The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-03-22

The three most significant dates .histor-
ically connected with the acquisition of
the magnificent domain long known as
louisiana are April &c. 1903, when the
great treaty was signed; Oct IS, when
the treaty was ratified in the senate of
the United States by vote of "a to Z
and Dec. 20, 1903, when our government
received formal possession at New
Orleans from the French project, Laus-
sat. Were we to add an interesting
fourth date it would be April 10 of the
same treaty year-that blessed, beauti-
full Easter day-when Napoleon, having
returned from his Easter devotions to
the still standing palace of st. Cloud,
announced his sudden resolution to sell
the whole of his possessions in America
to the Americans.
Much has been written about the mo-
tives of BOnaparte in parting with his
newly acquired and still uneXplored ter
ritOry on this side of the Atlantic. 1t
can only be asserted with safety that
he doubtless acted from mixed motives
which were as various as his moods.
When not inscrutable the main spring
of his action seemed to be military glory
and personal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. He was
probably impelled to adopt what proved
to be an Unwise policy for these con-
sderations:
First-TIe feared that in the event of
war, which was imminent. he would lose
the colony Of Louisiana within sixty days
after he took possession. The treaty of
AmienS was at a end; Austria was
threatening; a British fleet was in ---e
West Indies and sensational report
had just come from London that 5000
men were being raised to move On Louis
lana.
Second-IIis affairs on the island of San
Domingo were in 1903 the worst possible;
Touissant L'OuVerture had worsted three
of his best marshals; lie Clerc had just
died to whom he was attached, next to
DurOc, Lannez and Berther, and Living
ston was shrewd enough to hold this
bloody specter ever before his eyes; an
other San Domingo on his hands he did
not want
Third-The first consul impress
cd by our minister's social rank
in his own country, no less
than by his merciless logic and
solid understanding, had given his prom
Use that debts due for the spoliation of
our commerce should be paid. This prom
Use. of which he was again and again re-
minded, could only be kept by realizing
on sale of lands. He had no funds
Fourth-About this time the hero Of
Italy caught vague glimpse of larger
game. He projected the wild scheme of
carrying the war not into Africa like
Scipio Africans, but into England. like
Caesar The scheme did not work, partly
because the young chieftain was not the
peer of the mighty Julius" whom
Shakspere calls ''the foremost man Of all
this world" And then the heroes of the
Nile and the future victors of Trafalgar
We're lying in wait in the channel, and
had the French levies ever gotten into
England the retreat from London would
possibly have paralleled the retreat from
Moscow, the most disastrous in all his
tory
Fifth-Livingston powers as a Iogician
and sublime persistence were influencing
factors in this momentous contention
Tallyrand said: HE was the most impor-
tant negouator he had yet met with
Lastly the French consul cherished a de-
sire TO build this nation up at the eX-