[227] _Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States_,
vol. XIII, col. 33 ff., November 2 and 3, 1803. Senator White had also
objected that the price, of fifteen million dollars, was too high; while
the French plenipotentiary, Barbé-Marbois, had observed that the lands
still unoccupied, to be handed to the American Government "would have a
value of several billions before a century had elapsed," in which he was
no bad prophet. Marbois added: "Those who knew the importance of a
perfect understanding between these two countries attached more value to
the twenty million francs set apart for the American claims than to the
sixty offered to France." In accordance again with Senator White, the
deciding motive had not been that longing for "a perfect understanding"
mentioned by Marbois, but a feeling that Louisiana would, at the next
war, "inevitably fall into the hands of the British." "Of course, it
would," future Marshal Berthier, who was averse to the cession, had
observed when the point had been mentioned at the council held at the
Tuileries, before the First Consul Bonaparte, on Easter Day, 1803, "but
Hanover would just as soon be in our hands, and an exchange would take
place at the peace.... Remember this: no navy without colonies; no
colonies without a navy." Barbé-Marbois, _Histoire de la Louisiane_,
Paris, 1829, pp. 295, 315, 330.
[228] May 10, 1786.
[229] September 9, 1786.
[230] July 8, 1783.
[231] "Short Autobiography, written at the request of a friend,"
_Complete Works_, ed. Nicolay and Hay, 1905, pp. 26, 27.
[232] _Ibid._, 28, 29.
[233] Some French settlements were still in existence in the region, and
were still French. "The French settlements about Kaskaskia retained much
of their national character, and the pioneers from the South who visited
them or settled among them never ceased to wonder at their gayety, their
peaceable industry, and their domestic affection, which they did not
care to dissemble and conceal like their shy and reticent neighbors. It
was a daily spectacle which never lost its strangeness for the
Tennesseeans and Kentuckians to see the Frenchman returning from his
work greeted by his wife and children with embraces of welcome 'at the
gate of his dooryard, and in view of all the villagers.' The natural and
kindly fraternization of the Frenchmen with the Indians was also a cause
of wonder." Nicolay and Hay, _Abraham Lincoln_, 1904, I, 58.
[234] February 22, 1861.
[235] _L'Amérique devant l'Europe_, Paris, 1862; conclusion.
[236] Washington, August, 4, 1862.
[237] "L'esprit Gaulois, toujours moqueur, avait saisi le côté plaisant
de cet inutile étalage d'épaulettes et de tambours, et les officiers du
55º New York qui, à l'heure du danger, prodiguèrent pour leur nouvelle
patrie le sang français sous la direction d'un chef habile et vaillant,
M. de Trobriand, s'étaient donnés à eux-mêmes, dans l'un des repas de
corps qui terminent toujours ces cérémonies, le titre joyeux de 'Gardes
La fourchette.'" Comte de Paris, _Histoire de la Guerre civile en
Amérique_, 1874, I, 311.
[238] _Quatre ans de campagnes à l'armée du Potomac, par Régis de
Trobriand, ex-Major Général au service volontaire des Etats Unis
d'Amérique_, Paris, 1867, 2 vols. As is well known, two French princes
took part in the war as staff-officers in the Army of the Potomac, the
Comte de Paris and the Duc de Chartres. An American officer who was
present told me that, whether on foot or on horseback, the Comte de
Paris had the habit of stooping. During a severe engagement he was asked
to carry an order across an open field, quite exposed to the enemy's
fire. He took the order, straightened on his saddle, crossed the field
quite erect, fulfilled his mission, recrossed the field, keeping
perfectly straight, and when back in the lines, stooped again.
[239] _Quatre ans de campagnes_, I, 131.
[240] _Abraham Lincoln_, by Alphonse Jouault. The work was begun in
Washington at the time of Lincoln's assassination, which the author
witnessed, but printed only in 1875. The text of the second inaugural
address had been read in France with great admiration. The famous bishop
of Orleans, Dupanloup, wrote concerning it to Augustin Cochin: "Mr.
Lincoln expresses with solemn and touching gravity the feelings which, I
am sure, pervade superior souls in the North as in the South.... I thank
you for having made me read this beautiful page of the history of great
men, and I beg you to tell Mr. Bigelow of my sympathetic sentiments. I
would hold it an honor if he were so good as to convey an expression of
them to Mr. Lincoln." Orleans, April 2, 1865; an appendix to
Montalembert's _Victoire du Nord_, Paris, 1865.
[241] April 28, 1865. Text as well as that of the documents just quoted
in _The Assassination of President Lincoln_. _Appendix to Diplomatic
Correspondence of 1865_, Government Printing Office, 1866.
[242] "Dédié par la Démocratie Française à Lincoln, Président deux fois
élu des Etats Unis--Lincoln, honnête homme, abolit l'esclavage, rétablit
l'union, sauva la République, sans voiler la statue de la liberté." The
medal is now the property of the President's son, Mr. Robert T. Lincoln.
[243] A very long article by L. de Gaillard, April 30, 1868.
[244] _La Victoire du Nord_, Paris, 1865, pp. 7, 11, 20, 23.
[245] In the _Avenir National_, May 3, 1865.
[246] April 29, 1865.
[247] _Abraham Lincoln, sa naissance, sa vie, sa mort, par Achille
Arnaud, Rédacteur à "l'Opinion Nationale."_ Paris, 1865, p. 96.
[248] _Bibliothèque Libérale--Abraham Lincoln_, by Augustin Cochin,
Paris, 1869.
V