Imperial Spain was a problem for American expansion because of their
extensive colonies south and west of the United States,
and
Spain expected them to trade only with the mother country.
Spain to Americans represented tyranny, religious bigotry, and political corruption
—all enemies of Jefferson whose motto was
“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience unto God.”
Yet the Spaniards had to deal with Napoleon and the French,
and Jefferson considered the Spaniards more favorable to American interests.
New Orleans was the key port to the Mississippi River.
Jefferson noted that the produce of three-eighths of
the United States passed through there to market.
Napoleon Bonaparte agreed to omit the second article
of the Morfontaine Treaty the Senate had excluded in its ratification
if both nations renounced their claims mentioned in that article.
Jefferson sent the revised treaty to the Senate
which confirmed it on 19 December 1801.
The French secretly bought the Floridas and Louisiana from Spain,
but Foreign Minister Talleyrand denied it, making
Jefferson and Secretary of State Madison angry.
On 13 April 1802 Dupont de Nemours wrote in French to Jefferson
that he was going to France on business and hoped to improve relations.
On April 18 Jefferson wrote to Robert Livingston in Paris expressing
his concern about the danger of the French occupying Louisiana;
but this could be prevented if they would cede
New Orleans and the Floridas to the United States.
He considered this the greatest threat to the United States since the Revolutionary War.
During the summer Livingston wrote to Madison that the old French maps
showed the Perdido River as the boundary between Florida and Louisiana.
On 4 October 1802 Dupont wrote to Jefferson that France would sell
the Floridas and New Orleans to the United States for six million dollars.
Jefferson told Livingston that the French occupation
of Louisiana was not worth breaking the peace.
On October 16 the Spanish intendant Juan Morales closed
the port of New Orleans to American commerce.
In late November the President unofficially asked the Spanish minister
Carlos Martinez de Yrujo if Spain would “take it badly” if the United States
sent a small expedition to explore the Missouri River.
Congress met in secret sessions, and on 11 January 1803
General Samuel Smith of Maryland proposed appropriating
$2 million for expenses related to foreign nations.
The next day a committee led by Joseph Nicholson
recommended purchasing West Florida and New Orleans.
Jefferson wrote on 13 January 1803 in a letter to James Monroe,
I dropped you a line on the 10th informing
you of a nomination I had made of you to the Senate,
and yesterday I enclosed you their approbation
not then having time to write.
The agitation of the public mind on occasion
of the late suspension of our right of deposit
at New Orleans is extreme.
In the western country it is natural
and grounded on honest motives.
In the seaports it proceeds from a desire for war which
increases the mercantile lottery; in the federalists generally
and especially those of Congress the object is to force us
into war if possible, in order to derange our finances, or if
this cannot be done, to attach the western country to them,
as their best friends, and thus get again into power.
Remonstrances, memorials &c. are now circulating
through the whole of the Western country
and signing by the body of the people.
The measures we have been pursuing being invisible,
do not satisfy their minds.
Something sensible therefore was become necessary;
and indeed our object of purchasing New Orleans and the
Floridas is a measure liable to assume so many shapes,
that no instructions could be squared to fit them,
it was essential then to send a Minister extraordinary
to be joined with the ordinary one, with discretionary
powers, first however well impressed with all
our views and therefore qualified to meet and
modify to these every form of proposition
which could come from the other party.
This could be done only in full
and frequent oral communications.
Having determined on this, there could not be
two opinions among the republicans as to the person.
You possessed the unlimited confidence of the
administration and of the Western people;
and generally of the republicans everywhere;
and were you to refuse to go,
no other man can be found who does this.1
On 18 January 1803 President Thomas Jefferson wrote this
Special Message Recommending a Western Exploring Expedition:
Confidential
Gentlemen of the Senate,
and of the House of Representatives:
As the continuance of the act for establishing trading
houses with the Indian tribes will be under the consideration
of the Legislature at its present session, I think it my
duty to communicate the views which have guided me
in the execution of that act, in order that you may
decide on the policy of continuing it, in the present or
any other form, or discontinue it altogether, if that shall,
on the whole, seem most for the public good.
The Indian tribes residing within the limits of the
United States have for a considerable time been growing
more and more uneasy at the constant diminution of the
territory they occupy, although effected by their own
voluntary sales: and the policy has long been gaining
strength with them, of refusing absolutely all further sale
on any conditions; insomuch that at this time it hazards
their friendship and excites dangerous jealousies and
perturbations in their minds to make any overture for
the purchase of the smallest portions of their land.
A very few tribes only are not yet
obstinately in these dispositions.
In order peaceably to counteract this policy
of theirs and to provide an extension of territory
which the rapid increase of our numbers will
call for; two measures are deemed expedient.
First: to encourage them to abandon hunting,
to apply to the raising stock, to agriculture and
domestic manufacture, and thereby prove to
themselves that less land and labor will maintain
them in this better than in their former mode of living.
The extensive forests necessary in the hunting life
will then become useless, and they will see advantage
in exchanging them for the means of improving their farms,
and of increasing their domestic comforts.
Secondly: to multiply trading houses among them,
and place within their reach those things which will
contribute more to their domestic comfort than
the possession of extensive but uncultivated wilds.
Experience and reflection will develop to them
the wisdom of exchanging what they can spare
and we want, for what we can spare, and they want.
In leading them to agriculture, to manufactures,
and civilization; in bringing together their and our
settlements, and in preparing them ultimately to
participate in the benefits of our governments,
I trust and believe we are acting for their greatest good.
At these trading houses we have pursued the principles
of the act of Congress which directs that the commerce
shall be carried on liberally and requires only that
the capital stock shall not be diminished.
We consequently undersell private traders, foreign and
domestic, drive them from the competition; and thus with
the good will of the Indians rid ourselves of a description
of men who are constantly endeavoring to excite in the
Indian mind suspicions, fears, and irritations towards us.
A letter now enclosed shows the effect of our
competition on the operations of the traders
while the Indians, perceiving the advantage of
purchasing from us, are soliciting generally our
establishment of trading houses among them.
In one quarter this is particularly interesting.
The Legislature, reflecting on the late occurrences on the
Mississippi, must be sensible how desirable it is to possess
a respectable breadth of country on that river from our
Southern limit to the Illinois at least; so that we may
present as firm a front on that as on our Eastern border.
We possess what is below the Yazoo and can probably
acquire a certain breadth from the Illinois and Wabash
to the Ohio; but between the Ohio and Yazoo, the
country all belongs to the Chickasaws, the most
friendly tribe within our limits, but the most
decided against the alienation of lands.
The portion of their country most important
for us is exactly that which they do not inhabit.
Their settlements are not on the Mississippi,
but in the interior country.
They have lately shown a desire to become agricultural;
and this leads to the desire of
buying implements and comforts.
In the strengthening and gratifying of these wants,
I see the only prospect of planting on the
Mississippi itself, the means of its own safety.
Duty has required me to submit these views to
the judgment of the Legislature; but as their disclosure
might embarrass and defeat their effect, they are
committed to the special confidence of the two Houses.
While the extension of the public commerce among
the Indian tribes may deprive of that source of profit
such of our citizens as are engaged in it, it might be
worthy the attention of Congress in their care of individual
as well as of the general interest, to point in another
direction the enterprise of these citizens as profitably
for themselves and more usefully for the public.
The river Missouri and the Indians inhabiting it are not
as well known as is rendered desirable by their connection
with the Mississippi and consequently with us.
It is, however, understood that the country on that river
is inhabited by numerous tribes who furnish great supplies
of furs and peltry to the trade of another nation,
carried on in a high latitude, through an infinite number of
portages and lakes shut up by ice through a long season.
The commerce on that line could bear no competition
with that of the Missouri, traversing a moderate climate,
offering according to the best accounts a continued
navigation from its source and possibly with
a single portage from the Western Ocean
and finding to the Atlantic a choice of channels through
the Illinois or Wabash, the lakes and Hudson, through
the Ohio and Susquehanna, or Potomac or James rivers,
and through the Tennessee and Savannah rivers.
