Gage County, Nebraska - Chapter 2: Territory of Louisiana, 1918

As PART OF New France - Attempted SetteEment by La Sai,ee - His Assassination - Effect op Extension of New France to Mississippi Basin - France loses her Colonial Possessions in North America - Retrocession by Charles V - American Opposition - Jefferson and the Treaty of Ildefonso - Jefferson's Aims concerning Louisiana and the Mississippi - Threat of Alliance WITH England - Alarm op Napoleon by Threat of War - Livingston Admonishes Talleyrand - Arrival of Monroe - Cession to the United States - Price - Population - Ignorance of America concerning New Purchase - Explorations of Lewis and Clark

The history of Nebraska may properly be said to begin with the voyage of the heroic La Salle in 1682. An historical sequence of events leads the mind steadily forward from his discoveries till, by well defined processes of differentiation and elimination, a point is reached where the commonwealth of Nebraska stands forth clearly defined in the mighty sisterhood of states which comprise the North American republic.

In a comparatively short time after its discovery the vast territory of Louisiana became linked to Canada and the other French possessions in North America as an integral part of New France. This process was begun and carried forward by men animated by the desire to realize the ideal of, its discoverer, which aimed at nothing less than a great interior French empire, composed of the most fertile lands in the world. The New France, as fashioned by the vision of La Salle, was to be yet fairer than the old, as the daughter will sometimes be fairer than the mother. The work of reclaiming the wilderness was first carried on by French traders, trappers, hunters, and wood rangers, who extended their activities over the greater portion of the Mississippi basin, extending south to the gulf of Mexico and west to and including Texas. Where these went the Jesuit and Franciscan monks followed, preaching the pure and gentle religion of the lowly Nazarene to the savage tribes who inhabited these wildernesses and plains. The 'earliest effort to establish settlements in the new territory was made by La Salle, himself, in 1684. Shortly after his return from the long voyage to the mouth of the Mississippi he repaired to France, and was supplied with three vessels, including a ship of the line, and a body of troops and emigrants, for the purpose of establishing a colony and erecting fortifications to guard the great river from English and Spanish aggression. But he missed the mouth of the Mississippi and sailed westward to Mata Gorda bay, Texas. Dissension arose between him and the commander of the war vessel that accompanied him, and La Salle, leaving the ships with a few of the emigrants and men at arms, temporarily established his headquarters at that point and began a search for the Mississippi. Failing in his quest, he, in 1686, undertook to penetrate the wilderness to the Illinois, where Tonty had been directed to remain with supplies and men. While prosecuting this venture this remarkable man fell by the hand of an assassin. Others took up the work of settling New France and occupying at least the lower basin of the Mississippi river; as a result of which New Orleans was founded in 1723, by Jean Baptiste Lemoine, sieur de Bienville. Settlements were made also in the Ohio valley and elsewhere in the wilderness west of the AUeghanies, so that by the middle of the eighteenth century a chain of forts and military posts had been planted by the French from Quebec along the St. L,awrence, the Niagara, the Detroit, the Illinois rivers, and the Mississippi river and some of its tributaries, to the bay of Biloxi, on. the gulf of Mexico, while the region of the Great Lakes was guarded by similar outposts of defense. Such settlements were accompanied by the orderly forms of government, supported by the military forces of Canada and France, in the hope of guarding and defending from English aggression on the east and Spanish aggression on the south and west, the most valuable and extensive colonial territory ever possessed by a single European power in North America. The extension of New France to the basin of the Mississippi river from source to mouth and westward from the heights of the Alleghanies, had the effect of setting metes and bounds to British possessions in the New World. Bitter and implacable rivalry arose between the English and French colonists, and bloody attacks and reprisals blur the annals of both Saxon and Gaul. Britain's claim of all North America from ocean to ocean by right of Cabot's discovery, and the stout resistance by the French to this claim, were the main causes of that series of sanguinary conflxts known in English colonial history as the French and Indian wars, which, beginning in 1690, with what is known as King William's war, raged w:ith great fury and finally terminated at the close of the Seven Years' European war, in 1763, thirteen years before the commencement of the American Revolution. By treaties which marked the closing of these wars, striking changes were effected in North America. By the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, which marked the close of that colonial disturbance sometimes designated as Queen

Anne's war, England made her first great inroad into French territory.' By this treaty she obtained control of the valuable fisheries of Newfoundland, together with possession of Hudson bay, Labrador, Nova Scotia, and minor French possessions ; and at the close of King George's war, in 1763, under the treaty of Paris, Canada itself and Cape Breton were ceded by France to England, with their territorial appendages, and the western boundaries of the English colonies were pushed beyond the AUeghanies to the eastern shores of the Mississippi river. Thus fell, as by a single blow, the dream of empire which had animated the soul of the courageous La Salle, and of which Count de Frontenac also had dreamed, and thus was laid the foundation of the vast colonial possessions of England in the New World.

