(SENT TO THE PRESIDENT, CHRISTMAS DAY, 1802.)
1 Paine, being at Lovell's Hotel, Washington, suggested the
purchase of Louisiana to Dr. Michael Leib, representative
from Pennsylvania, who, being pleased with the idea,
suggested that he should write it to Jefferson. On the day
after its reception the President told Paine that "measures
were already taken in that business."--_Editor._.
Spain has ceded Louisiana to France, and France has excluded Americans
from New Orleans, and the navigation of the Mississippi. The people of
the Western Territory have complained of it to their Government, and the
Government is of consequence involved and interested in the affair. The
question then is--What is the best step to be taken?
The one is to begin by memorial and remonstrance against an infraction
of a right. The other is by accommodation,--still keeping the right in
view, but not making it a groundwork.
Suppose then the Government begin by making a proposal to France to
re-purchase the cession made to her by Spain, of Louisiana, provided it
be with the consent of the people of Louisiana, or a majority thereof.
By beginning on this ground any thing can be said without carrying the
appearance of a threat. The growing power of the Western Territory can
be stated as a matter of information, and also the impossibility
of restraining them from seizing upon New Orleans, and the equal
impossibility of France to prevent it.
Suppose the proposal attended to, the sum to be given comes next on
the carpet. This, on the part of America, will be estimated between the
value of the commerce and the quantity of revenue that Louisiana will
produce.
The French Treasury is not only empty, but the Government has consumed
by anticipation a great part of the next year's revenue. A monied
proposal will, I believe, be attended to; if it should, the claims upon
France can be stipulated as part of the payment, and that sum can be
paid here to the claimants.
----I congratulate you on _The Birthday of the New Sun_,
now called Christmas Day; and I make you a present of a thought on
Louisiana.