An intelligent officer with ten or twelve chosen men, fit for
the enterprise and willing to undertake it, taken from our
posts, where they may be spared without inconvenience,
might explore the whole line even to the Western Ocean,
have conferences with the natives on the subject of
commercial intercourse, get admission among them for
our traders, as others are admitted, agree on convenient
deposits for an interchange of articles and return with the
information acquired in the course of two summers.
Their arms and accoutrements, some instruments of
observation, and light and cheap presents for the Indians,
would be all the apparatus they could carry, and
with an expectation of a soldier’s portion of land
on their return would constitute the whole expense.
Their pay would be going on whether here or there.
While other civilized nations have encountered great
expense to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge by
undertaking voyages of discovery, and for other literary
purposes in various parts and directions; our nation seems
to owe to the same object as well as to its own interests,
to explore this, the only line of easy communication across
the continent, and so directly traversing our own part of it.
The interests of commerce place the principal object within
the constitutional powers and care of Congress, and that it
should incidentally advance the geographical knowledge of
our own continent, cannot be but an additional gratification.
The nation claiming the territory, regarding this as a
literary pursuit, which is in the habit of permitting
within its dominions, would not be disposed to view
it with jealousy, even if the expiring state of its
interests there did not render it a matter of indifference.
The appropriation of two thousand five hundred dollars,
“for the purpose of extending the external commerce
of the United States,” while understood and considered
by the Executive as giving the legislative sanction,
would cover the undertaking from notice, and
prevent the obstructions which interested individuals
might otherwise previously prepare in its way.2
People in Ohio wrote a constitution which prohibited slavery
and allowed Negroes to vote, and on 19 February 1803 Jefferson
signed the bill that approved the borders and constitution of Ohio.
Yet in 1804 Ohio passed the first “black laws”
that restricted the movement of Negroes.
On 24 February 1803 Chief Justice John Marshall and the United States
Supreme Court ruled that Secretary of State James Madison was obligated
to deliver the appointment of William Marbury as a Justice of the Peace.
In the Stuart v. Laird decision on March 2
Marshall upheld the Judiciary Act of April 1802.
Organization of a southwestern territory that would later
become the states of Alabama and Mississippi enabled Jefferson
to implement his humane policy toward the Indians there.
On 27 February 1803 Jefferson wrote in a letter to the
Indiana Territory Governor William H. Harrison,
You will receive herewith an answer to your letter
as President of the Convention: and from the
Secretary at War you receive from time to time
information and instructions as to our Indian affairs.
These communications being for the public records
are restrained always to particular objects and occasions;
but this letter being unofficial, and private, I may with
safety give you a more extensive view of our policy
respecting the Indians, that you may the better
comprehend the parts dealt out to you in detail through
the official channel, and observing the system of which
they make a part, conduct yourself in unison with it
in cases where you are obliged to act without instruction.
Our system is to live in perpetual peace with the Indians,
to cultivate an affectionate attachment from them,
by everything just and liberal which we can do for them
within the bounds of reason, and by giving them effectual
protection against wrongs from our own people.
The decrease of game rendering their subsistence
by hunting insufficient, we wish to draw them
to agriculture, to spinning and weaving.
The latter branches they take up with great readiness,
because they fall to the women, who gain by
quitting the labors of the field for those
which are exercised within doors.
When they withdraw themselves to the culture of
a small piece of land, they will perceive how useless
to them are their extensive forests, and will be
willing to pare them off from time to time in exchange
for necessaries for their farms and families.
To promote this disposition to exchange lands, which
they have to spare and we want, for necessaries,
which we have to spare and they want, we shall
push our trading uses, and be glad to see the good
and influential individuals among them run in debt,
because we observe that when these debts get
beyond what the individuals can pay, they become
willing to lop them off by a cession of lands.
At our trading houses, too, we mean to sell
so low as merely to repay us cost and charges,
so as neither to lessen or enlarge our capital.
This is what private traders cannot do, for they must gain;
they will consequently retire from the competition,
and we shall thus get clear of this pest
without giving offense or umbrage to the Indians.
In this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe
and approach the Indians, and they will in time either
incorporate with us as citizens of the United States
or remove beyond the Mississippi.
The former is certainly the termination
of their history most happy for themselves;
but in the whole course of this
it is essential to cultivate their love.
As to their fear, we presume that our strength and their
weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only
to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities
to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only.
Should any tribe be fool-hardy enough to take up the
hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country
of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi,
as the only condition of peace, would be an example
to others and a furtherance of our final consolidation.3
In the spring of 1803 the Aurora and its editor William Duane
began to|
criticize the Republicans Gallatin and Madison but not President Jefferson.
In October the Treasury Secretary Gallatin urged Jefferson to reduce the
annual
expenditure on the Navy from $900,000 to $600,000, and the President agreed.
Bonds and notes issued to finance the Louisiana Purchase cost $900,000
in 1803,
and revenues that year fell by $2 million to $10,600,000.
In the past year the nation had paid off $3,100,000 from the debt
while maintaining nearly $6 million in the treasury.
Jefferson on 18 January 1803 had secretly asked Congress to appropriate
$2,500 for an expedition to explore the Missouri River
and to the Pacific Ocean while making friends with the Indians.
This was to include $696 to buy presents for the Indians.
The previous week the President had requested $9,375,000 to purchase New Orleans.
His diplomacy was to “palliate and endure.”
The President appointed James Monroe to go to France to see about obtaining
the territory east of the Mississippi including New Orleans for up to $10 million,
and after being confirmed by the Senate he sailed from New York on March 9.
He helped negotiate the Louisiana treaty at Paris in April and May.
The legislatures of New York, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania
resolved to risk everything to maintain the dignity and rights of the United States.
Jefferson considered use of the Mississippi River indispensable.
Madison wanted the 1795 treaty with Spain respected,
and Talleyrand had promised that France would do that.
Early in 1803 Governor William Claiborne of the Mississippi Territory
had informed Jefferson that they had about 500 regular troops and 2,000 militia
of which only 600 would be needed to take New Orleans from the Spanish.
Napoleon apparently did not want the Louisiana territory returned to Spain
and surprised the Americans by suggesting the sale
of the vast territory west of the Mississippi River.
On April 11 France’s Foreign Minister Talleyrand asked if the
United States would like to buy the entire province of Louisiana,
and on May 2 the American inister Robert R. Livingston and
Napoleon’s Finance Minister François de Barbé-Marbois signed
an agreement for its sale to the United States for $15 million.
The United States would pay France $11,250,000 in 6% stock
redeemable after fifteen years and would assume the claims of
American citizens against France in the amount of $3,750,000,
about half of what had been previously expected.
The convention on the American claims took a few more days,
and all the agreements were back-dated to April 30.
The treaty gave French and Spanish ships special privileges
in the port of New Orleans for twelve years.
Jefferson on that day wrote in a letter to John Bacon,
You have seen that the government of Spain has
instantly redressed the infraction of treaty by her
intendent at New Orleans; and that, by a reasonable
and peaceable process, we have obtained in 4 months,
what would have cost us 7 years of war, 100,000 human
lives, 100 millions of additional debt besides ten hundred
millions lost by the want of market for our produce, or
depredations on it in seeking markets, and the general
demoralizing of our citizens which war occasions.
I have the satisfaction to add that we have received
official information that in the instrument of cession
of Louisiana by Spain to France, is this clause
“Saving the rights acquired by other powers in
virtue of treaties made with them by Spain.”4
On 21 April 1803 Jefferson wrote about Jesus
in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush:
In this state of things among the Jews, Jesus appeared.
His parentage was obscure; his condition poor;
his education null; his natural endowments great;
his life correct and innocent: he was meek, benevolent,
patient, firm, disinterested, & of the sublimest eloquence.
The disadvantages under which his doctrines appear
are remarkable.
