Background—Louisiana.
The great domain, christened Louisiana, was taken over by La Salle in
1682, in the name of France. It remained under French dominion until
1763, when, as a result of French-English wars, France retired from the
New World. It seemed inevitable that Louisiana, great unexplored
trans-river territory, would fall into English hands. But France ceded
Louisiana to Spain, then still a world power. In 1800 Napoleon Bonaparte
caused Spain to re-cede Louisiana to France. In 1803 Bonaparte sold
Louisiana to the United States. He was about to engage in war with
England, and historians generally agree that the sale to United States
was made because he recognized the difficulty of defending the remote
territory against the English Navy. The British Encyclopedia says the
sale was made to keep Louisiana from falling into English hands. Thus it
appears, that England was justified in feeling that Louisiana for the
second time had been maneuvered from her ownership.
References without number may be given from histories covering that
period. The writer has before him James G. Blaine’s “Twenty Years in
Congress,” which in Chapter 1 of the first volume (pages 3 to 13) deals
comprehensively with the relation of the Louisiana purchase to the early
days of the Republic. Some key quotations are here presented: “She
(France) in 1763, now gave up Canada and Cape Breton, acknowledged the
sovereignty of Great Britain in the original thirteen colonies as
extending to the Mississippi, and, by a separate treaty, surrendered
Louisiana on the west side of the Mississippi, with New Orleans on the
east side, to Spain. She (Spain) continued in possession of Louisiana
until the year 1800, when Bonaparte concluded a Treaty ..., by which the
entire territory was retroceded to France.”
Again, Mr. Blaine says: “Fearing that in the threatening conflict (1803)
England, by her superior Naval force, would deprive him of his newly
acquired colonial empire, and greatly enhance her own prestige by
securing all the American possessions, which France had owned prior to
1763, Bonaparte, by a dash in diplomacy, as quick and as brilliant as
his tactics on the field of battle, placed Louisiana beyond the reach of
the British power. In a tone of vehemence and passion he said: ‘I know
the full value of Louisiana. A few lines of a treaty have restored it to
me, and now I must expect to lose it. The English expect to take
possession of it, and it is thus they will begin the war. They have
already twenty ships of the line in the Gulf of Mexico. The conquest of
Louisiana will be easy. I have not a moment to lose in putting it out of
their reach. The English have successively taken from France the
Canadas, Cape Breton, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the richest portion
of Asia. But they shall not have the Mississippi, which they covet.’”
Again quoting from Blaine: “England’s acquisition of Louisiana would
have proved in the highest degree embarrassing, if not disastrous to the
Union. No colonial acquisition ever made by her on any continent has
been so profitable to her commerce, and so strengthening to her military
position, as that of Louisiana would have proved. The fact was clearly
seen by Bonaparte when he hastily made the treaty ceding it to the
United States.”
Again Blaine: “The conflict of arms (War of 1812) did not occur until
nine years after; and it is a curious and not unimportant fact, that the
most notable defeat of the British troops in the second war of
independence, as the struggle of 1812 has been well named, occurred on
the soil of the territory for whose protection the original precaution
had been taken by Jefferson.”
The reader will find all of the chapter referred to very interesting as
indeed will be any chapter devoted to our sudden acquisition of the
immense domain called Louisiana.
The striking sentences quoted above serve to emphasize the fact that it
would not have been unnatural for England to have felt resentment at
this second maneuvering of a vast territory from her grasp. Some
historians have expressed surprise that England did not at once
undertake to take Louisiana, the United States notwithstanding. That
would have meant armed conflict with America at a time of the war in
Europe. Besides, and this is a deduction of the present writer, such a
course would have placed upon England the onus before the world of a war
of conquest in the western continent. So England waited.
An additional viewpoint is here presented: In the history of the United
States of America, by Henry W. Elson, under the caption “Louisiana”
(Vol. 2, page 230) appears the following paragraph (page 233): “Actual
possession soon placed our title to Louisiana beyond dispute; but
strictly speaking, the sale was not legal. Napoleon had agreed to convey
to Spain a dukedom on the Arno River, for the son-in-law of the Spanish
King, in payment for Louisiana; but the price was never paid. The treaty
of Ildefonso also stipulated that France should never cede the territory
to any foreign power; but Napoleon disregarded this. In point of fact,
France, therefore, did not own Louisiana; and even if she had owned it,
the cession, according to the French Constitution, could not be made
without the consent of the Chamber of Deputies, and this the First
Consul never obtained and never sought. The French people were
astonished at this action of their ruler; but he was a master, and they
were powerless. Far sadder was the wail from Spain. The Spanish
Government protested briefly, pathetically; but its voice was not
heard.”
From the above quotation the reader can appreciate England’s attitude,
as to the legality of the United States’ title to Louisiana, maintained
until January 8, 1815, when the highest law known to nations dissipated
that attitude forever.
There are doubtless many today, as we bask in the enjoyment of National
security and other national blessings, who do not appreciate the
vastness, the importance, of the Louisiana domain, the acquisition of
which Dr. Sloane of Princeton says translated our young republic into a
world power. According to an early authority the domain comprised
829,987 square miles, and by later authority over a million square
miles. In the Louisiana Purchase territory are today comprehended the
following states: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana,
Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon,
South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming.