The Purchase of Louisiana: First Consul and Talleyrand

For the troops the President had no need. The Republicans were right, and, in a few months, far more was secured by negotiation than the Federalists had ever expected to obtain by violence and the use of arms. For months past Livingston had been trying to persuade the First Consul to sell a part of Louisiana to the United States. He begged the Spanish minister to hinder the transfer of the district to France; for, till the transfer was made, the colonists Napoleon was bent on sending to America were not likely to sail. Again and again he demanded a speedy settlement of the debt due to American merchants, and urged the benefits France would derive by parting with a piece of her ancient soil. Not a word came in reply. The man through whose hands his notes all passed was Talleyrand, who still held under Napoleon the same place he once held under the five Directors. Change of master was the only change that able and unprincipled minister had undergone. He was still the treacherous, grasping, ambitious knave of 1797. To Livingston he was all graciousness, but not a word of the American minister's notes reached the First Consul that Talleyrand did not approve. To sell Louisiana was not the wish of Talleyrand. He would see France once more in possession of her old domain, firmly planted on American soil, controlling the Mississippi, setting bounds to the United States, threatening Canada, and, it might be in the near future, planting the tricolor on the walls of that great fortress from which England had pulled down the lilies of France.

It is idle to speculate what might have been the destiny of our country had Louisiana become permanently a possession of France. The thing was not to be Convinced that Talleyrand was tricky, Livingston passed him by and wrote directly to the man whose will was the will of France. Citizen First Consul was asked if the French did not intend to pay their just debts. He was reminded that the Board of Accounts had liquidated and given certificates for about one-quarter of the debt, that on these certificates the American merchants had raised small sums to enable them to live, and that, on a sudden, while the Board went on liquidating, the certificates ceased to be given. He was told of the feeling aroused in the United States by the change about to take place in the ownership of Louisiana. He was asked to sell so much of the territory as lay south of latitude thirty-one, from the Mississippi to the Perdido, and so much as, west of the Mississippi, lay north of the Arkansas River. Thus would the United States secure the mouths of the rivers flowing from her territory to the Mexican gulf. Thus would France have a barrier placed between her and the possessions of her most ancient foe Was not this to be considered? The cupodity of Britain knew no bounds. The Cape, Malta, Egypt, had already awakened her avarice. Should she turn her arms westward, a struggle for Louisiana would at once begin. Of what use could the province be to France? To enable her to command the gulf, supply her islands, and give an outlet to her surplus population. To scatter population over a boundless region was, therefore, bad policy: the true policy was to concentrate and keep it near the sea. The country south of the Arkansas could well maintain a colony of fifteen millions of souls. Could France keep more in subjection? Ought not faraway colonies to be moderate in size? Would rich and prosperous settlements up the Missouri River always be content to pay allegiance to the distant ruler of France?

These memorials brought a speedy reply. Livingston was assured that the First Consul would see to it that the debts were paid, and would send a minister to the United States with full power to act. The minister was to have been General Bernadotte; but on this mission he was destined never to depart. In March the quarrel with England concerning Malta grew serious. "I must," said Napoleon to Lord Whitworth, in the presence of the assembled ministers of Europe, "I must either have Malta or war." New combinations were forming against him in Europe; all England was loudly demanding that Louisiana should be attacked, and, lest it should be taken from him, he determined to sell it to the United States.

April eleventh Talleyrand asked Livingston for an offer for Louisiana entire. The island of New Orleans and West Florida, he was told, were wanted, and no more. This much sold, what remained would, he asserted, be of small value. He would therefore like to know what price the United States would give for all. Livingston thought twenty millions of francs, and Talleyrand departed, protesting the sum was far too small.

The next day Monroe reached Paris, and the day after Barbe-Marbois, Minister of the Treasury, called. Marbois astonished Livingston by declaring that one hundred millions of francs and the payment of the debts due American citizens was the price of Louisiana. This would bring the cost to one hundred and twenty-five millions, for at twenty-five millions of francs Livingston estimated the debts. He pronounced the price exorbitant; Marbois admitted that it was, and asked to take back to St. Cloud an offer of eighty millions of francs, including twenty millions for the debts. Some higgling now took place; but on these terms the purchase was effected by the three instruments dated April thirtieth, 1803.