1. Like Socrates & Epictetus, he wrote nothing himself.
2. But he had not, like them, a Xenophon or an Arrian to write for him.
On the contrary, all the learned of his country, entrenched
in its power and riches, were opposed to him, lest his labors
should undermine their advantages; and the committing to
writing his life & doctrines fell on the most unlettered &
ignorant men; who wrote, too, from memory,
& not till long after the transactions had passed.
3. According to the ordinary fate of those who attempt
to enlighten and reform mankind, he fell an early victim
to the jealousy & combination of the altar and the throne,
at about 33 years of age, his reason having not yet attained
the maximum of its energy, nor the course of his preaching,
which was but of 3 years at most, presented occasions
for developing a complete system of morals.
4. Hence the doctrines which he really delivered were
defective as a whole, and fragments only of what
he did deliver have come to us mutilated,
misstated, & often unintelligible.
5. They have been still more disfigured by the corruptions
of schismatising followers, who have found an interest
in sophisticating & perverting the simple doctrines
he taught by engrafting on them the mysticisms
of a Grecian sophist, frittering them into subtleties,
& obscuring them with jargon, until they have caused
good men to reject the whole in disgust,
& to view Jesus himself as an impostor.
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of morals
is presented to us, which, if filled up in the true style
and spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most
perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man.
The question of his being a member of the Godhead,
or in direct communication with it, claimed for him
by some of his followers, and denied by others
is foreign to the present view, which is merely
an estimate of the intrinsic merit of his doctrines.
1. He corrected the Deism of the Jews,
confirming them in their belief of one only God, and giving
them juster notions of his attributes and government.
2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred & friends,
were more pure & perfect than those of the most correct
of the philosophers, and greatly more so than those
of the Jews; and they went far beyond both in inculcating
universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends,
to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind,
gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love,
charity, peace, common wants and common aids.
A development of this head will evince the peculiar
superiority of the system of Jesus over all others.
3. The precepts of philosophy & of the Hebrew code
laid hold of actions only.
He pushed his scrutiny into the heart of man;
erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts,
and purified the waters at the fountain head.
4. He taught emphatically the doctrines of a future state,
which was either doubted, or disbelieved by the Jews;
and wielded it with efficacy as an important incentive,
supplementary to the other motives to moral conduct.5
On May 2 the treaty in French ceding the territory of Louisiana
to the
United States for $16 million was signed by Napoleon and James Monroe.
The news reached Washington on June 30.
The Cabinet approved the purchase on July 16,
and they presented the treaty to the Congress on October 17.
Jefferson wrote measures for Congress to consider
in the government of the Louisiana Territory.
Monroe arranged for payment to be guaranteed by the English financial firm
Hope and Baring to prevent Napoleon from abrogating the agreement.
On May 9 President Jefferson wrote a letter declining to pardon
Nathaniel Ingraham for importing African slaves into the United States
letting him remain in prison for his two-year sentence in order
to discourage others from attempting the same crime.
The Canadian trader Alexander Mackenzie had become the first European
to cross North America north of Mexico in 1792-93, and the publication
in 1801 about his expedition stimulated Jefferson’s interest in the west.
The President’s private secretary, Meriwether Lewis,
had been a captain in the army, and he had volunteered
to lead
an expedition in 1793 for Jefferson that had not occurred.
Lewis recommended his army friend William Clark, younger brother
of the famous George Rogers Clark who had turned
down Jefferson’s request to lead an expedition.
On 3 June 1803 Jefferson sent a letter to Meriwether Lewis asking him
to explore the Missouri River and across the continent to the Pacific Ocean.
Jefferson wrote on June 30 in a letter to Sir John Sinclair,
It is so long since I have had the pleasure
of writing to you, that it would be vain to look
back to dates to connect the old and the new.
Yet I ought not to pass over my acknowledgments
to you for various publications received from time to time,
and with great satisfaction and thankfulness.
I send you a small one in return, the work
of a very unlettered farmer, yet valuable,
as it relates plain facts of importance to farmers.
You will discover that Mr. Binns is an enthusiast
for the use of gypsum.
But there are two facts which prove he has a right to be so:
1. He began poor, and has made himself
tolerably rich by his farming alone.
2. The county of Loudon, in which he lives,
had been so exhausted and wasted by bad husbandry,
that it began to depopulate, the inhabitants
going Southwardly in quest of better lands.
Binns’ success has stopped that emigration.
It is now becoming one of the most productive
counties of the State of Virginia, and the price
given for the lands is multiplied manifold.
We are still uninformed here whether
you are again at war.
Bonaparte has produced such a state of things
in Europe as it would seem difficult for him to
relinquish in any sensible degree, and equally
dangerous for Great Britain to suffer to go on, especially
if accompanied by maritime preparations on his part.
The events which have taken place in France have
lessened in the American mind the motives of interest
which it felt in that revolution, and its amity towards that
country now rests on its love of peace and commerce.
We see, at the same time, with great concern,
the position in which Great Britain is placed, and
should be sincerely afflicted were any disaster to deprive
mankind of the benefit of such a bulwark against the torrent
which has for some time been bearing down all before it.
But her power and powers at sea seem
to render everything safe in the end.
Peace is our passion, and the wrongs might drive us from it.
We prefer trying every other just principles,
right and safety, before we would recur to war.
I hope your agricultural institution goes on with success.
I consider you as the author of all the good it shall do.
A better idea has never been carried into practice.
Our agricultural society has at length formed itself.
Like our American Philosophical Society, it is voluntary,
and unconnected with the public, and is precisely
an execution of the plan I formerly sketched to you.
Some State societies have been formed heretofore;
the others will do the same.
Each State society names two of its members of Congress
to be their members in the Central society, which is
of course together during the sessions of Congress.
They are to select matter from the proceedings of the
State societies, and to publish it; so that their publications
may be called l’esprit des societes d’agriculture, &c.
The Central society was formed the last winter only,
so that it will be some time before they get under way.
Mr. Madison, the Secretary of State,
was elected their President.
Recollecting with great satisfaction our friendly
intercourse while I was in Europe, I nourish
the hope it still preserves a place in your mind;
and with my salutations, I pray you to accept assurances
of my constant attachment and high respect.6
News of the French treaty on Louisiana reached the President
in Washington on July 3, and the National Intelligencer published it
the next day amid the celebrations of Independence Day.
Five days later the same paper editorialized, “We have secured our rights
by pacific means: truth and reason have been more powerful than the sword.”7
The treaty was to be ratified within six months.
Although Jefferson had only authorized offering up to about $10 million,
they were glad to accept the deal for so much territory.
Most of West Florida was included to the Perdido River.
The boundaries of the Louisiana cession stretched from the Gulf of Mexico
up to the headwaters of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers containing
828,000 square miles, doubling the size of the United States.
On 10 July 1803 Jefferson wrote to the Earl of Buchan,
Without befriending human liberty, a gigantic force
has risen up which seems to threaten the world.
But it hangs on the thread of opinion,
which may break from one day to another.
I feel real anxiety on the conflict to which imperious
circumstances seem to call your nation,
and bless the Almighty Being, who in gathering
together the waters under the heavens into one place,
divided the dry land of your hemisphere from the
dry lands of ours and said, at least be there peace.
I hope that peace and amity with all nations
will long be the character of our land, and that
its prosperity under the Charter will react on the
mind of Europe and profit her by the example.
My hope of preserving peace for our country
is not founded in the Quaker principle
of non-resistance under every wrong,
but in the belief that a just and friendly conduct on
our part will procure justice and friendship from others.
In the existing contest each of the combatants
will find an interest in our friendship.
I cannot say we shall be
unconcerned spectators of this combat.
We feel for human sufferings, and we wish the good of all.
We shall look on, therefore, with the sensations which
these dispositions and the events of the war will produce.
I feel a pride in the justice which your Lordship’s
sentiments render to the character
of my illustrious countryman, Washington.