Nothing remained to France of her proud colonial empire in North America except that portion of La Salle's discoveries which lay west of the Father of Waters and which had come to be designated in France as the province of Louisiana; all else had been swallowed up by her ancient rival, England. Even Louisiana passed immediately from her control, for on the very day of the execution of the treaty of Paris by which she was shorn of Canada and Cape Breton, she entered into a secret treaty with Spain, under which the last fragment of the empire of Frontenac and La Salle passed to that country. Thus by the acts of a weak and licentious sovereign, the land of Clovis and Charlemagne was stripped of every vestige of her rich colonial possessions in the New World, and thus ended the struggle- for a continent between the two most enlightened nations in western Europe.

But the tragedy of Louisiana was not yet played to the end, nor indeed could be until its destiny was fulfilled. Its cession to Spain increased her colonial possessions in North America, till, with Mexico, they covered ' nearly half the continent. Whatever secret understanding may have existed between her and the court of Louis XV as to the retrocession of Louisiana in the future, Spain entered into possession of her new province shortly after the treaty of Paris in 1763, hoisted her national emblem at New Orleans, city of Bienville, and, amidst the tears, protestations, and lamentations of the French inhabitants, established her authority over the province, which was to continue to the opening year of the nineteenth Christian century. During these forty-five years of Spanish rule in Louisiana province, most marked changes had taken place in France itself. The monarchy had fallen, the French Revolution had terminated, and. an effort had been made to establish a republic, which ended in what is known in French history as the "Consular Government," with Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul and as such the chief officer of state.

On October 1, 1800, a treaty was entered into between Charles IV of Spain and the consular government, whereby Louisiana was retroceded to France, entire, as respected its former boundaries. Peace had temporarily settled over Europe and Napoleon looked forward to a period of continued national prosperity, wherein he conceived it possible to realize, at least in part, the dream of the unfortunate La Salle. But -the ink on the parchment whereon was written the treaty of Ildefonso was scarcely dry when a portentous war cloud suddenly obscured the rising sun of peace, wherein England, aiming at empire, threatened to involve France in another terrible conflict. Actual transfer of possession of the province to France was necessarily delayed and before it could be accomplished the news of the retrocession had reached the United States. The Spanish governor had rendered himself obnoxious to this country on account of certain trade restrictions affecting navigation on the Mississippi and by refusing at New Orleans what was known as the right of deposit.

It had become apparent that the expansion and growth of the United States demanded free access to the gulf of Mexico through the Mississippi. In this country it was understood too that by the treaty of Ildefonso France had obtained also what was then known as the Floridas, thus gaining control of the entire course of the great river to the gulf. Agitation was at once started having for its object the cession by France to the United States, of New Orleans, the Floridas, and that portion of the lower Mississippi basin which reached from the city to the Floridas. The settlers of the western states and territories bordering on the river, particularly those of Kentucky and Tennessee, which had suffered most from the unjust restrictions of the- Spanish governor of New Orleans, were greatly excited and were angry to the point of desperation over the proposed extension of a single European power to the entire length of the great river. Resistance was urged to the point of seizing the lower Mississippi, with New Orleans, before the transfer of territory could be effected. In their petitions to congress the settlers declared : "The Mississippi is ours by the laws of nature, it belongs to us by our numbers and the labor we have bestowed on those spots which before our arrival were barren and desert. Our innumerable rivers swell it and flow with it to the Gulf of Mexico. Its mouth is the only issue which nature has given to our waters and we wish to use it for our vessels. No power in the world can deprive us of this right."

