enterprise which neither policy nor necessity could excuse, and which a vigilant government was sure to punish. After a few more struggles the Spanish authorities, on the 26th of May, 1798, surrendered to Wilkinson (who, by the death of Wayne, had been promoted) the territory claimed by the Treaty of Madrid, and the Spanish power in America from that moment began to decline.

Morales, the Spanish intendant, construing the letter of the treaty strictly, on the 17th of July, 1799, chose to consider that three years had elapsed since its ratification, and, for the purpose of crippling the commerce of the Western people, issued an order prohibiting the use of New Orleans as a place of deposit by them, without designating, in accordance with the treaty, any other suitable point. This measure aroused the indignation of the West. An expedition against New Orleans was openly contemplated. President Adams ordered three regiments of regulars to the Ohio, with instructions to have in readiness a sufficient number of boats to convey the troops to New Orleans. Twelve new regiments were added to the army, and an invasion seemed inevitable, and would most certainly have been attempted, had not indications of a popular determination to elect Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency caused the postponement of a project which could not be completed before the close of Mr. Adams' administration.

No public documents of the period, accessible to me, speak of the suspension by the Spaniards of this prohibitory order, but from the fact that it was renewed afterwards, there can be no doubt that terms of accommodation satisfactory to the Western people were for the time agreed upon.

TREATY OF ST. ILDEPHONSO.

Napoleon, at this time First Consul, cast a longing eye at the mouth of the Mississippi. His ministers had been instructed to obtain all possible information concerning Louisiana. Monsieur de Pontalba, who had passed an official residence of many years in Louisiana, prepared at their request a very remarkable memoir on the history and resources of that province, which was presented to the French Directory on the 15th of September, 1800. On the 1st of October following, a treaty between France and Spain was concluded at

St. Ildephonso, of which the third article is in the following words:

"His Catholic Majesty promises and engages to retrocede to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the above conditions and stipulations relative to His Royal Highness the Duke of Parma, the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such as it ought to be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and the other States."

France being at war with England when this treaty was concluded, it was, at the request of Napoleon, carefully concealed, lest England, then mistress of the seas, should take the country from her, as she doubtless would have done, had Napoleon taken possession of the province.

Spain inserted in this treaty a condition that she should have the preference, in case France, in her turn, should be disposed again to cede the territory. Great embarrassments resulted from this stipulation.

The retrocession of Louisiana to France was not suspected by our Government until March, 1801, six months after the treaty of St. Ildephonso was concluded. It was then brought to the notice of Mr. Madison, the secretary of state, by Mr. Rufus King, our minister at the court of St. James, who wrote on March 29, 1801:

"The cession of Tuscany to the infant Duke of Parma, by the treaty between France and Austria, adds very great credit to the opinion which at this time prevails both at Paris. and London, that Spain has in return actually ceded Louisiana and the Floridas to France. I am apprehensive that this cession is intended to have, and may actually produce, effects injurious to the Union and consequent happiness of the people of the United States."

Mr. Madison seems to have shared the general incredulity of England and other powers regarding the event, for he took no notice of the intimation conveyed by Mr. King's dispatch, until it was partially confirmed by another from the same. source on the 1st of June thereafter. In the first letter on the subject Mr. King had deemed it of sufficient importance to recommend the appointment of a minister to represent the interests of our government near the court of France. In

the last he related the substance of a conversation between himself and Lord Hawkesbury relative to Louisiana, in which that nobleman said that he had from different quarters received information of the cession to France, and very unreservedly expressed the reluctance with which they should be led to acquiesce in a measure that might be followed by the most important consequences:-that the acquisition might enable France to extend her influence and perhaps her dominion up the Mississippi and through the lakes, even to Canada. To this, Mr. King replied: "We are content that the Floridas remain in the hands of Spain, but should be unwilling to see them transferred, except to ourselves."

CLAIM OF OUR GOVERNMENT.