The moderation of his desires, and the strength
of his judgment, enabled him to calculate correctly,
that the road to that glory which never dies is
to use power for the support of the laws and liberties
of our country, not for their destruction; and his will
accordingly survives the wreck of everything now living.8
Jefferson wrote in August 1803 to John Breckinridge in confidence about
his concern that adding territory to the United States may not be constitutional,
and he prepared the following amendment: “Louisiana, as ceded by France
to the United States, is made a part of the United States.”
On September 12 Attorney General Levi Lincoln urged
the President to defend the constitutionality of the purchase.
Tom Paine on September 23 wrote a letter to Jefferson in which
he argued that the cession did not require any alteration in the Constitution
because extending the territory of the United States was always contemplated.
He wrote,
I do not suppose that the framers of the Constitution
thought anything about the acquisition of new territory,
and even if they did, it was prudent to say nothing about it,
as it might have suggested to foreign Nations the Idea
that we contemplated foreign conquest.
It appears to me to be one of those cases
with which the Constitution has nothing to do,
and which can be judged only by the circumstances
of the times when such a case shall occur.
The Constitution could not foresee that Spain
would cede Louisiana to France or to England,
and therefore it could not determine what
our conduct should be in consequence of such an event.
The Cession makes no alteration in the Constitution;
it only extends the principles of it over a larger territory,
and this certainly is within the morality of the Constitution,
and not contrary to, nor beyond, the expression
or intention of any of its Articles.
That the Idea of extending the territory of the United States
was always contemplated, whenever the opportunity offered
itself, is, I think, evident from the opinion that has existed
from the commencement of the revolution that Canada
would, at some time or other, become a part of the
United States; and there is an Article either in the treaty
with France (I have not the treaty by me) or in some
Correspondence with that government, that in case
of a Conquest of Canada by the assistance of France,
Canada should become part of the United States,
and therefore the Cession of Louisiana says no more
than what was said before with respect to Canada.9
Federalists were concerned that western territory would add
Republican states, and they opposed the acquisition.
The Spanish Minister Casa Yrujo sent an objection to Madison that
the United States would be receiving stolen property, but on October 4
the cabinet decided they would take New Orleans by force
if the Spaniards refused to let the Americans have it peacefully.
Jefferson summoned the Congress to meet on October 17 for
“great and weighty matters,” and on October 20 all the Republican
senators and one Federalist voted for the treaty that was approved 24-7.
Two days later Senator Breckinridge introduced a bill authorizing the President
to occupy with armed forces the territory ceded by France, and it passed 26-6.
The Congress by a nearly unanimous vote approved accepting the Louisiana
territory into the Union under the treaty-making power granted by the Constitution.
This decision marked a change in the Republican policy
from interpreting the Constitution by a “strict construction.”
On October 31 Jefferson signed the enabling act and sent documents
and
instructions by post riders to officials in the Mississippi Territory and New Orleans.
Jefferson sent his Third Annual Message to Congress on
October 17 early because of “matters of great public concern.”
Their “right of deposit at the port of New Orleans” which had
been suspended was restored through the government officer.
He warned that their peace was exposed if
“the western country remained under foreign power.”
He also noted that they had acquired from the friendly Kaskaskias
territory from the mouth of the rivers Illinois at the Mississippi up the Ohio.
Here is his entire Message:
To The Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States:
In calling you together, fellow citizens, at an earlier day
than was contemplated by the act of the last session
of Congress, I have not been insensible to the personal
inconveniences necessarily resulting from an unexpected
change in your arrangements, but matters of great public
concernment have rendered this call necessary,
and the interests you feel in these will supersede
in your minds all private considerations.
Congress witnessed at their late session the
extraordinary agitation produced in the public mind
by the suspension of our right of deposit at the port
of New Orleans, no assignment of another place
having been made according to treaty.
They were sensible that the continuance of that privation
would be more injurious to our nation than any
consequences which could flow from any mode of redress,
but reposing just confidence in the good faith of the
Government whose officer had committed the wrong,
friendly and reasonable representations were resorted to,
and the right of deposit was restored.
Previous, however, to this period we had not
been unaware of the danger to which our peace
would be perpetually exposed whilst so important
a key to the commerce of the Western country
remained under foreign power.
Difficulties, too, were presenting themselves
as to the navigation of other streams which, arising
within our territories, pass through those adjacent.
Propositions had, therefore, been authorized for obtaining,
on fair conditions, the sovereignty of New Orleans,
and of other possessions in that quarter interesting
to our quiet, to such extent as was deemed practicable;
and the provisional appropriation of two millions of dollars,
to be applied and accounted for
by the President of the United States,
intended as part of the price, was considered as conveying
the sanction of Congress to the acquisition proposed.
The enlightened government of France saw,
with just discernment, the importance to both nations
of such liberal arrangements as might best and permanently
promote the peace, friendship, and interests of both;
and the property and sovereignty of all Louisiana,
which had been restored to them, have on certain conditions
been transferred to the United States
by instruments bearing date the 30th of April last.
When these shall have received the constitutional sanction
of the Senate, they will without delay be communicated
to the representatives also, for the exercise
of their functions, as to those conditions which are
within the powers vested by the Constitution in Congress.
While the property and sovereignty of the Mississippi
and its waters secure an independent outlet
for the produce of the western States,
and an uncontrolled navigation through their whole course,
free from collision with other powers and the dangers
to our peace from that source, the fertility of the country,
its climate and extent, promise in due season important
aids to our treasury, an ample provision for our posterity,
and a wide-spread field for the blessings
of freedom and equal laws.
With the wisdom of Congress it will rest
to take those ulterior measures which may be necessary
for the immediate occupation and temporary government
of the country; for its incorporation into our Union;
for rendering the change of government a blessing
to our newly-adopted brethren; for securing to them
the rights of conscience and of property:
for confirming to the Indian inhabitants their occupancy
and self-government, establishing friendly
and commercial relations with them, and for
ascertaining the geography of the country acquired.
Such materials, for your information, relative to
its affairs in general as the short space of time has
permitted me to collect will be laid before you when
the subject shall be in a state for your consideration.
Another important acquisition of territory has also
been made since the last session of Congress.
The friendly tribe of Kaskaskia Indians, with which we have
never had a difference, reduced by the wars and wants
of savage life to a few individuals unable to defend
themselves against the neighboring tribes,
has transferred its country to the United States,
reserving only for its members what is
sufficient to maintain them in an agricultural way.
The considerations stipulated are that we shall extend
to them our patronage and protection and give them
certain annual aids in money, in implements of
agriculture, and other articles of their choice.
This country, among the most fertile within our limits,
extending along the Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois
to and up to the Ohio, though not so necessary as a barrier
since the acquisition of the other bank may yet
be well worthy of being laid open to immediate settlement,
as its inhabitants may descend with rapidity in support
of the lower country should future circumstances
expose that to foreign enterprise.
As the stipulations in this treaty involve matters
with the competence of both Houses only,
it will be laid before Congress as soon as
the Senate shall have advised its ratification.
With many of the other Indian tribes improvements
in agriculture and household manufacture are advancing,
and with all our peace and friendship are established
on grounds much firmer than heretofore.
The measure adopted of establishing trading houses
among them and of furnishing them necessaries
in exchange for their commodities at such moderate prices
as leave no gain, but cover us from loss, has the most
conciliatory and useful effect on them, and is
that which will best secure their peace and good will.
The small vessels authorized by Congress with a view
to the Mediterranean service have been sent into that sea,
and will be able more effectually to confine the
Tripoline cruisers within their harbors and supersede the
necessity of convoy to our commerce in that quarter.
They will sensibly lessen the expenses
of that service the ensuing year.
A further knowledge of the ground in the northeastern and
northwestern angles of the United States has evinced that
the boundaries established by the treaty of Paris between
the British territories and ours in those parts were too
imperfectly described to be susceptible of execution.
It has therefore been thought worthy of attention
for preserving and cherishing the harmony and useful
intercourse subsisting between the two nations to remove
by timely arrangements what unfavorable incidents might
otherwise render a ground of future misunderstanding.
