory on
the west of the Mississippi which is the
only domain worthy of extended dis
cussion.
Minister Pinckney tried in vain to
carry out these ominous instructions
but fortunately could not, because Spain
was in doubt whether she had any Flor
idas to sell or convey. In France, Liv-
ingston was told that the Floridas did
not belong to the lands transferred
With all his virtuous patience exhausted
Livingston writes home in September:
"There never 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 never asks advice, and never hears
it unasked. His ministers are mere
clerks; and his legislature and counsel
Tors parade officers On October 49,
1902, Livingston writes an important dis
patch to the president, informing him
that the Mississippi business, though
the officers are appointed and the army
under orders, has met with a check. He
gives interesting details of q conversa-
ton he had two days before with Jo-
seph Bonaparte, who assured 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