pline; intimate with
the Indian character, customs, and principles; habituated to the
hunting life; guarded by exact observation of the vegetables and
animals of his own country against duplication of objects already
possessed; honest, disinterested, liberal; of sound understanding, and
of a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that whatever he shall report
will be as certain as if seen by ourselves--with all these
qualifications, I say, as if selected and implanted by nature in one
body, for one purpose, I could have no hesitation in confiding this
enterprise--the most cherished enterprise of my administration--to him
whom now you have seen here before you."

The President bowed deeply to the young man, who had modestly resumed
his place. Then, for just a moment, Mr. Jefferson stood silent,
absorbed, rapt, carried away by his own vision.

"And now for my news," he said at length. "Here you have it!"

He waved once more the little scrap of paper.

"I had this news from New York this morning. It was despatched
yesterday evening. Tomorrow it will reach all the world. The mails
will bring it to you; but news like this could not wait for the mails.
No horse could bring it fast enough. It was brought by a dove--the
dove of peace, I trust. Let me explain briefly; what my news concerns.

"As you know, that new country yonder belonged at first to any one who
might find it--to England, if she could penetrate it first; to Spain,
if she were first to put her flag upon it; to Russia, if first she
conquered it from the far Northwest. But none of these three ever
completed acquisition by those means under which nations take title to
the new territories of the world. Louisiana, as we term it, has been
unclaimed, unknown, unowned--indeed, virgin territory so far as
definite title was concerned.

"In the north, such title as might be was conveyed to Great Britain by
France after the latter power was conquered at Quebec. The lower
regions France--supposing that she owned them--conveyed, through her
monarch, the fifteenth Louis, to Spain. Again, in the policy of
nations, Spain sold them to France once more, in a time of need.
France owned the territory then, or had the title, though Spain still
was in possession. It lay still unoccupied, still contested--until but
now.

"My friends, I give you news! On the 2d of May last, Napoleon
Bonaparte, First Consul of France, sold to this republic, the United
States of America, all of Louisiana,