A convention has therefore been entered into which
provides for a practicable demarcation of those limits
to the satisfaction of both parties.
An account of the receipts and expenditures of the
year ending the 30th of September last with the
estimates for the service of the ensuing year
will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury
so soon as the receipts of the last quarter shall
be returned from the more distant States.
It is already ascertained that the amount paid
into the Treasury for that year has been between
$11M and $12M, and that the revenue accrued
during the same term exceeds the sum counted on
as sufficient for our current expenses and to extinguish
the public debt within the period heretofore proposed.
The amount of debt paid for the same year is about $3.1M
exclusive of interest, and making, with the payment of the
preceding year, a discharge of more than $8.5M of
the principal of that debt, besides the accruing interest;
and there remain in the Treasury nearly $6M.
Of these, $880K have been reserved for payment
of the first installment due under the British convention
of 1802 January 08, and $2 millions are what have been
before mentioned as placed by Congress under the power
and accountability of the President toward the price of
New Orleans and other territories acquired, which,
remaining untouched, are still applicable to that object
and go in diminution of the sum to be funded for it.
Should the acquisition of Louisiana be constitutionally
confirmed and carried into effect, a sum of nearly $13M
will then be added to our public debt, most of which
is payable after 15 years, before which term the
present existing debts will all be discharged by
the established operation of the sinking fund.
When we contemplate the ordinary annual augmentation
of impost from increasing population and wealth,
the augmentation of the same revenue by its extension
to the new acquisition, and the economies which may still
be introduced into our public expenditures,
I cannot but hope that Congress in reviewing
their resources will find means to meet the
intermediate interest of this additional debt
without recurring to new taxes, and applying to this
object only the ordinary progression of our revenue.
Its extraordinary increase in times of foreign war
will be the proper and sufficient fund for any measures
of safety or precaution which that state of things
may render necessary in our neutral position.
Remittances for the installments of our foreign debt
having been found practicable without loss,
it has not been thought expedient to use the power given
by a former act of Congress of continuing them by reloans,
and of redeeming instead thereof equal sums of domestic debt,
although no difficulty was found in obtaining that accommodation.
The sum of fifty thousand dollars appropriated by
Congress for providing gun boats remains unexpended.
The favorable and peaceable turn of affairs on the
Mississippi rendered an immediate execution of that law
unnecessary, and time was desirable in order that
the institution of that branch of our force might
begin on models the most approved by experience.
The same issue of events dispensed with a resort to the
appropriation of a million and a half of dollars contemplated
for purposes which were effected by happier means.
We have seen with sincere concern the flames of war
lighted up again in Europe, and nations with which
we have the most friendly and useful relations
engaged in mutual destruction.
While we regret the miseries in which we see
others involved let us bow with gratitude
to that kind Providence which, inspiring with wisdom
and moderation our late legislative councils while placed
under the urgency of the greatest wrongs, guarded us
from hastily entering into the sanguinary contest,
and left us only to look on and to pity its ravages.
These will be heaviest on those immediately engaged.
Yet the nations pursuing peace
will not be exempt from all evil.
In the course of this conflict, let it be our endeavor,
as it is our interest and desire, to cultivate the friendship
of the belligerent nations by every act of justice
and of incessant kindness; to receive their armed vessels
with hospitality from the distresses of the sea,
but to administer the means of annoyance to none;
to establish in our harbors such a police
as may maintain law and order;
to restrain our citizens from embarking individually in a war
in which their country takes no part;
to punish severely those persons, citizen or alien, who shall
usurp the cover of our flag for vessels not entitled to it,
infecting thereby with suspicion those of real Americans,
and committing us into controversies
for the redress of wrongs not our own;
to exact from every nation the observance,
toward our vessels and citizens, of those principles
and practices which all civilized people acknowledge;
to merit the character of a just nation,
and maintain that of an independent one,
preferring every consequence to insult and habitual wrong.
Congress will consider whether the existing laws enable us
efficaciously to maintain this course with our citizens
in all places, and with others while within the limits
of our jurisdiction, and will give them the new modifications
necessary for these objects.
Some contraventions of right have already taken place,
both within our jurisdictional limits and on the high seas.
The friendly disposition of the governments
from whose agents they have proceeded,
as well as their wisdom and regard for justice,
leave us in reasonable expectation
that they will be rectified and prevented in future;
and that no act will be countenanced by them
which threatens to disturb our friendly intercourse.
Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe,
and from the political interests
which entangle them together, with productions and wants
which render our commerce and friendship
useful to them and theirs to us, it cannot be
the interest of any to assail us, nor ours to disturb them.
We should be most unwise, indeed, were we to cast away
the singular blessings of the position in which
nature has placed us, the opportunity she has endowed us
with of pursuing, at a distance from foreign contentions,
the paths of industry, peace, and happiness;
of cultivating general friendship, and of bringing collisions
of interest to the umpirage of reason rather than of force.
How desirable then must it be, in a government like ours,
to see its citizens adopt individually the views, the interests,
and the conduct which their country should pursue,
divesting themselves of those passions and partialities
which tend to lessen useful friendships, and to embarrass
and embroil us in the calamitous scenes of Europe.
Confident, fellow citizens, that you will duly estimate
the importance of neutral dispositions
toward the observance of neutral conduct,
that you will be sensible how much it is our duty to look
on the bloody arena spread before us with commiseration
indeed, but with no other wish than to see it closed,
I am persuaded you will cordially cherish these dispositions
in all discussions among yourselves,
and in all communications with your constituents;
and I anticipate with satisfaction the measures of wisdom
which the great interests now committed to you
will give you an opportunity of providing,
and myself that of approving and carrying into execution
with the fidelity I owe to my country.10
Jefferson thus concluded this message with a discussion of how
the
United States should respond to the major wars going in Europe at this time.
James Monroe became minister to Britain and stayed
in London from 18 July 1803 until October 8 when he left
a secretary in charge and departed for Paris and Madrid.
Livingston in Paris told Monroe that Barbé-Marbois proposed that the
United States could purchase the two Floridas from France for 60 million francs;
but the Comte d’Hauterive told Monroe that Spain had to cede the territory,
and the United States would have to pay them.
Monroe left for Madrid on December 8.
While he was in route, Talleyrand clarified that France’s position was
that Spain owned the Floridas and that he urged Napoleon to take a hard line.
By Christmas the President learned that the Spaniards
had transferred Louisiana to the French on November 30.
On December 14 Spain allied with France by declaring war against England,
and on 4 January 1805 they signed a secret treaty in which France promised
to
guarantee Spain’s territory in Europe and the return of their colonies in the current war.
Jefferson learned in the middle of January that General James Wilkinson
and 450
American soldiers by December 20 had taken over New Orleans from the French.
On that day William C. C. Claiborne became the first governor of the Territory of Orleans,
and General James Wilkinson was appointed the first governor of the Louisiana Territory.
Congress prohibited importing slaves into Orleans because
of fear of rebels from St. Domingue, and in the next two years
Orleans allowed about 200 slaves to purchase their freedom.
Jefferson on 29 January 1804 wrote to Dr. Joseph Priestley about
comparing the moral doctrines of Jesus and the ancient philosophers.
Then he discussed the Louisiana project:
I very early saw that Louisiana was indeed a speck
in our horizon, which was to burst in a tornado, and
the public are unapprised how near this catastrophe was.
Nothing but a frank & friendly development of causes &
effects on our part, and good sense enough in Bonaparte
to see that the train was unavoidable, and would change
the face of the world, saved us from that storm.
I did not expect he would yield till a war took place
between France and England, and my hope was to
palliate and endure, if Messrs. Ross, Morris &c.
did not force a premature rupture until that event.
I believed the event not very distant, but acknowledge
it came on sooner than I had expected.
Whether, however, the good sense of Bonaparte might
not have seen the course predicted to be necessary &
unavoidable, even before a war should be imminent,
was a chance which we thought it our duty to try;
but the immediate prospect of rupture brought
the case to immediate decision.