On February 13, 1803, Ross, a senator from the state of Pennsylvania, introduced a resolution in the United States senate directing the government to seize the port of New Orleans. It was seconded by Gouvemeur Morris, of Revolutionary fame, then representing the state of New York in the senate. It was announced that volunteers from the Mississippi valley were ready at a word to carry this resolution into effect if sanctioned by congress. But the President, the able and prudent Jefferson, restrained this movement as dangerous to the peace of the country, and, preferring to achieve results by diplomacy rather than arms, he set before himself the task of acquiring the lower Mississippi basin by peaceful rather than by violent means. He first aimed to prevent if possible the cession of Louisiana to France and to exact from Spain recognition of the right of the United States to the unrestricted navigation of the

Mississippi. As an alternative, in case of failure, he proposed to form an immediate alliance with Great Britain. Writing to Robert Livingston, our minister in France, the President says :

There is on the globe one single spot the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy, - the day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low-water mark. It seals the union of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marrvr ourselves to the British fleet and nation.

This threat had been most effectively dangled by our minister to France before the eyes of the First Consul and from the moment of receiving these instructions Mr. Livingston was able to speak in a tone that arrested Napoleon's attention, and aroused in him a sense of a new power beyond the seas. A year had gone by since the secret treaty- of Ildefonso had come to the knowledge of our government, and Mr. Livingston had apparently made but little progress. In the spring of 1803, at Jefferson's instance, James Monroe was dispatched to France as special envoy and minister extraordinary to assist him in adjusting tiie irritating questions with respect to Louisiana and the Mississippi - questions which had sprung so suddenly into prominence and which were hourly becoming more menacing to the peaceful relations between France and the United States. Even yet the instructions to both ministers did not contemplate the acquirement of the whole of the territory of Louisiana. The most that was hoped for apparently was free navigation of that river for American commerce. To secure this, however, it was proposed that we purchase New Orleans and the Floridas from France, under the erroneous assumption that she had acquired the latter from Spain; and, by proper treaty stipulations, secure to both nations the right to free transportation. Not knowing the full terms of the treaty of Ildefonso, Mr. Jefferson instinctively felt that whatever they were they deeply concerned the United States, and he considered the moment had come to settle forever every question of pohcy or territory which might in the future occasion dissension with France. With clearer vision than any man of his day, Jefferson foresaw the tremendous advantages of removing every obstacle to the expansion of our country beyond the Mississippi. Guided by an instinctive prevision, he purposed to seize the moment to acquire control of that great stream and secure forever an unobstructed passage to the gulf. FaiHng to achieve this result by peaceful means, he determined to accomplish it by force, and when Monroe set out for France he carried instructions to demand the cession of New Orleans and the Floridas to the United States, and consequently the establishment of the Mississippi as a boundary between the United States and Louisiana. Mr; Livingston had already apprised Napoleon that such a demand would be made and the First Consul had considered it of sufficient weight to detain the armed expedition which was about to sail for Louisiana.

But the rapid march of events was working more powerfully in the interests of the American republic than any influence the government itself was able to exert. At almost the very moment the existence of the treaty of Ildefonso became known, came the portentous threat of war with England; and Napoleon feared that because of her superior ; naval power and the defenseless position of Louisiana, England was bound to deprive France of that province and yet further augment her power and prestige in the western hemisphere. There were other considerations which impelled the consular government of France to hearken favorably to the representations of Mr. Livingston. On the retrocession of the great province to Spain, and while the terms of the treaty were still a secret, in order to be in a position to defend Louisiana from a convenient base against aggression from ^, whatsoever source. Napoleon had dispatched an army, under General LeClerc, to San Do- ; mingo in 1802. This was partly for the purpose of crushing the negro rebellion then at its height in that island and partly to have an army within striking distance of Louisiana.

But LeCIerc was defeated by Toussaint I'Ouverture, and his army had been so decimated by war and disease that it had become ineffective as a military force. Besides these considerations, the increasing expense and difficulty of maintaining the power of France in Louisiana became every day more apparent to Naipoleon and his advisers, while like a nightmare the haunting threat of Jefferson of an English alliance loomed before his vision. By a strategic diplomat!: movement as distinctive of his genius as any on the field of battle, the First Consul determined to defeat the arch enemy of France in its aggressive policy and at the same time with bands of steel bind to France the rising young republic of North America, whose ultimate destiny he foresaw was to dominate the western hemisphere.