Our government took the alarm instantly. The negotiations it had effected with Spain, though still embarrassed with some offensive conditions, had produced a state of comparative quiescence in the West; all dangerous intrigues were at an end, and a further settlement had been projected which would harmonize all opposing interests and forever secure to our Western possessions the uninterrupted enjoyment of free navigation of the Mississippi to the ocean. Such an arrangement with France was deemed impossible. In the hands of Napoleon, Louisiana would be at once transformed into a powerful empire, and the Mississippi would be used as a highway to transport troops on errands of meditated invasion all over the continent of North America. In her eager desire to regain the Canadian possessions taken from her by Great Britain, France would march her armies through our territories and inevitably embroil us in a war which would prove in the end fatal to the liberties we had just established. Heavy duties would necessarily be imposed upon our Western population, and all the prejudices now so fortunately allayed would be revived against the Government because of its powerlessness to relieve them.

Mr. Madison addressed a dispatch to Mr. Pinckney, our minister at Madrid, requesting him to ascertain whether a treaty had been made, and if so, the extent of the cession made by it. The Government appointed Mr. Robert R. Livingston minister to France.

In November, 1801, Mr. King succeeded in procuring a copy of the secret treaty, and forwarded it to Mr. Madison. In the midst of the alarm occasioned by this intelligence, the war between France and England was terminated, and articles of peace signed on the 1st of October, 1801, and France commenced secret preparations to avail herself of the treaty and take early possession of Louisiana. In the meantime Mr. Livingston had arrived in Paris. On the 12th of December, in a dispatch to Mr. Madison, he informed him that he had hinted to one of the ministers that a cession of Louisiana would afford them the means of paying their debts, to which the minister replied: "None but spendthrifts satisfy their debts by selling their lands," adding, however, after a short pause, "but it is not ours to give."

TALLEYRAND'S DIPLOMACY.

Talleyrand was the Minister of Exterior Relations. In all his interviews with Mr. Livingston relative to the purchase of Louisiana he fully exemplified one of the maxims of his life, that "speech was given to man to enable him to disguise his thoughts." All of Mr. Livingston's inquiries respecting the treaty were met with studied reserve, duplicity, or positive denial. Often when he sought an interview the minister was preoccupied or absent. He not only failed to obtain information of the extent of the cession and whether it included the Floridas, but so undemonstrative were the communications of the minister upon the subject, that often he left him doubtful of the intention of France to comply with the terms of the treaty at all. His dispatches to Mr. Madison, while they show no lack of exertion or expedient on his part to obtain the desired information, bear evidence of the subtlety, cunning, and artifice of one of the greatest masters of statecraft the world has yet produced. At one time he expresses his concern at the reserve of the French Government, and importunes Talleyrand to inform him whether East and West Florida or either of them are included in the treaty, and afford him such assurances, with respect to the limits of their territory and the navigation of the Mississippi heretofore agreed upon between Spain and the United States, as may prove satisfactory to the latter.

"If," he continues in the same note, "the territories of East and West Florida be included within the limits of the cession obtained by France, the undersigned desires to be informed how far it would be practicable to make such arrangements between their respective governments, as would at the same time aid the financial operations of France and remove by a strong natural boundary all future causes of discontent between her and the United States."

Six days afterwards he writes to Mr. Madison that he has received no reply to the above note. A month later in a dispatch he says: "They have as yet not thought it proper to give me any explanations." One month afterwards he writes: "The business most interesting to us, that of Louisiana, still remains in the state it was. The minister will give no answer to any inquiries I make on the subject. He will not say what their boundaries are, what are their intentions, and when they are to take possession."

Meantime the treaty of Amiens opened the ocean to Bonaparte's contemplated expedition to Louisiana. The anxiety of our government was greatly increased. Mr. Madison, in a dispatch full of complaint at the ominous silence of the French minister, among other intimations, conveys the following:

"Since the receipt of your last communication, no hope remains but from the accumulating difficulties of going through with the undertaking, and from the conviction you may be able to impress that it must have an instant and powerful effect in changing the relations between France and the United States."

Fears were entertained that the British Government might have acquiesced in the treaty, so as to impair the stipulations, concerning the free navigation of the Mississippi, but these were dissipated by the assurance of Lord Hawkesbury, in reply to a letter addressed to him on the subject by Mr. King, that "His Majesty had not in any manner directly or indirectly acquiesced in or sanctioned the cession."

TEDIOUS DELAY.

Nearly one month after this last dispatch to Mr. Madison, Mr. Livingston again informs him that the French Government still continues to hold the same conduct with respect