The dénoument has been happy: and I confess I look
to this duplication of area for the extending a government
so free and economical as ours, as a great achievement
to the mass of happiness which is to ensue.
Whether we remain in one confederacy or form into
Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies I believe
not very important to the happiness of either part.
Those of the Western confederacy will be as much our
children & descendants as those of the Eastern,
and I feel myself as much identified with that country,
in future time, as with this: and did I now foresee a
separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty
& the desire to promote the Western interests as zealously
as the Eastern, doing all the good for both portions of our
future family which should fall within my power.11
In March 1804 the Governance Act recognized that
federal agents had been governing Louisiana since December.
On March 16 Republicans in Congress approved an
elective Council to assist the governor of Louisiana.
In May the people of Louisiana remonstrated against the political system
adopted by Congress for them, and Edward Livingston wrote a petition
for representative government, noting that the governor, his council,
and the supreme court had all been appointed by President Jefferson
and complaining that they were deprived of the right of election.
On the 30th Jefferson ordered a Mobile revenue district with Fort Stoddert as its port.
At first Congress did not give the Territory of New Orleans
the rights to vote and jury trials, but the initial legislation that
went into effect on 1 October 1804 was intended to last for only one year.
William C. C. Claiborne was inducted as Governor the next day,
and
he did not form a council until December 4.
He appointed judges who knew only American law, and he was
the court of last resort without even an attorney to advise him.
Congress passed the Mobile Act on 24 February 1804
establishing a customs district east of New Orleans.
They created the Territory of Orleans with New Orleans as the capital.
The line that later became the northern boundary of the state of Louisiana
marked the division with the rest to the north called
the District of Louisiana with its capital at St. Louis.
The New Orleans district was much smaller than Louisiana,
yet 50,000 people lived there.
Spain considered West Florida their territory, and Jefferson
sent James Monroe to Madrid to confirm American claims.
Spain’s minister Carlos Martinez Yrujo complained
that all of West Florida still belonged to Spain.
Monroe wrote to Jefferson in May, and on the 30th the President
backed up the Mobile Act by proclaiming that the shores of the bay
and river of Mobile are within boundaries of the United States.
A pamphlet by the pseudonym Aristides examining the charge
against Vice President Aaron Burr and severely criticizing Clintons
and Livingstons had been published in December 1803,
and much later it was revealed that Burr’s intimate friend,
William Peter Van Ness, wrote that pamphlet.
In January 1804 a conspiracy began to dissolve the Union and protect the Federalists
in the northeast involving the Federalist Senators Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts,
Uriah Tracy of Connecticut, and William Plumer of New Hampshire,
and at-large Rep. Roger Griswold of Connecticut.
They were not able to persuade Alexander Hamilton and Rufus King of New York
to join them nor John Quincy Adams and other leaders in Massachusetts.
Hamilton considered Vice President Aaron Burr dangerous,
and on February 16 he attended the Federalist caucus and persuaded them
to support George Clinton for Vice President instead of Burr.
On February 24 President Jefferson signed the Act that claimed Mobile
as an American port of entry even though it was part of Spanish West Florida.
The next day a Congressional caucus of Republicans voted 65-41
to nominate New York Governor George Clinton
for Vice President of the United States.
They rejected Vice President Aaron Burr, and his friends did not participate.
Senator Pickering wrote to Rufus King on March 4
proposing the secession of New England and perhaps New York.
On March 12 the Senate found Pickering guilty of conspiracy
and voted to remove him from the Senate.
On March 22 Jefferson appointed William Johnson
of South Carolina to the US Supreme Court.
On March 26 Congress passed an Act Further to Protect the Commerce
and Seamen of the United States against the Barbary Powers,
adding 2.5% ad valorem duties on imports in American ships
and 12.5% more on imported goods in foreign vessels.
This increased revenues in 1804 to $11,600,000.
Although New York had many Republicans, they wanted that state involved
with Hamilton as their leader; but Roger Griswold wanted Burr to lead.
Burr decided to run for governor of New York in April 1804.
On April 16 Jefferson wrote to Postmaster-General Gideon Granger,
It will be found in this, as in all other similar cases,
that crooked schemes will end by overwhelming
their authors and coadjutors in disgrace,
and that he alone who walks strict and upright,
and who in matters of opinion will be contented that
others should be as free as himself,
and acquiesce when his opinion is fairly overruled,
will attain his object in the end.12
On April 25 the Clintonian Morgan Lewis defeated Burr by
about 8,000 votes and became Governor of New York.
On June 18 Burr’s friend William P. Van Ness took a message to Hamilton
complaining that Hamilton had a “despicable” opinion of Burr’s character.
Two days later Hamilton wrote a reply in which he used language
often associated with a challenge that could lead to a duel.
He opposed disunion, and Burr challenged him to a duel.
Hamilton did not intend to kill Burr, and he found some consolation
in predicting that if Burr killed him, it would be political suicide.
On July 11 they met at Weehocken, the place where Hamilton’s son Philip
had been killed in a duel three years before which drove his sister mad with grief.
Though witness accounts differ, Hamilton probably shot first without trying to hit Burr,
and then Burr shot a bullet through Hamilton’s liver
and into his spinal column that caused his death 31 hours later.
The journalist James Cheetham got an indictment against Burr who escaped
to South Carolina and then went to Philadelphia and Washington.
He stayed away from New York and New Jersey
until all their charges were dropped.
The United States Congress had not sent the 12th Amendment
to the Constitution to the state legislatures until 12 December 1803,
and three quarters of the states finally ratified the amendment on 15 June 1804,
separating the electoral college voting for President and Vice President.
Early in 1803 Navy Secretary Robert Smith asked Congress
for $108,000 for four small warships and eight gunboats,
and they appropriated $146,000 for those and up to fifteen gunboats.
On January 15 the USS Enterprise captured the Tunisian ship Paulina.
The American consul William Eaton in Tunis had Commodore
Richard Valentine Morris bring three ships to Tunis on February 22.
Six days later Congress authorized $96,000 to build or acquire four ships.
Morris reached Algiers on March 19 and Gibraltar on the 23rd.
William Eaton and James Cathcart left the squadron.
Cathcart had been captured in 1785 and spent eleven years as a slave in Algiers
and became the secretary to the Dey before being freed in the 1796 treaty.
He became Eaton’s assistant in December 1798
and in 1802 was appointed consul to Tunis and Tripoli.
Secretary of State Madison wrote to Cathcart on April 9 to
inform him that President Jefferson wanted him to take action.
Madison authorized him to give Karamanli up to $20,000 cash and $10,000 a year.
Payments to Bey Hamuda Pasha of Tunis were not to exceed $10,000 a year.
John Rodgers commanded the USS John Adams
and captured the Meshuda on May 18.
Commodore Morris moved the squadron to Tripoli, and on June 1
American sailors and marines made their first amphibious landing on a hostile shore.
They fought more than a thousand Tripolitans and had 14 men wounded.
On June 7 Morris went ashore and talked with a minister who demanded
$200,000 and $20,000 a year, and Morris was almost captured before leaving.
He left Tripoli on June 10 to join his wife at Malta.
The Adams and the Enterprize maintained the blockade at Tripoli.
Morris was relieved of command on June 21 and later
was
court-martialed for not blockading Tripoli for many months.
The next day Rodgers on the Adams defeated Tripolitan gunboats,
and he was given command of the squadron.
Captain Edward Preble’s orders became operational on July 14,
and he reached Gibraltar on the USS Constitution on September 14.
The 38-gun USS Philadelphia arrived at Tripoli on 7 October 1803
and was
left unprotected, ran aground, and was captured with its 307 men on October 31.
On 16 February 1804 Lt. Stephen Decatur on the USS Intrepid led a surprise attack
that burned the captured Philadelphia after it had been in the Tripoli harbor
while killing 33 Tripolitans and not losing one man.