The existence of the treaty of Ildefonso became known to Livingston in 1802, and in November of that year, learning that Napoleon had planned to send an expedition under General Victor to take possession of Louisiana, on behalf of the United States he submitted a definite offer to purchase New Orleans and the Floridas, leaving to France all the great territory lying west of the Mississippi. The reticence of both Napoleon and his chief minister of state, Talleyrand, with respect to the representations of our government, and the secrecy with which the terms of the treaty was guarded, led our minister to suspect designs against the United States itself, fie warned Jefferson of his fears and advised the prompt strengthening of the military forces of the country in the lower basin of the Mississippi. A winter had passed without action on Livingston's offer of purchase, but Napoleon still delayed taking possession of Louisiana. Spring approached. Mr. Monroe was known to be on the high seas, hastening to the assistance of Livingston. His arrival was momentarily expected. But Napoleon, having reached a final conclusion, acted with the celerity that characterized all his movements. Returning to his palace at St. Cloud from the religious services on Easter

Sunday, April 10, 1803, he called into consultation Decres and Marbois, two of his most trusted advisers, and asked their opinion on the- subject of the province of Louisiana. In the discussion which followed, he said :

I know the full value of Louisiana and have been most desirous of repairing the injuries to their country of the French negotiators of 1763. It has been restored to us by a few lines of a treaty. Now we face the danger of losing it. No doubt the English will seize it as one of their first acts of war. Already they have twenty ships of the line in the Gulf of Mexico. Its conquest will be easy. There is not a moment to lose in placing it beyond their reach. They have successively taken from France the Canadas, Cape Breton, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and the richest portions of Asia. They shall not have Louisiana. While nothing can compensate us for its loss, it may be disposed of in such manner as ultimately to redound to our advan-' tage.

The patriotic Decres eloquently opposed the . proposal. "France," he said, "needed colonies, and what colony could be more desirable than Louisiana? The navigation to the Indies by doubling the Cape of Good Hope had changed the course of European trade and ruined Venice and Genoa." And then, with prophetic vision, he asked, "What will be its direction if at the Isthmus of Panama a simple canal should be opened to connect one ocean with the other?" "The revolution which navigation will then experience" he declared, "will be still more considerable and the circumnavigatipn of the globe will become easier than the long voyages that are now made in going to and from India. Louisiana will then be on the new route and it will be acknowledged that this possession is of inestimable value. . . There does not exist on the globe . a single port, a single city susceptible of becoming as important as New Orleans."

Marbois admitted the gravity of the situation but supported the view of Napoleon. No conclusion was arrived at, but at daybreak the following morning Marbois was summoned to read the dispatches from the French minister at London. These indicated that war was imminent and rapidly approaching. After con-

I renounce Louisiana. It is not alone New Orleans that we will cede, but the whole colony, without reservation. I know its value and I abandon it with the greatest regret. But to obstinately endeavor to retain it would be the height of folly. I direct you to negotiate this matter at once with the envoy of the United States. Do not wait for the arrival of Mr. Monroe. Have an interview this very day with Mr. Livingston. I shall require 9. great deal of money for the approaching war, but will be moderate. I want fifty million francs for Louisiana.

territory of Louisiana was at the disposal of his government. In the negotiations which ensued, the demand of Napoleon's ministers for one hundred million francs as a consideration for Louisiana, was gradually reduced till an agreement was reached, and on April 30, 1803, a treaty was signed by our ministers on behalf of the United States of America, and by Francis Barbe Marbois, the financial minister of France, on the part of that country, by which, in consideration of the payment of fifteen million dollars, the equivalent of eighty million francs, the territory of Louisiana passed to the republic of the United States. The consummation of the treaty was accome_^^^eAyti*l/-*<%iA. «2<e/»-l»-i^« on April 12th admonished Talleyrand that when Monroe arrived, he intended to advise his government to abandon the negotiations and seize New Orleans by force. On that very day came Mr. Monroe, and on the 13th day of April, while at dinner with a company of friends, the two ministers observed Marbois walking in the embassy garden. On being invited to enter, he stated that he had important information to communicate, but would delay doing so until he could see the representatives of the United States alone. Mr. Livingston sought him out at the first opportunity and was startled upon being informed that the entire panied by no illusions on the part of the signatory parties. On the contrary they were fully aware of its import and tremendous importance. When it had been signed, Livingston, rising from the consultation table, said: "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our lives. From this day the United States takes their place amongst the powers of the first rank ; England loses all her exclusive influence in the affairs of America." And Napoleon, showing his full appreciation of the importance of the event, exclaimed : "This accession of territory forever strengthens the power of the United States. I have just given

The patriotic and far-seeing Jefferson lost not a moment's time in securing the ratification of this treaty. As soon as it was received on this side of the Atlantic, he issued a call for a special session of congress. That body assembled on the 17th day of October, 1803, and within a month the treaty was ratified and authority conferred upon the President to take immediate possession of the newly acquired territory. To enable him to do so, he was empowered to employ the army and navy of the United States, and, if in his opinion necessary, he was authorized also to enroll the militia of the several states to the number of eighty thousand men, to enforce and secure our country's right to the ceded territory.

