The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-02-08

should be paid. This promise of whicl
ne was again and again reminded
could only be kept by realizing on sal,
OF lands. He had no funds. 4. Abou
this time the hero of Italy caught
vague glimpse OF larger game. He pro
Jected the wild scheme of carrying thu
war, not into Africa like Scipio Afri
canus, but into England like Caesar
The scheme did not work, partly be-
cause the young chieftan was not the
peer of the mighty Julius" whom
Shakespeare calls the foremost man o
all this world" And then the heroes
of the Nile and the future victors OF
| Trafalgar were lying in wait in the
channel; and had the French levies evei
gotten into England the retreat from
London would possibly have paralleled
the retreat from Moscow, the most dis.
astrous in all history. 5. Livingstone
powers as a logician and sublime per-
sistence We're influencing factors in this
momentous contention. Tallyrand said
"he was the most important negotiator
he had yet met with" And lastly the
| French consul cherished desire to
| build this nation up at the expense of
| Great Britain. He had rather the
| American Union would grow strong
and great than should his most danger
Gus rival. A few genuine Napoleonic
| utterances must suffice to support the
! preceding propositions. The most .re-
| markable of these is found on page 81
| of Histoire Generate Des Traites De
| PaiX by lie Comte De Garden: "Ob-
| lection may be made that the Ameri-
cans Will prove to be too powerful for
Europe in two or three centuries; but
my plans do not take into account
these remote contingencies. They Cthe
! Americans) will have to give attention
in future conflicts among the states of
the Union. Considerations which call
themselves perpetual. last only SO long
as the contracting parties find it to
their interest not to break them and
it is to other present dangers to which
we are exposed from the colossal power
of England that [ propose to apply
remedy" This is both authentic and
prophetic.
A translation from u passage on the
same page shows that we paid for the
Louisiana region something more than
Bonaparte would have taken: IF /
should regulate my terms by what
these vast territories are worth to the
United States, the indemnity would
have no limit. l will be moderate for
the reason that | am obliged to sell.
But. keep this to yourself, (to Marbois)
I want fifty millions and for less than
that l will not treat: ] would rather
make desperate effort to hold those
fine regions" On page 10 of same au-
tholitative source, we find this char
acteristic utterance by Napoleon: When
told by Barbe-Marbois that there
was more uncertainty and obscurity
in one article of the treaty, he replied
that "if obscurity was not there, it
would perhaps be good policy to put
it there" These and numerous other
quotations have been transferred bodily
without credit, to what is known as
Marbois' History of Louisiana which
was probably written by William
Beach Lawrence in the apparent inter-
est of James Monroe and other politi-
cal friends. The kindly Marbois at the
feeble age of 49, doubtless lent the use
of his name to the inaccurate book
which first appeared in Paris in 1873.
The History of Peace Treaties, of
which Gardens great work is con-
tnuaton, was first published prior to
this date.
Returning to the highest sources of
historical information on this side of
the ocean-the archives of the govern |
ment and the American State Papers
it may be affirmed that the writer's of |
Louisiana treaty history have appar-
emily Stunned these first sources of his |
toric facts as if they We're poisoned |
springs.
AS proof of the strange faulty of the |
chief officers of the administration, |
the secretary of state writes from |
Washington to james Monroe, on April |
20, 1903: Certain it is that the hearts |
and hopes of the western people are |
fixed on the Mississippi for |
the future boundary. 1t is even |
a doubt with some of the best Judges |
whether the deposit alone would not |
be waived for Il while, rather than it |
should be the immediate ground for
war and an alliance with England"
This letter was written just ten days
before the great treaty was actually
signed and one week after it was Virtu-
ally agreed upon. What had already
become the central transcontinental
canal, or broad, free highway from
mountain to sea OF the greater repub-
lie, Madison would make its fixed,
future boundary.
On May |, he addresses Monroe: I'VE
have just received the message of his
Britannia majesty. which is represent
ed as the signal of a certain rupture
with France" He adds. Such AN
event seems scarce avoidabe" a rup-
ture with France, whose ruler has Just
given us for song an empire larger
than his own, Was there ever such
bluff diplomacy"
In dispatch of May 2S, one month
less two days, after the purchase treaty
was signed and In effect ratified in
Paris, Madison involves Jefferson in his
own diplomacy i'm the dark. He in
structs Livingston and Monroe: 'The
president thinks that 1t viii be inellg-
ble, under such circumstances, that
my convention whatever on the subject |
should he entered into, that will not Sc
cure to the United States the jurisdlc-
tion of reasonable district on some
part of the bank of the
1t is needless to say that
"a reasonable district" related 10 the
over Mississippi where we required a
place of transhipment, not to those vast
regions already acquired lying along
-he great western tributaries of the
upper Mississippi.
Three copies of the Louisiana treaty
we're transmitted 10 the United States
Dy three separate agencies, but Mr..
Hughes arrived first on July II, and de-
iYered the weighty document to the
PRESIDENT at Washington. That Jeffer-
ION and Madison We're surprised Is TO
nut it with mildness. They were, i'm
,oint of fact, dazed at the audacity of
heir agents, the immensity of the sum ,
laid and the enormnns Iarnitnhn nf