On March 19 President Jefferson learned only that the Philadelphia
had been captured, and the next day he asked Congress
to increase American forces in the Mediterranean.
On the 26th the Senate increased import duties 2.5% to raise $900,000
to send another squadron against the Barbary pirates.
Richard O’Brien landed at Tunis on April 24 and negotiated with
Bey Hamuda Pasha, agreeing on the 29th to pay $5,000 in
reparations and an annuity of $8,000 in addition to earlier stipulations.
In June 1805 Algiers negotiated peace and release the 307 captured Americans.
Commodore Edward Preble was given command of a squadron
and had the Constitution with its 44 guns refit.
He commanded more than a thousand men in a force
with about 150 guns that attacked Tripoli on August 3.
They returned to the harbor four days later and maintained a blockade
during the summer that stopped piracy from Morocco to Tripoli
for the first time in years, though attacks on August 24 and 28 did little.
Preble attacked Tripoli again on September 3 and 4.
Commodore Samuel Barron arrived with four frigates and took command on the 10th,
and three days later he secretly approved Eaton’s plan to support Ahmad Karamanli.
Barron suffered from liver disease and nearly died.
Emperor Sulayman of Morocco arrived at Tangiers on October 4
with 2,500 cavalry, giving them more than 10,000 cavalry there.
The next day Preble’s squadron sailed into the harbor.
Preble and Consul General Tobias Lear negotiated a treaty with Morocco on October 11.
William Eaton had served as consul at Tunis from
1797 until the war against Tripoli broke out in 1801.
He disagreed with Jefferson’s peace policy but returned
as the naval agent to the Mediterranean in March 1804.
On September 5 he arrived at Malta, and on November 14
Barron ordered the Argus to take Eaton to Alexandria.
He reached Cairo on December 8 to support Ahmad Karamanli
whom he considered the rightful ruler of Tripoli.
In the 1804 elections the Republicans ran on their accomplishments
that included abolishing internal taxes, removing superfluous federal judges
and thousands of unnecessary officers, reducing the Army and Navy,
and decreasing administrative expenditures and the national debt
by several million dollars while preserving the peace and adding
the extensive territory in the Louisiana Purchase.
In the 1804 elections President Jefferson again did not campaign,
and with George Clinton for Vice President won an overwhelming victory
with 75% of the popular votes, 15 of the 17 states, and 162 electoral votes
to 14 for the Federalists Charles C. Pinckney and his running mate Rufus King.
The Republicans gained 2 seats in the Senate increasing their domination to 27-7
and of the House with 11 more seats to make it 114-28.
Jefferson and George Clinton won 15 of 17 states and each received
162 electoral votes for President and Vice President
to 14 for C. C. Pinckney and Rufus King.
The Federalists won only Connecticut and Delaware plus two of Maryland’s nine votes.
Six state legislatures chose their electors;
six states had them elected by popular vote;
four states voted by electoral districts; and Massachusetts
had 17 elected by Congressional district and two statewide.
Even though he had two sons-in-law running for Congress,
Jefferson held to his policy of not interfering in local elections.
Gideon Blackburn was a Presbyterian minister from Maryville,
Tennessee, and he raised money to start a school for
Cherokee boys in the Overhills country of Tennessee in 1804.
They began with 21 children, and in July 1805 the students
showed Governor Sevier and others what they had learned,
impressing the former Indian-hater that they had become civilized.
He continued that work until 1809.
In Jefferson’s Fourth Annual Message to Congress
on 8 November 1804 he wrote,
To the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States:
To a people, fellow-citizens, who sincerely desire the
happiness and prosperity of other nations:
to those who justly calculate that their own well-being
is advanced by that of the nations with which
they have intercourse, it will be a satisfaction to observe
that the war, which was lighted up in Europe a little
before our last meeting has not yet extended
its flames to other nations, nor been marked by the
calamities which sometimes stain the footsteps of war.
The irregularities, too on the ocean, which generally
harass the commerce of neutral nations, have in distant
parts, disturbed ours less than on former occasions;
but in the American seas they have been greater from
peculiar causes, and even within our harbors and jurisdiction
infringements on the authority of the laws have been
committed which have called for serious attention.
The friendly conduct of the Governments from whose
officers and subjects these acts have proceeded,
in other respects and in places more under their observation
and control, gives us confidence that our representations
on this subject will have been completely regarded.
While noticing the irregularities committed
on the ocean by others, those on our own part
should not be omitted nor left unprovided for.
Complaints have been received that persons residing
within the United States have taken on themselves to arm
merchant vessels and to force a commerce into certain ports
and countries in defiance of the laws of those countries.
That individuals should undertake to wage private war,
independently of the authority of their country,
cannot be permitted in a well-ordered society.
Its tendency to produce aggression on the laws and rights
of other nations and to endanger the peace of our own
is so obvious that I doubt not you will adopt
measures for restraining it effectually in future.
Soon after the passage of the act of the last session
authorizing the establishment of a district and a port
of entry on the waters of the Mobile we learned that
its object was misunderstood on the part of Spain.
Candid explanations were immediately given and
assurances that, reserving our claims in that quarter
as a subject of discussion and arrangement with Spain,
no act was mediated in the meantime inconsistent
with peace and friendship existing between the two nations,
and that conformably to these intentions
would be the execution of the law.
That Government had, however, thought proper to suspend
the ratification of the convention of 1802;
but the explanations which would reach them soon after,
and still more the confirmation of them by the tenor of the
instrument establishing the port and district, may reasonably
be expected to replace them in the dispositions and views of
the whole subject which originally dictated the convention.
I have the satisfaction to inform you that the objections
which had been urged by that Government against the
validity of our title to the country of Louisiana have been
withdrawn, its exact limits, however, remaining still to be
settled between us; and to this is to be added that having
prepared and delivered the stock created in execution
of the convention of Paris of April 30, 1803.
In consideration of the cession of that country,
we have received from the Government of France
an acknowledgment in due form,
of the fulfillment of that stipulation.
With the nations of Europe in general our friendship
and intercourse are undisturbed, and from the Governments
of the belligerent powers especially we continue to receive
those friendly manifestations which are justly due
to an honest neutrality and to such good offices consistent
with that as we have opportunities of rendering.
The activity and success of the small force employed
in the Mediterranean in the early part of the present year,
the reinforcements sent into that sea, and the energy of
the officers having command in the several vessels will,
I trust, by the sufferings of war, reduce the barbarians
of Tripoli to the desire of peace on proper terms.
Great injury, however, ensues to ourselves,
as well as to others interested, from the distance to which
prizes must be brought for adjudication and from the
impracticability of bringing hither such as are not seaworthy.
The Bey of Tunis having made requisitions unauthorized
by our treaty, their rejection has produced
from him some expressions of discontent.
But to those who expect us to calculate whether a
compliance with unjust demands will not cost us
less than a war we must leave as a question of calculation
for them also whether to retire from unjust demands
will not cost them less than a war.
We can do to each other very sensible injuries by war,
but mutual advantages of peace make that
the best interest of both.
Peace and intercourse with other powers
on the same coast continue on the footing
on which they are established by treaty.
In pursuance of the act providing for the temporary
government of Louisiana, the necessary officers
for the Territory of Orleans were appointed in due time
to commence the exercise of their functions
on the 1st day of October.
The distance, however, of some of them and indispensable
previous arrangements may have retarded its
commencement in some of its parts.
The form of government thus provided having been
considered but as temporary, and open to such future
improvements as further information of the circumstances
of our brethren there might suggest, it will
of course be subject to your consideration.
In the District of Louisiana it has been thought best
to adopt the division into subordinate districts which
had been established under its former government.
These being five in number, a commanding officer has been
appointed to each, according to the provisions of the law,
and so soon as they can be at their stations that district
will also be in its due state of organization.
In the meantime their places are supplied
by the officers commanding there.
And the functions of the governor and judges of Indiana
having commenced, the government,
we presume is proceeding in its new form.