But no opposition was encountered to the surrender of the possession of the great purchase. France herself, on Decembei" 17, 1803, first procured its surrender from Spain, and on Tuesday, the 25th day of December, three days thereafter, Governor W. C. C. Claiborne, of Mississippi territory, having been commissioned by the President to assume the provisional government of Louisiana, appeared at the gate of New Orleans, escorted by General Wilkinson, with a small detachment of state militia. The party was greeted by a salute of twenty-one guns from the forts, and entering the city it drew up on the square known as the Place d'Arms. The ceremonies attending the formal presentation of Claiborne's credentials as a commissioner of the United States to accept the surrender of the city of New Orleans and the territory of Louisiana, were soon over. The keys of the city were delivered to him, and Lauscat, the French governor, addressing the people from the portico of the cabildo, in French, congratulated them upon their accession to liberty and absolved them from further allegiance to the sovereigns of France. Claiborne then spoke in English, assuring all present that their rights would be preserved as citizens of the republic of the United States. The fleur de lys, emblem of France, was then slowly lowered, as the stars and stripes, the banner of freedom, slowly arose to catch in the sunshine the freshening breeze from over the waters of the Mississippi. When the flags were both half way, the one descending the other ascending, a gun was fired, and at the signal the cannon on the vessels in the harbor and the batteries of the forts fired a salute, while amidst the cheers of the few Americans present, the territory of Louisiana passed forever into the possession of the LTnited States.

It was a tremendous accession to the territory of the young republic. The very figures that attempt to convey to the mind some idea of its superficial area are themselves impressive. It more than doubled the previous land area of the United States. In round numbers it exceeded 883,000 square miles. Out of it, in addition to the present state of Louisiana, there have been carved Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, North and South Dakota, two-thirds of Minnesota, one-third of Colorado, and three-fourths of Wyoming. At the time of its accession to the United States its known population did not exceed five thousand souls, nearly one-half of whom were slaves. In 1810 the first federal census showed a population of twenty thousand, of whom one-half were still negro slaves. If taken to-day, - a census of the same territory would closely approach twenty million, all free men.

Considered as a whole, little was really known of the vast territory of Louisiana at the time of its purchase by Jefferson. Although one hundred and twenty years had elapsed since that memorable 9th of April, 1682, when Robert Cavalier de La Salle from a lonely eminence on the delta of the Mississipi had proclaimed the sovereignity of the King of France over his discoveries, no vigorous, persistent effort had been made to explore the vast territory, either by France or by Spain during the two score and five years she had been mistress of Louisiana. Few settlements had been established and aside from the "Chain of Forts" extending in an irregular line from the St. Lawrence to the

Mississippi and on to the bay of Biloxi, Louisiana was an unknown land, except possibly to the fur traders, hunters, trappers, wood rangers, and the indefatigable French priests, who appear to have visited nearly every portion of the territory.

But the sagacious and energetic Jefferson had matured a plan for exploring the Missouri river country, the least known portion of the territory, almost before congress had ratified the treaty under which possession was acquired. In May, 1804, he started the farfamed Lewis and Clark expedition up the Missouri, charged with the duty of exploring that great river from its mouth to its source and then on to the Pacific ocean. The report which these explorers, after an absence of two years, were able to make of the resources of the country through which they had journeyed, of its lofty mountain chains and plateaus, of its wide, rolling prairies, its forests of valuable timber, its wildernesses, rivers, native inhabitants, and its wild life of forest and plain, served to confirm the vague ideas of the times concerning the new territory as a possession of the United States.

Time, through a thousand channels, has vindicated the wisdom of Jefferson and his ministers in securing at a critical period in our country's history, by the arts of peaceful diplomacy, this great accession of territory to our beloved country.