Year: 1861

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truce of Amiens was about to end the
renewal of the war was inevitable


Napoleon saw that before he could
take possession of Louisiana it would
be wreSted from him by England, who
commanded the seas, and he deter
mined at once, not merely to deprive
her OF so magnificent conquest, but tC
contribute as fas as in him lay, tc
build up a great rival maritime power
IN the West. The Government of the
United States, not less sagacious
seized the golden momcnt-a moment
such as does not happen twice in a
thousand years. Nj. Jefferson per
ceived that unless acquired by the
United States, Louisiana would in q
short time belong to France or to Eng
land, and with equal wisdom and
courage he determined that it should
belong to neither. True, lie held the
acquisition to be unconstitutional, but
he threw to the winds the resolutions
of 1898, which had just brought him
into power he broke the Constitution
and he saved all Empire. Mr.. Monroe
was sent to France to conduct the ne.
gotlatlon, in conjunction with Chan.
cellor Livingston, the resident Minis.
ter, contemplating at that time only
the acquisition of New Orleans and
the adjacent territory.


But they were dealing with a man
that did nothing by halves. Napoleon
knew, and ace kno,o, that to give up
the mouth of the river was to give up
its course. On Easter Sunday of 1908,
he amazed his council with the an
nouncement that he had determined
to ccde the whole of Louisiana to the
United States. Not less to the aston
lsoment of the American Envoys they
were told by the French ncgotiators
at the first interview that their master
was prepared to treat with them not
merely for the isle of New Orleans
but for the whole vast province which
bore the name Of Louisiana whose
boundaries, then unsettled, have since
been carried on the North to the Brit
ish line, on the West to the Pacific
occan-a territory half as big as Eu-
rope transferred by stroke of the
pen. Fifty-eight years have elapsed
since the acquisition was made. The
States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Nilsson
ri, Iowa, Minnesota and Kansas, and
the Territories of Nebraska, Dacotah,
and Jefferson, have been established
within its limits on this side of the
Rocky Mountains the State of Ore
Son, and the Territory Of Washington
on their western slope while q tide
of population is annually pouring into
the region destined, in addition to the
natural increase, before the close of
the century, to double the number of
the States and Territories. For the
entire region west of the Alleghanies
and east of the Rocky Mountains, the
Missouri and the Mississippi form the
natural outlet to the sea. Without
counting the population of the Seced-
ing States, there are ten millions of
Of the free citizens of the country, be-
tween Pittsburg and Fort Union who
claim the course and the mouth of the
Mississippi as belonging to the United
States. 1t is theirs by transfer of
truly imperial origin and magnitude /;
theirs by sixty years title theirs
by occupation and settlement theirs
by the law Of nature and of God.
Louisiana, a fragment of this colonial
empire, detached from the main por.
tion, and first organized as a State,
undertakes to secede from the Union,
and thinks by so doing she will be al.
lowed by the Government aud people
OF the United States to revoke this
imperial transfer, to disregard this
possession and occupation of sixty
years, to repeal this law of nature and
OF God ; and she fondly believes that
ten millions of the free people of the
Union will allow her and her seeding
brethren to open and shut the portals
of this mighty region at their pleas
ure. They may do so, and the swarm
ing millions which throng the course
OF these noble streams and their trib.
utaries may consent to navigate them
by snfferance from Montgomery and
Richmond, but if may repeat the
words which have lately used OF
anothe occasion, it will be when til,
Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains
which form the eastern and western
boundaries of the imperial valley
shall sink to the level of the sea, ant
the Mississippi and the Missouri shal
How back to their fountains.