The lead mines in that district offer so rich a supply
of that metal as to merit attention.
The report now communicated will inform you of
their state and of the necessity of immediate inquiry
into their occupation and titles.
With the Indian tribes established within our newly
acquired limits, I have deemed it necessary to open
conferences for the purpose of establishing a good
understanding and neighborly relations between us.
So far as we have yet learned, we have reason to believe
that their dispositions on their part, we have
in our own hands means which cannot fail us
for preserving their peace and friendship.
By pursuing a uniform course of justice toward them,
by aiding them in all the improvements which may better
their condition, and especially by establishing a commerce
on terms which shall be advantageous to them and only
not losing to us, and so regulated as that no incendiaries
of our own or any other nation may be permitted
to disturb the natural effects of our just and friendly offices,
we may render ourselves so necessary to their comfort
and prosperity that the protection of our citizens
from their disorderly members will become
their interest and their voluntary care.
Instead, therefore, of an augmentation of military force
proportioned to our extension of frontier,
I propose a moderate enlargement of the capital
employed in that commerce as a more effectual,
economical, and humane instrument
for preserving peace and good neighborhood with them.
On this side of the Mississippi an important relinquishment
of native title has been received from the Delawares.
That tribe, desiring to extinguish in their people the spirit
of hunting and to convert superfluous lands into the means
of improving what they retain, has ceded to us all the
country between Wabash and Ohio south of and including
the road from the rapids toward Vincennes, for which
they are to receive annuities in animals and
implements for agriculture and in other necessaries.
This acquisition is important, not only for its extent
and fertility, but as fronting 300 miles on the Ohio,
and near half that on the Wabash.
The produce of the settled country descending those rivers
will no longer pass in review of the Indian frontier
but in a small portion, and with the cession heretofore
made by the Kaskaskias, nearly consolidates
our possessions north of the Ohio in a very respectful
breadth from Lake Erie to the Mississippi.
The Piankeshaws having some claim to the country
ceded by the Delawares, it has been thought best
to keep quiet that by fair purchase also.
So soon as the treaties on this subject shall
have received their constitutional sanctions
they shall be laid before both Houses.
The act of Congress of February 28, 1803, for building
and employing a number of gunboats, is now
in a course of execution to the extent there provided for.
The obstacle to naval enterprise which vessels
of this construction offer for our seaport towns,
their utility toward supporting within our waters
the authority of the laws, the promptness with which
they will be manned by the seamen and militia
of the place in the moment they are wanting,
the facility of their assembling from different parts
of the coast to any point where they are required
in greater force than ordinary, the economy of their
maintenance and preservation from decay
when not in actual service, and the competence
of our finances to this defensive provision without
any new burthen are considerations which will have due
weight with Congress in deciding on the expediency of
adding to their number from year to year, as experience
shall test their utility, until all our important harbors,
by these and auxiliary means, shall be secured
against insult and opposition to the laws.
No circumstance has arisen since your last session
which calls for any augmentation
of our regular military force.
Should any improvement occur in militia system,
that will be always seasonable.
Accounts of the receipts and expenditures of the last year,
with estimates for the ensuing one,
will as usual be laid before you.
The state of our finances continues
to fulfill our expectations.
Eleven millions and a half of dollars, received in the
course of the year ending the 30th of September last,
have enabled us, after meeting all the ordinary
expenses of the year, to pay upward of $3,600,000
of the public debt, exclusive of interest.
This payment, with those of the two preceding years,
has extinguished upward of twelve millions of the principle
and a greater sum of interest within that period,
and by a proportionate diminution of interest renders
already sensible the effect of the growing sum yearly
applicable to the discharge of the principle.
It is also ascertained that the revenue accrued during
the last year exceeds that of the preceding,
and the probable receipts of the ensuing year may safely be
relied on as sufficient, with the sum already in the Treasury,
to meet all the current demands of the year, to discharge
upwards of three millions and a half of the engagements
incurred under the British and French conventions,
and to advance in the further redemption of
the funded debt as rapidly as had been contemplated.
These, fellow-citizens, are the principle matters which
I have thought it necessary at this time
to communicate for your consideration and attention.
Some others will be laid before you in the course
of the session; but in the discharge of the great duties
confided to you by our country you will take
a broader view of the field of legislation.
Whether the great interests of agriculture, manufactures,
commerce, or navigation can within the pale of your
constitutional powers be aided in any of their relations;
whether laws are provided in all cases where they are
wanting; whether those provided are exactly
what they should be; whether any abuses take place
in their administration, or in that of the public revenues;
whether the organization of the public agents or
of the public force is perfect in all its parts;
in fine, whether anything can be done to advance the
general good, are questions within the limits of your
functions which will necessarily occupy your attention.
In these and all other matters which you
in your wisdom may propose for the good
of our country you may count with assurance
on my hearty cooperation and faithful execution.13
The revenue for the year was $11,500,000,
and $3,600,000 was used to pay down the national debt.
Since 1801 they had paid $12 million off the national debt.
Return Jonathan Meigs had been a colonel in the Revolutionary War,
and in 1801 he became the agent to the Cherokee Nation in Tennessee.
In 1804 he negotiated the Wafford Settlement in northeast Georgia for $5,000
and annuities of $1,000, and the next year he helped Secretary of War Dearborn
purchase land north of the Tennessee River in Tennessee
and Kentucky for annuities of $15,600 and $3,000.
In 1804 New Jersey became the last state north of the
Mason-Dixon line to pass an anti-slavery law.
William Branch Giles of Virginia had worked well
with Jefferson as majority leader in the House;
but when he was incapacitated in 1802, he was replaced
by young John Randolph of Virginia.
He charged the Postmaster General Gideon Granger who had lobbied
for the New England Yazoo claims and dispensed patronage in mail contracts,
bribing Congressmen to support compensating them.
This issue had been suspended on 4 February 1804, and Randolph led the
effort that impeached the Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase in March.
Granger and another Republican from New England proposed a compromise
for their clients in the fall of 1804, and on 29 January 1805 a resolution authorizing
commissioners to settle the Yazoo claims was presented in the House and was enacted.
The fanatical Federalist Samuel Chase had ranted his political
views during trials of Republicans charged under the Sedition Act.
On 2 May 1803 he had lectured a federal grand jury in Baltimore on the 1801 Judiciary
Repeal Act, and he also criticized equal rights, universal suffrage, and attacks on property.
He argued that the Republican Constitution led to the
worst form of government that he called “mobocracy.”
Jefferson complained about this tirade, and it eventually led to Chase’s impeachment.
Luther Martin defended Chase by arguing that as a nation of laws,
the independence
of the judiciary should not be challenged unless judges had broken a law.
Vice President Burr presided over the trial and reminded them they had to vote
whether Chase was guilty of actual crimes and misdemeanors,
and in February 1805 the Senate did not have the two-thirds vote
needed to convict him of any of the eight charges.
This trial set the precedent that judges could not be removed
for political reasons but had to be guilty of a crime.
Jefferson to mollify Burr, who was leaving the vice presidency,
had offered him patronage in the Louisiana Territory.
Burr, his stepson, and brother-in-law were given the governorship
and two other important offices in the territory.
Notes
1. Thomas Jefferson Writings, p. 1111-1112.
2. The Basic Writings of Thomas Jefferson ed. Philip S. Foner, p. 346-349.
3. Thomas Jefferson Writings, p. 1117-1119.
4. The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Volume IX ed. Paul Leicester Ford, p. 464.
5. Ibid. p. 1124-1126.
6. Thomas Jefferson Writings, p. 1132-1133.
7. National Intelligencer, July 8, 1803.
8. Thomas Jefferson Writings, p. 1134-1135.
9. Jefferson the President: First Term, 1801-1805 by Dumas Malone, p. 321.
10. Thomas Jefferson Writings, p. 511-517.
11. Ibid. p. 1142-1143.
12. History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson
by Henry Adams, p. 431.
13. The Basic Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 354-358.
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